词汇大师(Wordmaster)--Speaking of Alabama, Part 2

AA: I'm Avi Arditti with Rosanne Skirble, and this week on Wordmaster: more of our discussion of language in the American South.

RS: We're talking with a woman in Alabama named Donna Akins. All she wanted was an answer to a grammar question. But we also gave her an invitation to talk about Southern speech, and the reactions elsewhere to this distinctive¹ "brand" of American English.

DONNA AKINS: "So often I think the Southern language is automatically considered that if you hear that dialect, that it's an uneducated person, and I think that may be part of the reason that so many of our people are getting away from the expressions that are truly Southern. But it's just like any regional dialect; if you listen long enough, you'll figure it out. Or by all means ask us. We're more than happy to tell you what a certain phrase or expression means."

AA: "Interestingly there's a growing popularity now of what they call the redneck humor. Now that's nothing new, but I guess there's now a touring group of stand-up comedians²."

DONNA AKINS: "Yeah! They're true Southerners, and I think they're hilarious³. I love to watch their shows."

RS: And so do a lot of people all around the country. Here is Jeff Foxworthy, one of the four members of the 鈥淏lue Collar Comedy Tour.鈥?

JEFF FOXWORTHY: "People hear me talk, they automatically want to deduct⁴ a hundred I.Q. points. Because apparently⁵ the Southern accent is not the world's most intelligent sounding accent. You know, and to be honest, none of us would want to hear our brain surgeon say, 'Aw right, now what we're going to do is, saw the top of your head off, root around in there with a stick and see if we can't find that dadburn clot⁶.' It'd be like, 'No thanks, I'll just die, O.K.? [laughter]"

DONNA AKINS: "It's just like family. It's O.K. if we say anything about our Aunt Gertrude or our Uncle Sam. We just don't want anybody else doing it."

RS: "Can you give us some more examples or words or phrases that are used now?"

DONNA AKINS: "One that I think is a real neat word that I'm hearing dying out too is 'yonder': 'We're going over yonder' or 'Just take me over yonder.' I had someone tell me that they'd said that a younger person the other day, and they were like 'Where is yonder?'"

AA: "And that means?"

RS: "Over there?"

AA: "Just over there."

DONNA AKINS: "Right over there. You'd probably be saying it as you were pointing."

AA: "Now what about the word 鈥榬eckon鈥? which is still used in British English, but you don't hear it much in the United States anymore."

DONNA AKINS: "Yeah, we still use that in the South. 'I reckon I'll do that.' It may be used when you're just not quite sure that you're going to do it, or you're not quite sure about an answer. 'I reckon that's true,' or 'I reckon I'll go.' So that would mean I haven't quite made up my mind yet.

"There are new terms. Of course, as we watch television and see programs our children are picking up words that are used on MTV and the different programs, just like the rest of the country picks up. And I get a big kick out of my 15-year-old son. He's always coming home saying things that are funny that I don't think are necessarily Southern, but things like, 'I'm not down wi' dat [with that]."

RS: "Like my 15-year-old son is saying."

DONNA AKINS: "Yes, that's right! That's right! I don't think that's Southern at all. I think that that's just ... "

AA: "That's urban slang."

DONNA AKINS: "Exactly. And I hear that a lot in the little town that I live in. We have about a 40 percent minority population, and you hear the cultures melding a lot, African-American and white American. You hear a lot of melding of the cultures of the kids who spend a lot of time together and pick up on each other's phrases and use them interchangeably."

RS: "You know, I note a little sadness in your voice in the fact that the Southern American dialect is really losing ground."

DONNA AKINS: "It is sad to me. But it's amazing, you can travel to just little communities outside the area where I live, and I don't live in a very large area at all, but more rural areas, and you'll hear -- it's just like stepping back in time. You know, we can play, my son's high school basketball team can play a team in one of those smaller areas and it's just like stepping back in time when you hear the other parents there talking, and I think it's really neat.

"I think that a lot of the losing of the language is out of embarrassment⁷, the fear of feeling like or sounding like you're less intelligent."

RS: Helping⁸ us figure out the language down South ... Donna Akins in Sheffield, Alabama.

AA: And that's Wordmaster for this week. You can find the first part of our interview with Donna Akins on our Web site, voanews.com/wordmaster. And our e-mail address is。。。。。。。。。。With Rosanne Skirble, I'm Avi Arditti.

MUSIC: "Stars Fell on Alabama"/Jack Teagarden

 

1 distinctive   

adj.特别的，有特色的，与众不同的

参考例句：

• She has a very distinctive way of walking.她走路的样子与别人很不相同。
• This bird has several distinctive features.这个鸟具有几种突出的特征。

2 comedians   

n.喜剧演员，丑角( comedian的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The voice was rich, lordly, Harvardish, like all the boring radio comedians'imitations. 声音浑厚、威严，俨然是哈佛出身的气派，就跟无线电里所有的滑稽演员叫人已经听腻的模仿完全一样。 来自辞典例句
• He distracted them by joking and imitating movie and radio comedians. 他用开玩笑的方法或者模仿电影及广播中的滑稽演员来对付他们。 来自辞典例句

3 hilarious   

adj.充满笑声的，欢闹的；[反]depressed

参考例句：

• The party got quite hilarious after they brought more wine.在他们又拿来更多的酒之后，派对变得更加热闹起来。
• We stop laughing because the show was so hilarious.我们笑个不停，因为那个节目太搞笑了。

4 deduct   

vt.扣除，减去

参考例句：

• You can deduct the twenty - five cents out of my allowance.你可在我的零用钱里扣去二角五分钱。
• On condition of your signing this contract,I will deduct a percentage.如果你在这份合同上签字，我就会给你减免一个百分比。

5 apparently   

adv.显然地；表面上，似乎

参考例句：

• An apparently blind alley leads suddenly into an open space.山穷水尽，豁然开朗。
• He was apparently much surprised at the news.他对那个消息显然感到十分惊异。

6 clot   

n.凝块；v.使凝成块

参考例句：

• Platelets are one of the components required to make blood clot.血小板是血液凝固的必须成分之一。
• The patient's blood refused to clot.病人的血液无法凝结。

7 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。

8 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。