Robbinsville, NC is just on the other side of the mountains from my hometown of Tellico Plains, TN, on the other end of the Cherohala Skyway. I have kinfolks there. I find it funny that the video requires subtitles.
Riite smaat messa feesh in thet thar pon. Corse looks liik we mite git some weatha. Shenandoah Valley holla speak at least in the sixties and seventies. I left The Valley in the eighties and moved near Charlottesville. I didn't hear much of the holla talk after that.
A poke. What else would you buy a pig in? Thank you for that. It is good to know that USA is not all Hollywood speak. If you get a chance listen to BBC Radio Foyle program called Kintra. You can get it over the interweb. Scots Irish from its (my) home.
It was all us hillbillies home about 300 years ago, after King James ran us out of the debatable lands between Scotland and England. You’ll find a lot of familiar Ulster Scots family names in the hills of Tennessee, Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia. There’s a reason why the school color of the University of Tennessee (in KNOXville) is orange.
My mom's family was from Bryson City. We used to visit there when we were kids. My dad's family was upper Shenandoah Valley in VA. My dad's cousin, Junior, lived just outside of Waynesboro and did not have an indoors bathroom. He won a raffle and everyone suggested he should get an indoor toilet. He said, "Hell no, ain't nobody gonna shit in my house".
Junior's dad, Harry, was an old school finish carpenter and that man could build some furniture. When my dad died and I buried him, Harry was at the church. He remarked that he knew I was wont to cuss and he told me it was his fault. He said he was helping my grandad work on a house when I was 3 years old. He dropped a sheet of drywall on his foot and said he cussed up a blue streak and I had cussed ever since. I got quite a chuckle out of the story and then went out and put my dad's ashes in the ground, exactly where he wanted them to be. True to my promise to the groundskeeper at the church, when I was done you would never have known I was there.
Sorry to go on, but this video struck a chord with me. When we first moved out here, I had to translate for my wife until she got used to the cadence and vocabulary. She would smile and nod and, then when we got shut of the conversation, she would ask me what was being discussed.
Have friends who moved to Del Rio Tennessee from lower Alabama, I've been fortunate to have been able to sit on their porch many evenings hanging out with the locals talking and listening to some play music.... The welcoming culture, as long as you don't want to change things, is great.... Never had a problem understanding what they were saying but there has been a couple eye opening experiences while passing those damn mason jars around.. JD
I grew up in rural Michigan, but a few of the hillbillies that came to Detroit for jobs long ago finally gave up on city life and moved out into the woods and swamps, so that accent isn't unfamiliar. I only watched the first few minutes, and "sygoggled" was the only word unknown to me. "Plumb" is used the same here, and we'd probably use "carry" or "bag" instead of "tote" or "poke", but we know the words. "Gaint" set me thinking for a bit, but I thought, "What's the opposite of stout? ...Gaunt!"
This reminds me of "Yooper Talk" on you-tube, by the band "Da Yoopers" from the Upper Peninsula (U.P.), which is even more sparsely settled than my favorite parts of Michigan. This area was settled by French fur-trappers, probably some Scotch-Irish, Swedish and Norwegian lumberjacks, Finns, Cornish hard-rock miners, etc., and not very many English. Mixing all that together created a unique accent.
Robbinsville, NC is just on the other side of the mountains from my hometown of Tellico Plains, TN, on the other end of the Cherohala Skyway. I have kinfolks there. I find it funny that the video requires subtitles.
ReplyDeleteTail of the Dragon!
ReplyDeleteRiite smaat messa feesh in thet thar pon. Corse looks liik we mite git some weatha. Shenandoah Valley holla speak at least in the sixties and seventies. I left The Valley in the eighties and moved near Charlottesville. I didn't hear much of the holla talk after that.
ReplyDeleteA poke. What else would you buy a pig in?
ReplyDeleteThank you for that. It is good to know that USA is not all Hollywood speak.
If you get a chance listen to BBC Radio Foyle program called Kintra. You can get it over the interweb. Scots Irish from its (my) home.
It was all us hillbillies home about 300 years ago, after King James ran us out of the debatable lands between Scotland and England. You’ll find a lot of familiar Ulster Scots family names in the hills of Tennessee, Carolina, Kentucky and Virginia. There’s a reason why the school color of the University of Tennessee (in KNOXville) is orange.
DeleteMy mom's family was from Bryson City. We used to visit there when we were kids. My dad's family was upper Shenandoah Valley in VA. My dad's cousin, Junior, lived just outside of Waynesboro and did not have an indoors bathroom. He won a raffle and everyone suggested he should get an indoor toilet. He said, "Hell no, ain't nobody gonna shit in my house".
ReplyDeleteJunior's dad, Harry, was an old school finish carpenter and that man could build some furniture. When my dad died and I buried him, Harry was at the church. He remarked that he knew I was wont to cuss and he told me it was his fault. He said he was helping my grandad work on a house when I was 3 years old. He dropped a sheet of drywall on his foot and said he cussed up a blue streak and I had cussed ever since. I got quite a chuckle out of the story and then went out and put my dad's ashes in the ground, exactly where he wanted them to be. True to my promise to the groundskeeper at the church, when I was done you would never have known I was there.
Sorry to go on, but this video struck a chord with me. When we first moved out here, I had to translate for my wife until she got used to the cadence and vocabulary. She would smile and nod and, then when we got shut of the conversation, she would ask me what was being discussed.
Yer talking about my old stompin grounds. H, burg, Waynesboro, Weyers Cave, Stuarts Draft and the list goes on. Loved The Valley.
DeleteHave friends who moved to Del Rio Tennessee from lower Alabama, I've been fortunate to have been able to sit on their porch many evenings hanging out with the locals talking and listening to some play music.... The welcoming culture, as long as you don't want to change things, is great.... Never had a problem understanding what they were saying but there has been a couple eye opening experiences while passing those damn mason jars around..
ReplyDeleteJD
Back in the early 2,000's, built my old boss a cabin outside of Del Rio, TN.
DeleteI grew up in rural Michigan, but a few of the hillbillies that came to Detroit for jobs long ago finally gave up on city life and moved out into the woods and swamps, so that accent isn't unfamiliar. I only watched the first few minutes, and "sygoggled" was the only word unknown to me. "Plumb" is used the same here, and we'd probably use "carry" or "bag" instead of "tote" or "poke", but we know the words. "Gaint" set me thinking for a bit, but I thought, "What's the opposite of stout? ...Gaunt!"
ReplyDeleteThis reminds me of "Yooper Talk" on you-tube, by the band "Da Yoopers" from the Upper Peninsula (U.P.), which is even more sparsely settled than my favorite parts of Michigan. This area was settled by French fur-trappers, probably some Scotch-Irish, Swedish and Norwegian lumberjacks, Finns, Cornish hard-rock miners, etc., and not very many English. Mixing all that together created a unique accent.