Texanisms

Hi, you have A Way with Words.

Hey, this is Amanda from Fort Worth, Texas.

Hi, Amanda.

Well, hello, Amanda.

How you doing?

I’m fine.

How are y’all doing?

Super duper.

Great.

Good.

I’m calling in a phrase that I grew up with. I don’t know that it’s necessarily Texan, but the phrase is raise the window down.

So this is like you’re in an automobile and it’s hot in the car and the air conditioning is not working and you raise the window down.

Right.

And that means to open it.

That is great.

I love it.

Very familiar, though.

Very familiar.

I think I’ve heard this one before.

Really?

Now, are you from Texas originally?

Yes.

That’s where your people are from?

Yes.

I’m from a small town in central Texas.

Okay.

Okay.

Another one that we use is help your plate.

Nice.

And I learned that from my in-laws when I married my husband years ago, and they would say, darling, are you going to help your plate?

And it means to put the food on your plate, as in, I guess, helping yourself to a serving or…

Or helping.

Mm—

So you help your plate.

Now, you know, Amanda, that one is new to me. I don’t think I’ve heard that one before, but you’re explaining it. It makes sense.

And his people, where are they from?

East Texas.

Okay.

But now let’s go back to raise the window down. How does that one work?

Let me ask you a question here, Amanda. Did you ever hear anyone talk about a window that opened sideways? Did they ever say raise that window down? Or is it only a window that goes up and down?

Just a window that goes up and down.

Yeah, because some buildings, some homes and offices will have windows that open sideways, right? So what do you do in that case?

It comes from the Italian side of my family, and I wonder if, because my father always grew up hearing it, if when they learned English, something didn’t get confused. So I don’t know that that saying is necessarily Texan.

Well, no, it’s Southern. You’ll actually find it pop up here and there throughout the South.

Really?

Yeah.

I don’t think it has a thing to do with Italian heritage at all.

Wow.

Good to know.

Yeah.

So did you surprise people if you were ever away from Texas and used those expressions?

Oh, all the time. You know, a lot of this language is familiar to me. I had an aunt who, God bless her, she passed away this last year, but she lived down in Dallas area 20, maybe 30 years. And I swear, every time I saw her, she had something new to say that I’d never heard before.

But she used to take smug delight in just speaking as thick as she could.

And do you ever do that? Do you ever just decide to pour it on just a little extra just to bamboozle them?

It’s funny because I don’t hear my own accent.

Right.

But others, you know, some of us, I guess, our accents are stronger than others. But no, I mean, we say things, I think, and don’t even realize that someone else wouldn’t understand, like fixing or y’all. I mean, we always say y’all.

And that’s perfectly natural. That’s the way most of us behave in our lives. We feel like we speak regular American English, and there’s nothing wrong with what comes out of our mouths, right?

Right.

And I’m telling you, there’s nothing wrong with what you’re saying. It’s perfectly fine.

I had a friend the other day, and he’s an older gentleman. He’s about to turn 90. And we were talking about different phrases and how saying something can mean two different things. And he said, for instance, Amanda, one could say to somebody, when I look in your eyes, time stands still. Or I could say, your face could stop a clock.

It was hilarious. It was really funny.

Oh, I’m stealing that. I’m going to steal it before everyone’s heard it.

I don’t think you can deliver it in the same way, though.

No, no, I can’t at all.

Not authentically, but that’s a good one.

Amanda, thank you for sharing so much of your language with us. This is interesting stuff.

You’re welcome.

Y’all are awesome. I really enjoy your show, and thank you very much for having me.

All right.

Oh, it was our pleasure. You take care of yourself.

Okay.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Bye-bye.

Well, we’d love to hear your stories about something you heard that was funny or something somebody told you that you didn’t understand or vice versa and mishmash and this and that.

And whatnot.

And whatnot.

Don’t forget whatnot.

And heretofore and whereas and henceforth.

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