Southern Slang

One of the most fascinating regional dialects of English is that which is spoken by the inhabitants of the southern states of the U.S.A. Southern English is very expressive and rich in imagery. It is no wonder that a great number of America's most famous wordsmiths, such as Mark Twain and William Faulkner, hail from the South. If you ever have the chance to hear it you will immediately get the impression that, in the South, conversation is not merely a means to convey information, but an art in itself, to be practiced and enjoyed. In this issue of The Far Side, Lee Spears, a true Southern gentleman, writes about the charming speech of the South.

在英语中，最迷人的区域性方言之一就是美国南方诸州居民所讲的方言了。南方英语极具表现力，而且富于联想。难怪许多最为著名的美国语言大师，如马克・吐温和威廉・福克纳，都来自于南方。如果你有机会来聆听这一方言，你立刻就会产生一种印象，即在南方，会话不仅仅是一种传递信息的手段，它本身还是一种用以展现和享受的艺术。在本期的《The Far Side》中，一位真正的南方绅士，李・斯皮尔斯，就将迷人的南方话付诸笔端。

Whenever I return to North Carolina, my home state in America's Southeast, more than the familiar rolling grassland hills tells me I'm home: Back there, my ears ①perk up to familiar bits of Southern-style American English, a regional delicacy that has yet to sneak its way into China. "Listen up good now, because I'm fixin' to tell you all about it."

I had been looking forward to a nice, big Christmas dinner for some time leading up to my most recent visit home, because I knew I would be "eating high on the hog". This Southernism, which originally meant having the luxury of eating the highest-quality parts of the pig, now simply refers to enjoying good food in large quantities. My mom's delicious baked ham did happen to be on the table as we feasted this Christmas, but the presence of pork is hardly a necessity for eating high on the hog, nor does one have to be in the South to do so. In fact, the phrase often passes through my mind when I sit down to a steaming hot pot or a bowl of Xinjiang-style noodles in Beijing.

But for Southerners who enjoy good barbecued pork (and there aren't many who don't), there's a great way to eat high on the hog while eating every part of it: go to "a pig pickin". A pig pickin is not so much a meal as it is an event, where people gather around a whole hog which is slow-roasted in a smoky oven until its tender meat can be picked right off the bones and eaten. There's only one way to describe the taste of juicy barbecue on a summer afternoon: "finger-lickin good!"

Many Southern colloquialisms reflect the agricultural heritage of the region, and so lots of Southern slang calls on images or personalities we associate with animals. After a long, hard day at work, nothing says someone is exhausted quite as vividly as saying he or she is "dog tired", evoking an image of a lazy, long-eared hound dog lazing on a front porch. Or, if someone has a natural intelligence for understanding the ways of the world, we may say that person has "horse sense", like a trusty four-legged friend who always knows which way to go when it comes to a fork in the road.

The South's long-standing religious traditions also pepper the speech of locals. When a proper Southerner wants to express that something will happen if all goes well, he might say, "Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise", which recalls more primitive times when many Southern farmers relied on good weather conditions for their livelihoods. For example, one friend might say to another when arranging a weekend picnic, "Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll see you on Sunday." If that weekend brings a thunderstorm, ②raining out the picnic, the two unlucky friends may curse the weather, calling it "god-awful".

Perhaps the two uniquely Southern words that are best known in other parts of the world are "y'all", which is a shortened version of "you all," and the infamous "ain't", which means "is not", "are not" or "am not." While Southerners and non-Southerners will probably never stop arguing over whether or not these officially qualify as English words (they are in the dictionary, if that counts for anything), they are undeniably part of the Southern vocabulary.

One of the charms of the way Southerners speak is that they often have ③a multitude of colorful ways to say very simple things. If someone plans to do something very soon, he could say it any number of ways, some of which may bring a smile to the listener's face. Instead of saying "right away", a Southerner might substitute any of the following: "faster than you can skin a cat"; "quicker than you can say 'Jack Robinson'" (don't ask me who Jack is); "right now in a minute"; or "lickety-split".

