Words Only Southerners Say
Down here, there is no Pepsi. Everything is Coke. Even Pepsi is called Coke. True Southerners don’t like going North because up there, if you ask for Coke, all y’all get is freaking Pepsi.
In Northern states, iced tea is served with a box of sugar packets because Yankees are too lazy to actually blend sugar into the hot liquid to make sweet tea. Damn Yankees.
Life below the Mason Dixon line is so sweet, just like our tea and Coca-Cola. Southern accents over time have developed their own vocabulary. These words tend to come out with even more zest if the Southerner has been drinking bourbon.
Here’s a sampling of words only Southerners say
Y’all: it’s never “you guys” but “y’all”. We’ll know you’re a Yankee, or that your parents were Yankees, if you say “you guys”.
Fixin’ to: used to let your compatriot know what’s up. As in “I’m fixin’ to make me a drink”
Lagniappe: a little bit of something extra (especially for those form N’Awlins and the Gulf area)
Pocketbook: girls from the deep South’s middle-o’-nowhere areas are known to call it this instead of a purse.
Mash: Southerners don’t push things, we mash ‘em.
Po’Boy: a long sandwich, usually served with fried oysters, shrimp or fish. But in NOLA, your po’boy could even have plain deli meat. Po’Boys are really defined by their good, long crusty bread.
Buggy: it’s not a shopping cart, but a buggy
Might Could: a polite way of presenting your options
Caddywompus a.k.a. caddywonked: a more fun way to say sideways
Access Road a.k.a. Main Road: screw the term “service road”. If the D.O.T. is working on the highway, there’s only one road to get back on your route again and it’s via an “access road” or “main road”. And by the way, if you live in the South, that construction is going to take five years just to pave two lanes. Especially if it’s I-75 in Georgia or Florida. Same thing for I-85 in the Carolinas. Because of this tragic lack of getting the roads fixed, Southerners do not call our interstates “freeways” but “highways”. There’s nothing free about our highways (see GA-400).
Sweeper: as in run the sweeper referring to the vacuum
Made: whether you’re referring to a test you aced, a photo you took, or a baby you birthed, “made” is the verb
Changer or Clicker: you want me to pass you what? A remote control? Honey, that thing is called the changer or the clicker. There’s no controlling the remote in a Southern house. That darn thing will cause World War III, ‘specially in SEC football season.
Yankee: anyone from the North. Even if you’re from Washington D.C., you’re a borderline Yankee. But stay here long enough, plant some roots, and you’ll grow up to become a Southerner.
“Bless Your Heart”: if you’ve heard this, especially from a Southern woman, she doesn’t mean it. It’s her nice way of telling you to put on your grown up pants and deal with it. As said by one of our New York friends “I could shout a parade of Yankee-style expletives in your face and it wouldn’t be nearly as bitchy as bless your heart.”
What are some of your favorite words only Southerners say? Y’all can comment below.
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My Yankee relatives make fun of me and my sisters any time we drop the ‘g’ off of words, like ‘fixin’ and ‘puddin’. Also, I don’t know if “Dumb as a box of rocks” is only a Southern saying, but I had a college roommate from South Georgia who used it all the time.
Ha. Yea. That’s a south Georgia sayin. I live in south GA and I don’t recall hearIn it anywhere else.
I’m not sure if it’s just Georgia. My family says it all the time and I’m from Wisconsin…
We use it in tx too lol
I live in south Georgia, and I’ve never heard that saying.
I’m from Arkansas, and we say, “you’re dumber than a box of rocks”. It’s an all around Southern saying. I usually don’t talk Southern, though. Unless it’s something like, y’all, or dumber than a box of rocks.
Not just a south GA thing, We say up here in Ol’ Kentucky too!!!
June bug. I’m fairly certain the same bug is called by other names elsewhere in the U.S., but down here it’s junebug (also a song by that Athens band, the B-52s — yeah, I’m in Athens).
Love it!
Well, we actually have three classifications of Yankee:
1) Yankee: someone who comes to the South to visit and then returns back to the North.
2) Carbetbagger: someone who comes to the South to visit and then returns back to the North, with a bag of loot.
3) DAMN YANKEE!: someone who comes to the South and doesn’t return back to the North.
My eighth grade teacher from East Tennessee said she was twelve years old before she learned that “damn Yankee” was two words.
Haha, thats right!
We never had a lot of mosquito bites. Nor did mosquitos ever bite us a lot.
We were always “Eat up.” Mama’d say, “You can’t out there or else you’ll get eat up.”
Also, let’s discuss exaggerations. When it’s cold outside, it’s never 30 degrees. It’s always 17,000 degrees below zero.” Same thing with heat. It’s not hot. “It’s 89 million degrees outside.” And your grandmother never made a lot of food. She made made enough to feed the entire world and anyone else who might drop by.”
Oh, and let’s not forget to take things to the most extreme. You are not merely irritated. You are irritated TO DEATH. Nor did something merely make you laugh. It tickled you TO DEATH.
