October 5th, 2011 by Theresa

So we all know that I’m from New Orleans – a great southern city. As you may have guessed sometimes “I talk funny,” as they say up here in Canada. While telling a story to a group of people, I dropped a “Bless her heart” once or twice. This apparently cracked my friends up – and got me thinking. There was a pattern there, not just what I said but how I said it.

With a spark of an idea I turned to social media. I asked my Google streamers, Twitter followers and Facebook compatriots, what their favourite Southern sayings are. Boy was I in for a treat! I got some great responses from “Fixin ‘to,” “Well I’ll be,” “gag a maggot,” and of course the ever present terms “ya’ll” (singular) and “all ya’ll (plural). In the course of discussing these terms with my old New Orleans friends, I realized the pattern was there. Read the rest of this entry »

Know the Code, New Orleans, research, writing