Southern-style English is something that many Americans feel very strongly about. While many natives of the South are proud of the distinction their slang brings to their speech, other English speakers often ④turn their noses up at the earthy, down-home tone of the region's slang. But love it or hate it, the English of the American South is full of personality and like nothing else you'll ever hear.

每当我返回美国东南部的家乡――北卡罗来纳，并不只是那些熟悉的、上下起伏的草原丘陵在向我昭示着，我回家了：在那里，我的听觉调动了起来，倾听着那熟悉的美国南方英语――一种还没有悄然来到中国的地方精粹。“听好了，因为我就要给你们大家讲讲了。”

在我最近那次回家之前的一段时间里，我一直盼望着吃上一顿美味丰盛的圣诞节晚宴，因为我知道我会“eat high on the hog（大吃大喝）”的。这个南方语汇，原意是指一种挑食猪身上最好的部位的奢侈行为，现在则只用来指大量享用美食。今年圣诞节我们确实在餐桌上吃到了我妈做的美味烤火腿，但是要“eat high on the hog”未必就一定要有猪肉，而人们想要“eat high on the hog”也未必就要到南方去。其实，当我在北京坐下来享用热气腾腾的火锅或一碗新疆风味的面条时，这个词组就经常在我的头脑中闪现。

不过，对于那些喜欢吃美味猪肉烧烤的南方人来说（不爱吃的人并不多），有一个绝好的办法来“eat high on the hog”而不会错过任何一部分猪肉：去吃 “a pig pickin（烤全猪）”。“a pig pickin”不太像是饮食，倒更像是一种活动，一种人们围坐在一只熏炉旁慢烤全猪，等到鲜嫩猪肉可以从骨头上剥下来时就开吃的活动。要形容夏日午后烧烤时的油滑口感，方式只有一个：“finger-lickin good!（回味无穷）”

许多南方口语词都反映了该地区的农耕传统，而众多的南方俚语也都呈现出我们可以在动物身上联想到的形象或性格特点。在漫长艰辛的一天劳作之后，要形象地表达出某人的疲惫之态，最好的说法就是，他/她“dog tired（精疲力竭）”了，从而引发出一只慵懒的长耳狗趴在前门走廊偷懒的遐想。又如，如果某人天生聪慧，可以明了沧桑世事，我们就可以说，这个人有“horse sense（识途感；基本常识）”，就像一只可以信赖的“四腿伙伴”那样，总是在道路分叉时知道走向何方。

南方由来已久的宗教传统同样也在当地人的语言中有所体现。当一个真正的南方人想表达一切顺利就会出现某种结果时，他可能会说，“Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise（苍天有意，人愿不违）”，从而再现了南方农民靠天吃饭的那个更久远年代。举例来说，在约定一次周末野炊时，一个朋友可能会对另一个人说，“Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, I'll see you on Sunday.（苍天有意，人愿不违，我礼拜天去找你）”。如果那个周末出现了雷暴，野炊因下雨而取消，这两个倒霉的朋友可能就会大骂天气，说它是“god-awful（可恶至极）”。

也许，在世界的其它地方，最为人熟知的两个为南方特有词汇就是“y'all”和名声不佳的“ain't”了，而前者是“you all”的缩写形式，后者则表示“is not”、“are not”或“am not”的意思。虽然，就这些词汇是否可以作为正式英语使用的问题上（字典里就有这些词，如果这能说明些问题的话），南方人和南方以外的人可能永远不会停止争论，但毋庸质疑，它们就是南方话的组成部分。

南方人讲话方式的魅力之一就是，他们经常使用大量有趣的方式来表达极其简单的事情。如果某人打算很快就去做某事，他可能会用多种方式来表达，其中有些方式可以使听话人忍俊不禁。南方人可以使用以下各种方式来替代“right away（马上）”的说法：“faster than you can skin a cat（比你剥猫皮还要快）”、“quicker than you can say 'Jack Robinson'（比你念“Jack Robinson”还要快）”（我也不知道Jack是谁）、“right now in a minute（这就过去）”，或“lickety-split（很快）”。

