Dialect Thoughts

[Note: this is a continuing conversation with several blog friends, if you're lost].

Most of my dialect is hard to tease out because I've lived in too many places. I've picked up might could, and I use the object in the subject. Those both came from Texas. A few others are south St. Louis-isms that I didn't even realize were there until a professor from California, a linguist I adored and would have taken any class he taught, pointed them out to me. So here's a few things I say, and one that my husband says, for those not from here.

Might could: I mentioned this last week. It means maybe. I might could mow the grass this week, if I had enough incentive to do so. I could substitute "I could possibly cut the grass...." Sometimes I do. Might could seems more positive to me, like I'm almost eager to do it. I also use it to gauge the response. "I might could do that..." to see if Mike is willing to, say, wash the dishes while I cut the grass.

Object in the subject: this isn't that rare, but I did not use it as a young child. I inherited it from my high school boyfriend. As in: Matt and me, we're going down to the store for a slurpee. It makes the antecedent clear. "We" does not include Megan or Tom or Michelle. It only refers to Matt and me. The reason it is Matt and ME instead of Matt and I, well, I would guess it has roots in dialectical laziness. Or possibly Louisiana French. But he was Czech. Eh.

Come with: This was one of the surprises. I thought everyone said come with but my professor found it so fascinating that we say that here. As in: I'm going to the store. Would you like to come with? We don't add the "me" at the end. That's the key missing part. He claimed it showed our German heritage in St. Louis, which surprised him, because come with tends to be more northern (Minnesota, for instance). I also say "bring with" and "go with" although not as often.

Boulevard Stop: a corner with a stop sign, as opposed to a traffic light/stop light.

Off of: I catch myself saying this all the time. Get off of the couch. Why do I add the "of"? I have a feeling it is incorrect. It doesn't add anything to the meaning.

Anymore: this is Mike's addition to my dialect. I do not use it but my head no longer explodes when he does. This is how I use that word: "We don't listen to that station anymore." That is the ONLY way I use that word. Mike, however, can use it this way: "Anymore we always use seatbelts." Or, "I used to read on the back porch but I like the front porch anymore." Or, "Church takes so long anymore it isn't worth taking Leo." Kaboom. This used to make me crazy. But not anymore.

A few other words I use that I've found aren't standard:

Stri-ped with two syllables, but only when describing something with stripes (pajamas, shirt, bass).

Sundae pronounced Sun-duh.

They are green beans, not string beans. Unless they are snap beans which I'll also use. And eat.

The laundromat is catty-cornered from their house, not kitty-cornered.

The little gray bug that rolls up in a ball when you touch it is a pill bug, not a roly-poly (but my kids call it that).

Crawdads, not crayfish. Bags from the grocery store, not sacks. And you push a cart there, too.

If the sun is shining while it rains, the devil is beating his wife (that one I know is from Georgia).

I get goose bumps when you tell me a creepy story.

I stand IN line and I get sick TO my stomach and it is a QUARTER TO 11 or a QUARTER PAST 11. But never half past: then it would be 11:30.

I might do something on purpose, and then again, it might be on accident.

And I drink coke. I don't drink Coca-cola, but if I do have something carbonated, which actually I don't really very much anymore, completely switched over to coffee, but if I did, it would be coke. Not soda and not pop. Never pop. And while I had friends who said sody, that made me crazy even as a kid. Coke: it's all just coke.

Lightning bugs, not fireflies. Drinking fountain, maybe water fountain, never bubbler. I get Chinese food carry-out, not take-out or take-away. Spigots are outside, faucets and taps are inside. My street trees grow in a tree lawn between my sidewalk and street.

I have no preference for route or caramel pronunciations. Syrup, however, is sur-up. Aunt and ant rhyme. So do dawn and on. I pronounce can as ken when it's a verb (I have a CAN of tomatoes, but I KEN go to your house). Sometimes the word wash gets said /warsh/ but not as often as when I was a child.

And my last name, while spelled such that you'd think it would rhyme with Henry Kissinger's last name, is pronounced WESS-singer, with a hard /g/. Say it fast.

That's all I can think of, thanks to a couple of websites that helped jog my memory...I'll need to write about knit vs. knitted some other time!