A Hankering for Fixing To

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hello.

Hello, who is this?

My name is Jill Baker, and I’m calling from a small town north of Kansas City called Maryville, Missouri.

Well, welcome to the show, Jill. What’s on your mind?

Thank you. Well, my son, Ryan, who’s here with me today, he’s 11, and he is an NPR baby, and we love to listen to your show.

Wait, wait, whoa, whoa, whoa. What does that mean, NPR baby? Was he conceived during Fresh Air or This American Life?

Or in the driveway?

Yeah. Was it a driveway moment of a certain kind?

We do have a lot of driveway moments. Yes, absolutely. Not that kind, but yes, we do.

So we were driving down the road and having a conversation, listening to the show about a phrase that I frequently heard growing up in East Central Nebraska, which is, I have a hankering to do something. But in my early 20s, my husband and I relocated to Northwest Arkansas to live. And nobody said, I have a hankering. Everybody said, I’m fixing to do this. And now we live in Northwest Missouri and nobody says either of those things. So we want to know why I grew up saying hankering and why, and I still do, which does get some looks occasionally, and why my friends in Northwest Arkansas all say that they’re fixing to do something.

Before we jump in here, Jill, can I ask you, do you feel like to hanker and hankering to and fix into are good synonyms for each other?

Well, I don’t know because part of me thinks that hankering is more like I want to do this and fixin is more like I’m going to do this. But in my experience with people in my family and my friend group, they use them synonymously. So that’s where I really get confused.

Yeah, that is confusing because generally fixing to means being about to or preparing to. And it is used pretty much throughout the South. And in terms of hankering, I’m a little puzzled that you heard it some places and not others. I mean, it doesn’t have a distinctly regional component. It’s used pretty much all over here and there. I mean, I guess I’m not surprised that some people haven’t heard of it.

Would you call it old-fashioned, Martha, or maybe even almost archaic?

I think of it as sort of old-fashioned and also sort of casual. Do you think of it that way?

I definitely think it’s casual. I think growing up, we spent a lot of time, obviously, in East Central Nebraska on the farm. And probably where I picked it up the most was from the elder statesman farmer that lived on the farm that we spent the most of my time on. And he said it all the time. And so I don’t know if it’s maybe something that was dialectical earlier and just sort of became a part of the way we spoke in East Central Nebraska. I’m not sure.

Well, that’s so interesting. And did he pronounce it like hankering without the final G?

Yes.

Always drop the G.

Never hankering.

Never anything. My dad says it and my mom really says it.

Yeah, I just feel like I have a hankering. It doesn’t quite fit. You know, it does seem like it’s really informal. You’ve got to drop the G, absolutely.

Yeah, no one’s going to the White House saying, I have a hankering to be part of this state dinner, right?

Right.

They’re not doing that.

I don’t think so.

But the thing that interests me the most, I think, is that you, because of your varied experience of moving around, you’ve encountered these different dialect regions. And I think what you’re seeing here is this really important fact that I think we should stress, probably every episode, Martha, is that language isn’t, how shall I put this? It isn’t a thorough mixture. It’s more speckled and swirled, if that makes sense. It has lumps in it.

It has lumps in it. Perfect.

It’s a rice crispy treat with sprinkles.

Yeah, I was thinking of like…

I was thinking of when you make muffins, the recipes often say don’t over mix. You might have some dry crops and that’s okay. And then you throw the blueberries in there. This is kind of what our language map in the United States is like. We have lumps. We have dry patches. We have wet patches. We have blueberries. And in the end, it all makes one language. But it’s got its component pieces. And if you only encounter the little bits of it, it’s just going to seem, you know, it’s just going to seem unusual. And that’s what you’ve done. You’ve taken samples from here and there and seen that hankering doesn’t have to be used by everyone to still be valid and good and useful.

Yes, for sure.

For sure.

It does get some looks when I say it here. We’re just so thrilled that you and Ryan had a hankering to talk about this question.

We did have a hankering to talk about it for sure. And we’re definitely fixing to enjoy continuing to listen to the show. We’re just enormous fans, and we’re very grateful for the fun that we have and learning a little bit about language.

Well, thanks for being a part of it today. And you two take care now, all right?

Okay, thank you.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye, Jill.

Bye, Ryan.

Bye-bye.

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