Jesco White "Outlaw Dancer" |
phonological (sound) variants:
- warsh "wash"
- crik "creek"
- simular "similar"
- 'at "that"
- 'ere "there"
- 'At 'ere... "That there..."
lexical (word/vocabulary) variants:
- press "closet"
- redd out "clean out" (note: redd up is "to clear the table")
- dinner "lunch" (Really; it's so confusing.)
- mango "green pepper" (Talk about confusing! Even says it at the grocery store.)
- commode "toilet"
- poke "brown paper bag"
syntactic (grammar/usage) variants:
Mamie White |
- We wuz at BINGO when we seen 'im. Conjugation of "to be" and wider use of the past participle differ greatly from standard English.
- We's been rentin' lots a' movies anymore.
This is referred to as "positive anymore" and is not regularly found in any other dialect. - We had pork chops and applesauce, an'at.
Sociolinguists refer to this catch-all phrase, suffixed to any list in a sentence, as "the an'at." - The baby needs fed; that cat wants put out; the dog likes his haid petted.
Honest to god, we talk like this. - You'ins is comin', ain't yinz?
These second person plural pronouns correspond to the better-known y'all of the South. There's also we'z but I don't think it's as noticeable in connected speech.
"The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia!" Go ahaid! Click on 'im!
I kind of like "the cat wants put out." I think I'll start using that.
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