Your Natural Use of Traditional Texas "Idiom/Slang" (Dallas: bus, move)

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by texashorselady

in most urban areas (actually, every urban area that i've been in in the last 63 years), i'm asked if i want a coke (in a restaurant or a private home), and i say yes, and they ask "what kind", and then i usually say dr pepper.

So i beg to differ with your statement above.

Well, YMMV. I'm sure most people who reside in large cities would be more inclined to agree with me, though.

Us city folks is too sofistuhkated to use misnomers like "coke" for all soft drinks.

[Lee W.]

You know, I remember the "coke" thing, but I don't use it myself. I'm not at all familiar the phrase "cotton-pickin hands", except maybe in something like "Get your cotton-pickin hands off my purse." Never used rolling R's in my life, but double-modals, yeah...just didn't know there was a fancy term for it. Yonder and y'all, sometimes I use those. I'm a native-born Texan.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

Well, YMMV. I'm sure most people who reside in large cities would be more inclined to agree with me, though.

Us city folks is too sofistuhkated to use misnomers like "coke" for all soft drinks.

That hasn't been my experience; I was born and raised in Dallas. Not in the suburbs, either. Dallas Dallas. So....

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

That hasn't been my experience; I was born and raised in Dallas. Not in the suburbs, either. Dallas Dallas. So....

Okay. Like I told the other gal, YMMV.

[BigDGeek]

Originally Posted by Nairobi

Okay. Like I told the other gal, YMMV.

I think you're in the minority here.

[rwr]

How 'bout usin' coulda, woulda, and shoulda? I am guilty as charged. But" wait just a cotton-pickin' minute", I probably use them all except coke... I have never even done maryjuwana.

[TexasReb]

Kinda interesting on how a sub-topic evolved from the general one, and focuses on "coke vs. soda". But anyway, I think LS and THL and others explained it very well.

That is to say, sure, one is very likely to give the specific name of the product if asked what they want to drink in a restaurant or fast-food joint (which only serves soft-drinks).

At the same time, unlike in some other parts of the country, I don't think any native Texan working in the same would have a problem understanding what is meant if a customer asks "What kind of cokes do you have?" (or something akin). Likewise, if one is entertaining in their home and serving guests, if the host asks "does anybody want a coke?"...then I think it can be fairly assumed what is meant.

As was mentioned earlier, the posted map seems on the money.

With that said though, I do agree that there possibly could be an "older white" component to all this. For instance, my classroom aide for many years was a black man and he and I would discuss this sometime. In almost all other areas of idiom, we shared a lot of the same Texas/Southern lingo...but he called them sodas and I called them cokes. I notice that my students -- thru the years -- tend to follow the same general pattern on that...

Also, yeah, the influx of northern and west-coast transplants has had an impact, especially in the larger cities. And the mass-media society we live in has undoubtably diluted the use of "coke" among certain segments of the younger native Texas population.

[Nairobi]

Originally Posted by BigDGeek

I think you're in the minority here.

Think whatever you'd like.

[TexasReb]

Another "Texanism", that I should have included as a major choice is "Blue Norther". It is almost exclusively confined to Texas. How many of y'all remember/use that one?

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by RonnieinDallas

Another "other" I hear are e's & i's pronounced the exact same. I know I do it too. Examples like: pen and pin are pronounced the same By a lot of Texans just like ten and tin. I also get corrected when I say "invelope" instead of correctly saying envelope (AHN-vuh-lope). I have to remind myself all the time the en in envelope is the same as the en in entrepreneur.

This is another good one, RonD. That is, the "merger". Pin and pen, ten and tin, and (if it fits into the frame-work), a tendency of Texans/Southerners to pronounce such words as "merry, Mary and marry" pretty much alike (lord, did I just use another double-modal? LOL).

On the proverbial related tangent (as usually happens), I look back over my wording, and realize I made mistakes in wording/clarity.

For instance, as you (and LS) note, the emphasis on the first syllable, is NOT to make two-syllables...but really, three, in some cases. And, further, not really creating a seperate syllable, but just putting a major inflection on the first. As LS said, something like trash "COM pac -tor" And, of course, "IN -vuh - lope"

An "enVEL-up" is something one does with their arms with their significant other on a cold night!

And geez, dont get me started on "advertizement". It is "AD -ver-Tiz-munt" (strong emphasis on first syllable, and slight on the third).

The yankee "ad-VER-tizmunt" makes me wonder how the hell we ever lost the War.