The article, Notes on Indiana Speech by V.E. Gibbons, analyzes various sayings that are used in the state of Indiana. The first saying that he analyzed was the term "any more." To be honest I did not know that this was an Indiana saying. I have used this saying before. An example of its use would be, "They just don't make them like they used to any more." The next sayings that he analyzed for the most part unknown to me. I have never heard anyone use the terms lizard, goose-drownder, or hay-doodle. The author apparently hasn't heard these phrases used either, which makes me question why he included them in the article.
It's interesting to find out that sayings that you considered to be a part of everyday speech are actually a regional dialect. I never really considered any more to be isolated to Indiana. Some other sayings that I recognized and didn't realize were native to Indiana were "whole kit n' caboodle" and "ugly as sin."
Discussion Questions:
What are some factors that make regional sayings and dialects remain in one place and not spread to the rest of the country?
How would you use "couldn't hit a bull in the ass with a banjo" in a sentence?!?
Are there any other Indiana sayings that you can think of that are not mentioned in the article?
Something that I found interesting about these articles is the absence of any noting of Hoosier pronunciation on select words such as "wash." Whenever I travel and people want to make fun of my being a Hoosier, they will say things like "I need to warsh my clothes."
ReplyDeleteAlso, referring to your question on how to fit "hit a bull in the ass with a banjo"... We always said "couldn't hit the broad side of a barn," which I'm guessing have the same meaning. We used the term in sports mostly, referring to a bad hitter in baseball, or the like.