Today it's raining all day, which in Texas would be called a turd floater, or a toad choker apparently... so Nicole and I are sitting on the couch again doing absolutely nothing, except trying to figure out what we wanna eat. We've also been googling slang & idioms used in our areas. I found some pretty funny ones from Texas so I thought I'd share them. I'm interested to hear ones from your area too, so if you have some strange words or sayings you use in your area, feel free to post them!
Now I haven't heard of all these, and I don't use some of them, as I'm sure some are from different parts of Texas, which is like half the united states since it's so huge, however I am guilty of the occasional "y'all", "chunk", and "uh huh".
Do wut? this is the standard response if you weren't paying attention or didn't hear what the the person said. In other places you'd probably hear "excuse me" or "pardon me" or even "could you please repeat that?" Sometimes when we're confused it's, "Do wut now?"
Y'all: y'all, which is often heyyy yaaaaaallllllllll, it's our way of referring to at least one other person. In general if you are talking to more than a handful of people the correct southern and Texas address would be "all y'all". This is sometimes a bit confusing to people not from Texas, but just go with it...
Uh huh when you say "thank you" to someone in Texas, often you will hear the response "uh huh". This should be interpreted as "your welcome". It can also be a sign of agreement with the last statement made.
Jaw Jackin just talking to hear yourself or talking smack to someone. Jaw jacking is often combined with getting bowed up.
Bowed up when someone is really angry and is taking on an aggressive body stance, they are said to be all bowed up.
"They're proud of that" being proud of something means that you place an unusually or unreasonably high value on some item that is really not worth near that amount.
Chunk If you are throwing something a short distance we say we are "chunking" it. Don't know why Texans don't say chucking it like the rest of the world.
Coke anything that is called soda or pop anywhere else is called Coke in Texas. For example, Coke can be Pepsi, Sprite, Dr. Pepper or almost anything else that fizzes and comes in a can or bottle.
Fix'in this is the ultimate Texan slang. "Fix'in", which is NOT pronounced "fixing" is a way to indicate that at some yet to be determined time some action is going to be taken. An example of this would be "I'm fix'in to go to the store". It never indicates when, or if you will for certain do something.
tump to spill or knock something over, as in "I jes' tumped over mah beer"
Ma'am/Sir Many cannot understand WHY we add the "Sir" and "Ma'am". Simply put, in Texas, we take pride in being polite and showing respect, particularly towards our parents, those in authority, & the elderly. Country boys, who are gentlemen like to say "yes ma'am" to the ladies as well, its something we take pride in.
I'm from the north and we say Ma'am and Sir all the time :) In chicago we don't say anything different we just pronounce things differently.
ReplyDeleteSausage = Saaaaaasage
South Side = Souside
North Side = Norside
Roof = Ruff (Like a dog :P)
Dog = Daaaaaaaawg
Daughter = Daaaaaghter
Mom = Maaaaa
We like long A's ;)
I'm from Arizona, but since I live up here I've started realizing that people cannot, for the life of them, pronounce bag correctly! They say BEG like "hey, that's a cute BEG" no no no!
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I've noticed is that a lot of people from AZ say "zona" or "UR-I-ZONA" ... don't think there is much else other than the crazy southern drawl some get.
I'm from Arizona, but since I live up here I've started realizing that people cannot, for the life of them, pronounce bag correctly! They say BEG like "hey, that's a cute BEG" no no no!
ReplyDeleteThe only thing I've noticed is that a lot of people from AZ say "zona" or "UR-I-ZONA" ... don't think there is much else other than the crazy southern drawl some get.
is it sad that i know and use more than half the words on that list...im a texan ill admit it!
ReplyDelete