Educated Hillbilly

by Lennie
(TN. )

It’s just a way of speaking that you don’t think about, but the vowels are emphasized such as v aaaaaaaaaaaan, which is of course van or maaaaaaaaan, etc.
Different southern states have their own accents. When I lived in a little town 100 miles from Memphis–moved to Memphis–the people there made fun of my accent and called me rebel.
Being from the hills, I guess that would qualify me to be an educated hillbilly. My accent does become heavier, depending on the locality. It’s just something you pick up and don’t think about it.
Examples of where I come from in sentences.

They laaaaaa-doesn’t mean anything other than surprise or shock.

It’s colder than a well digger.
In the winter wells used to be dug the old fashioned way with tools of the times.

The house is hanted (haunted). Hant true means It isn’t true.

I’m full as a tick. (ate too much)

He’s a moon fixer. (He’s tall.)

Looks like he’s got a bur up his arse. (He’s got a problem.
Skeered is a word I still use. It means afraid.

He’s so homely that his looks would
a. stop a train
b. stop a clock
c. break a mirror
Homely is widely used and just means plain.

He’s sleepy as a hog.
Just that he’s sleepy. Hogs used to lay up in the pen on a farm and all they did was eat and sleep.

He got a whooping at school.
whipping

over yonder is just what it is. Over there.

He’s so stuck up that he thinks his……don’t stink.
Means what it appears to mean.

Chigger bites is common everywhere.

git get
thar there
them thar hills
Ifn the crick don’t rise I’ll see you. etc.
This here table is miiiiiiine.
(emphasize those vowels)
He’s drunker than a skunk.
He’s three sheets in the wind. (drunk)
Drunk as a bicycle.
hit is often used for it
commence means to begin (grandma used that)
Well, I do declare to my time! Excited about something.
That thar is what it appears to be such pointing out something.
That’s just a few of the accent I grew up with. It still comes and goes. It does not mean a person is stupid to use ain’t or misspell their verbs.
It ain’t far. It isn’t fair.
Ask how a person is feeling–Oh, I’m feeling pretty tolerable. That’s used a lot everywhere I think.

Another one is-She lived so far back in the sticks that they had to pipe sunshine. I’ve heard that a lot.

Skeered is number one such as skeert, skeered etc. means afraid, was afraid.
It’s a good thing to have an accent or the world would be a boring place if everyone spoke with the same word inflections.

Signed: an educated hillbilly from the hills of TN.