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. Hear tell: learn by way of mouth. “I hear tell there’s a fair coming to town next month. I use to love to go to the fair when I was a youngun.”
2. Heared: heard. “I heared that oldest Taylor boy’s going to make a doctor.”
3. Heathern: unruly child. “Towards the end of the school year kids on the bus would act like wild heatherns every evening on the ride home.”
4. Help my time: exclamation of surprise. “She ask me if I knew Friday is the first day of September and I said “Help my time where has this year gone!”
5. Hem: to surround or corner. “I was trying to get home but I ran into Carl down at the store and he hemmed me up for over an hour in there talking about his new hunting camp.”
How did you do on the test? All of this month’s words and phrases are beyond common in my area of Appalachia.
Last night’s video: BEST SUMMER SUPPER EVER! Butter Beans & Peas, Spinach, Roastnears, and I Almost Forgot the Carrots!
Subscribe for FREE and get a daily dose of Appalachia in your inbox
I’m late with this, but I have heard them all. Mama so frequently said “Lord he’p my time!” and called us “heatherns” when we (or anyone) misbehaved.”Why, he’s just an old heathern!”
I was thinking last night about some old sayings we used and still do, one I’ve used quite often is::: Don’t try to teach your mammy how to milk ducks, to the person intruding on your project it means I KNOW WHAT I’M DOING.
I love all of them.
“How ye doin?”
“I’m tollible”
Enjoy all the sayings! never heard help my time though!!!!
My family never said Heathern, but often heard it from my niece where she had heard the other side of the family use it. It was actually used in almost a loving manner by my niece refererring to younger siblings. My time not familiar, but still hear and use some of the others. Hear tell is one I of my favorites.
My great grandma was always saying, Well, help my time. Usually when someone came to visit her. (Surprised to see that person)
I’ve heard those 5 words all my life here in Northern Mississippi, mostly from the older people in my family. I still use some of them.
I love the Southern & Appalachian accents and I am proud to be a Southerner! In fact I have heard PhD’s (from a nearby University) say some of these words & talk the informal Southern talk, going back to who they really are outside the lecture hall. Still praying for Granny.
Heared them all while growing up. In our family we didn’t say, “help my time” we said, “oh my days”. Lawd a mercy.
Oh my goodness, I can clearly remember my mom saying, “Lawww help my time’! She also said Heathern quite often. Love hearing all of these again!
5 for 5 today. In my family we reserved “heathen” for the lawless though. Like others here have posted, “so help me” was more common than “help my time”. It meant an emphasis on the truth of what was being said instead of an exclamation of surprise. Again you remind me there are a multitude of words and phrases I understand perfectly well and though I may not have heard or used them in years when I did again they wouldn’t even raise a ? in my mind.
Tipper, what a delight to visit once again the words and phrases of my childhood. Thank you.
The exclamation, “help my time,” is new to me. How apt it seems to be. I wonder if it has its roots in Psalm 90:12, “Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm%2090%3A12&version=NIV).
Thanks again!
P.S. I will continue to ask God to comfort and heal Granny, and to give her great wisdom.
Not familiar with help my time
Never heard these phrases before. I remember one time I did hear a man say clarence for clearance! He was hanging a blind and asked his friend how much “clarence” do I have on that side!!! I love the Appalachian language. To me it is beautiful. Prayers for all. Take care and God bless ❣️
Heard all them except (Help my time). Never have used that one before. Say hey to granny. Prayers for her and you all too.
I’ve heared and said every one of the words and phrases ‘cept help my time. My parents would say so help me to express surprise. Melanie, most of my kin folks in eastern KY said study for steady. Tipper, my friend from W. VA told me her niece had to go off to ‘summers’ in TX to complete her education before she could make a doctor. I understood her loud and clear. God bless Granny!
Lord, help my time is how I heard this said. My favorite today is “heathern” which I use often. I always enjoy the vocabulary!! Thinking of yall and Miss Granny often. I’ve been doing Ancestry for several months and seen so many pictures and stories. I saw my granny in elementary school with several of her brothers and sisters and a lovely picture of her as a young woman with her mother and brothers and sisters. So many memories awakened–some sad & some full of joy.
