On 2/23/06, Pat Regan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Tanner Lovelace wrote: > > On 2/22/06, Pat Regan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > >> Shortly after I moved to Dallas, TX I asked a lot of questions about the > >> different forms of y'all... All the natives I talked to agreed with: > > > > Hahahaha! Dallas? Southern? Surely you jest. Texan, yes, but > > southern? Doubtful... > > > > Funny, where I come from the south is anything not north of the > Mason-Dixon line :).
There's a difference between "The South" as a geographical entity and "Southern" as a spoken dialect. The two are most definitely not one and the same. Case in point: Florida. Florida is definitely in "The South" as a geographical entity but most certainly does not speak "southern" as a dialect. Same with Texas. > > As I said before, "y'all" is NEVER plural. They must have some > > really funny ideas there in Dallas! :-P > > > > So, you are saying you can't walk into a room an say "How y'all doin'?" > to a small group of people? :) Obviously I should proofread better when posting late at night. Substitute the word "always" for "never" in my above sentence. (Doh!) > I don't know much about "tump." I did, however, need to check with my > friend Google to make sure I spelled "larapin" properly... Google > didn't make me think it had anything to do with Texas, however... > > My friend who told me about this word was originally from a small town > near Texarkana. When I asked one of my friends who grew up in Dallas > about this word he explained to me that you'd likely only ever hear it > in small backwater towns. I would tend to agree, since I actually heard > the word used in a western just the other week (I believe it was on > Bonanza, but I can't be sure :p). Texarkana, being fairly close to Arkansas, I would imagine has much more of a hill country (read: hillbilly, but don't read too much in that since the hillbillies of Arkansas/TX/Missouri are fairly different from the hillbillies of TN) dialect which really doesn't correspond to "Southern". > > Texas is first and foremost Texan, before southern and definitely before > > american. Any language research done there will not yield true southern > > information. > > > > Now that sounds like it was spoken by a Texan :). While I identify myself as "Southern", all four of my siblings were born in Texas and my parents and two of them now live in TX, so while I'm not a native Texan I do know them some. :-) > > Alabama (Sweet Home!), Missississippi, Georgia (except Atlanta), > > Tennessee and South Carolina, sure, but beyond that they get some > > funny ideas... :-P > > > > Hey, I work with what I've got :). As do we all. :-) Cheers, Tanner -- Tanner Lovelace clubjuggler at gmail dot com http://wtl.wayfarer.org/ (fieldless) In fess two roundels in pale, a billet fesswise and an increscent, all sable. -- TriLUG mailing list : http://www.trilug.org/mailman/listinfo/trilug TriLUG Organizational FAQ : http://trilug.org/faq/ TriLUG Member Services FAQ : http://members.trilug.org/services_faq/
