hey bill,
In the middle of South Carolina, and in Charleston, the accepted southern pronunciation of Pecan Pie is *pee' can pie.* I've never heard it pronounced any differently down here except by a yankee (as myself.)
Our KH is in a moderate size city - and *ain't* is acceptable. May not be correct - but that's the way it is, along with the acceptance (but we were working on it) of double negatives and phrases such as "it don't."
Oh, I learned the hard way to not snicker when a southerner breaks into *real* slang as opposed to proper southern diction. - waiting
As for snickering - I would only snicker at my husband - and he's strong enough to tell me what he thinks - and he did all the time. I lost many of my yankee ways *right fast* because of him - I had to in order to survive. He liked me and my yankee independent ways - but made me lose my other yankee ways. I've been selling to southern car salemen for 20 years, and have never had any problems - so snickering must not be a big thing with me, eh?
As another yankee friend told me "It's an economic necessity to learn to say "y'all" properly." We were in the same line of business - and we did learn.
If I've given the impression I'm down on Southerners - it was not my intent. I sold to car salesmen in Indiana also. The men I sold to were wont to put their hands on me, *adjust* themselves in front of me, cuss me out in front of other persons, tell me the crudest jokes to see how I would react, yell across the dealership at me that I should get myself laid in front of strangers, ask me out - and if I didn't accept, payback might be forthcoming. Not all of them were like this, but a significant amount to make working with them very hard sometimes. Btw, I was single & 28, 3 kids and good looking by about anyone's standards.
I remarried at 29 & moved south and continued in same line of business (my husband is in same line of business.) In 20 years, none of the above has happened to me (and except for the average aging, still look about the same), and imho, partly because my husband is stern looking and is likely to show up where I work/sell, and partly because the southern men I work with just don't treat women that way.
Indianapolis, IN. may not be the mecca of higher intelligence, but the school systems are average. When I moved to SC, my children were at the exact same levels. My sister, who moved to southern california approximately the same time, found her new city to be behind Indiana in same school grades, approx. 6 mos. or more.
However, I still don't like fried okra or spinich. Got used to a mess of greens - touch of sugar helps. Love Ice Tea - as most southerners do, but only sugared before serving, as most southerners do.
waiting
