It’s time for this month’s Appalachian Vocabulary Test.
I’m sharing a few videos to let you hear the words and phrases. To start the videos click on them.
1. Easy: comfortable, relieved of pain, discomfort or anxiety. “She’s been a suffering something awful for a week, but when I left there this morning she said she was easy. I’m a hoping that means she’s on the mend.”
2. Eating table: table for meals. “The eating table has always been the catch all place for us. We’re all bad to leave things on it.”
3. Eh law: used to express resignation, surprise, or acknowledgment, especially in responding to another person’s statement. “You can hear Pap say eh law in this post. The day I recorded him and Uncle Henry talking they were working on Pap’s tiller trying to get it started to plow the garden.”
4. Epizootick: an undiagnosed, unspecified, or imaginary illness. “When I was in school every time a sickness went around the school we all laughed about it being the epizootie.”
5. Ever how: however. “Ever how is how I most often say however.”
All of this month’s words are common in my area of the mountains. Hope you’ll leave a comment and let me know how you did on the test!
Last night’s video: 97 Year Old Woman Talks About Appalachian Foodways.
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“Eh Law” and “epizootick” are two I am not familiar with. It’s interesting to here the different things said in different regions but also that some are used in many other regions too.
I’ve either heard them, used them or learned something new from your vocabulary videos. I’d say todays videos, I’ve learned some.
“Epizootica” is the way I heard it growing up. I continue to use it to describe any illness whose cause or treatment cannot be referenced in medical literature.
“Eh law” in my lexicon becomes “a law” with the long a sound. Most Americans’ pronunciation of “law” is as “laa” and rhymes with baa, the sound a sheep or goat makes. Appalachian people pronounce it more like the British who end the word with lips pursed, almost closed. Other three letter words ending in aw that we add the w sound are many. Caw, haw, jaw, maw, paw, raw, saw and yaw all have the same ending sound as law here. Most others would pronounce them caa, haa, jaa, maa, paa, saa and yaa.
Eh law look coming yonder!
Somehow eating table got turned into dining table in our household but I heard it used in the homes of friends of ours.
I didn’t encounter epizooties until I was in my early 20s and working in Haywood County and took cold. The lady running the boarding house where we ate said to me, “Looks like you got the epizooties!” I knew exactly what she meant although I’d never heard it.
I would add ‘any who’ to the list used interchangeably for ‘any how’.
I’ve heard them all except Epizootick, we called it the crud. But we might have started the sentence with Law’d have mercy, she is in a mess.
I really enjoy the Appalachian vocabulary posts Tipper, thank you. They always remind me of my Pop Pop.
Eh law is the only one I am not familiar with. Enjoyed hearing more from Granny Hicks last night. That sweet lady is amazing. The things she can remember is a real blessing. I could hear her talk all day.
I have heard and used all of today’s words as well as ‘feeling punk’ and a few others that I can’t recall at present. Once when I missed a day of school the teacher asked for the reason the next day. I said , “I had the back door trots.” (We had an outhouse.) She didn’t understand so I said, “I had the scours.” (That was Dad’s term when a calf suffered from the same condition.) She was still waiting for an explanation and I didn’t have any other words that were safe for school use. Finally another boy said, “He had the s..ts.” Five grades had a lesson that day on the word diarrhea. I don’t know if we make up our own words or just mispronounce or adapt from the sound of the condition in other languages. (phonetics)
I have also heard it called the green apple quick step.
Knew all of them!
I’ve never heard or used these words, but I’ve learned something new. I like epizootick.
All the words are common to me and my family except epizootick has slowly been replaced with blydoekee. Ever who and ever how get a lot of laughs from my daughter but she knows there’s no need to try to correct me.
Eh law has to be my favorite, becauseit is the one I recall used by the older folks in my childhood. Also Pon my word is one I rarely heard past childhood. I connect these expressions/words with those who had the purest of heart. Instead of Epizootick, we would sometimes refer to someone having the “crud.” Easy or getting “ease” still common. Love your vocabulary tests. Our vocabulary seems to be the one thing that really sets us apart in a good way. A great observation of mine is when I google a word or expression, most often anymore the first that pops up is Theblindpigandtheacorn. Your blog has become the most popular authority on Appalachia.
I have heard them all. Just yesterday I was thinking it had been a long time since I heard “epizootick.”
These are all familiar to me. My dad used epizootick and I was told about a man who was known by using eh law to begin most of his sentences.
I knew a man who punctuated all his sentences with “by hokies”.
Well, I’m where I seem to always end up. If heard, I would maybe notice I had not heard in awhile but otherwise would understand just fine and wouldn’t think it remarkable. I would have no idea when I had ever used any one of them myself. It has been mentioned here in past postings that what you grew up hearing but moved away from returns like ‘putting on a pair of faded jeans’, so easily in fact you scarcely notice your own self. As the old hymn has it, “I would like to go back…”.
Epizootick is the only one I didn’t know. I’ll definitely start using it.
Eh law, eating table and easy are the ones I’ve heard in southern WV from VA farming people who moved here for coal business. Bobby trucked coal for a living to several counties schools and other places. You all do videos on vocabulary as good as Barter theater performances and I much enjoy you ladies re-enactments! You’re too much and I so enjoy you gals enthusiasm! It’s contagious and lifts my spirit! Thank you so much as always. Your blogs are the highlight of most of my days, Tipper!
you might have the cooties!
we got things we say too,my people, God bless Tipper and her family, God bless friends of Appalachia
Epizootick is the only new one for me, we called it the crud when I was in school. The rest I hear and use often.
Love to hear the words and the story behind the word. Looking forward to today’s reading….God Bless
All those expressions are very common everyday language here too. About as common as an old shoe, I’d say.