Customer Reviews

The Complete How to Speak Southern

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I admit to being a Yankee . . . but wanting to know more about
what this term meant, I turned to Steve Mitchell's hilarious
HOW TO SPEAK SOUTHERN and came across this
definition:

* Anyone who is not from Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee,
North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, Texas and possibly Oklahoma
and West-by-God Virginia. A Yankee may become an honorary
Southerner, but a Southerner cannot become a Yankee, assuming
any Southerner wanted to.

"Momma, can Yankee go to heaven?"

"Don't ask foolish questions, son Of course not."

That compelled me to read the whole book, which can probably
be finished within an hour . . . however, that's only for the first
reading . . . it is so valuable and so many useful terms in it that
I'm sure I will be revisiting it--often.

For example, there's this other term that I often mangle with
my pronunciation:

* Yawl: A useful Southern work that is consistently misused by
Northerners when they try to mimic a Southern accent, which they
do with appalling regularity. Yawl is always plural because it means
you-all, or all of you. It is never-repeat, never-used in reference to
only one person. At least not by Southerners. "Where yawl goin."

And lastly, I got a kick out of reading more about:

* Thang: A word Yankees consistently mispronounce as "Theeng."
"Have you seen Sue Ann's new boyfriend? Honey, he just the
cutest thang."

Greatly adding to my enjoyment of HOW TO SPEAK
SOUTHERN were the accompanying cartoons by SCRAWLS
(Sam C. Rawls) . . . several of them were funny by themselves;
i.e., without any accompanying text.

The Complete How to Speak Southern is a humorous look at the idiom and speech of those who were born and raised in the South. It should give those born North of the Mason-Dixon line some clear insights into what they are confused about when they visit or move.

A fun and funny book to give to someone either moving to the South US or someone who loves a southerner but doesn't know how to communicate.

Sent this to a friend in Scotland. She loved it and is proud to announce she can now talk southern with a Scottish accent.
Great gift for all yanks !!