Anyone who knows me knows I’m a true Southerner. There is nothing I had rather be, and I am proud of my southern accent. However, since venturing outside “God’s country,” I’ve run into a lot of prejudice about the South, and it has happened in some of the strangest places. I don’t find much here since Kansans have a lot of ties to the South, but no doubt there is some. Most mid-Westerners are very nice.

Since moving to Kansas City, I’ve learned the mid-Westerner doesn’t have an accent! That’s what they tell me. Yet, I distinctly hear various accents spoken in this area. Those from Minnesota have one accent. Those from Colorado have another. People from Illinois sound completely different from the other two. Folk from Michigan tell me they are the only ones who speak the true American English, yet I hear evidence in their speech that tells me differently. But unlike many of those who smile, try to stifle grins and sometimes just tell me they like to hear me talk. I turn the other cheek. I don’t insult them about their manner of speaking, but that may be a-changing.

Linguistics has always intrigued me, and I’ve been doing a bit of studying in that area…just a tiny bit mind you. I am not a scholar-just someone who’s tired of being teased by folk who do not speak “pure” English either.

Yes, I do sometimes say things that are foreign to their ears, but if they traveled across the country more, they might be surprised to find a multitude of speech traits.

I have noticed that Mid-Westerners tend to pronounce the word “caught” as if it were “cot,” “dawn” as if it were “don” and “on” as “un.” This I’ve learned is a blending of two vowels, and it is incorrect, according to the experts. I don’t know where they came up with the word “crick” spoken when referring to a “creek,” but perhaps more research will enlighten me.

One thing I’ve learned about Southern speech, such as that found in the area where I grew up, is that isn’t a lazy way of speaking; it is something that has been handed down to us by our immigrant forefathers.

For instance, some of the older generation in our area tended to use a broad “I”. The word right almost sounded like “rat.”. Sometimes when “I” is followed by an “R” the “ire” may sound more like “ar”, thus the word “fire”, may end up sounding like “far,” and “tire” may sound like “tar.”

Another common pronunciation is dropping the “r” in words such as dear or deer to make it sound like “deah” or adding an “r” sound to the end of words such as window, making it sound like “winder” or hollow sound like “holler.” Another example is the word “extra” that may be spoken as “extry.” Some also add the letter “a” to words such as I used above, “a-changing.”

Much of the dialect spoken in our part of the country stems from the Scot-Irish, Irish and English who settled in the South. I read with interest that the verb construction in sentences has much to do with using parts of the speech brought to this country from the British Isles in order to supplement the English words that did not express their thoughts more succinctly. So, when you hear someone laughing about Southern expressions or accents, remember that it is not a slurring of words. It is not a lack of education. It is not laziness on the part of the speaker. It is how we were taught-speech habits that have carried down from generation to generation.

For the life of me, I cannot hear the distinction between the word Bonny (as in a girl’s name) and a Bunny rabbit. That doesn’t mean I’m uneducated. It simply means that while someone else can distinguish the difference, I can’t. So, I’ll no longer be intimidated by non-Southerners who think I’m daff.

I thought you might enjoy a few words that are seldom heard in the South but were once standard language:

Afeared-afraid; airsh-chilly; britches-pants; eh law-Oh, well!; fair up-when rainy weather clears up; fetch-to get; haint-ghost; holler-hollow; liketa-almost nearly; poke-bag or sack; plait-to braid; tee-totally-completely; young ‘un-child; right smart-great in quality, quantity or number; poke salad-wild greens; and tote-to carry.