That’s right. I live in Tennessee and if your from the north come on down for a good ole nice visit. It’s amazin in the south! I swear I’ll never move to the north!! The south is my place and livin on a farm is quite great and livin on 100 acres is awesome and not havin to worry about stupid city limits is also great. And by the way everybody who is home grown in the south drops there g’s
Here’s a couple sayins used in my family:
•Y’all •can’t as in cannot aint said can’t it’s said caint with the I in it
•dumber than a door nail
•rustier than a pitch fork in the barn
•fixin to
•those dang Mosquitas are eatin me up!
•he’s so stupid he he can’t poor his own piss out of his boot with instructions written on the heel
•he/she’s madder than a wet hen
Yep so that’s a couple I’m not gonna type anymore my hand hurts
“Down Yonder”
“I reckon”
If someone does something uncalled for we say -”there ain’t no sense in that”
And my Grandma always used to say – “I’ll swanee to my name!” She could never explain exactly what it meant, but she used it in the context of “I can’t believe it!”or “I swear”
Oh… and “tobaggon” in reference to a Winter cap, or what Northerners would call a “Beanie”
We call winter hat a ‘toque’(pronounced TOO-k) in Canada. I haven’t heard it called a beanie yet. My step mother is from Boston and still just calls it a winger hat.
A toboggan is a sled used sliding down hills in winter.
Winter hat*
This is great! Also, “Darn it” (my Texas friends had never heard that one). And not sure if you’ve heard this one or “Shame the devil; tell the truth!” Ha!
Great article
I live in Houston and everyone uses “darn it” here.
One that we used in Tennessee way more than “ya’ll” is “yun’s” or “youngun’s”. Yun’s can be used for anything, including just one person. However younguns is reserved for the wippersnappers. (And if you’re 85, then everyone is a youngun.)
Another thing we have are those little pearls of wisdom (or just random bullmalarky) like:
“Speak of the devil and the horns pop out” – often shortened to speak of the devil.
“Ear’s itchin’? Someone’s talkin’ ’bout ye!”
(P.S. Is it just me or does talking about being Southern make you want to talk with way stronger of an accent? Like it’s not strong enough… )
“Oh! Someone done walked over my grave” – used after a shiver or cold chill. This one is a bit rare. My family says it all the time, but I get odd looks from some people.
In Tampa Florida we pronounce it (young-in) but a lot of people use that
When you meet up with a friend you always ask “How’s your Mom and them?” Basically your Mom always comes first.
And if someone is really nice you say they are “sweeter’n Tupelo honey.”
“Honey, you need to fish or cut bait.” Usualy said to a man who won’t ask his girlfriend to marry him.
“That dog won’t hunt.” It means that your excuse or story is not good.
Down here in Mobile, we don’t actually say “…Mom and them,” it usually comes out more like “Hey y’all! How’s your Momenim?”
Yes! Here in north Alabama, we say ‘nem. Your mom ‘nem. But it’s usually the way you wrote it, one big word.
Im in va beach and My friend in nola had the ” randazzos” king cake guy refuse to sell me a cake til i pronounced ‘pecan ‘ correctly lol. I remembered hearing this saying and since its a long running joke about the darn nut. I asked the guy sooooo. ‘Howyourmomanem?’ Lol. I got my cake;). See i peee can! Lol
Ok…so I’m from Ohio (Southeartern) what kind of Yankee I’m is?
Bre, Ohio is one of those interesting on-the-border states because even though y’all are technically north of the Mason Dixon line you’re not nearly as Yankee as someone from New York. I’d put your question back to you: how would you define yourself as a Yankee? Moreover, what traits are inherent to an Ohio native?
I’ve got family that moved from Ga. to Ohio, so the kids are northerners in some ways,but they visit the south a lot and were brought up by and around southerners, so they’re not totally like Ohians either.
In South Carolina, at least my family’s section, they do not use fixin’/fittin’ at all;don’t know why.
Where I live someone who lives passed the Jackson or the Tupelo area in Mississippi is a Yankee. We don’t consider a lot of states that are “technically” the south as the south. North Carolina, for example, is not southern to the deep South, because anything with the word north in it is not southern!
I beg to differ on that one. I have lived in NC all my life and there are some pretty backwoods kinda places. I was raised in one of them places and we have our city parts but overall we are pretty southern. My friend in Louisiana can argue all day long we ain’t southern but I am, and I can say that proudly.
I resent that. I am a proud citizen of the Great and Soverign State of North Carolina. My family served with distinction in the Cofederate Military as Officers and enlisted and in the Confederate Government. I am very proud of my Southern heritage. I forgive you anyway.
Ohio most certainly is Yankee. It shares a lake with Canada, for crying out loud. I’m from WV. We barely make the cut, and we’re south of the Mason Dixon. There is very little true Southern culture left. Honey Boo Boo is supposedly Southern, but she’s just some 6yo in Georgia that talks just like any DMV clerk in Brooklyn.
Ohio most certainly is Yankee. It shares a lake with Canada, for crying out loud. I’m from WV. We barely make the cut, and we’re south of the Mason Dixon. There is very little true Southern culture left. Honey Boo Boo is supposedly Southern, but she’s just some 6yo in Georgia that talks just like a Brooklyn DMV clerk.
