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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl

8529 Posts

Frannie
Green County Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts

Posted - Apr 08 2008 :  06:50:21 AM  Show Profile
one of the little 'booklets' that i picked up in my book shoppin' yesterday by R. Gerald Alvey.

There are several books in this series .. and was made possible through funding from the national Endowment for the Humanities and The Kentucky Humanities Council.

1989 .. Published by The University Press of Kentucky

this is jus' a little short one and i read the whole thing last night.


This book is abouty folk culture and folklore in Kentucky.
Some of it reminds me of sayings and beliefs i heard from my own daddy's family who were raised on a farm in rural Virginia. Some of it is certainly new to me .. much of it 'southern' in style .. but these sayings, rhymes, songs, tall tales, supersitions and riddles were all collected from Kentucky families.

Reading it .. i have a better understanding of the 'ways' and lifestyles of my new kentucky families.

It has been almost 20 years since this book was published .. but much of what i read .. i still observe (and hear) in today's Kentucky.

I'll share passages from it from time to time .. and it is great 'fodder' for my dolly 'stories' too!

Whether or not you are from Kentucky .. i think you would enjoy this book. (i collect OHIO books for my daughter, Wednesday and family)



True Friends * Frannie

HEAR MY STORIES
come, visit my:
"GATHERING ROOM" ..
http://freedomvalleyfarm.blogspot.com

adopt a 'rag-chile'
http://sistermercysfoundlinhome.blogspot.com

treasures .. new and olde .. up for adoption:
http://mudpiemanormercantile.blogspot.com



CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl

8529 Posts

Frannie
Green County Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts

Posted - Apr 08 2008 :  06:53:20 AM  Show Profile
in the "introduction" of this book .. it speaks about 'folk culture and folklore' in Kentucky.

"Before talking about folk culture, we need to understand what culture is. Culture is a body of knowledge shared by a group of people. It is also how they learn or acquire that knowledge and how they express that knowledge with one another.

Culture includes the way people talk, dress, cook, eat and act. Culture includes people's beliefs about God and the supernatural, and how they view themselves and other people.

Culture also includes all the material objects people create, such as barns, fences, houses, quilts, and musical intrruments.

DO YOU HAVE SOME SPECIAL 'FOLK CULTURE AND FOLKLORE' THAT YOU HAVE LEARNED ALONG THE WAY .. IN YOUR HOME STATE?

True Friends * Frannie

HEAR MY STORIES
come, visit my:
"GATHERING ROOM" ..
http://freedomvalleyfarm.blogspot.com

adopt a 'rag-chile'
http://sistermercysfoundlinhome.blogspot.com

treasures .. new and olde .. up for adoption:
http://mudpiemanormercantile.blogspot.com



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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl

8529 Posts

Frannie
Green County Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts

Posted - Apr 08 2008 :  06:56:57 AM  Show Profile
FOLK SPEECH: People sometimes say Kentuckians talk funny. Kentuckians may think outsiders sound funny. The truth is, neither talks 'funny'. They just talk in a different way.

This book uses YOU ALL .. ya'll .. YOU-ALL as an example of different ways of saying this term. I was raised saying:

ya'll (very southern!) my Virginia and Georgia family southern roots! I once went to a summer camp in Pennsylvania .. and in one of my sentences, i said 'ya'll'. the kids said that sounded 'funny' .. ha! i simply replied: "sounds 'funny' comin' from YOUSE GUYS!!"



True Friends * Frannie

HEAR MY STORIES
come, visit my:
"GATHERING ROOM" ..
http://freedomvalleyfarm.blogspot.com

adopt a 'rag-chile'
http://sistermercysfoundlinhome.blogspot.com

treasures .. new and olde .. up for adoption:
http://mudpiemanormercantile.blogspot.com




Edited by - CabinCreek-Kentucky on Apr 08 2008 06:58:40 AM
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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl

8529 Posts

Frannie
Green County Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts

Posted - Apr 08 2008 :  06:58:16 AM  Show Profile
We learn a lot of folk culture in an informal, causual, natural process. We soak it up; nobody really 'teaches' us. The way we talk, our dialect, is learned or passed on in a natural, traditional way.



True Friends * Frannie

HEAR MY STORIES
come, visit my:
"GATHERING ROOM" ..
http://freedomvalleyfarm.blogspot.com

adopt a 'rag-chile'
http://sistermercysfoundlinhome.blogspot.com

treasures .. new and olde .. up for adoption:
http://mudpiemanormercantile.blogspot.com



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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl

8529 Posts

Frannie
Green County Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts

Posted - Apr 08 2008 :  07:02:13 AM  Show Profile
ELITE CULTURE: is learned in schools or other official and formal ways. When techers try to get us to speak the "correct" way .. they are teaching us ELITE culture. A teacher is supposed to teach ELITE culture.

We need to know all sorts of ways to speak. If you gave a public talk, you would not speak the same way ou do when you are at home. A public talk is ELITE culture. Speaking at home is usually FOLK culture. Both kinds of speech are perfectly correct, in their own place.

True Friends * Frannie

HEAR MY STORIES
come, visit my:
"GATHERING ROOM" ..
http://freedomvalleyfarm.blogspot.com

adopt a 'rag-chile'
http://sistermercysfoundlinhome.blogspot.com

treasures .. new and olde .. up for adoption:
http://mudpiemanormercantile.blogspot.com



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CabinCreek-Kentucky
True Blue Farmgirl

8529 Posts

Frannie
Green County Kentucky
USA
8529 Posts

Posted - Apr 08 2008 :  07:07:25 AM  Show Profile
For example .. a Kentuckian might say to his wife, very proudly:

"i ain['t never owed nothin' to nobody at no time!"

Another Kentuckian, while asking a bank president for a loan, might say: I have never been in debt in my entire life."

Both are saying the same thing. They are just saying it in different ways. The first way is folk speech or what we learn at home and from our friends. The second way is elite culture speech or how we learn to talk in school.

Even if those two Kentuckians say the same thing, they way they sound might be different.


(i had a friend years ago from 'them thar hills of West Virginny' (HER WORDS!) .. i remember one day a bunch of us 'gurlfrenz' were having lunch .. and she ordered a "KAOWK" ... it finally took her pointing it out on a menu that she wanted a COKE .. not even US .. her friends knew what she was asking for! (what a sweetie pie she was!) i worked with her a ba-jillion years ago. She finally 'upped' and went back to West Virginny .. and no one ever heard from her again. (but 'her' KAOWK story has been re-told many times when the subject of 'dialect' comes up). she is gone but not forgotten! xo

do YOU have any 'dialect' stories to tell?

True Friends * Frannie

HEAR MY STORIES
come, visit my:
"GATHERING ROOM" ..
http://freedomvalleyfarm.blogspot.com

adopt a 'rag-chile'
http://sistermercysfoundlinhome.blogspot.com

treasures .. new and olde .. up for adoption:
http://mudpiemanormercantile.blogspot.com



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