Country grammar

As I have mentioned, James and I learn a lot from each other. He and his family have definitely taught me a thing or two about country grammar.

Now one of the things I think is very important to preface this post with is a lesson on ethnocentrism. Last semester one of my students gave a great speech on this very topic. The bottom line is that we, as humans, naturally have a tendency to assume that people unlike ourselves are, in fact, less intelligent or less important. How many times have you cringed at the accents on "Swamp People"? Admit it! Anyway, James and I have different accents.

Mine is slightly northern, especially with "a" and "o" sounds. People an usually pinpoint where I am from once I say something like, "I have to phone my mom at home after class". These phrases usually come out more like, "I h-eh-ve to ph-ooo-ne my m-ah-m at h-oo-me after cl-ah-ss." Go ahead, sound it out. Now imagine these "a"s and "o"s surrounded by Kentucky colloquialisms. Nice. There you have it.

James, on the other hand, obviously has a more country-fried accent. In fact, when we first began dating, every now and then I would have to make him spell out what he was saying, just to make sure I understood. From what I have picked up he is especially vulnerable to "ill" and "ow" sounds. His "ills" come out like "eels" and his "ow"s like "owl"s. Eels and owls! Ha! So, here we go.. "that cow is up there on the hill". Now, country it up a bit... "that c-owl is up there on the h-eel". You're getting good at this.

James and his dog-like horse, Diamond.

But it isn't just the accents that gets me, sometimes it is a whole term. Take "holler", for example. Now I know you have probably heard this at some point, in a country song or on the turtle man show, maybe? But I hear it quite often in reference to valley-ish areas of land. The first few times I heard James and his dad talk about hollers I thought they were being facetious. I was wrong... so eventually I had to ask the actual definition of a holler. Imagine that conversation. Another great example is "a look". Did you know a look was a unit of measurement in distance? Specifically, "the Robinson's farm is 3 looks over that hill". Your definition: Stand there, see the farthest point you can, now go to that farthest point and look again, go to the next farthest point you can see... etc.

One last tidbit on country slang... I have seen coyote (cay-o-tee) before, and plenty of raccoons, rabbits and squirrels, but out in the hills they have coyote (cay-ote), coons and varmint. Some of which are dinner.