Dr. Kate Stewart explores our Southern language

At the July Museum Moments presentation on Thursday July 18, Dr. Kate Stewart discussed “Is there a Decline in the Southern Language”: Sh’olly Not!

While guests were enjoying lunches provided by The Friends of The Library, Stephen Bennett got everyone “checked in”, then and Jill Smith welcomed everyone and introduced Dr. Kate Stewart, a professor at the University of Arkansas at Monticello and a native of Cotton Plant.

After laying the groundwork with a few explanatory terms, Dr. Stewart made her way through a well thought out and humorous presentation. A very large crowd, many of whom had probably been “guilty” of several of the cited southern “aberrations” nodded and smiled knowingly as the talk progressed.

She made the point that, not only does the South’s language vary from other sections of our vast country, as is to be expected, but also, it is sometime possible to pinpoint oddities to particular communities or even to short stretches of a particular highway.

However, it is true that certain traits become more (or less) prevalent as people move from one area to another, interact with more diverse groups, etc. Languages, dialects, and the meanings of various words and phrases undergo change, at least in their accepted, every day usage.

Language is a fluid and interesting thing. Stewart encourages us to pay attention to things we have always heard and to things we’ve never before.

My father was a Yankee who lived his entire adult life in the South, and loved it. He often said, though, that he never got used to eating black-eyed peas, and was forever challenged by those who consistently insisted on “putting the emPHASis on the wrong syllAHble” when they spoke.