h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

As Baron Grim pointed out about Icy North's quiz, some people around here speak, er, English. As in, that language they speak in England. Some of us, however, do not. We speak Southern U.S., which is a different language that is only occasionally spelled the same. it pretends to be English, but basically, it is not.

Here's a quiz for you. Define these terms as they are used in the Southern U.S. and its sister area, the Lone Star State of Texas.

1. poke (noun)
2. tea (noun)
3. country ham (noun)
4. pounding the preacher (an act, and wash your minds out)
5. fleshy (adjective)
6. high cotton (state of being)
7. hissy fit (heck, hard to parse. Just use it in a sentence.)
8. ornery (adjective)
9. used to could (verb construction)
10. pick ups (noun, at least in North Carolina)

Now, if you can explain all of these, you're either a bona fide Southerner, or a dialectical genius.

Go for it, folks.

1. an old cow poke went riding out...
2. cold drink
3. member of outback amateur dramatic society
4. no idea, sorry.
5. comely
6. stoned
7. tantrum (we use that one here too)
8. unspecial
9. I think this is the past pluperfect subjunctive
10. so not trucks?

I remember trying to define ornery for someone on here once, but I don't remember what the definition I gave was Not "unspecial" though...

1. wrong - just 'poke', nothing to do with cows. And it's not a person.
2. Good. Tea requires ice.
3. Good one. But nope.
4. --
5. Er, no. Not at all. Well, depends on personal taste...
6.
7. Ker-rect.
8. Nope.
9. Is it? Nah. What does it mean?
10. Nope. Hint: they're edible.

I thought this language was transparent. Apparently, it's about as clear as Mississippi mud..

Thanks for the brave foray. .

Poke - here, it's an ice cream cone. But I doubt that's one of our shared ones the Scots-Irish took over. Dunno, so.

Tea - a cold beverage from India, made with all the ice on the tea plantations on the summits of mountains where the yogis meditate.

Country ham...er, a whole roast ham, hot, for dinner? Or road kill/racoon/an interesting but acquired taste of some kind

4. Using unbecoming language?

5. Overweight seems too obvious, so...juicy, as in a peach?

6. Very excited?

7. Tantrum

8. Ornery - tetchy, cantankerous

9. Would have been able to in the past

10. Pass

KB - we obviously share linguistic roots.

Poke - I'll bet we get it from the same place.Not ice cream.Think paper.
Country ham is NOT roadkill. But it's an acquired taste, and bad for your blood pressure.
4. Nope. It's something nice, really.
5. Overweight is right. Polite way to say it.
6. Nope.
7. Yep.
8. Exactly.
9. Absolutely. Do they say that in NI?

1. Card game for those who can't say R?
2. First letter of the glorious lone star state.
3.very poor thespian from the boonies.
4.tempter to go with US version of bashing the bishop but Ill go to hell even quicker now!
5.ghostly insult for humans from Casper.
6. The bra worn by any Southern lady over six feet tall.
7.have them here too, or the plight of an epileptic python?
8. Argumentative scots spy in the film Goldfinger..
9.all cows are this.
10. The bit on a guitar where Willie Nelson just has a hole..

I shall now run very quickly away y'all.....

The one about "used to could" - they don't say it here, but I sort of knew it from translating German into English. The verb können in German is quite straightforward, but you can tie yourself in knots rendering it into English in some tenses

In German "Können" = ich kann, er kann. Simple!

In English I can, he can = "to be able to".

I love those, FwR.

Yeah, isn't 'can'could' a weird verb? Modals generally.

'migth could' and such are 'double modal constructions',very common in older Germanic languages. As I told the snobs in the English Department when they sniffed at President Carter's use of them.

WHo made up that 'be able to',anyway?

I'm told an easy pick up is not a light truck. Other than that

Ah, THAT's another kind of pick up.

Some kind of takeaway?

Ooh, v ery close.

Nothing to do with commercial food, just the way it's served.

3. country ham (noun) salted and smoked

4. pounding the preacher (an act, and wash your minds out)
Offering the new preacher a pound of this and a pound of that, in order to fill up the preacher's pantry.

6. high cotton (state of being) wealthy.

10. pick ups (noun, at least in North Carolina)
finger food?

Right you are, HN.

"Pounding the preacher" - what a lovely custom for a new neighbour, preacher or not.

Yeah, I always thought it was a cool custom.

1. poke (noun) hidey hole - sty
2. tea (noun) used in a round of golf before brewing
3. country ham (noun) bumpkin - village idiot
4. pounding the preacher (an act, and wash your minds out) better not be like bashing the bishop (don't anyone ask)
5. fleshy (adjective) a nice pair
6. high cotton (state of being) ?? a shirt made of Marijuana ??
7. hissy fit (heck, hard to parse. Just use it in a sentence.) tantrum so calm down
8. ornery (adjective) awkward bugger
9. used to could (verb construction) but can't now
10. pick ups (noun, at least in North Carolina) either vans (here) or a one night stand

Is it "poke" as in a bag/sack? "A pig in a poke"?