This afternoon, for the first time since I was a young child, about four years old, I ventured across the next county and into Arkansas. I rescind all implications I may have made (in this thread: http://chiffboard.mati.ca/viewtopic.php?t=20639&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0 ), that Arkansas may have cheated on the Harvard Dialect Survey, as I found no discernible difference in speech patterns among the people there. The biggest differences I saw were in the vices either state used to lure the folks from the other state in, Oklahoma with its tribal bingo halls, and Arkansas with its legalized tattoo parlors.
BrassBlower, Peeplj, Arkansawyers in general, you have my heartfelt and sincere apologies on this matter.
Keep in mind that such surveys often have a problem with sample size. If they are comparing people from Fort Smith and Arkoma, it will probably be identical. If they are comparing people from Oklahoma City and Little Rock, probably not. Guymon and West Memphis, very likely not.
That being said, I was in Colorado one time and met some people from Tulsa. They said they could tell I was from somewhere in their area.
Apology accepted, and if I had a tattoo, it would be the same kind as that guy on the Burger King commercial!
Right to what BrassBlower said . . . accents are going to bea little more regionalized than state-line-ish.
There’s a big north-south distinction in Arkansas between the northern speech (called Highland Southern generally in linguistic terms) and southern (cotton country) speech, which is closer to Coastal Southern.
Half my family says “you’uns” instead of “y’all,” and that “y’ins” speech is very Appalachia/hillbilly, versus the more southern “y’all.”
The y’ins-ers also eat oatmeal, whereas the y’allers eat grits.
My mother and her dad’s side of the family are from Western Oklahoma, near Texas Panhandle, and they always said y’all. My mother’s mother’s side, were from Eufaula, Oklahoma, and they said “you’uns.”
The study had maps, with results for each question grouped according to precise regions, rather than just state to state. My remarks on the previous thread, though, pertained to the state averages, which were very much affected by what regions of each state happened to have more responses.
Also, the study, no doubt, had more respondents from the larger metropolitan areas, which are far less comprised of locals than other areas. That is to say, a more migrant population in the cities means regionalisms will probably be diminished somewhat..
Yes, and the fact that city-dwellers are more likely to have speak the regionally-acceptable idea of educated speech. No big city uses “y’ins” as a socailly-acceptable second-person-plural, whereas the South has traditionally used y’all for that pronoun. More educated people tend to say “your” for the plural possessive, less educated (or informal situations) might get a “y’all’s.”
I’ve read that Harvard thing, but I can’t remember the Arkansas-relevant maps. I’ll have to look at the stuff again.
Stuart, which is pronounced “Stert” in Hillbilly and “Styu-art” in Coastal Southern
Now that we’re a bit further North (story on that in a minute), maybe the chances have increased that we could meet face to face some day.
I know normally there is no part of Arkansas you’d consider North. Hell, half the bumper stickers in the state are variations of “Southern by the Grace of God”.
A good friend of mine–from Texarkana–was telling about how, after a hurricane, he had gone into south Lousiana where he had family to help clean things up, repair the houses, etc. One of the local residents was standing outside his house talking to his neighbor, and was overheard to say “The fella’s help be gratefully taken, even if it did come from a damn Yankee.”
At the beginning of the Civil War many people in northern Ark, esp northwest Ark “sided” with the north. Some of the first regiments mustered out of Ark were from northern Ark and were actually Federal, not Confederate. This is still reflected in how NW Ark votes today, that is, mostly Replublican. It is not uncommon to encounter someone from the Delta (eastern Ark), which is culturally very much deep south, who considers the southern credentials of someone from NW Ark to be suspect.
That is interesting, but the voting part isn’t relevant anymore. Since the parties flipped, the South has voted Republican. If those feelings had continued, NW Ark would vote Democrat.
The whole party thing IS quite interesting, though. For the first, oh, what, 70+ years of the 20th century, you’re right: Republicanism represented the central-government camp, whereas the Democrats were for States’ rights. The New South tended to vote Democrat. Now, things are backwards, and the donkeys are liberal and the elephants conservatives. Sweeping generalizations.
It would also seem that now, cities tend to be Democratic, whereas more rural areas tend to be Republican. We could talk about that stuff for days and days.
And regarding the Union vs. CSA stuff . . . I’ve noticed that on my own family graves (both sides have been in Arkansas since before it became a state). Some have Union markers, some have Confederate markers. All say “Arkansas Cavalry,” but different divisions.
