Monday, December 12, 2005

Morning confirmation that I'm still in Louisiana

Mark (on the phone to co-worker): Hey Paige, where y'at?

Y'at = you at

We know it's supposed to be 'Where are you?'.
And no, we're not uneducated hicks as normally portrayed on TV and movies.
We're just embracing our Cajun heritage. You see?

It's just kinda rolls off the tongue. Try it, 'Hey, where y'at?'

13 comments:

chesneygirl said...

I love to listen to you southerners accents! Cracks me up!

and I never thought for a second you were an "uneducated hick" :)

MarkD60 said...

I donno bout nobudy else, but ah thank allayall tawk funny

Spikey1 said...

Try this one... oot and aboot eh!

Carrie Guevara said...

Yeah you right! ;)


BTW: Happy Birthday Miss Emma!

Lammy said...

Hi! Just new to yer blog...
wanted to comment on the southern thang....
We lived in Texas for nearly 8 years and the funniest thing I learned from the get-go was "ya'll" is singular, and "AllYa'LL" was plural. The whole southern lingo made total sense after that.
Enjoying your blog.

Meg Persson said...

In Canada, the people who live in the province of Newfoundland say "whaddya at?" to mean "how's it goin?" Funny how slang can mean so many different things!

Penelope Marzec said...

My cousins in southwestern Pennsylvania have some slang of their own. They say things like, "Where yo'uns going?" Yo'uns roughly translates into ya'all. :^)

still_figuring_out said...

i tried it, and i liked it!!

Mise en Place said...

How FUNNY. I'm with Suz. Still having a New York accent and living in the south, my, my!

Veronica said...

I still greet certain people with How's ya mom an' em? Especially my family in the parish (Chalmette for people who don't know what the parish is).

Where y'at is how I greet most of my uncles and male cousins.

Krisco said...

How's ya mom an em! That's a good one.

I was going to recommend you mix the Texas y'all - which we hear from my Spousal's family - with your y'at:

As in: y'all y'at?

But I like the plural as mentioned above; forgot about that one!

Laurie said...

My mom (a native New Orleanian) says when asked "Where y'at?" "Between da 'a' and da 't'!" I don't know...but all of her New Orleans family cackles when she does it. My grandfather had a book of New Orleans words and their meanings. I love it:

Ter-let: dat ting you take a pee in
Zinc: it's where you wrench yer dishes
Wrench: what you do to your dishes in the zinc

It's about a 100 page book and it's hilarious!

BayouMaMa said...

Oh gosh! LOL! You are Cajun, right? My mom and dad are true Cajuns at heart...I am, too...but marrying a Hillbilly has changed my slang a little.

But you got dat right...we are not a bunch of ignorant hicks...but we do have a way of saying things. :-)

I call BayouPaPa just about everyday and ask him "Where y'at?" Ok...maybe marrying a Hillbilly hasn't changed me all dat much. ;-)