I liked to died when that ol’ toad-strangler crashed through the veranda! The Southernism liked to, also known as the counterfactual liketa, derives from the sense of like meaning “nearly.” This is part of a complete episode.
Transcript of “Liketa, Liked To”
Hello, you have A Way with Words.
Hi.
Hi, who’s this?
This is Scott Shirley in Fort Worth, Texas.
Welcome, Scott.
Hi, Scott. How are you doing?
Great, great.
What’s on your mind?
Love your show.
Thank you.
It makes me laugh out loud.
Good.
In a good way?
Always.
Always, okay.
How can we help you?
Well, I grew up in South Louisiana and later Texas, and so there are a lot of things that I think are normal that folks up north might think is strange, like when we say we’re fixing to do something.
But there’s one that’s always bothered me because I’ve never really even been sure what word was being used.
All my life I’ve heard people say, I like to die when he said that.
What are they saying?
At first I thought that the southern accent, they were using the word lack, L-A-C-K, like they lacked dying, just fell short of death.
But more recently, I believe they’re saying like as in L-I-K-E.
I’ve even seen it written that way.
So explain to me this expression, I like to die, since it’s past tense and they’re obviously not dead.
And they don’t like the idea.
Right. I don’t think they mean they enjoy dying.
Right.
So where does this come from?
It’s pervasive throughout the American South.
It does appear in pockets outside of the South, but it’s very Southern.
And if you are ever taught to speak like a Southerner by a dialect coach, they’ll probably throw this in there.
It’s a contraction of like to have.
I’d like to have died, or I’d have liked to die.
And it shares something in common with the like that we use to mean similar, or also, or alike, right?
It’s that kind of like.
And it just simply means I nearly did.
It’s what they call counterfactual, which means you’re making an expression of something that didn’t happen rather than an expression of something that did happen.
So this is called counterfactual like-ta.
And the people that I know that study this sort of thing that specialize in Southern American speech, they just spell it L-I-K-E-T-A, one word, because it’s so idiomatic it’s become its own thing.
Like-ta.
Like-ta.
Yeah, and it behaves in its own way, and it fits perfectly in a particular kind of speech.
And it’s really, if you hear somebody use lycta, there’s a really good chance that they’re somewhere from somewhere south of the Mason-Dixon line.
It’s a great, strong marker of southerness.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, I’ve always wondered that.
Thank you so much.
It does, by the way, go back to some British dialect features.
It’s got a long, long history in English, and we do find it in some of the dialects of the British Isles.
I can’t imagine someone with a British accent saying, I like to die.
Well, you know, the British Isles…
I rather prefer.
We got a hodgepodge of their particular dialect features here in the United States.
In some cases, they’re minor events over there, minor features, and then they just exploded over here and became pervasive.
So it’s very interesting to see how a tiny little term that’s a little used in one county in England becomes a big deal over here.
Well, I got a million more of them, so I’ll probably be calling you again.
Okay, Scott.
Thanks for your question.
Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
You know that one from North Carolina and Kentucky, I bet.
Oh, sure.
Her skirt was so short, I like to die.
877-929-9673.