Ohio most certainly is Yankee. It shares a lake with Canada, for crying out loud. I’m from WV. We barely make the cut, and we’re south of the Mason Dixon.
thats not southern at all so sorry
Man you guys have some bad grammar.
southern people don’t have bad grammar we all have accents they are different! Yankees irritate me so much with all y’all thinkin you have good knowledge and were fools.
You tell it like it is MCKENZIE. I love the Southern accent and it discusses me when a Southerner starts talking like a northerner so they don’t a fend them. Northern teachers don’t even like you saying to them yes-um instead of yes mam. They will give you a detention for it. Makes me want to say it even more.
all y’all yanks need to take yer bad attitudes and get! Yankees always irritate me so much thinkin yall are the only ones who know knowledge!
You speak about our grammar, yet you didn’t use any punctuation in your sentence. There are Southerners, just like there are Northerners, who use poor grammar; however, if you’ve been brought up like I was and those I know, we use proper grammar, much more so than even the British. With that said, no where above Virginia is considered part of the South. Northern Florida is Southern. We have taken to thinking of Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas as Southern states. The idea that North Carolina isn’t Southern is silly. My family was Georgian prior to the Revolutionary War.
MARCI ! You need to go back to school, and take a history lesson. The CSA ( Confederate States of America ) the Confederacy’ was a government set in 2/8/1861. states; South Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Texas, Georgia, Louisiana. These states formed the “Confederacy and the Confederate constitution”. Other states joined after that point. So in your own words saying Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas are “Not Southern States” is “silly”
The Oklahoma Indian Territory, because it was not a state at that time (confederacy territory) had many battles pushing back the Kansas ‘union regular soldiers” and stopping their push, south and east to trap the other southern states. A note of Oklahoma pride; General Stand Watie (Indian)officially became the last Confederate general to surrender on June 25, 1865.
My Family hails from Texas and also settled Oklahoma when it was a territory We are Texas, Oklahoma and Southern Proud. We will Defend our southern way of life till death if need be. God Bless Oklahoma, Texas and our Southern heritage.
You can take you’re (we have taken thinking) and shove it you know where,
“Don’t Tread on Me” PS. have a nice day!
is Virginia southern? cuz I wouldn’t consider myself a yankee! but I don’t know about y’all, but when its sunny and its rainin we’ll say “the devil is hittin his wife with a fryin pan” now round here we say that all the time, but goin other places and all I get some bad looks.
is Virginia southern cuz my momma is very southern and ive been raised in a southern household and with southern hospitality but many say that Virginia isn’t and I will beg to differ! id say im just as southern as anyother southerner.
Growing up, my momma used to tell me we lived in the “boondocks”…When you live in the “boondocks” you have to drive “a ways” to a restaurant or go shopping…(closest restaurant was Miz Hickman’s on Highway 87 South or Hackney’s Seafood House in Jonesboro)
“Lollygaggin” this is when you take your “sweet time” to do something and your momma tells you to “Quit lollygaggin around!”
You can also use “lollygaggin” to explain that you spent your time just “putzin around” in other words “not doing much of anything AND ENJOYING EVERY MINUTE OF IT.”
Mosey. As in “Let’s mosey on over to the store.” I have never in my life heard a yankee say mosey, in any context.
I use the word “mosey” all the time. I’m from Pa though. I may be considered as a “yankee” but, my familys roots are in the south, an I was raised that way. I wouldn’t choose to be any other way.
I’m from Wisconsin. Absolutely no family history in the South. Everybody here says “mosey”
We called it the boonies, for short, aka the sticks and the holler.
Why do you answer your own questions,(as a yankee would say)! Example: I’m gettin ready to go to the store yea!, I was listnin to that song yea!, That just aint right no!
Grew up in NH, moved to southern LA. at age 14 and lived wiht my daddy for 3 1/2 years. Yes I did move back north, but I still talk like a coonass. I would say I have the best of both worlds and consider myself a coonyank!
There is just something delightful about the word cattywampus that I just start smiling when I hear it. But my grandmother used to tell my sister and I that she was going “to warp our frames” if we didn’t stop acting up. We understood the context quite well but it wasn’t until many years later that we understood the literal meaning. Powerful stuff. My slightly uppity mother (of the Southern variety, mind you) tried her best to wash the Southern accent out of us because it just didn’t suit. My dad was a TV weatherman who could turn his accent off and on like a light switch but dad is COOOOOOOUUUUNTRY! Needless to say, we’ve taken our NC Appalachia accent up a notch just for spite. That accent is the winner of hearts, I tell y’all, especially out here in AZ where people think I’m just the most charming thing ever. Another good Southernism is “15-blue-million” as in “I’ve got 15-blue-million things to do today so don’t you be 15-blue-million-and-one!”
im from Jersey and I love southern accents and ppl who speak them. It’s endearing to hear another accent but i have to say that the predjudice i receive from southerners is horrible. they should be embarrassed the way some treat “Yankees”. Having any accent doesnt make you better or worse than anyone. It just means we’re different. We’re all Americans and whatever English we speak should be respected.
