Y'allbonics

[JamesSavik]

I know that some of y'all might trouble understanding me from time to time so I though I'd pass on a short course in Y'allbonics.

Hope this helps. ;-)

-JS

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Subject: "Y'allbonics"

Not to be outdone by Ebonics in California, the Southern Association of Colleges & Schools is requesting billions of federal dollars to teach "Y'allbonics" in all classrooms south of the Mason-Dixon line. Included here are some samples of "Y'allbonics." If you do not understand any of them, contact a Southerner for an explanation.

HEIDI: (noun) Greeting.

HIRE YEW: (complete sentence) Remainder of greeting.

Usage: "Heidi, hire yew?"

BARD: (verb) Past tense of the infinitive "to borrow."

Usage: "My brother bard my pickup truck."

JAWJUH: (noun) The state north of Florida. Capital is Lanner.

Usage: "My brother from Jawjuh bard my pickup truck."

BAMMER: (noun) The state west of Jawjuh. Capital is Berminhayum.

Usage: "A tornader jes went through Bammer an' left $20,000,000 in improvements."

MUNTS: (noun) A calendar division.

Usage: "My brother from Jawjuh bard my pickup truck, and I ain't herd from him in munts."

THANK: (verb) Cognitive process.

Usage: "Ah thank ah'll have a Coke."

RANCH: (noun) A tool used for tight'nin' bolts.

Usage: "I thank I leff my ranch in the back of that pickup truck my brother from Jawjuh bard a few munts ago."

ALL: (noun) A petroleum-based lubricant. Usage: "I sure hope my brother from Jawjuh puts all in my pickup truck."

FAR: (noun) A conflagration.

Usage: "If my brother from Jawjuh don't change the all in my pickup truck, that thing's gonna catch far."

TAR: (noun) A rubber wheel.

Usage: "I hope that brother of mine from Jawjuh don't git a flat tar in my pickup truck."

TIRE: (noun) A tall monument.

Usage: "Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, Ah sure hope to see that Eiffel Tire in Pars sometime."

FARN: (adjective) Not domestic.

Usage: "I cuddint unnerstand a wurd he sed ... must be from some farn country."

DID: (adjective) Not alive.

Usage: "He's did, Jim."

ARE: (noun) A colorless, odorless gas; oxygen.

Usage: "He cain't breathe ... give 'im some ARE!"

BOB WAR: (noun) A sharp, twisted cable.

Usage: "Boy, stay away from that bob war fence. Knowhatimean?"

[Codey]

Oh God!!! I think I need help. I understood them without reading the meanings. Ya'llbonics reach all the way into the far northern edge of the mid-south I guess. LMAO...these were funny!!

Codey

[Naiilo]

::falls down laughing::

Fantastic! My family lived in northern Louisiana during my 6th grade year. Oh man, I remember when we'd first gotten there we could barely understand some of the town's inhabitants (my rents are from CA and have lived in the southwest most of thier lives). I remember one day my little sister, who was in preshool at the time, came home very upset because the other kids kept addressing her as 'all (read: ya'll) when she kept telling them her name! We had to explain to her that they weren't calling her a different name, but that it was a different word for "you" (it was hard to explain to a four-year-old). I don't miss the southern language, but I do miss the southern food. Thanks for the reminder of my year in the swamp jamessavik.

-Naiilo

[Rad]

*laughing myself silly*

Ooh migawd! lol! I never knew the twangs could be written that way. Even to make a glossary of them. lol! I understand none of them until I read the meanings.

cheers! :-D :-D :D :o

*still cracking*

Rad

[blue]

:-D Hey, Rad, glad you liked those. -- There are lots more floating around Southern jokes.

The main differences are how vowels are pronounced, plus some word choices and common expressions. -- Southerners are very big on "y'all," but the word isn't *usually* used to refer to just one person, except for effect.

y'all ~ contraction of you all, treated as one word, used for the second person plural pronoun.

y'all ~ subject / nominative

y'all ~ object / dative/accusative

y'all's ~ possessive

The proper standard English forms are you, you, and your / yours, but you will still hear y'all often, even once in a while in formal situations.

