Texas Thangs Hard To Translate (Dallas: yard, distance, location)

[TexasReb]

I was just thinking, y'all.

Are there any Texas terms/words that you have found very hard to translate to an outsider? Generally speaking, when I say "outsider" I mean someone not from the South...since Texas talk is just the western extention of Southern American English.

But anyway, here are the two that come to mind for me:

"Yonder" and "Tacky."

By way of example, when I say "out yonder" to a yankee, I might as well be talking Greek. So far as "tacky" goes, men don't generally use that word. But our mommas and grandmaws and female kin do, so we have known since childhood what it means.

OK...my own definition:

Yonder: The indefinable distance between yourself and the object or location in question. It can range from ten yards to ten miles.

Tacky: Behaving or acting or speaking in a way that goes against your raising.

Y'all?

[Spree]

Fixin'

Everyone's fixin' to do things :-)

[jm21]

Hmm...maybe there's some southern influence in the NW? Or lots of folk listening to country music? We don't use yonder, but I know what it means.

Tacky usually means tasteless or lacking in class/style here though. Thanks for the definition! Hmmm....I guess that's actually kinda similar when you think about it...

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by jm21

Hmm...maybe there's some southern influence in the NW? Or lots of folk listening to country music? We don't use yonder, but I know what it means.

Tacky usually means tasteless or lacking in class/style here though. Thanks for the definition! Hmmm....I guess that's actually kinda similar when you think about it...

To tell you the truth, I kinda like your definition better than the one I did!

In the meantime though, another Texas/Southernism I thought of that is hard to get across is "acting up"

Your momma would say, "quit acting up, or your gonna get a whippin'"

[nativeDallasite]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

To tell you the truth, I kinda like your definition better than the one I did!

In the meantime though, another Texas/Southernism I thought of that is hard to get across is "acting up"

Your momma would say, "quit acting up, or your gonna get a whippin'"

Whippin'? WHUPPIN'!

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by nativeDallasite

Whippin'? WHUPPIN'!

LOL I stand corrected!

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by jm21

Hmm...maybe there's some southern influence in the NW? Or lots of folk listening to country music? We don't use yonder, but I know what it means.

Tacky usually means tasteless or lacking in class/style here though. Thanks for the definition! Hmmm....I guess that's actually kinda similar when you think about it...

That's also what it means to us....as well as the definition that TR gave.

[TexasReb]

Originally Posted by TexasReb

To tell you the truth, I kinda like your definition better than the one I did!

In the meantime though, another Texas/Southernism I thought of that is hard to get across is "acting up"

Your momma would say, "quit acting up, or your gonna get a whippin'"

This is a new one to me. Quoting myself! LOL

Anyway, I feel like it is our Texas obligation, when sharing hard to translate words/slang/terms that we should at LEAST (for our yankee friends and/or new neighbors) provide the translation.

Acting up: Throwing a fit

Hmmm. Or does "throwing a fit" need a translation too?

[Muhnay]

You should try this thread in one of the other states, and see if they understand what your saying.. call it a social experiment.

In other words..

You should venture out yonder to see what dem yanks think.

[jm21]

Originally Posted by Muhnay

You should try this thread in one of the other states, and see if they understand what your saying.. call it a social experiment.

In other words..

You should venture out yonder to see what dem yanks think.

Ya, I'd be interested. We use acting up and throwing a fit up this way too, though maybe not as much as down there.

A couple phrases I saw put into writing were a little hard to understand at first glance, but once I figured out the context I knew what was meant. Like I saw something like "imma shar" and it took me a couple seconds to figure out it was just "i'm a shower" with some accent thrown on. The spelling with the accent added on can be a bit confusing...much more-so than hearing it...especially considering different people might hear or spell it in different ways (no standardization in spelling).

How do y'all think yankee folks talk anyways?

Personally I find some terms from the NE like "schlepping" to be more confusing, probably because they're drawn from other languages.

Or some of the slang from the UK....that'll throw you for a loop...