I too am from NJ. I have lived in the South for almost 10 years. I still feel the resentment. Even at church, there is prejuidice. I am always being told you don’ t understand. When I first tried to vote I was given a hard time. Why do I stay, because you all want me to leave and you are not going to win.
then leave ya god dam yank
I hate it that people are being ugly toward you just ’cause you come from somewhere else. True Southerners that are raised right will go out of their way to make you feel welcome and “at home.” The reason we get defensive or resentful is because many Yankees move here and then start making fun of the way we do things. They want to change us. Maybe you can explain why they move away from the North and then try to turn us into what they left. We love our history and most of us will defend it to the death, but I hope you make some lifelong friends here!
“You don’t understand” is a polite way of telling you to butt out. It sounds like you’re some kind of know-it-all that came down to “slum it” for the weather and low cost of living… a carpetbagger, in other words. Be nice, and they’ll be nice to you, but don’t come down to the South expecting them to change their ways.
“HELP YOUR PLATE.” (Help it do WHAT, exactly?)
“I’LL CARRY YOU TO THE STORE.” (Are you sure you can lift me? Maybe you should just give me a ride there in your car.)
“YOU CAN PUT ME OUT AT THE CHURCH.” (Why would I do that? SoundS kind of rude. I’ll let you out of the car at church, though.)
My grandmother used to say “I declare!”
Also she would look up and say its goin to be a beautiful day, ther rid enough blue to make a Dutchman’s pants.
My grandmother is from Lakeland, Florida and she uses words like “supper” to mean dinner and “fillin station” instead of a gas station. Also a “buggy” is a shopping cart. And “dilly dally” is the same as “lollygaggin”
Florida isn’t considered the South by the rest of the southern states. Actually, most geographers claim that it isn’t apart of the South. It may just be where your mamaw grew up.
There are PLENTY of DEEP south Floridans! My family, both sides, have been in Florida for well over 100 years! True, we get more “snowbirds” (there’s a word for you, means yankee who comes to Florida to ride out winter, then goes back north, or eventually retires and stays here)than other southern states, but leave the cities, and you’ll be smack dab in the DEEP south!
Very true. I was born and raised in Miami, and if you strayed into Homestead, there were plenty of Southern accents to be heard. My relatives in Ocala would definitely beg to differ. Besides which, I do seem to recall that Florida was part of the Confederacy…
I agree FL is the south. I am a third generation native floridian on both sides and while I live in tampa and we do have a lot of yankees and snow birds, if you go out into any rural area and you will hear a lot of southern colloquialisms that I use too. I never noticed it until friends in grade school made fun of me for saying ‘em. When I went up to Tallahassee for school I was finally comforted that most of the native Floridians from up there have southern accents and use southern words. My sister lives in AL and it took her no time flat for her southern accent to come out in her.
I love how my Texan mama says, “Window and Potato.”
She says, “Winduh and potatuh.” Then, there is a word like “tight.” It’s pronounced as thought the “I” were long. Tat?
Lea, I’m from Texas & I tend to talk like that! LOL! The faster I talk, the harder my accent & I drop my g’s
I am from north atlanta in the suburbs. I live in the alpharetta area. Would I be considered a southerner? My speech isnt southern and we dont really say or do southerner things.i get a little annoyed when people say southerners are in georgia more like south georgia because up north is more like a high middle class/middle class/upperclass.
I am sorry for your confusion but “southern” is not a class. It is a region. I am from a middle-class home as well, but I know good and well that I come from a southern home. The southern region is known for several reasons, we have our food, our vernacular, and our traditions. You may or may not consider yourself a “southerner” that is completely up to you and your lifestyle. However, living in the southern U.S. does typically put you in the “southern region.” I hope you find out where you are from and what you consider your traditions, until then, know that the south is always willing to accept you as you are. Bless your heart.
Hi, don’t feel bad, at least she didn’t say “Bless your little heart,” or, worse still, “Bless your pea-pickin’ little heart.”
It all depends “Who your people are.”
You can live in Georgia, but if your parents are Yankees, then you are being raised in a Yankee home. Lots of people in Metro-Atlanta are Yankees. Bless their lil’ ol’ hearts!
I’m from south Georgia, and I don’t have a southern accent or southern grammar. The social class of a person does not determine, if a person will have southern grammar or not. My mom is a teacher,so I am not allowed to use slang.It has more to do with education than anything else.
Well I never! Education, my fanny. I grew up in an educated, musical family. We were poor as dirt but were introduced to the arts and because of our music (including much opera) we didn’t have Southern accents. As I grew into an adult, my accent became more and more Southern…not hillbilly or redneck…just Southern. It’s very akin to what you’d hear in England, only with a few different inflections. Really quite beautiful without the nasal twang of some regions. I know lots of highly educated, professional people with heavy accents. It wraps around you like velvet. Mmm-mmm.
I hear lots of Southerners saying “You Guys” now. I thought it was only here in Virginia because we are closer to “the line”, but I was in TN,GA, NC, and SC- almost everyone said “you guys”. Now people in Virginia say both y’all and you guys, like most of the South, people are not saying “Y’all” as much. Its changing.
