[AP Money]

I use 'stay', and most white people I know that are 'from' the Deep South (and when I mean from I don't mean parents moved there when you were 4, I mean an actual family history of being Southern) say it.

I don't say 'ax' instead of ask, but everyone I know 'from' the New Orleans/Pasacagola/Mobile area say it and they are white as snow.

[Southlander]

Sorry, AP Money, I never heard those terms used, except by African-Americans and except by people specifically from the New Orleans area (which would include Pascagoula and parts of Mobile). There are colloquialisms, even within the South, and each area has a few.
Example: "roasinear," which HAS to be short for "roasting ear" for a cob of corn. Both my parents were from NW North Carolina, not far from East Tennessee, and they both used that term. But I've rarely heard it away from there.

[MullinsCurve]

Originally Posted by AP Money

I use 'stay', and most white people I know that are 'from' the Deep South (and when I mean from I don't mean parents moved there when you were 4, I mean an actual family history of being Southern) say it.

I don't say 'ax' instead of ask, but everyone I know 'from' the New Orleans/Pasacagola/Mobile area say it and they are white as snow.

I am lilly white and from about as deep in the South (Alabama) as you can get and for about at least 8 generations and I have never used stay in the manner described nor does any white person I know. That is a uniquely black colloquialism, at least in the part of the state of Alabama that uses the Gulf Southern accent. The only time we use "stay" is when were are asking where someone is staying while visiting somewhere else, such as in a hotel. "Where are you going stay while in East Podunk?" "We are staying at the Dirt Clod Inn."

The people you are speaking of from around New Orleans (mostly a bit south from there in the Chalmette area) don't use a traditional "Southern" accent, they speak "Yat", which sounds more like a Brooklyn accent.

[Mangham]

in general I use fixin to ALOT!!! one statement that I hear is "its hotter 'n a ***** in church on sunday. I am from Alabama. I have heard the term damn-yankee and from what I understand of the meaning is that it refers to a person from the north who came down south and didn't return to the north. I think that southern speaking is quite colorful. I speak the way I wanna speak whether it is a combination of surf rock british slang and southern talk... I am a total hybrid. I have heard "I am from LA." I am like bull shxx you goofball wanker you are nothin but a to bit red neck dude." He's like I am from LA "lower Alabama". Anyways tootles

[CountryGal05]

Originally Posted by bamagirl826

One of my personal favorites is "puttin on airs".
Not sure about that spelling, I've never actually written it down before!

Definition: Pretending to be better/richer/smarter than you really are.

Ex.: "Look at Mary over there flirtin with the mayor! You know she's just puttin on airs, bless her heart.

Which brings up another good point - us southern women just LOVE to gossip!

Another fave is "Hair on a biscuit".
Now, this is funny! My mama used to say this all the time. I can't really give a definition here, but I can give an example.

Ex: "She's stuck on that boy like hair on a biscuit!"

Have you ever tried to pull a peice of hair off of a biscuit?! You can't. And that's where the saying comes from! Hope ya'll enjoyed this!

So it is a good thing when someone tells you, you will fit in like a hair on a buscuit?

[roger6087]

That's slicker than snot on the door knob.

It's finer than snuff and not half as dusty.

My wife hates it when my mom says this:
Will you carry me to the store.
Her answer, no I'm not going to carry you, but I will take you in the car.

That smells like a carn pile.

[Bobilee]

My grandmother used to say "Well I swan, Bobby Lee", when I did something bad. She said that a lot. She lived to be 96.

[roger6087]

Originally Posted by Bobilee

My grandmother used to say "Well I swan, Bobby Lee", when I did something bad. She said that a lot. She lived to be 96.

I've heard something similar that my sister still says, "I'll swanny". Also remember reading a phrase like this in one of Patricia Cornwell novels, I think it was Isle of Dogs.

[ulver]

Alabama boy gets pulled over while traveling to Milwaukee, by a Wisconsin State Trooper...

Trooper: "Sir, do you have any ID?

Alabama boy: "'Bout whuuuut Officer>?"

[loydm]

Originally Posted by roger6087

I've heard something similar that my sister still says, "I'll swanny". Also remember reading a phrase like this in one of Patricia Cornwell novels, I think it was Isle of Dogs.

My grandmother used this phrase, too, as did my mother. In a dialects course I took at UAB, we were told that the phrase is a corruption of a euphemism for "I swear" or "I'll swear on it", used (as were "gosh-darn" for G-d, "pshaw" or "shoot" for s-t, and dang it for damn it). "Gee", ain't slang funny?