I live in Alabama. If someone asked me for a couple of anything I’d give them two. Usually when people want more than two they say a few, which could mean any number
I live in Morgan County, (north Alabama) and that is correct. If a patient at a mental hospital was out of control, he or she needed to be restrained. If someone is that angry, they are "fit to be tied", which can also be "madder than an old wet hen".
@@rickbowers7292 I actually live in Autauga county (specifically, Prattville) Madder than a wet hen is a new one on me I've always heard that as "Madder Than Wet Bee"
I'm from Alabama and one of my favorite idioms is: "That dog don't hunt", it means that won't work, or something is useless. Hunting dogs are prized in Alabama a dog that doesn't hunt is considered not worth it keep.
I'm a strict 'couple means two' person. A couple consisting of two or more might be in California. And as far as being a language-usage Nazi goes, my mother has pounded it into my head that the floor is indoors and the ground is outdoors. Say 'it's on the floor' to her while outside, she'll smack you with a dictionary.
I don’t think of Fit to be Tied as angry, more like crazily energetic. Apparently, the history actually has to do with “tying up mental patients,” which then gave way to the straitjacket.
You guys I’m from Birmingham Alabama and I have lived in several cities in Alabama. I haven’t heard half of these sayings. I love living in Alabama but it’s definitely underrated. My wife is from Colorado and she absolutely loves Alabama. We have a daughter and she has absolutely no southern accent. We don’t know many people with an accent so this is definitely funny to hear because we don’t hear it a lot. Love you guys!
Hello from north Alabama! Not gonna lie, I always cringe when I see a youtube vid about us, because we tend to be known for a lot of not good stuff. 😂 Nice to see a fun, positive vid :) In regards to using the word "couple", I think context is key. Like, if I'm ordering food or something, I'll say, "I'd like a couple of burgers," and that would mean two. But if it's regarding something free, like a condiment, I might say, "Give me a couple packs of mustard, please," or "Can you hand me a couple napkins?" and that wouldn't necessarily mean two. It's one of those silly things that make no sense really, but it's so specific, if you grew up with it, you just know the difference.
South Alabama here. Instead of "couple napkins" we would say "coupla napkins" lol. Also, if I told the lady at McDonald's I wanted "a coupla burgers" she would say "okay, how many?". In my area, couple just means I'm ordering more than one, but I'll need to specify the exact number. Also also, did you know England and Alabama are about the same size?
I’m from the middle of Alabama and pronounce yonder as “yunder.” Also “fixins” can be used as side dishes for a meal, like the mashed potatoes are fixins. Love you guys, y’all make me laugh!
That was the meaning when I was in Florida just outside of Dothan. Turkey with all the fixings was turkey with all the side dishes. Also mash was a stage in making moonshine alcohol.
I have never heard or had smashed potatoes lol That must not be very common. I've lived pretty much all over the country and never heard that before lol
I can hear the preacher doing a marriage ceremony ... "Are you fit to be tied?" ... the congregation would think they were arguing and mad ... fit to be tied.
I grew up in Alabama. A couple CAN mean two, but in general means more than one but less than a few. It often means you don't care too much about the exact number, or you can't give an exact number, but it won't be a lot.
Ramma Jamma Yella Hamma givem hell Alabama! You will never understand Alabama culture until you understand Alabama Football. I spose it’s a bit like Manchester United and London, but BIGGER! 😂
I noticed Joel saying “reckon” . I hear it a lot by the Brits and we still say that too especially in rural areas , but are laughed at by northerners and other areas of the US for saying it.
Way back,around 1920,my great aunt Sophie and her husband left New York City and moved to Birmingham,Alabama,where they opened a combination hardware and jewelry store (seriously!). Their youngest daughter ,my late Cousin Sugar,used to call every Passover and say,with the nicest Southern drawl ," Good Pesach,y'all". I always got such a kick out of that.
Representing Alabama here ! Loved this ! Fit to be tied means I am in such a mental shape of anger that someone probably needs to tie me up to keep me from harming something or someone.
"Conniption" is a great southern word. "I told my two year old no, and he had a conniption, so I whupped his bee-hind", lol. Often used as "conniption fit", it means a tantrum. "Hissy" or "hissy fit" is used a lot as well. My son had a conniption/hissy fit in a store. Once. 😁
Alabama girl here ( although I was born in Roswell New Mexico lol) I've lived in Ala since I was 8 yrs old and no I ain't gonna tell ya how old I am and y'all had me laughing so hard. We also say "liked to have died" as in I was so scared I like to have died. Your Alabama accents were so funny and almost spot on. Alabama usually gets a bad rap so thanks for saying something good about us. Now I'm fixin' to go mash some taters and grab a bottle of coke and go over yonder a ways and have a pulled pork BBQ sandwich.
I'm from Enterprise, Alabama, 25 miles from the Alabama / Florida line. 75 miles north of Panama City Beach, Florida. Things can vary from region to region of Alabama. Although, the words y'all went over are pretty universal in Alabama, as well as other southern states and some are used in other regions of the U.S.A. If you want to hear a southern accent from my area, visit my RU-vid reaction channel. But keep in mind, southern accents vary from area to area. There are several different southern accents in Alabama alone.