In Texas, and in Oklahoma, it’s still “y’all” although in Oklahoma it is often closer to the full “you all.” But “you guys” rarely to never. Only Yankees say that.
im from southern Virginia and everyone round here still says yall I don’t know anyone but yanks that say “you guys” or “you all”
I’m Canadian and find myself saying “y’all” sometimes. I actually find it comfortable speaking with several of the southern words despite the looks I get.
Steve, I never heard anyone from here saying “you all.” after saying it a few times just now, it don’t even sound right.
I can’t believe some of this haha! Southern
People don’t all have accents or say stereotypical
Crap. I will say we talk slow and try to speed
It up by dropping some letters. However
I’m from Dixon county tn I have lived in ms la
Alabama and the only thing I have a problem with
Is the letter I it’s not iee but aaa but other than
That I’m told on the regular by out of towners
Who come trying to fake an accent that I don’t
Even sound southern however my parents and
Other relatives ( especially from ms) have thick
Southern accents!
i lived up in kenosha wisconsin all my life and 1 of us yankees got more commo sense then 10 southerns i noticed since w moved to mississippi first things first southerns are stupid no conception and no common sense there isnt nothing but drama down here not refreering too *ladies* but its like these little southern boys parents down here raised them to be passive aggreesive because when they talked shit and i finally got fed up with it they get knocked out to easy lmao
Cory, either you are the most stupid person I have ever heard of or you are puttin’ us on.
Cory, you sure are making a lot of grammatical errors to have more common sense than us Southerners. You make no sense.
I hate you all and I can’t wait to get the hell out of here.
Well in that case, bless the hell out of your heart, honey.
I 2nd that, Lousiana Belle! Don’t let the doorknob hit you where the good Lord split you. ☺
all y’all yanks need to take yer bad attitudes and get! being southern is a way of life and if your a yankee I reckon you better get a move on it and leave!
I wish everyone down here from NJ got the heck out.
take I-95 north honey.
I live in the South now, and sorry to say, I don’t understand most Southern women at all. In fact, after several brushes with these strange creatures, I go out of my way to avoid them! Part of the problem is that they seem to waste most of their energy on being very judgmental, insincere (extremely fake manners and false charm), suspicious, nosy, competitive (especially with other women), manipulative, and downright nasty. On the flip side of the coin, those that have been coddled by their Daddies as girls, seem to become hopelessly spoiled “princesses” who play that angle up ad nauseum. In addition, Southern women have very narrow interests, and usually can’t hold an extended conversation regarding current and world events, literature, or culture, and have no real opinion about much in that regard. Bless your heart….. but scratch that sugar-coated Southern exterior, and you’ll find something quite unappealing and unattractive.
Oh, and by the way, southerners, not everybody who doesn’t have a Southern accent is a Yankee. I was born in Oregon. Bless your heart.
I am a Southern belle and I don’t have narrow interests at all. I make jewelry, I read about a book a day, and I cook all kinds of food. Apparently you haven’t lived here long enough to learn to love the charm of the Southern way of life.
Oh and by the way, you are a Yankee. Bless YOUR heart.
to southerners, oregon is part of the north, you’re a yankee. Oh, and by the way, DWK, you’re showing your limited intelligence and petty nature by making grand generalizations about an entire group of people that it’s pretty obvious you don’t understand. Knowledge does not necessarily equal intelligence or wisdom. Bless your heart.
its bluntly obvious that you have never actually encountered a Southern Belle . Maybe only the retched southern Females are attracted to that hideous personality you just clearly advertised . So just so your informed , the GOOD southern woman , those ones we consider “Southern Belles” are beautiful , smart , and built like ah brick house hunny , we are those Miss America looking , Model walking , Big talking females who can handle the money ,the house , raise the kids and don’t mind kicking off their heels to change their own tire . I am a Mississippi women , and i’m far from the excuse of a Women you’ve previously described .. maybe that all men like you can get but sweetie that isn’t all we have to offer ( ; Bless your sweet little heart hunny ,
that makes you a Yankee girl.
Coastal Yankees are the worst of the varmint.
not every southern girl is like that
some are but since i’ve moved to PA last year..i’ve met plenty of girls like that HERE. maybe it’s just they’re everywhere you go…or because you’re very unfamiliar with the territory. but don’t avoid everyone because of the bad ones.
g.r.i.t.s. are the best your defiantly a god dam yank
G.R.I.T.S. are the bomb diggidy
I beg to differ. I am a Southern woman
born and bred with a Master’s and Bachelor’s
degree in Biology, minors in Chemistry
and Physics, but
That wasn’t enough, so I went ahead to Medical
School and got my Medical degree. I read 6 news
Web sites a day. Love art and paint and do crafts.
I am involved in the music ministry at
Our church. I can discuss lots of topics
ESP. Current affairs. I have far better things to discuss
With people than others.
I know several ladies just like me.
You apparently hang out with the wrong people. My
Suggestion: Find a good church full of love and
Laughter and you will find those women.
if your talkin about route 66 you pronounce it rowt not root. roots for god dam Yankees!
LOL true!
Here in NC we say drop cord, not extension cord. We also say carry my car to the shop, not take my car to the shop. We also like soda, not pop. Barbecue is a noun (pork or chicken) not a verb. Just a few, but there are many more.
