A Kentuckian named Sheila moved out of state for several years, but now that she’s returned to work at Western Kentucky University, she finds that many students no longer seem to have a stereotypically “Southern” accent. What’s going on? There is...
The liked to in statements such as It started raining yesterday and liked to never stop is directly related to the word likely. The terms liked to and likedta used in this way reflect a British dialectal term that found its way into the speech of...
An Alabama listener says her grandmother would express astonishment with the phrase They! My goodness! This exclamation, which is common in her grandmother’s native Appalachia, is probably an R-less pronunciation of There! as in Look there! This is...
Sheila in Charlotte, North Carolina, remembers her father used to ask the kids if they needed any geetus, meaning “Do you need any money?” This word for money is spelled several ways, including geedus, geetis, geetas, gheetus, and geets, as in Give...
Diego from Orange County, California, wonders: How did George Washington sound when speaking? We can make guesses about his speech, accent, and dialect based on the historical context. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “How Did...
Here’s a sly Southernism for Sundays: “Each one of his sermons is better than the next.” This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Sly Southern Insult” We’ve talked before, Grant, on the show about how if you’re saying something in a...