Say That Again

You ain’t from around here are you boy? Or to pronounce it proper “Ewe ain’t frum roun heah or’ya boy”, Southern English is what I call this and being raised in South Carolina this accent and pronunciation on a lot of words and use of certain terms will always be with me, I have no desire to ever lose any of this but think it funny to see the looks and here the comments from people when I least expect it.

I have heard things all my life, especially my life since I moved away from the south; things like “Say that again because it sounds so funny”, “Where is that accent from? It sounds so strange”, “Say that again because I didn’t understand you” or my favorite one includes comments on how slow I talk. Do I get myself insulted? Not a bit, I usually smile and comment something like it appears you are listening with an accent because I don’t hear one from where I am listening.

Anyways I love people and appreciate the diversity we have in this country, I love my Southern Accent and love the smile on folks faces when they hear it even though some are laughing others are smiling because they actually recognize where you are from, I remember while I was still working I would meet a new customer to turn their water on and after a brief conversation they would say something like “Whut part uh Calina ewe frum” I’d reply “Pickens County an whut part uh Jaja ewe frum” it’s really nice to run into folks who understand you.

Yesterday I went with Cindy down to see a Doctor for a sinus infection, the Doctor who came in asked all the usual questions and after a few minutes asked Cindy where she was from because he just knew it wasn’t here, Cindy replied that she was born and raised in California, he shook his head and said I thought you might be from my neck of the woods, she said that we had not long ago moved back here from New Mexico, he said that must be it since it’s close to Texas, Cindy grinned and went on with the conversation, I joined in and asked “Whar iz it ewe or’frum” he spun around and pointed right at me saying “Thar et iz, thet’s whar thu accent iz comin frum” I laughed when he told me he was from Mississippi and he was happy to hear he was talking to a Carolina Boy, he confirmed that Cindy had picked up her accent from being around me and really laughed when I asked him if he had ever heard the term “Ewe ain’t frum roun heah or’ya boy”. When we walked out I shook his hand and said Thank You Sir, his reply was “that tells me you are from home, you use the terms Sir and Thank You”.

This concludes my little discussion on Southern English and how different we sound across the country, and also how funny it is when someone finds you humorous even when you are not trying and how neat it is to be recognized by your voice as to where you were raised, and appreciates you being polite rather than looking at you funny because you are being polite. I hope you all enjoyed my little bit of poking fun at myself here and hope you could read everything I wrote in Southern English, if not then you are probably reading it too fast just slow down and it’ll come to you, and until next time:

“Yall com back nowh ya heah”