How Dixie Are You?Test time. My sister and I are 76% and 77% Dixie; my husband is 67%.
I don't think of myself as having a very strong Southern accent. I have cousins in South Carolina with the sound that Vivien Leigh probably thought she was achieving as Scarlett O'Hara. I have cousins in North Carolina who could pass for Jed Clampett. My own accent is sort of washed-out suburban TV, but my word usage is strictly Dixie. A Yankee colleague once was surprised to hear me say, "I'm not either," which seemed perfectly ordinary to me. He'd have said, "No, I'm not."
Some other Dixiefied locutions I never realized were so regional:
- catty-corner
- conniption fit, also, tizzy fit
- coochie coo
- everybody -- instead of everyone
- gone -- He's gone and poured syrup all over his dinner!
- pester
- pistol -- that little William sure is a pistol!
- ruckus -- last night I heard quite a ruckus in the parking lot
- squall -- as in a baby crying at the top of his lungs gracious or gracious me
- have to -- instead of must
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