English language question.

[Randy Perry]

Note: I live in Texas but I was born in Upstate New York, grew up in Boston.

We didn't have rednecks, just douche bags.

[highpriestess]

tell ya what they DON'T have up there... biscuits and gravy

[Randy Perry]

No they do not! And they don't have "drippin's".

That's one that got me. In Texas, DRIPPIN'S is something you collect and use as an ingredient for food. In New York, DRIPPIN'S is either something that leaked out of your car or something that you had to go to the "free clinic" for.

[highpriestess]

Drippins is an ingredient in biscuits and gravy

[Sarab]

if you are from the south everyone assumes you're an idiot. Usually, if you ARE from the south, you just shift the blame over to like... Alabama or some other state.....

louisiana perhaps?

HEY!!!

lol. Louisiana is like a whole different country... even i can't understand half of what they say and i was married to a cajun for 16 years!

Yup! We do have some sayings here, but I don't say 'em all...
When you talk to someone you haven't seen for awhile, or just asking a general question about the family, you say "How's ya mama an' dem?"

[highpriestess]

i just remember this old man that my parents knew that was extremely cajun... swamp boy... and he would say:

"deee-ahs a puhl in dee-ah ina fridge y'untun."

Took me forever to figure out he was saying "There's a Pearl in there in the refrigerator if you want one"

(Pearl USED to be a beer we had in these parts... i dont think they make it anymore, tho...)

[Paul Wolfe]

i just remember this old man

This old man, he played one
He played knick-knack on my thumb
With a knick-knack paddywhack, give a dog a bone
This old man came rolling home...

Sorry, I just couldn't help myself

Now, since we're discussing misrepresentations of language, I thought I'd comment on the term "redneck".

The origins of this term Redneck are Scottish and refer to supporters of the National Covenant and The Solemn League and Covenant, or "Covenanters", largely Lowland Presbyterians, many of whom would flee Scotland for Ulster (Northern Ireland) during persecutions by the British Crown. The Covenanters of 1638 and 1641 signed the documents that stated that Scotland desired the Presbyterian form of church government and would not accept the Church of England as its official state church.

Many Covenanters signed in their own blood and wore red pieces of cloth around their necks as distinctive insignia; hence the term "Red neck", (rednecks) which became slang for a Scottish dissenter*. One Scottish immigrant, interviewed by the author, remembered a Presbyterian minister, one Dr. Coulter, in Glasgow in the 1940's wearing a red clerical collar -- is this symbolic of the "rednecks"?

Since many Ulster-Scottish settlers in America (especially the South) were Presbyterian, the term was applied to them, and then, later, their Southern descendants. One of the earliest examples of its use comes from 1830, when an author noted that "red-neck" was a "name bestowed upon the Presbyterians." It makes you wonder if the originators of the ever-present "redneck" joke are aware of the term’s origins - Rednecks?

Another popular theory stems from the use of red bandanas tied around the neck to signify union affiliation during the violent clashes between United Mine Workers and coal mine owners between 1910 and 1920 (this theory was stated as fact by the 2007 History Channel documentary "Hillbilly: the real story", which claimed that a New York reporter had seen the bandanas and coined the term). But while this theory may explain a greater popularization of the term, it cannot be considered an explanation for the origin of the term because of the considerable evidence of the widespread previous use of the expression.

I'm as big a Jeff Foxworthy fan as anyone, but I just felt I had to defend the rednecks...

[Randy Perry]

And there I thought it had to do with people down here getting sunburned or something? I also thought there was some weird connection to Red Necks and the fact that Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s car was red?

I do remember this one girl where I used to work... she'd sit near the computer where we would clock in for our shifts and she would always look at you and say: "You need clocked in?" Man, she WAS a red neck.

[Stiltzkin]

i'm havin' a blast reading this

[chasmcneal]

what i say probably sounds like "could of been" but the intent is certainly "could have been." if written "could've been" is it more acceptable? then its naught but a contraction of could and have, right?

[alex1251]

you guys beat me to it. I was just about to say could've.