Well, unless you are in Oklahoma or Texas (west says pop more than soda), but we mostly just say Coke…but here, we often mean Dr. Pepper, the nectar of the gods. Alas, Yankees didn’t get that drink until relatively recently, bless their soda-pop sippin’ little hearts.
I’ve been drinking Dr.Pepper since the 80s. It’s my first choice. Canadians use both ‘pop’ and ‘soda’. Pop comes in bottles and cans while soda comes from a fountain.
You mean co-cola shug?
I live in new Orleans and I totally agree with the coke thing. I also say cold drink. Also, people from new Orleans really hate it when people say nawlins. We never say that. Also, we say neutral ground, the grass in between streets.
It amazes me how a lot of southerners do really judge and stereotype people just because they are not from the south (Yankees). I myself grew up in northern ms, born in mobile, and was the same exact way because I didn’t know any better. Alot of southerners have never even left the south and I think that has a lot to do with it. I myself have lived all over the US from Alaska all the way to nyc. And through my observations, it’s not to different just slight cultural changes. But not in a million years would I trade anything for my mamas fried chicken and cornbread.
We would always ask my Papaw what he was doin and his reply would always be “just mildewin”.
I hate that yanks now say memaw and papaw. It’s worse than politicians dropping their g’s.
Well, crud, there sure is a lot of animosity about this. I thought this post was supposed to be whimsical. I hadn’t noticed all the prejudice against northerners, but this is probably because I grew up outside of Shreveport and Bossier, and the regular cycle of people coming in due to the air force base probably got everyone used to a variety. Or it’s because I always was out to lunch. I live in California now, and I notice just as many people who put on a false front of niceness and honestly think they are nice just because they follow social rituals and ask each other the same tired questions over and over… The phrase “thank you” is used for EVERYTHING… anyway, I never could get the hang of dealing with Southern women either (even though I guess I am one) but yeah, it just seems to me that it’s more just the Southern flavor of the same disease you get everywhere… that the majority seems to run in one pack or another, with each of its members following the same routines, and those who don’t being excluded. Find me a place in this world where they don’t push you out for not matching the photo and I’ll gladly move there.
Try central Canada. I cant promise we would be perfect, but most of us are far less judgmental.
Here in NC we don’t give a hoot. you smile and nod and most will do the same. Lessen they need a lesson or 2 ’bout common courtesy. Which is universal. I lived in both and honestly was told up north at least once a day to “say this or that” and then laughed at. I humored ‘em and wasn’t a shallow ass ’bout it but I was made to feel ignorant on purpose. Daily. The females there were not as friendly and jealous and not as thoughtless. Bad table manners and rarely thanked you, said excuse me,or said bless you.I was regarded as uncool when I said those things I’d heard and said my whole life. When I came to home sweet home I’s caught in the middle. Only bein 16 I’d picked up some of a northern accent and the only people that ever said anything were my closest buddies. They would playfully ignore me when I said “you guys” and insist that they were LADIES not gents and insisted that I address them as such. It didn’t take long to pick back up on my twang. And I don’t give a care whether ya like it or not.
LOVE the Southern expression, “I’ll “carry you” there!!!
Being raised next door to folks from Baton Rouge, we picked up words and phrases as kids that we’ve come to still use now that we’re old. ‘Gimme me a washrag’ (a wash cloth) and ‘gimme a tal’ (give me a towel). We drop the ‘g’ on all words. If we’re offered something to eat or drink we say, ‘I don’t care’ (but we’ll take it because they’re servin it anyway).
Southerners are a whole lotta fun!
I’m from maryland and I say most of those things. Maybe it’s cus my mom grew up in Texas and my dad in Kentucky but I would say most of the people I know in maryland talk like that but we don’t consider ourselves southern. Is it because we are below the mason Dixon? Or because we are close to more widely considered southern states? My cousins from Nebraska always tell me I have a southern accent but I never thought I did.
MD has always been sorta southernish or southern “lite”. I always thought of it as the northern most southern state and the southern most northern state lol.
In the South, in the mid 20th century, in Atlanta, we called them “cocolas.”
I grew up in SOUTHERN Illinois and so many of these sayin’s and words roll right off our tongues up here……We don’t use y’all much (unless we ‘re teasing someone), but the southern half of Illinois would be mistook for Georgia accents, iffen ya wern’t payin’ REEL close attention! There be howdy, reckon, yonder, lunch and supper, couch, glove box, poke sack, fridgerater or icebox, yard (not lawn), yarn (not a story), purty, cuter’n a button, dumber’n a box o’ rocks, purtier’n a pitcher, WALL ta WALL carpet, OLEO (never margarine!) “a ways” is a distance or could be talkin’ bout time, we’uns and you’uns, young’uns, parts is talkin’ bout a place (them parts)…… Why, we would feel purty much at home down yer way!
Is there a word for yes or yeah other than “yessum?”
yes ma’am/sir?
I am from Georiga. I haven’t heard most of the terms listed above. I also can’t stand the word “y’all” and I say you guys. I am still from Georiga though. So would I be considered a Yankee. Also I must say, do sountherners not believe in the letter g?
yankee parents?
the letter g is not necessary in the words you are referring to. If you were a true southerner you would know that.