Have never heard #4. I have heard “hem and haw”, but not hemming the way you used it. I look forward to your posts about vocabulary. It is such fun remembering some of these long forgotten words and phrases!
I’ve hear hem as hem them in. Dogs, cows etc.
Knew them all except help my time. Enjoy this beautiful day – cooler temps for a few days.
All are familiar to me. I also hear, “I seen him the other day” rather than I saw him. The “other day” meaning recently.
Jackie many of the older folk I knew growing up would have said “I seed him the other day.”
All are very common in my area. Very often I hear “hear tell” like in “Did you ever hear tell of such a thing!”
I know ’em and still use ’em all except “help my time”. I can’t recall hearing it ever. There was another phrase that had “my time” in it but for the life of me I can’t think of what it wuz.
“Bless my time” is another variation I hear sometimes. (Am I going to comment on these all day?}
I’ve never heard “help my time, but it sounds appropriate when needed. Just like myself here- “Lord, help my time where have the mornings disappeared to this week?” Also, Saturday I’m gonna be 56 so “ help my time” where did all those years disappear to so fast! Another on I use is HEM HAW- meaning they’re going the long way about getting anything done or wasting time… love, blessings and prayers to all especially dear Granny Louzine and anybody who needs anything!!!
Tipper–All are quite familiar to me. One of them, heared, is used in telling fashion by Dwight Yoakam in the lyrics to his poignant song, “Readin’, Ritin’, and Route 23.”
I’ve heared most them, except “Help my time” or using Hem to mean surrender or corner, but I like them both.
I have heard all of them but “help my time” was less common. I have also heard Sanford’s “so bow legged he can not hem up a pig in a corner.” In my generation, “ heathern “ children soon became good children after a sermon preached by their parents and a keen hickory switch!
Help my time is new to me but the rest very familiar
I have heard all of these except “help my time”. The only way I have heard “hem” is to say “hem haul”, as in “She just hem-hauled all around the subject while we were talking”. It is used to mean talk around and not say what you really mean. I don’t personally say “heared” for heard but I hear it all the time around here in the mountains of WV. I find myself listening for more Appalachian words and phrases, and smiling when I hear them used. Lots of fun!!
I hear “hem and haw” rather than “haul”.
I would think the spelling “haw” is more accurate, but we just add that drawn out “L” on it. Lol
This hasn’t been so long ago that a friend we fished with made a statement about their tars were bald meaning tires and the camp far meaning fire. I love the southern accents and always will. I’ve heard most of the words used in today’s vocabulary.
Keep ‘em’ coming.
Hey Betty, I worked 38 years making Michelin “tars”. I also say “far” meaning fire. I will also say other words that uneducated northern friends don’t understand. I read a story and the author telling about kids from up north coming to her school and it taking a year to educate them. She was referring to educating them to our southern accent. Even though she was raised in Tennessee she mentioned losing in a spelling bee because she couldn’t understand her teacher from Georgia accent when she called out a word for her to spell.
I’ve “ heared” these sayings all my life! I had a friend that said “heared” all the time I asked “where are you from” he said “Hancock County” then I understood. That’s where the pioneer Alex Stewart was from!
Have a good day. Prayers for all the family.
I’ve never heard or said “Help my time” before but all the rest are comfortingly familiar. Question for other readers- have you ever known anyone to say “study” for “steady” as in “Come study the ladder for me so I can clean ou this gutter.”? My mamaw and papaw both said this and both were from the East Tennessee Sevier County area.
Like several other, I’ve heard and frequently use all those expressions except for help my time.
Help my time, how did I get to be 70 years old and not ever heared that until now?
It is probably a variation of “sturdy” – hold it so that it is sturdy for me.
Tipper, thinking of the word hem made me smile because I thought about a comment heard years ago about this guy being so bow-legged that he could not “hem up” a pig in a fence conner.
All of today’s words were and still are used in Northeast TN.
Always enjoy your vocabulary tests. More than that, I love that you are working so diligently to preserve the Appalachian language.
Heathen and hear tell are the only ones I have ever heard or used.
God bless you friends of Appalachia ❤️