Smashed potatoes are usually fingerling potatoes boiled, then smashed in a hot fry pan to crisp up. So they’re just lightly split open and still recognizable as a potato.
Oh my goodness.. I'm from Alabama and y'all are killing me at the 7 minute mark😁😆😂🤣. You had a whole dialogue with southern accents, but you were pretty spot on for back woods country conversation!! That sounded fun!
Your faces on the “fit to be tied” one 😂 If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard that phrase in my life. We have some really funny phrases down here (I’m in Georgia).
Hello from Alabama! I emailed y'all an idea, with a southern bent, for a video. I hope you got it. Would love to see how y'all handle the topic. You're both amazing!
I love that y’all love Alabama so much. Woo hoo! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve watched your videos but I’m fixin’ to binge them again like there is no tomorrow. Keep up the fabulous content!! Cheers to y’all from this Alabamian in Paris!!
I knew you’d get fixin’ because I use it so much. Popular across the whole southeast. Think of “fit to be tied” as “so angry s/he almost needs a straitjacket”...
Wow you guys were pretty good with this one! I may never use fit to be tied again lol. I’m Bryan btw. I’d be curious to see the law series. I’m a lawyer coincidentally... there are good ones in the US. Alabama actually has the longest constitution in the world.
Great job, Bryan. I have no kin in Alabama...but Nick Saban's high school football coach lived across the street back in WV. Jimbo Fisher, Mary Lou Retton, and Joe Manchin grew up near us as well.
I love these videos about American/British slang. I really do. I'm in love with English speaking countries. Please, don't stop making videos like this one. Good job! ❤️🌾
It’s so funny how we have such differences in word use. I’ll never forget the first time my then boyfriend (from Norway) was having trouble with his tv reception. I said without even thinking “you need some rabbit ears”. He looked at me like I was crazy! 🐰 😂
In restaurants they often refer to potatoes as smashed, especially if they are left chunkier and aren’t whipped with a mixer, but rather just smashed with a potato masher.
Miesque1973 I almost always just use the potato masher and then finish up with a rubber spatula. It takes a lot for me to actually pull out a mixer! 😂😂😂
@@PapaLynn1 Even whipping them can be hard, what with having arthritis in my shoulders, but I do like preparing them. Ultimate comfort food, with smoked sausage and corn... Yum!
Bbabcock8 mash is what you call the barrel of ingredients that you leave and let ferment before it’s distilled. I can smell it just thinking about it 🌽
@@rbfoster it’s called mash ... but it was referred to as “none of your business,” or “stay out grown folks business,” or “not for you.” Never actually referred to by name lol
Mash is the slurry of high sugar substance which is cooked and then distilled into liquor. Moonshine is made from corn 🌽 mash. You make different liquors using different mashes. Wheat mash, potato mash is often used to make vodka, apple mash makes apple jack whiskey.
"Fit to be tied" has this connotation: To be furious; to be fighting mad. The kind of anger where you need to be physically restrained to keep from harming others, or keep from smashing your fist into a wall. Over time, the expression has come to mean intense frustration or anger (such as that violence might result), & is used to convey that impression, even if the person being described never gets violent. (More of a humorous use.) Literally, "fit to be tied" means suitable/requiring to be restrained/bound.
I live in Alabama and work with a young lady from Britain and her accent is adorable ! Having said that you’d be surprised at a lot of the stuff we say that’s the same .
"Fixin'" actually has 2 meanings in the South: 1) "Getting ready to" (as you said), or 2) Food (only called "fixins") As in "We're going to have a great Southern meal with all the fixin's" - this means all the side dishes that go with the main entree.
"Fit to be tied" is a phrase that is very common in the upper middle west...not just "down south". I think with the internet and so many American (and British) programs available on the various media outlets, there are probably more and more words that are becoming mutually understandable. I think you just proved that.
At K P-- in the earliest days of TV remotes, they used a tuning fork to send out an audio signal--there was a spring loaded thing that made a loud click as it released and struck the tuning fork. They had forks that generated two frequencies--one for channel up and channel down. Volume was still done with a knob on the on the set
That's a good example for the actual use of the word. After all these years I have forgotten the actual definition of the word. Typically since yonder refers to something we can't see, that use wouldn't work. We typically won't use yonder if we can actually see it.
As an Alabama native y'all should also watch videos about Alabama Crimson Tide Football. Especially the history of the Iron Bowl. You will get a real understanding of the culture here.
@@sethelrod9099 There's an old joke that says something like, "Yeah, Atlanta is great. The only problem is that once you leave the city limits, you're in Georgia." Not all that funny, right, but it captures what you're talking about.
I am loving these videos! Michigan is probably the only part of the midwest that is infatuated with their peninsula. As an Ohioan, it hurts my heart when you lump us together🤭 (It's a university sports thing.) Go Bucks!