Well…I grew up on a farm in Oklahoma and have a doctoral level degree but have not been able to break myself from saying “dudn’t.” It’s sort of a conflation of doesn’t and didn’t.
I’m from FL just moved to GA… But I have to say this… Florida is the south! How much southerner can you get? FL is one of them stars on the bars! Anyways what about twiced… More than once…I done told you to get washed up for supper twiced, now get to it before I make you go pick a switch… Switch.. A tree branch you have to go pick yourself to get your a$$ tore up with… Hitch in their Getty up… Ain’t really moving to fast.. Kinda like the Yankees that drive in Florida… Really they must drive for months gettin back home! What about your a liar the truth ain’t in ya and Jesus doesn’t love you… That’s what my dad says when he is pissed off.. Say… answer me.. Hold your breath… Its not happenin.. And just so all yall Yankees know we in the South don’t care how yall do it up North!
I have some fam. in northern Florida around Jacksonville. Fl seems like an odd mash of southern, New York Jew, and Cuba lol.
I think you are mistaking the intro word-wse.
Pespi=New Bern, North Carolina (which is not a northern state by any means.)Coca-Cola=Atlanta
Also, it’s not “Pepsi” it’s “Pop”
Coke/coc-cola… no… co-cola (in the south)
I beg to differ I am born and raised in NC and I haven’t ever heard anyone say Pepsi it is always coke.
Haha no. I’m from NC and no one says “pop.”
ERRNT wrong. Pepsi was INVENTED in NC and is boss. So most of us call’em pepsi or soda. Cocolas Georgia. Nonetheless NOONE gives a damn cause the drink of carolina IS SUNDROP!! FOR sure every dang body drinks the mess ‘cept me. I drink sweet tea.And No dang body ’round cheer says pop.
in eastern nc we LOVE our pepsi and ask for it by name. coke is fine , too. but in these parts pepsi is king
For all yall talkein about whats north or not. Countrys a way of livin. Im from indiana abd i aint seen nobody more country then me. Brantley gilbert said it ” country must be country wide”
AMEN.
Used to be, southerners moved up north to get a better payin job. Now northerners have moved down south to get a job becus agh the guud payin jobs ar down south. Hear in Tennessee , this is the nu north. Northerners ar everwhare . Unions arnt strong down here and in most situations, there ain’t eny. Tennessee is the New North. But suthern hospitality is still hear. Yu kin always till a southerner , because they often spek ta strangers and ad very friendly. Peepl frum Texas ar tha saam waa.
People frum Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama mostli stay thar becus home folk don’t leave home. Reel Mexikans whu ar native tu thar country don’t leav either. Only outcasts. Rebels, people who aren’t loyal to Mexico ar ones who leave for big muni in America.Tru native Asians, orientals, are same waa. They mite visit America cuple weeks, but will return to their native countries to live there. If they stay in America, they ar still family, but ar counted as outcasts to their family and ad treated differently with less respect.Becus thay ar leevin centuries of family cultures.
C’mon ken. Are you fo REAL!? You can spell cultures but not to. Another southern sayin. You MUSTa been in pawpaws white lightnin.
In some parts of south texas you need to learn about wambback (my best text render of the word)
As in my daddy would say when I got to far from him, “Now you wamback here”
The garbage men were wambacks, because they always said “wamback, come on now wamback”
Where is the ‘like’ button?
Moneback in NC
“Cut the light on” instead of “turn the light on”
Totally disagree most southernera prefer Pepsi over come any day
You know those little sticker things that get stuck on your clothes when you walk through the grass? (Most people call them Hitchhikers) We call them Beggarlice.
Yep, beggerlice it is. And something crooked, like a picture or a piece of furniture, was sigogglin’. As for ya’ll, it’s singular. All ya’ll is plural. We understand that yonder is over there, and yander is a little bit farther over there. As a child any soft drink was a ‘cocola’, an extension cord was a drop cord, fireflies were lightnin’ bugs, lunch was (and is) dinner, and the evenin’ meal is supper. We still go to prayer meetin’ on Wednesday nights, and yes, evenin’ starts just after noon, and night sets in right after sundown. We ask what in the cattywampus you’re on about, and we’re often discombobulated by a good many things. But when I see the sun rise over the Blue Ridge Mountains and the fog burns off the hills and hollers I’ve always call home I know there’s no where else I’d rather be.
My father was from Georgia and used to say finny instead of fixin’. I also remember some other relatives using this word, too. Does anyone else use this word?
So question for y’all from the South. We are moving from very Northern WI, to GA. All the words you use or are saying, we use way up here! anywho, how bad do we “Northern’ers get judged for being from the North? We or at least we don’t Judge people from the south. Want to raise my children up right by being around people who are friendly, not always friendly around here. My sister has lived in TN the last 15 years, I grew up in N.IL. any suggestions?
How ’bout this one….dagnapit! that was used a lot back in north Georgia where I grew up. A polite cuss word.