许多美国人对南方英语的反应是非常强烈的。虽然许多南方人对他们的俚语为其言语增添了特色而感到自豪，但其他英语使用者却经常会对该地区俚语的粗俗声调嗤之以鼻。爱也好，恨也罢，美国南方英语就是充满了个性，与你所听过的任何东西都不相同。

Southern Talk

1. 在正文的第一段结尾，作者说了一句话，“Listen up good now, because I'm fixin' to tell you all about it.”其中就体现了美国南方英语的特定用法――“Listen up good now”和“be fixin' to”。第一个词组相当于汉语中的“听好了”，而第二个词组则相当于“准备好做某事”。

2. eat high on the hog 在原文中，作者对这个词组的来历进行了介绍，即它原指“人们在吃猪肉时，只是挑好吃的部分吃”，而后来就通指“大量地享用美食”。其意相当于“大吃大喝”。

3. a pig pickin 这个词组就相当于我们现在常说的“烤全猪”。

4. finger-lickin good! 这个词组非常形象――在吃完后仍旧不能忘记美食的味道，还要把手指舔一舔，回味一下，食物的美味一下子就被描绘出来了。其意相当于“回味无穷”。

5. dog tired 狗累了以后的那种倦怠感最明显不过了，所以就以这个词组来表达“精疲力竭”之意，非常形象。

6. horse sense马拥有认路的天性，所以就以马的这种识途感来形容某些人的睿智聪颖，说明他们了解世事变迁。

7. Good Lord willin' and the creek don't rise. 一个和宗教有渊源的词组。在宗教中，上帝是无所不能的，所以，他高兴还好，若是不高兴的话，就会兴风作浪，水漫河堤了。因此，这句话暗含的意思就是，一切要看老天脸色行事。

8. god-awful 上帝是最强大的，而“awful”的程度竟然达到了上帝强大的程度，可见其指的不是一般的“糟糕，可恶”了。所以，它的意思相当于“可恶至极”。

9. "y'all"和"ain't" 这两个词现在很常见，尤其是在英语歌词当中，以及某些英文网页上。但它们的词源却是来自美国南方。前者是“you all”的缩写形式，后者则表示“is not”、“are not”或“am not”的意思。

10. 说到“马上”、“立刻”的英语表达法，我们能想到最多的也就不过是“right away”和“at once”等。但美国南方人却创造出了“faster than you can skin a cat”、“quicker than you can say 'Jack Robinson'”、“right now in a minute”和“lickety-split”等非常幽默的表达方式，尤其是第二个表达方式，因为至于为什么要说“比你念‘Jack Robinson’还要快”，而不说“比念Mike或其它什么名字还要快”，可能连他们自己都不知道，但是却约定俗成，就那么表达了。

delicacy /`delik9si/ n.精美；微妙；精良

ham /h2m/ n.火腿

feast /f1st/ vi.享受美食

hot pot 火锅

barbecue /`b3bikju:/ vt.烤烧

colloquialism /k9`l.kwi9liz(9)m/ n.口语

hound /haund/ n.猎犬

laze /leiz/ vi.偷懒

porch /p5tH/ n.走廊

fork /f5k/ vi.分岔

primitive /`primitiv/ adj.古老的

thunderstorm /`F7nd9st5m/ n.雷暴

curse /k8s/ vt.咒骂

qualify /`kw4lifai/ v.具有资格

undeniably /`7ndi`nai9bli/ adv.不可否认地

substitute /`s7bstitj6t/ v.替换；替代

distinction /dis`tiMkH9n/ n.特点；特色

earthy /`8Fi/ adj.粗陋的

down-home /daun h.m/ adj.乡下的

① perk up振作精神

② rain out因下雨取消

③ a multitude of 大量

④ turn one's nose up at 看不起；嗤之以鼻