"southernisms"

[Ellen Johnson]

funny this should show up in the Atl Journal-Constitution's anonymously
called in "Vent" section this week.  did one of you submit it?

"Favorite 'you-can't-get-more-Southern-than-this' Southernism:  'tumped
over' --- 'I reached to get my beer and accidentally tumped it over.'"

Also, something that people around here think is a "southernism" but I
suspect it is widespread.  I heard it commented on this week and saw it
on a sign at a Taco Bell:

Jeet chet?
Yont to?

[yont rhymes with won't, of course]  is anybody besides me a fan of the
very definitely dated video from our own Preston and Shuy on varieties
of am eng?  well, a fan of some parts of it anyway, esp this section on
style.  every time I hear a comment on jeet chet I think of that guy
(who also did a skit of middle-aged hopelessly uncool dude trying to be
hip by using slang, who is he anyway? dInIs?)

Ellen Johnson
Assistant Professor of Linguistics
Dept. of English, Rhetoric, and Writing
Berry College, Box 350
Mt. Berry, GA 30149
706-368-5638
http://fsweb.berry.edu/academic/hass/ejohnson/
ejohnson at berry.edu