July 30, 2012

Southern Grammar from a Southern Gal

I am a stickler for grammar, but I'm also a proud Southern gal. Some grammar rules are geography specific, and certainly no Southern character can be written without a good y'all here and there.

Thanks to my friend, Mindy, for sharing this with me
Southerners like to end sentences in prepositions, example "Where you going to?", and we love a good Honey or Ma'am sprinkled into a conversation.

But like my Mama always says, we kill 'em with kindness... don't assume all that honey is as gooey as it sounds. We are tough women. Don't let the y'alls fool ya'.

Our usual "Bless your Heart" can mean anything from poor thing to hang in there.

And a joke I heard once about Southerners. If you ever hear one say "How nice" constantly while you are telling a braggin' story, it means Screw You (although a bit harsher than Screw).

Oh, and did I mention we drop the ends of words?

If you are goin' swimmin' for (okay we drop beginnings of words too... this should = before) a weddin', you'd best be spectin' someone to holler at ya'.

My husband gets on me all the time for saying I'm going to put my clothes on a rack (he says hangers go on a rack).

When I write Southern characters (which I tend to do), I hear them speaking in my head and the sounds are so clear.

Do you hear characters in your head as you are reading/writing?

6 comments:

Jan said...

Loved it, Tia! I was watchin' a video of a young woman preachin' the Word and she sounded like a tender, naive sweetheart. But she was probably as tough as nails. :)

j

Jo Michaels said...

Oh, yes I do hear my characters. They each have a vernacular that is unique and should be honored. I loved this post, being a southern gal myself. Very nicely done. WRITE ON!

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell said...

Great post, Tia. I'm Southern born and bred, too. My Yankee husband tries to say "y'all" correctly, to no avail.

I taught in graduate school in southern Indiana; they laughed at "y'all," but went into hysterics at "critters." I can't imagine why! ;)

I hear my characters too. Sometimes they won't shut up!

Tia Bach said...

Jan, Elizabeth & Jo, So glad ya'll could come round here and enjoy the musins' of a proud Southern gal. Ya'll come back now, ya' hear. ;-)

Julie Glover said...

I've long thought "y'all" is a beautiful word that the whole U.S. should adopt. It's a lovely and useful contraction. I also have been known to use "Bless your heart" a lot--which sometimes even means "you ignorant fool." Oh well, we Southerners are courteous even when we're not. LOL!

Tia Bach said...

Julie, SO True!! Now if I could just get it into my thick skull that it's y'all and not ya'll. It seems like my whole life I saw ya'll, but I totally get why it's y'all. ;-)