Scholars of Twang Track All the 'Y'Alls' in Texas

NY Times ^ | RALPH BLUMENTHAL

[steplock]

Good tale! If you want a REalll Texas Drwallll...

Visit around WACO! Just a bit further south.

[lavrenti]

One has to take into consideration the Melongeon influence on the population. Many who came "over the Avery" (the trail through NC and East Tenn that is now US 70 and I-40) included them. They settled first in northern Alabama, Mississippi and East and Middle-Tenn. After the Civil War, a number migrated to Texas.

I always thought when I heard someone from the Panhandle or the Red River talk about having a "Cherokee grandma" it was just as likely they had a Melongeon ancestor.

I had a girlfriend from the Panhandle who looks Scots-Irish but with olive skin. People thought she was Jewish. I have olive skin and when I was in India, the locals though I was an Anglo-Indian from Delhi.

Not that these observations have much to do with speech patterns, but it explains a little about who many Texans are.

[nhoward14]

Much like the Ents in Tolkein, in Texas, it ain't worth sayin it if it don't take a long time to say it.

[steplock]

All Americans, even if they're from the South and 'stupid,' should be represented," - Wesley Clark

[TalBlack]

Nobody mentioned "yuns" Ohio-midwest, contraction of you-un's as in "yuns gonna meet us there, or what?"

Listen to upperclass British accents. There are words that don't seem to differ in accent from the American South: "War" springs to mind.

While the southern accents are often endearing, and, when spoken by, respectivly, men or woman are the eptoime of masculinity and feminity (Go figure), New Yorks phrases and accents seem to either baffle ("I could care less!") or amuse ("fuhgedabboudit" or"whaddayadointameovahheah").

[Dog Gone]

Next Ms. Aguilar quizzed Mr. Greer on a lexicon of Texas words and phrases. Had he ever heard the expression "y'all?"

They actually asked a 70-year old native Texan this question?

[JennysCool]

Ping-A-Roonie, Y'All...

[NTegraT]

Any other Texas ever heard of "yonder"? When my husband and I lived 4 years in Nashville, besides the obliging y'all and fixin to, his entire office were in stitches to hear him say he lived "out yonder" (pointing to the county to the south). Out yonder sounds like "ow-chonder." Can be used like "Take that thing out yonder."

[IronJack]

I wonder when the Tahms will take such a in-depth look at the gibberish they speak in N'yawk. What are Texans, some kinda lingustic sahd-show that the hah and mahty can come down and stare at? Hope they didn't get nuthin' on they fancy loafers whilst they was a-gawkin' at the rubes.

Maybe it's just me, but this here awticle sounds a trahfle patronizing.

[Wisconsin]

30 years ago I worked running a mobile navigational radio station in locations all over the south.

I was born in South Carolina, my mother's family is from North Carolina, My father's from Memphis.I had little trouble with accents.

Then I had a location near Plain Dealing, Louisiana, just across the river from Texas. Predominantly a poor rural black population, I could not understand what they said, nor they, me. I had to have a translator -- the daughter of a black minister/famer who had worked in Los Angeles.

It was a strange experience. I have always wanted to see a linquistic study the area and to tell me the origin of the local dialect. I suspect it may have been an African language. It did not seem to be the creole one associates with Louisiana.

[lavrenti]

I know people from the Tidewater who sound English.

[AgentEcho]

I beg to differ. It would be "Over" to Houston and "Down" to San Antonio.

Æ

[hispanarepublicana]

I remember when my aunt, uncle and cousins--Texas ex-pats from Michigan--came to visit us one summer. I don't think I'd ever met anyone from outside Texas in person at that young age, and I was repulsed and offended by my cousin--older than me by a year--and the way he spoke. "Hey, do you guys want to come oatside to the backyerd and play with my toy kerrs and trucks?"

I'd never been called a "guy" until then. Of course, the fact that they'd never been taught to say "Sir" and Ma'am" didn't score big hits with my parents, either. They were doomed from the beginning when they came driving up our driveway in a Volkswagen bug, and my dad decided right then and there that they must be Communists because "good" Americans would have been driving Chevies, Fords, or Chryslers.

[mylife]

Nobody mentioned "yuns" Ohio-midwest, contraction of you-un's as in "yuns gonna meet us there, or what?"

I always considered "yuns" to be a West Virginia import and pretty rarely spoken in Ohio.

[miele man]

I was born in a small mountain town on the eastern Kentucky and southwestern West Virginia border. Obviously, I developed a "mountain twang". Through the years, I've lived in Texas and south Alabama. Much that I read in this article is what I've heard in all of these places.

When I lived in Ft Worth, the message I recorded on my answering machine was a source of much merriment for many of my friends and relatives back "east". Note: a "ranchette" is five acres or less. My message replete with twang went thus: "Howdy partner, you've reached the ______ ranchette. I'm out on the back 4 rite now, but your call is mighty important to me, so at the sound of the cattle call, leave me a message an I'll git rite back to you. Pronto. Audios. I had many messages that contained nothing but the sound of the caller's breathing while they listened to my message, followed by outbursts of laughter.

Ah luv this langwidge.

[hispanarepublicana]

Any other Texas ever heard of "yonder"?

HEARD it? Hell, we USE it every day in my house. Only, we say, "You're looking for your boots? They're over-yonder in the back of the garage." But, other times, it's used alone, as in, "Honey, yonder in the far side of the den is a spider. Can you please kill it? Because, I'm fixin' to scream if you don't."

[mylife]

One of my favorite Texas colloquialisms is "Pallet", basically an improvised bed, sleeping bag or blanket on the floor. "Pa, kin we sleep on a pallet 'n front uh the TV tonaht?"

[hispanarepublicana]

What are Texans, some kinda lingustic sahd-show that the hah and mahty can come down and stare at?

"I've always wondered just WHAT THE HELL IS THAT BAAHSTON ACCENT ABOUT, ANYWAY?"

[gcruse]

it ain't worth sayin it if it don't take a long time to say it.

As long as I can remember, I have prefaced any new bout of conversation with a little history, or justification, or providing of sources for what I am about to say.  It has to come from insecurity of some sort, I'm sure.  Anyway, I went into my boss's office once and began the verbal groundwork to tell him what I was going to tell him.  It finally got to him, I guess, because he interrupted me to say, "Shut up and talk!"

Then we both took on a startled look realizing what he had said, and cracked up.

[Servant of the 9]

There never was a 'Texas' accent.

Fourty years ago I could tell where any Texas native I met came from within 50 miles based on their accent. The accents were so different that, for instance, thse with a 'Brazos Bottom' accent from 50 miles Southwest of Houston and those with a 'Galveston' accent from 75 miles to the Northeast of there found it very difficult to understand each other.

All that is left of Texas accents, or Southern accents, is a tiny whisper of what they once were.

That is why Southerners and Texans almost always laugh at movie accents.

So9