I Swannee!

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Wally from New York City.

Hi, Wally. Welcome to the program.

Thanks.

Where are you calling from in New York?

Queens.

Queens. Where in Queens?

Jackson Heights.

There we go. I know Jackson Heights.

I lived in Astoria for a while myself.

I like Astoria.

Do you have Astoria for us?

Yeah.

I’m originally from outside of Athens, Georgia.

Oh, okay.

And I have a question about a mother, a word my mother uses.

And the word is swanee.

She uses this still?

Yes.

And how would she use it?

She would say, well, I swanny.

And she would use it to express mild surprise or mild disbelief.

It’s very similar to phrases like I declare or I never or you don’t say along those lines.

Do you use it yourself?

I never have.

You know, thinking back, maybe my mother is the only person I’ve ever heard use it.

You don’t hear it in New York?

I’ve never heard it in New York.

They don’t use that in Hindi in Jackson Heights.

They don’t.

What’s up with those New Yorkers?

I heard this all the time growing up from my Virginia-born mother.

Really?

I swan him off Anne.

And she used it exactly the way you do.

It’s a very Southern expression.

And the idea there is, I swear, but it’s a little bit more delicate than I swear.

A little more polite.

A little more polite.

That’s right.

And the idea there is probably that it goes back to a dialectal term in England, I swan ye.

It’s short for I shall warrant you.

That is sort of like I swear, right?

I swan ye.

I warrant you that this is the truth.

So just a corruption over time, let it turn out to be swanee?

Yeah, and I love it.

Nothing to do with the river, of course.

No, no, nothing to do with the swanee river.

I wondered.

Yeah, yeah.

So if somebody said that to you in a deli or something there, what would that do?

How would that feel?

That would be out of place.

Yeah, I just…

Definitely.

Yeah, yeah.

I remember moving from Kentucky to upstate New York to go to college, and it was such culture shock.

I’m sure you experienced the same thing, huh?

Absolutely.

Well, how do we do, Wally?

Is that enough?

That’s perfect.

Okay, great.

That’s great.

Thank you for calling us.

Thanks for bringing back those memories.

Thank you so much.

All right. Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, if you’ve got a question about something that your mother said, something old-fashioned, something quaint, something that makes you think of home, give us a call, 1-877-929-9673, or send an email to words@waywordradio.org.