| ||||||||||
 
Dr. Ronald P. Rogers CHIROPRACTOR Support for your body's natural healing capabilities 270-384-5554 Click here for details 
  
Columbia Gas Dept. GAS LEAK or GAS SMELL Contact Numbers 24 hrs/ 365 days 270-384-2006 or 9-1-1 Call before you dig 
Visit ColumbiaMagazine's Directory of Churches Addresses, times, phone numbers and more for churches in Adair County Find Great Stuff in ColumbiaMagazine's Classified Ads Antiques, Help Wanted, Autos, Real Estate, Legal Notices, More... 
|
Carol Perkins: Right Now in a Minute A discourse on dialect. Required reading for entrance to the Adair County Assimilation Academy. Written from Ebnan, KY (as opposed to Lebnan): Dreckly you can learn to talk a lot like Kentuckians, if you learn some of the main phrases and words below. Carol Perkins pert near covers it all, below. If you don't find the glossary item you need, just inquire summers else, from a local, of course. -CM Next earlier Carol Perkins essay, The Harvest By Carol Perkins Right Now In A Minute "Right now in a minute," I told my granddaughter when she wanted to know when we could fill the plastic pool. "What does that mean, CiCi?" she asked with an impatient sigh and a hand on her hip. Even she, at age four, knew that right now and in a minute were contradictory. I catch myself saying things like this and have no idea from where they came. That's not true. They came from listening to others around me and absorbing the regional talk. Dreckly is another slice of local color "I'll be ready dreckly is another slice of local color. What is dreckly? Is it an adverb for direct? No, it has nothing to do with direct. It means not now, but later; pretty soon. How did pretty become an adverb for soon? Just the same way as where bouts became a synonym for where. "Where bouts does he live?" Of course, the appropriate answer is, "Pretty near," or "A far(fer) piece." There goes that "pretty" again. "How far do you live from town?" a stranger might ask. "Just a little piece from the square." We all know what a little piece is: less than a mile and not too far to walk. However, a far piece means you need a car. In giving directions, we bring out our best phrases. "Go down to the bottom of the hill and take a left toward Greensburg. You'll come to a "Y" in the road, so stay right." The bottom of the hills means the stockyards in Edmonton. Locals know this. Summers: A lost item may be summers else When someone has lost something and asks another person if she has seen it, she might replay, "It's here summers." Summers, of course, means somewhere. How did somewhere get to be summers is the question? The same way that which one became which'n and that became that there and his became his'n and why became what for as in "What did he do that for?" Come on, admit that you have said this too. Pert near is another common phrase. I pert near ran off the road." Might near is a synonym for pert near. Some might dress it up by saying pretty near in that "I pretty near hit her in the head with a stick." Regional talk is interesting but can slip out at the most inappropriate times. We have all been in the middle of what might have been an important moment when we were talking with a group of strangers and some of our local talk overcame us. One of the best moments didn't happen to me, but to my husband. He was in a business meeting with a new group of buyers whom he had met only a few times. In the normal chit chat the subject of places to visit arose. My husband expressed his desire to go to Hi Waw Ya. "As soon as I said it, I could have choked," he said. So many of us grew up saying Hi wa ya, but after listening and observing, we learned better. Sure, they knew that he meant Hawaii, but that is not the point. When a person says, "I O Way" we know he means Iowa, but people who live there don't say "I O Way." It's Ga-Male if you live there. But is it Co-lum-bee? I have never been sure how to say "Gamaliel." Is it Ga Male Ya" or Ga Male?" I hear it both ways, but those who live there are prone to say "Ga Male." Which is correct or is there a correct way? Is it Co-lum-bee or Co lum bee a?" If we all spoke the same, our words would be robotic and have no rhythm. I like to listen to regional words and phrases, but admit that in the wrong places, they can be one's downfall. Job interviews, promotional chances, public speaking, and any place we might be judged by the way we sound or the words we use are bad places to pull out old habits and cliches. The problem is that once outside our circle, we are speaking a language most don't seem to understand. "Right now in a minute" confused a four-year-old, so what would dreckly do to a person from "off?" About the author: Carol (Sullivan) Perkins is a lifelong resident of Edmonton, KY, in Metcalfe County where she taught high school English at Metcalfe County High School until her recent retirement. She is a now a freelance writer. is married to Guy Perkins and they have two children: Carla Green (Mark) of Brentwood, TN and Jon Perkins (Beth) of Austin, TX and six grandchildren. Her latest book, Let's Talk About, is a collection of over 70 of her works, and she is presently working on the second book in this series. Carol's ties to Adair County go back to Breeding where her grandfather, Rufus Reece, and her grandmother Bettie Strange, began their married life and later moved to Metcalfe County. You may contact Carol at cperkins@scrtc.com or write at P.O. Box 134 Edmonton. If you would like a copy of her book, you can order through email. Watch for her next story next Sunday. IF YOU'VE ENJOYED READING CAROL PERKINS' STORIES on ColumbiaMagazine.com, you'll love her book, "Let's Talk About It. . . ." The books are $15 plus $4 for shipping. Send check or cash or money order to Carol Perkins, P.O. Box 134, Edmonton, KY 42129 They can be bought at the Herald Office in Edmonton, KY, or Terri's Fine Jewelry in Glasgow, KY. This story was posted on 2009-10-04 08:27:34
Printable: this page is now automatically formatted for printing.
Have comments or corrections for this story? Use our contact form and let us know. More articles from topic Carol Perkins:
Carol Perkins: The Harvest Carol Perkins: Worry Wart Carol Perkins: What Page? Carol Perkins: Ma and Pa Kettle Carol Perkins: Shall we gather at the river Carol Perkins: Back to school is such grand time Carol Perkins: A teacher speaks out on groupings, testing Carol Perkins: Put that phone away! Carol Perkins: The Shoe Carol Perkins: Potlucks View even more articles in topic Carol Perkins |
 
115 Jamestown St. Columbia, KY. 270-384-2496 
  
   
 Provided by the Adair Co Fiscal Court and the Adair Co. Emergency Mgt. Agency 
|
||||||||
|
| ||||||||||
|
Quick Links to Popular Features
Looking for a story or picture? Try our Photo Archive or our Stories Archive for all the information that's appeared on ColumbiaMagazine.com. | ||||||||||
|
Contact us: Columbia Magazine and columbiamagazine.com are published by Linda Waggener and Pen Waggener, PO Box 906, Columbia, KY 42728. Please use our contact page, or send questions about technical issues with this site to webmaster@columbiamagazine.com. All logos and trademarks used on this site are property of their respective owners. All comments remain the property and responsibility of their posters, all articles and photos remain the property of their creators, and all the rest is copyright 1995-Present by Columbia Magazine. Privacy policy: use of this site requires no sharing of information. Voluntarily shared information may be published and made available to the public on this site and/or stored electronically. Anonymous submissions will be subject to additional verification. Cookies are not required to use our site. However, if you have cookies enabled in your web browser, some of our advertisers may use cookies for interest-based advertising across multiple domains. For more information about third-party advertising, visit the NAI web privacy site.
| ||||||||||
