Southernisms

Here in the south there are some things that are obvious right off the start; the phrase 'bless your heart', the prevalence of sweet tea, the accent...  Over time though I've come across certain phrases that just mean something different here, and because they have a meaning other places, it took me awhile to realize these dialect differences.

 - 'ill'.  Used in a sentence such as 'I'm just ill about this', or 'I got ill about it'.  This means very emotionally upset, with possibly some accompanying bad behavior.

- 'sick', "I got sick".  This usually, but not always, mean nauseated, with possible vomiting.

- 'the house' as in, 'I'm going to the house', means the speaker's house, the same as 'my house' in other parts of the country.

- 'choking' or 'strangling' is not the life-threatening occurrence in the south it is elsewhere, it just means that something went down the wrong pipe and you coughed on it, or, alternately, that sensation where food gets caught in your throat.

- they don't use the word 'puke'.  Its usually vomiting, or, for the less educated, 'vomiking'.

- things are not 'in' your stomach; you need food 'on' your stomach, or you're sick 'on' your stomach.

These are, of course, healthcare related southernisms; I'm sure there are others that I haven't found out yet, and likely never will, given my limited time remaining in the south.

I have come to the realization that the south is similar to Utah in that they kind of feel like you should be happy to have the opportunity to live there, and therefor don't need to be offered the usual incentives such as decent wages, etc.  The south sees itself as a desirable location, a destination almost.  There are definitely some disadvantages of living in that type of place, like jobs not offering signing bonuses when its pretty much industry standard to have a signing bonus, non-competitive salaries, and similar issues.  Again, the healthcare related view, but that's all I've got.

Overall, we'll look on it as an interesting experiment, with a lot of things to like, but not too sad to move on.