If you’re from Southern Kentucky and you’ve ever travelled
out of state (or far enough north, in some cases), then you’ve certainly
encountered some… ‘attention’ due to your accent. In fact, the last time I was
in Florida, the worker at Cold Stone Creamery had a little chuckle at the way I
said ‘cheesecake’. I have no clue how I say it any differently than anyone else
in the world, but he asked me to repeat it for effect, and then awarded me an
extra scoop. Totally worth it.
But sometimes the attention isn’t positive. On another
vacation a couple of years prior, my family and I were snapping pictures on the
beach. You know, standard tourist stuff before we headed home the next day.
There was another girl, a bit younger than me, who actually started laughing at us talking, and then
proceeded to makes jokes about us, while standing no more than twenty feet
away. And she had the gall to do this while wearing a flippin’ stormtrooper
mask! I tried to strangle her using the Force, but it was no avail. So I had to
settle for shooting her some dirty looks and grumbling under my breath.
It never fails to get my blood pumpin’ when people assume
that anyone with a southern dialect is ‘stupid’. Tell me, oh Ye of Standard
Speech, did you get a 35 on the
English section of your ACT? No? What about a 34 in the reading? I didn’t think
so!
The point is that our mountain culture makes us who we are.
Sure there will always be individuals that poke fun at us for our dialect. But
I’ve learned that you should never let the opinions of others affect who you
are, or who you want to be. Let your roots shine through. What does the
judgement of strangers matter, anyway? The only person that needs to be happy
with you, is YOU. So to celebrate my love for our culture, let’s examine some
of that funny ole mountain speech and how it’s different from other parts of
America the Beautiful.
Pop
When I did some research on the spread of Pop/Soda/Coke
across the US, I was actually surprised that ‘pop’ seems to be a more northern
trend, although it’s snaked its way into the southeastern region of the
bluegrass state. And don’t ask me about that weird interjection of Coke in
Missouri and Illinois. I have no clue where that came from.
Buggy
I was under the assumption that Buggy or Cart were really
the only terms at play when it comes to the metal contraptions that help us
carry all of our crap that we just impulse-bought at walmart. But apparently,
the list also includes wagon, carriage, trolley, and basket. While more heavily
used in the South, buggy does seem to have quite an influence throughout the
Eastern US. Who knew?
Pecan
Perhaps I’m weird, but I’ve never pronounced pecan like
‘pea-can’. My family has always opted for the more centralized ‘pick-ahn’. How
do you say it? Is it different from the way your grandparents say it? Let me
know!
Caramel
Similar to the little spread of Western influence with pop,
‘car-mul’ seems to be a Northwestern thing that has snuggled into the heart of
Eastern Kentucky. If I think ‘care-uh-mel’ I might think snooty rich people
with champagne and pearls. But that would be prolonging stereotypes, so of
course I don’t do that. ;)
Crayon
In my experience, most people from my lovely hometown of
Hazard carry on the Southern tradition of pronouncing it ‘cray-ahn’. But I did
meet this guy in college who actually said ‘cra-oon’. To each his own, I
suppose.
Y’all
Through my twenty one years of life, I’ve never had someone
say ‘y’all’ who wasn’t doing it sarcastically, or to be dramatic. I always say
‘you all’. I did get a little chuckle from the comment above the graph, though.
But that’s all I could think of. Do you know something that
is specific to Eastern Kentucky? (Or anywhere else, for that matter!) Please
leave a comment with your own tales of dialect!
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