LoL I absolutely love this .. I’m from Alabama and I seriously laughed through this whole video 😂 I love how you knew most of the words , hilarious.. and I love the southern accents 😂🙌🏻❤️
Fixin' would more specifically mean "getting ready". For instance "I'm fixin to make breakfast" actually means "I am going to start cooking breakfast" or "I'm fixin to go shopping" means "I am leaving now to do the shopping". So the act of preparing to do something not a prerequisite before doing it. Also "fit to be tied" meaning angry in a round about manner refers to restraining from doing something violent. As in "when she cheated on me I was fit to be tied" meaning "when she cheated I wanted to slap the sh** out of her".
The idea behind of "Fit to be tied" meaning to be extremely angry, is that the person so described is in such a state of emotional anger that they need to be restrained (as in tied up) to protect themselves or others.
“Fit to be tied”: Someone is so angry, that they may need to be tied up to keep from hurting someone. Not literally (usually), but it’s where the phrase comes from.
A lot of people in Alabama say get me a "buggy" when they go to the store. I never liked that term, so I always went to the trouble of saying shopping cart.
The "couple" thing is common here in the Ohio River Valley (Southern Ohio in my case), too. Being upper-Appalachia, we often have a lot in common with deeper-southern dialects. Some cities in this area that most people think of as "northern" freak out when they hear people in Pittsburgh or Cincinnati sounding rather southern, but that's how it is.
Love this video. Im from Alabama, and this was spot on. In Alabama, we are very heavily of British descent. I think this is why some of the accents are similar. Our accent is sometimes referred to as the kings speak. Also, its known that British actors are much better at doing southern accents in movies than northern actors that have heritage from places like Germany, Italy, or northern parts of Europe.
Wait, how the heck can "yonder" be Alabama slang? It's been in the language several times as long as English-speaking people have been in Alabama. Seriously, "yonder" was one of the older words in the language when Chaucer was a little boy. I've never heard of "smashed potatoes", I think that may be Atlanta-area slang, or something. I mean, the meaning is obvious, but. The idea behind "fit to be tied" is that you're in such a state, you should be tied up for a while to prevent you from harming yourself or others. It's much more emphatic than just "angry". "Livid" is somewhere in between.
I guess Alabamans are the only ones who still use "yonder"? As a Canadian I certainly know what it means, but I never use it except maybe ironically while putting on a southern drawl.
Hi Joel and Lia - I recently discovered your channel and am enjoying your videos more than I can express. I'm a born and raised Canadian but half British and have many friends and family members in the UK. England is my second home and I'm missing it desperately this year because of travel restrictions - it's the first year in almost a decade that I haven't made it across the pond! Listening to you two banter makes missing my loved ones a little more bearable. So thank you for your enthusiasm, your humour, and of course your sarcasm. Never stop taking the mick! PS - I have a linguistics degree too so your vids about language are my favourites :)
I am a lifelong resident of Alabama. We actually have two big college football teams here. University of Alabama - Roll Tide - mascot is an elephant. University of Auburn - War Eagle - mascots are both an eagle and a tiger. People are very serious about football here and it can become very heated between fans. The rivalry is so great that an Alabama fan poisoned and killed trees on the Auburn campus. The trees that were killed were traditionally rolled with tp when Auburn won football games. I know some people who would not date/marry someone because they are a fan of the opposite team. I do not think there will be college football this year due to COVID-19. Keep an eye on how people react as I am sure it will be very interesting. Much love from Alabama!!
My last comment before I move on for the night is a general appreciation to those people who chimed in positively and reminded me why I miss Alabama so much. Y'all made me so homesick in a good way. And I loved all the other people around the US who had a connection to the usage of many of the words. Isn't it funny how in most conversations we all look down on other regions for how they speak, and yet so many of us say oh we say that all the time here? Too often Alabama gets such a bad rap and seems like a different world. Didn't seem like that today to many people ... perhaps that was intentional. Maybe we aren't that different, and should get along better in grand scheme of this country, right? I often look forward to this channel just to see how many times we all say or think the same things, no matter where we're from, but somehow don't seem as of one culture when we talk among ourselves. Fascinating. Well, good night folks. I'm fixin' to go to bed. Roll Tide!
I am from North Carolina and we also use kinfolk. It means who are you related to by blood, including allied families. In North Carolina; when your grandmother asks your friend where she is from, she doesn't mean a city or state. It means where are your people from, what country your ancestors are from. Many people in the South know where their ancestors lived before coming to the British colonies or to the US.
Smashed potatoes are baked smashed seasoned and rebaked. Not the same as boiled and then mashed 😁 love you guys doing these slang terms you make me laugh
I got confused by the Coke thing in the south too! Go to a restaurant, order a Coke...they say what kind....I say "a Coca-Cola Like the brand?" Hate Pepsi and decry when it's called Coke.😂😂
I'm from Oklahoma and my family had always used the phrase "A couple a three", meaning more that 2 if possible but not a lot. I failed to pass this on to my son who went to the store for me one day and brought back 6! FYI - 6 is a lot! lol
Heap can also be a noun and refer to a pile the things are in or used as a verb. In the case of living things such as "The boys who were fighting piled on him like a heap" or "the sleeping puppies were heaped up on the floor".
