Hush Yo' Mouth

Perks of dating a Northern Gentleman (sometimes known as a “Yankee”, but he’s better than that): he holds the door for me, doesn’t flinch when asked to hold my purse for a minute, and he is in love with Jesus, sweet tea, home-cooking, and Southern Summers.

Non-Perks: He makes fun of me for complaining about the cold in the winter (Like, 5 degrees Fahrenheit one night, y’all), and he doesn’t understand me half the time I’m speaking.

I’ve discovered that, though my Southern Accent isn’t very strong thanks to living in a large metropolitan area, I am easily able to toss in most Southern phrases without thinking about it. I didn’t even realize that half of my vocabulary was made up of these phrases until I started dating The Gentleman.

For example, I was describing an evening in which, while playing a game at a friend’s farm, I ran, “full tilt” into some tractor equipment. The Gentleman, bless his heart, looked at me with concern written on his face and asked me to repeat the statement. “You know, ‘full tilt’ as in, ‘full speed’.” “But then why didn’t you just say, ‘full speed’?” “Because that’s not what I meant. I meant, ‘full tilt’!” “But you could have just said, ‘full speed’…….” And on and on we went.

I’m curious though – has anyone else had the problem of communication mishaps with people not from this neck of the woods? And what’s the strangest Southernism you’ve heard?