I said "y'all guys" today. It should have been just "y'all." Or "you guys" but no, it was an awkward mixture of dixie and hoosier. I think I need a trip back to the south-land lest I solely use "you guys" or heaven forbid, "soda" for coke.
Yesterday someone asked me if I was from Seattle. Seattle? Really? When we moved to Florida (I was a teenager), my Georgia accent stuck out like a shining, flashing strobe light in the night. At fourteen I didn't want to stick out, so I must have subconsciously quashed my southern accent, however, Chris says it comes back when I get mad because I make "Chris" into a two-syllable word. (So I guess it's a latent accent.)
Yesterday I had a patient comment that I must not be from around here
ReplyDelete(Florida). I asked her why and she replied, "You don't sound like anyone else I've heard." I told her that I have lived in Florida for nearly 20 years. She never told me where she thought I was from. I don't know if she was refering to my watered down southern accent. Maybe she thought I was from Seattle too!
I, too, think a trip back to DIXIE (always caps) would be just the thing you need to renew that genteel Southern honey smooth drawl. dad
ReplyDeleteI have the fun of occasionally being able to go to the little ranching town where my father grew up - which is in rural Hawai'i. People there still talk primarily in "pidgeon" - a mix of Hawai'ian, English, Philippine, Japanese and Chinese, with words from a few other languages thrown in here and there. I've spent enough time there that I slip into pidgeon right away. No problem.
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that I don't always revert to "regular" English (if there is such a thing) right away. It usually takes a couple weeks before my friends quit asking me what the hell I just said!