Southernisms

Over the years, I have become accustomed to the regional "sayings" people use in everyday conversations. Some of them were temporarily confusing to me, some cute, and some made quite alot of sense to me. So I've compiled a list of my favorite southern terms and phrases with explanations following. And no, I don't use any of these myself, even after living here for a decade, but Jonathan does employ a few of these in his dialogue!

1. Buggy
Synonym for shopping cart. This is my first memory of encountering a southernism, and my first encounter with what felt like a language barrier in my own country! I was at Publix for my first round of groceries freshman year at Furman. The nice, unsuspecting employee (poor guy, now that I think about what I put him through) greeted me at the door with, "Hi ma'am, would you like a buggy?" Me, to myself, "Huh?" Aloud to him, "I'm sorry?" To me he said, "A buggy?" To myself, "Do I look old enough to have a baby or small child in order to need a buggy?" But to him, to make sure he knew I wasn't hard of hearing, "Yes, I heard buggy, but..." Finally, he went to the door, grabbed the metal on wheels, and pushed it over to me, loud enough for all around to hear, "SHOPPING CART???" Ohhhhh.

2. Pocketbook
Translation: Purse. This one's funny to me. I have definitely never owned a book that would fit into my pocket, let alone a purse that looks like one. But I have become very used to this term, though I still call mine a purse.

3. Dern
For the first year of living in Greenville, I just thought people were saying "darn" but my then untrained ear heard it as "dern" due to the difference in accents (which is maybe how the term initially evolved?). But I came to realize that people were really saying "dern." The rough translation is, you guessed it, "darn."

4. Cut the lights on.
Turn the lights on (also used for "off").

5. You scared the bejeezus out of me!
You scared the living daylights out of me!

6. I'm fixin' to...
I'm about to...

7. Aight
Alright.

8. Looka there!
Look!

9. Yes ma'am/No sir
You might wonder why this is included, but children here are raised saying this in their sleep. It's actually quite endearing, and I'm so used to hearing my students call me "ma'am" at school that I don't think twice about it. My kids this year asked me why I don't really use these words myself. I told them that because my parents were born up north, I wasn't raised to say them, but I was still taught just as good manners as they were, but just by using different words.

10. Bless his/her little heart.
My personal favorite, because of what it implies. Quick background: people around here are incredibly friendly and kind--one of the things I love about living here. So it's not surprising that people tend to sugar coat things in keeping with their kind nature. Anytime a person just can't do right, instead of being chastized, people will often say, "bless his little heart!" Example: Moe had an accident in his pants at school, bit a classmate, and got sent to the principal's office. You might say, "for the love, he needs to get his act together!" Around here, people would say, "bless his little heart!"