Discussion Forum—A Way with Words, a fun radio show and podcast about language

I'm sure plenty of people have heard this term but it still seems kinda too folksy and illogical to me: the phrase is “slow up,” as in “You better slow up or that cop's gonna pull you over!” Shouldn't it be “slow down.” And if not, then what's the difference?
“Slow up”
I don't know, to me it just seems about as logical as saying “climb down to the top of the mountain.” I guess you could call this a peeve, of which I have a modest amount.

Another is “lay down” instead of “lie down.” My Dad says it all the time, even though we correct him every time.

Something else my Dad says is: “I thew it away” instead of “threw.” Now, he grew up in Graham, NC, which I assume is replete with localisms such as these. And there's plenty more where those came from, too. “Light bu'b,” “Da'lin',” “It's {adjective} as all get out,” etc.

There are some expressions that he doesn't use regularly but has explained to me like “p'ison” (pronounced PIGH-zin) for “poison,” “haint” for “haunt” (i.e., a ghost). Another colloquialism is the expletive “foot,” when something goes wrong: “Well, foot, I forgot to buy eggs!”

Here's something, and, Martha, you may know the answer to this: My Dad says that he and his brother have been mistaken for Australians merely because of their dialect! When he told me that, I was taken aback, so to speak. Australians? I don't get it!

My Dad's brother's wife (my aunt, duh) has a very thick Chapel Hill dialect and it's really quite something to listen to her talk. All of this makes me wonder where the Southern vernacular came from (if you can narrow it down to one). Literally, where; that is, it doesn't seem to reflect an English, French, or German heritage, so where does it come from? It is really enigmatic when you think about it and how out-of-place it would sound in Europe. Was it perhaps influenced by so many different sources that a new “hybrid way of talk” came about which is like nothing else on Earth? I know that there are many expressions which came from England. Ireland, too, because there they call the end of a loaf of bread a “heel”. I was surprised to find that there were people who hadn't heard of a “heel”! I thought it was just as much a part of the standard English language as “loaf” itself.

I don't know how many people remember a couple of books on “How to Speak Southern” by Steve Mitchell. They are quite funny! And they were written long before the Jeff Foxworthy books. Nowadays most people know what both “curse” and “cuss” mean. But you can really see the origin of the latter when you hear it in phrases like “The Hope Diamond has got a cuss on it.” (That one's from the first volume, ISBN: 0-553-27519-4).

And finally, (for now, at least) the pronunciation of the word “on” as “own”: “Wait a sec', I can't see it; let me put my glasses own.” Everytime my Dad and my uncle get together, that pronunciation starts to take real good! It's, I guess, a half-peeve, like the Canadian “oat,” as in, “I dunno, you figure it oat.” How do these pronunciations start? It can't be from the spelling, can it?—Oh, foot! I just gone and opened up a can of worms own yawl. Can ya gimme a hand? Much obliged.