Check out some cowboy, country (not city) or historical period movies. Also check out some movies set in the West, Southwest, Deep South, or Southeast. That will help you hear and understand the accents.

[E.J.]

You need to add "All y'all"

Etymology: Intensive form of y'all

This usage states "you all" more emphatically. For example, saying "I know y'all," would mean that one knows a group of people; saying, "I know all y'all" would mean that one knows the members of the group individually.

[blue]

:nods: yeah, E.J., exactly. good point.

[Tanuki Racoon]

You need to add "All y'all"

Translated into Yankee, that is

"All of you all" and, as you say, individually but as part of a collective group.

To a TRUE southerner, this is proper grammar.

-- wbms

(My grammer, however, doesn't talk like that ::)

[E.J.]

(My grammer, however, doesn't talk like that ::)

My gramper doesn't talk like that either.

Wang (no, not what you think)

(noun) Bird appendage that enables flight.

[Rad]

I just wanna know....are there differences in accent between the sutherners themselves? Like, between Texan and Georgian.

Cheers! :) hey everybody! Hey Blue! hey Jimmy!

Rad

[Tanuki Racoon]

I just wanna know....are there differences in accent between the sutherners themselves? Like, between Texan and Georgian.

Hell yeah. WAY different.

[E.J.]

There are even major differences between south and north Georgia. Once you go south of Interstate 70 you start to pick up a slight twang and it gets stronger the farther south you go (South Florida doesn't count).

I think that people from Kentucky have the best accent....very smooth.

[Tanuki Racoon]

There are even major differences between south and north Georgia. Once you go south of Interstate 70 you start to pick up a slight twang and it gets stronger the farther south you go (South Florida doesn't count).

I think that people from Kentucky have the best accent....very smooth.

And don't forget the Tennessee accents. Even more unusual. Plus you get the very odd word cain't.

I cain't do this <-- it means can't but it is a contraction of "can" and "ain't" which translated literally as "can am not" which makes no technical sense.

-- wbms

[EleCivil]

"Hain't" - Ain't. Possibly the opposite of "ham" (Pennsylvania Mountains).

"That mine hain't more'n ten miles."

"Hainit" - Confirmation seeker, combining the terms "Hain't" and "it" (Pennsylvania Mountains).

"Coldern'a ex's attitude t'day, hainit?"

"Yins" - Comparable with "Y'all" (Eastern Ohio).

"Yins get out tuh Wal-Mart t'day?"

"Yinses" - Comparable with "All y'all". Sometimes further accentuated as "all of yinses" (Eastern Ohio).

"All uh yinses should get tuh the summit b'fore dark."

[aj]

There was a guy that was the janitor in my high shool up in AK...He was from Mississippi, and had such a thick accent, sometimes I wondered if he was still speaking english.

I also had a friend from Pennsylvania who used the construction 'you's' (or maybe 'youse') in place of 'y'all', with the same intent.

aj

[JamesSavik]

There was a guy that was the janitor in my high shool up in AK...He was from Mississippi, and had such a thick accent, sometimes I wondered if he was still speaking english.  

Ya'll jist don know. If'n ya ever heard real Kay-jon, yoh earz wood lock up.

[Naiilo]

There was a guy that was the janitor in my high shool up in AK...He was from Mississippi, and had such a thick accent, sometimes I wondered if he was still speaking english.  

Ya'll jist don know. If'n ya ever heard real Kay-jon, yoh earz wood lock up.

If'n ah ree-calls raht, reel Cajons cahl eet Aqadianne (Acadian). unintelligible cajun accent>

-Naiilo

[Rad]

Ookay, I think this is the time to say :

"Translations?"

Cheers! :)

Rad