A man from Fort Smith, Arkansas, says his Canadian wife is baffled by his pronouncing the word cement as CEE-ment. Stressing the first syllable of such words as police, insurance, umbrella, and vehicle is an occasional feature of Southerners’ speech...
A San Diego, California, man wonders about the meaning and distribution of the directional phrase over yonder. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Over Yonder” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hi, how’s it going? This is Josh. I’m...
Katie, an 11-year-old in Tallahassee, Florida, asks about I swanee, a phrase her grandfather from the mountains of Virginia used when he was frustrated but did not want to swear. The mild oath, also heard as I’ll swanny and shortened to I’ll swan...
What’s the difference between butter beans, lima beans, and wax beans? The answer depends on where you live and what dialect you speak. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Butter Beans” Hello, you have A Way with Words. Hey, this is...
Megan in Monticello, Florida, is bothered by on tomorrow, as in We can do that on tomorrow, because on sounds redundant to her. Rather than being a simple grammatical error, the phrasing is a well-documented dialect feature in parts of the US South...
“Scat cat, your tail’s on fire” is a fun variant of “scat cat, get your tail out of the gravy”—both of which are Southern ways to say “bless you” after someone sneezes. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Southern Scat Cat” Hello, you...
