Teetotally Appalachian English

Backcountry Notes ^ | March 12, 2010 | Jay Henderson

[jay1949]

The unenlightened assume that Appalachian accents and usages are a “hillbilly” corruption of the flatlands Southern drawl. This is not so; the accents and usages of the Backcountry developed contemporaneously with the versions of English spoken in the other areas of European settlement. The society and culture of the Backcountry were dominated by the large numbers of Scotch-Irish immigrants, blended with the influence of German, Dutch, Welsh, Scottish, and yeoman English settlers. Appalachian speech developed from the versions of English introduced by these settlers, independently of the development of the Southern drawl and the Yankee accent of New England. The traditional speech and vocabulary of the Backcountry is not a "corrupt" dialect. It is in certain respects more true to its roots than other versions of American English.

[jay1949]

I once made the acquaintance of a young man who had come to Virginia from New York City and who mistook my accent — as many do — to be from central Pennsylvania (I am from North Carolina). He began talking about how Southerners lacked education and talked slow and just weren’t as smart as “us Yankees.” Then he tried to hit me up for a few bucks. Turned out he was living in his car and begging for a living. So much for being dumb in the South.

[jay1949]

You’re very welcome. Be sure to click over to Blind Pig & The Acorn if you haven’t already been there — http://www.blindpigandtheacorn.com/blind_pig_the_acorn/2010/03/appalachian-vocabulary-test-17.html

[BigBlueJon]

My family on my father’s side claim Melungeon ancestry. It’s still a bit hushed with some of the family due to the fact that being Melungeon wasn’t always a good thing socially. There are quite a few physical characteristics that tend towards Melungeon, which are very evident with my brothers and I, as well as the rest of my father’s family.

My grandmother still talks about her Melungeon family. She really does have some interesting stories on living in deep Appalachia.

[Hawthorn]

>> there is an historical link between the culture and lingo of urban blacks and the culture and lingo of deep south rednecks <<

Not only rednecks:

The “upper class” white senior citizens from rural areas around Charleston SC speak with an accent that I find hard to distinguish from black English.

[jay1949]

One of the terms I learned from my grandfather, who was born and raised in an all-white-redneck farming community in central North Carolina, was “yowzah!” As in, grandmother steps out on the porch and sings out, “Supper!” — grandfather pulls of his gloves and says “Yowzah! Let’s go eat, boy.” Now I have to watch the use of that word, since the ignoramus PC police believe it to be “racist.” It’s actually “rural,” used by red-clay-farm folk of any ethnicity. Ignorance, alas, does not confer bliss.

[Sherman Logan]

That’s very interesting. My dad used to say that and he was born and raised in central Kansas.

I had never heard it was considered racist. Any idea why?

[RegulatorCountry]

It’s a corruption of “yes sir”, and the perpetually offended hear echoes of slavery in it, for whatever obscure reason.

[Sherman Logan]

Thanks. Learn something every day.

[jay1949]

I know of two references to “yowsuh.” First — the phrase “yowsuh, yowsuh, yowsuh” was popularized by a jazz musician named Ben Bernie who hosted a radio program during the 1930s — see http://answers.google.com/answers/threadview?id=134659

Next, there was a song by Shel Silverstein released in 1965 which used the word “yowsah” and other phrases to symbolize racial subjugation — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYut0Z21Gwo

For what it’s worth, the Urban Dictionary has several entries for variant spellings, none of which carries a racial connotation, and includes, for example, a usage from the cartoon “ScoobyDoo”: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=yowsers

My grandfather was born in 1904, so the usage where he grew up (he wasn’t the only one I heard use the word) predated all of these.

[cva66snipe]

My mother and other family were raised in a country town in Arkansas, quite frequently i hear words that make me think of early times. they say ye and arsh taters for potatoes etc. It is sad to think they will be gone soon and that type of speaking. as far as i know it.

My wife spent half her childhood in East Tennessee and half in southeastern Arkansas in a little town called McGhee back in the 50's and 60's. The combination of the two places she's l;ived really gave her a country dialect :>}

[kalee]

My husband has dark brown, almost black hair with blue eyes. His family are from TX by way of NC, then GA. He complains when I have (fin) fish, but will eat shellfish.

When we moved to NC, we settled in a town we had never heard of but when doing some research found that we had family in this county back before the Revolution. My folks went back to VA, his went to another county in NC then on to GA and westward.
I always enjoy your posts, Thank you!

[cva66snipe]

Thanks for the ping.

[RegulatorCountry]

It originated as a submissive statement in the slave patois, “yes sir, master, sir” corrupted to “yowsuh massa.” The feminine counterpart would be “yess’m.”

It entered into a different popular usage with the advent of jazz, and became rather exclamatory, but was still distinctively black, with roots in subjugation, although that is not how it was used, I believe intentionally. They took the old word and repurposed it into something else, that was unique to their scene and their era, took the sadness of their grandparents and made it into something good.

By the time of the would-be revolutionaries of the sixties, it had morphed into a pure exclamation of excitement or approval, to the point that a nascent, leftist, didactic word police felt the need to harangue it’s own flock of the word’s origin. It’s now seldom recognized for what it was, even among young, urban blacks.

So, they’re haranguing again. It’s a fine old word, as far as I’m concerned. It means what the speaker intends it to mean, no matter what some aging marxist didact claims.

[jay1949]

The feminine counterpart would be “yess’m.” Pure Southern -- regardless of ethnicity -- that is what my folks taught me to say.

[RegulatorCountry]

... and so you don’t see the word police descending upon you or me, for using that polite, old contraction, but you do for “yowsuh” with a similar etymology. “Yess’m” didn’t enter into popular slang, and there isn’t any obvious way to tie it to anything other than old, southern politesse, having no remotely plausible racial component as it did and does.

[girlangler]

My Tennessee grandma McCoy called bad women “strumpets,” unbrellas “parasols.”

Most folks here still say “tators,” and “you uns.” Mom always called us “youngins,” but for a long time (I didn’t grow up here) I wondered why she called us onions.

[snuffy smiff]

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