SAE also modifies the English auxiliary system by allowing for the use of more than one modal in a verb phrase. For instance, for most Southerners “I might could leave work early today” is a grammatically acceptable sentence. It translates roughly as “I might be able to leave work early,” but might could conveys a greater sense of tentativeness than might be able does. The use of multiple modals provides Southerners with a politeness strategy not available in other regional dialects. Although no generally agreed upon list of acceptable multiple modals exists, the first modal in the sequence must be might or may, while the second is usually could, can, would, will,should, or oughta. In addition, SAE allows at least one triple modal option (might shouldoughta) and permits useta to precede a modal as well (e.g., “I useta could do that”).
Read more here, and thanks to the ever-excellent www.geekpress.com for the pointer. The comments are open for other good examples.
An example of how double modals are a politeness strategy is in the difference between should and might should. There are situations where “You should do that,” is rude, because it’s too definite, like an order, but “You might should do that,” is acceptable as a suggestions. Tentativeness essentially always adds politeness. (A similar structure is seen in Japanese.)
Another feature of Southern English is preserving the “y”-sound before “u” in more words, similar to British pronunciation. The biggest difference is in “tu” and “du,” hence “tyune” and “Tyuesday” instead of “toon” and “Toosday.” (The name Looney Tunes always confused me as a child, because I didn’t think that they really rhymed.)
Several other differences are in politeness. “Sir” and “ma’am” persist much more. Also, you’re much more likely to hear “Dr.” used for those with a Ph.D., whether in academia or in public. A very difficult thing for me, coming to Cornell for graduate school, was dealing with all the professors who would like to be called by their first name. It offends me. I know that many of them want to do it in order to treat graduate students as colleagues, but I still can’t help being offended. We simply don’t have equal relationships; not only are they further ahead in their studies, compensation, and various status symbols and benefits, but as a graduate student I’m am completely dependent on them and their approval in a variety of ways. Disguising such an unequal relationship by calling them by their first names seems useless, ignoring of reality, and doesn’t make me feel any more equal.
A favored Southern/Texan coinage of mine is “all y’all”, which encompasses a larger group than the smaller “y’all.” But I wish we used words coined in the Simpsons, like cromulent and embiggens.
Scipio, you beat me to the all y’all. It’s pretty rare for a Southerner to use “you” to address more than one person. Y’all is used for general, plural “you,” but the point of all y’all is that no one (present, at least) is being left out.
John, at least in biological fields, I would say it’s almost universal for grad students to be on a first name basis with professors, even in the South. This was true at Vanderbilt, my (undergrad) alma mater.
Another pronunciation difference is that most Southerners still pronounce “cot” and “caught” differently, and distinguish in general between the two vowels, though in some of the larger cities this is going away.
Also in some dialects there’s additional use of the reflexive “me,” as in “I’m going to get me a sandwich” or “I’m going to paint me a picture.”
“y’all” is one of the very few things I kept from being a small child. I also sound Texan when I’m angry and/or yelling at the damn dogs (which in that circumstance is often pronounced in the neighborhood of “doe-gs”) to shut up. I also still pronounce “caught” and “cot” differently; the former being “c-AW-t” and the latter being “c-AH-t”. I mean, really, they’re different damn words, why should they be pronounced the same way?
The only other major thing is that I speak slowly and tend to draw out my words a little bit. Drove the upper-midwesterners I dated nuts, but those folks talk so damn fast you’ll never understand a word coming out of their fool mouths.
And, John, while I agree that “used to could” is understandable once one figures out what it’s supposed to indicate, it still sounds just plain…wrong to those of us who didn’t grow up hearing it. I tend to say “I once was able” or “Formerly, I could” or other things of a similar nature instead of “used to be able to”, but that may just be because I’m pretentious.
I wasn’t aware that some dialects of SAE had “might” as a politeness modifier.
There are some other linguistic quirks in southern dialects of English. Oddly enough, most of those quirks are older than the “proper” rules of English speaking. “Ain’t” is no longer considered acceptable, but it was perfectly acceptable in English 300 years ago. Ditto for a phrase like “I can’t get no satisfaction” instead of “I can’t get any satisfaction”.
After all, the “no” and the “any” are just particles. The contraction did all the negating work.
- Josh
I work with a guy from Alabama who uses the word “onliest”, as in “the onliest thing is, …”. It allows for the sorting of contingencies, so that the most important of which is the “onliest”.
I keep hearing people on television saying “samidge” for sandwitch and “furtography” for photography. Where does that come from?
My grandmother is from West Virginia and she and my other appalachian relatives pronounce words ending with “ia” as ending with “ee”. As in,”Putin is the president of Rushee.” Also interesting is that “tire” and “tar” sound the same.
The best thing about southern speech is that Southerners listen until you are finished speaking instead of interrupting.
John Thacker,
Will you be more specific about where people pronounce caught and cot the same?
I live in Michigan and have been many places this side of the Mississippi and have never heard that.
Is the vowel pronounced the way Northern-Floridians pronounce the word “on” as “awn”?
Whoops, that should be “of someone using double or triple modals…”
In response to:
“”"For instance, for most Southerners “I might could leave work early today† is a grammatically acceptable sentence.”
The original author is confusing what is grammatically acceptable with common usage. Most southerners would make assumptions about the education and experience about someone using double or triple modals, which they wouldn’t make about someone using more universal SAE markers like “y’all.”"”