I’m from north central Georgia. Born, raised and lived here all my life. So have all my family. We LOVE sweet tea! We’ve never called a remote control a clicker or changer. We just call it a remote control or remote. We use the words ‘yonder’ and ‘reckon’ but what a lot of people don’t realize is that these two words were not made up by Southerners. They are English. Shakespeare used ‘yonder’, like in Romeo and Juliet. “What light through yonder window breaks” I’ve also heard many British people I’ve encountered say ‘reckon’. Don’t forget America started out as 13 British colonies so we were bound to pick up and still use some of their words. And a lot of folks here in the South, like me, probably have British ancestors. I even use the word ‘shall’ sometimes. Some words we Southerners may have made up ourselves. There are a lot of words mentioned above that I use or have heard, like caddywompus and dagnapit but some of them I’ve never heard. Ever heard of discombobulated (meaning confused or disorganized)? Or how about funktified? (meaning has turned funky, like spoiled milk) Here’s one my greatgrandfather would say “in a case of depushity,…”, meaning a difficult situation.
Mayonnaise a lotta people in here!
Hell yeah, this sites right on the money. I live in Ga too, heard and say all them words put in that little essay thing. This is great made me laugh a little bit =]
My mama always say’s “Am Fixin’ up ya tea”
Why do a lot of Southerners say “thew” instead of “through”? Also, “salava” instead of “saliva”.
I’ll add a few more.
1. Kin–your family.
2. Good Lord willin (no “G” and no apostrophe) and the creek don’t rise–As long as nothing comes up, this shouldn’t be a problem. Example: We’ll come see yall tomorrow, good Lord willin and the creek don’t rise.
3. The devil’s beatin his wife–It’s raining, but the sun’s still shining.
4. According to a friend of mine from up north, this is only said here… Do what?
5. Washrag (it might also be said “warshrag”) has already been properly covered.
6. I can’t believe noone has listed this one. No count…
Where I was raised on the south shore of Massachusetts, we said “pocketbook” and dropped the g’s on our words. Just think it’s interestin’ is all!
One thing I noticed in Louisiana is the way I hear some say umbrella – it’s UMbrella. And depending on who you’re talking to, they’ll be asking if you have any cheern, or churn, not children.
And I’m sorry, but way to go people from the north for making us all look like snooty bastards, (not that perpetuating stereotypes about the south ["damn yanks"] is any better). I’ve met many an ignorant townies in Boston or in the suburbs in MA that match the supposed drama and ignorance found in the south, and certainly the accent plays no part of that mess.
ha! My parents are from the pee dee area of South Carolina, but I was raised in the suburbs of Atlanta and my southern accent was “corrected” by all my friends in school with Yankee Parents. Never fear, I can juggle both accents now- it’s nice, because I can be accepted into the Yankee crowd, but then I can rock the southern crowd too.
My mom still busts out the phrase “I swony” (basically the genteel way of saying “I swear”) Anyone else say that?
Swan’s been covered, thanks.
Cory the fact that you think Yankees are superior than Southern folk shows how uneducated your are. Also, I would love to see you “Knockout” a fraction of the Southerns I was rasied with. Another southern term “Corn-bread country strong”. As for Jersey girl im sorry you fill that way about the South hope you find your place somewhere else.
A lot of this just sounds like Northern stereotypes. Well for those Southerners who don’t know we also have our Southern stereotypes. Like we’ll call them rednecks, hillbillies, or Confederates. Also we think that everyone from the south loves NASCAR
Oh my, where to start.. I am WV born and bred, gold and blue.
Crick, waller, hollor, mator, tator, skift, this here, aiming to do that, bull hockey, reckon, bleeding like a stuck pig, the Good Book, mad as a hornet, doodley squat, polecat, mountain out of a molehill, knee-high to a grasshopper and on and on. Drop the g and add an r
Don’t they teach that along with i before e except after c?
Just for an FYI…. if you don’t want us judging ya yanks, then please take note: The little banjo song implying something ugly about Appalachia that y’all like to emulate when I say where I am from – newsflash – Deliverence is based out of Georgia or SC y’all so stop already. That is my pet peeve with Yanks – well, that and always having to tell people that yes.. West Virginia is really a state, we split with VA in like 1863. Thanks for letting me get that off my chest. Whew.
Oh I always say Bless your soul…
I’m from NC (parents are from SC and GA, family roots go back to LA) just found out “the devil’s beatin his wife” is a specifically Southern term – I thought it was at least all over the east coast!
And on the whole North/South animosity thing: I think it’s totally ridiculous that in 2013, people are still judging eachother on what area they were born in. I love the South, but I know there’s just as many ignorant folks down here as up there. For the Northerners though, who don’t get some of our hostility, like a lot of others said, it’s ridiculous how many people move from up North down here and make fun of our culture and ways. Not only that though, I lived in the North (back and forth from NYC and Baltimore, MD) for about 4 years and the amount of complete and utter CRAP you have to put up with from almost everyone you meet for being where you’re from is offensive and ridiculous. Having people mock my accent was a daily thing. And don’t get me started on when I said I was movin home (“why are you going back THERE?” “you finally got out of that place, why would you go back?!”… just RUDE. I never talked bad about the North to a Northerner, I don’t understand what makes so many of em think it’s okay to talk bad about our home to us.