Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #695250 in Books
• Published on: 1994-09
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 192 pages

Customer Reviews

Ah...the memories!
I'm a native of South Carolina who lives in North Carolina presently, and I've traveled all over the southeastern United States studying the history and culture. For years as I was growing up I tried hard to lose my southern accent. These days I am just so pleased and proud of my southern accent and heritage. This book brought back so many words and phrases I had long forgotten that I heard so frequently when I was growing up. The author presents "southern talk" with a sense of humor, but does not mock or put down those who speak it. In fact, the reader can tell that he has much respect for the folks whose speech patterns and colorful vocabularies inspired him to write this book. He's right--- Because of television, etc., we are all sounding more and more alike. It's sad to think that someday we could no longer have areas with distinct ways of speaking. The U.S. will be much more bland if we lose the phrases and accents that add spice to our lives. It's sad that the younger people on Ocracoke Island have lost their brogue. We should treasure Louisiana Cajun French/English, the Gullah of the Georgia and South Carolina sea islands, the Texas drawl, the Appalachian Mountain twang and all of the different ways people speak. It's beautiful!!!! I am grateful to Ray Cunningham for his efforts to preserve the colorful speech of the South.

Not What I Expected
I found this book to be less than I expected. It's important to note the subtitle of the book--"A Disappearing Language". This is because the language represented here is not what Southerners currently speak, but what they might have sounded like in the 30's or 40's. You'll find a lot of old-fashioned terms that nobody has used for decades.

In addition, I was expecting a book about Southern dialect, but this is a brief dictionary-like volume. There is actually not much written about Southern dialect. It is only a list of words or phrases with a brief definition and an example sentence. To make matters worse, half of the entries are just pronunciation variants, so you don't learn much about Southern dialect by reading them.

If you're looking for a Southern dialect dictionary, there are better ones on the market. If you're looking for information about the formation and characteristics of Southern dialect, you'll find nothing in this volume. I recommend to avoid it.

GREAT BOOK!!
This book is so neat. If you grew up in the south around the 40's and 50's everyone talked this way and I love to just sit down with anyone still using this language but when us older ones are gone I am afraid it will disappear. I bought my aunt a copy and she loves it. Those were the happy days when things were simple and there was a lot of love in the home. GREAT BOOK! for sure. Thanks Mr. Ray Cunningham.