I’m not trying to be argumentative here… but I feel it necessarily to mention that the problem here probably lies in saying “most southerners” b/c as you pick apart singled out characteristics (of the many there are) of southern speech, it will probably be found that there is a lot of variation. My main point is that I’m from Alabama, and I have always used double modals, and I’m pretty educated (I mean, my natural speech reflects the fact that I’m from rural Alabama, where more prescriptive speech affects the colloquial speech much less than in say the cities… but as a Ph.D. student in linguistics, I feel I can consider myself fairly educated, relatively speaking)… and even still, I did not know that the rest of the country didn’t use double modals until about 2 years ago when a linguist from California heard me say “I might would say… blah blah” and he stopped me because he was so excited, because he said he had read that southerners do that, but he’d never really heard it. And of course, I was like “what are you talkin’ about? What in the hell is wrong with might would? How would you say it?” I’m sure someone would respond to what I’m saying with “well we can’t help it you’re uneducated and don’t know how to speak English” but… my point is, claiming that most southerns would recognize double modals as uneducated speech while accepting “yall” may be pushing it… b/c I know I don’t fit into that… I accept both.
And, Renee made a comment about the original author confusing grammatical acceptability with common usage… but as a linguist, I feel the need to make aware to those that think otherwise, that the original author does not use “grammatically acceptable sentence” to refer to prescriptive grammar… grammar that grammarians of power have decided over the years should be correct or incorrect… but rather to the fact that within the mentioned speech community, that sentence passes as accepted. Not many people from my area (Alabama gulf coast) will probably give a confused look and make a big deal or ask for clarification if someone says “You might can get one in Walmart if you go look”… whereas in other regions, they probably would. So, from a linguistic perspective, it’s grammatically accepted in that speech community. That is regardless of correct or incorrect grammar from the perspective of a prescriptivist.
Another example would be the fact that in Western Pennsylvania (I’m a PHD student at Penn State) the following sentence is perfectly acceptable amongst the community “my hair needs cut” or “my car needs washed”. Or someone recently asked “Is it snowing up there yet?” and “yet” here means “still”… as in “I know it was snowing last week, but is it snowing yet?” In this part of the country, that’s perfectly fine for these people.. it fits the mental grammars these speakers of English have… whereas for me, and my dialect… we would either have no clue what that sentence means, or we’d misinterpret it. And if you don’t know what a sentence said in your native language means, you can assume it’s not grammatically acceptable… whereas if it sounds normal, with respect to whether you hear it, have you heard it, do you understand it immediately b/c you hear it frequently and maybe even say it, then in that case, it’s grammatical within your community, whether it is in another community or not, and no matter if it matches prescriptive rules that English speakers are supposedly supposed to (to be taken non-literally) aspire to adhere to.
Have any other Southerners out there been chastised for saying, for example, “cut the light on” (rather than “turn”) or “the washing machine is tore up” (“tore up” being the operative words here, as if that needed clarification). I also say “wudder” for water rather than “wah-ter” and have gotten so much grief from all these things from fellow Southerners, no less. I realize I have a rather Southern accent but am confident in my own intelligence and have never felt the need to change my dialect to appease people. It’s frustrating though to see that so much urbanization has made my peers feel ashamed to speak the way their parents or grandparents do and the way in which they were brought up to speak. It saddens me really, and I find it hard sometimes to even stay true to my own Alabamian dialect when others constantly mock me.
I reckon (that word usage was not intentional) I would sound like a complete idiot if I ever ventured out of the South. As I read through the pervious comments, it didn’t even occur to me that a lot of what I said was distinctively Southern, such as the double modals. I’m well aware of correct grammar and actually am somewhat of a grammar nerd (especially when writing), but there’s a difference between using just blatantly bad English and grammar due to ignorance and speaking in a manner which parallels one’s culture by using certain colloquialisms.
All that to say that I’m not embarrassed of my accent and refuse to change it, even when my boss suggests that I should, not might should, mind you (which has happened…of course, I was working at an international conference calling place…but don’t have one in Alabama if you don’t like the way we talk, dad gum it!).
Well, thanks for the enlightenment, Frans, and the insinuation that I’m stupid†¦I’m well aware of the difference between poor grammar and a Southern accent. I don’t think “tore up† is poor grammar but rather an expression. I was under the impression that we were having an open-minded discussion.
Hmm, for a Southerner, one would have thought that you would practice better manners for which we are known…but I guess all Southerners are not polite after all. From your attitude, I can tell that you probably come from old money made off the slave labor of others who look down their noses at we lower, working class Southerners, huh? I’m sure you also have a Jesus and “W” sticker on your car too.
Every one of y’all (I use this intentionally, it’s a very useful word) are generalizing Southerners far too much. I am from Mississippi and have a completely different accent from my friends in Alabama and Louisiana. I am not uneducated. I am a foreign language major (part of the reason I like y’all so much). Many of the southern pronunciations are much older than the northern, and not actually improper grammar or pronunciation at all.
For example, “Yeah” is considerably older than “yes”.
The pronunciation of “ask” as “ax” is older than the northern pronunciation also.
Also, not all Southern is “slaughter of the English language.” I haven’t heard any educated person under the age of 60 say “I was wunderin if you was hirin?” ESPECIALLY not at a job interview. And I have only heard “tore up” referring to paper. “I tore up the rough drafts.” That is not improper grammar.
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