Hatfields and McCoys

[Garufa]

Boomhower ain't too far off the mark when you start talking to some of these hillbillies with a chaw in their mouth and a belly full of corn likker.

My neighbor comes to mind. He's a great guy but once he hits the sauce, starts dippin' and talking a mile a minute, I don't know what he's saying.

[CQB Elite]

I think if ol' Devil Anse Hatfield would have put a bullet in Uncle Vance's brain and had given the McCoys a new hog the whole shootin match could have been avoided.

The series was well done and fairly good entertainment. A mix of truth and hollywood as usual. I think Kevin Costner did a good job but every time they showed Devil Anse I kept waiting for him to move in with Native Americans and start dancing with wolves........

[Guest Lester Weevils]

Lester, I imagine if you went up to the Kentucky-West Viginia border in the 1870's you'd have no idea what those people where talking about. Even today if you go far back enough up into the hills and talk to some old-timer it's a nodding and smiling affair as trying to figure out what they're saying is a chore.

I've heard some of the recordings of Appalachian folk made back in the 1930's or so. Even then they recorded the older ones. Mostly uneducated people, as the vast majority of Scots-Irish that settled the region where. I know it's English but it's not easy to understand.

Boomhower ain't too far off the mark when you start talking to some of these hillbillies with a chaw in their mouth and a belly full of corn likker.

My neighbor comes to mind. He's a great guy but once he hits the sauce, starts dippin' and talking a mile a minute, I don't know what he's saying.

Thanks Garufa for the good ideas. Its even more amusing to imagine Sir Walter Raleigh speaking like Boomhower.

Am totally ignerant of the topic, but have read that spoken language can drift quicker and more drastically than the written word. Emphasize I'm totally ignerant of the topic.

Had read an article long ago claiming that arabic writing is well-understood over a wide geography, but tribes only a hundred miles apart may have difficulty understanding each other in spoken arabic. Similarly, was surprised to read that "old style" traditional Chinese and Japanese writing is close enough that either average citizen can read the text "close enough for rock'n'roll", though the language has drifted into two completely different tongues. Maybe the TV satellite channels will unify dialects? About anybody in the usa can understand a newscaster speaking the "universal newscaster dialect"?

Years ago there was a scottish fellow who wanted to buy an old sampler expander circuit board I had. We talked online on multiple occasions and his english was as good or better than my english. Then one day he called on the phone to seal the deal and I couldn't understand a word he was saying, and most likely he couldn't understand much of my southern drawl either. Have had similar experience with asian english-speakers-- They have perfect text english in emails, but when we meet face-to-face I can't understand them and they can't understand me. We need more Southern English teachers to go to Japan and China to teach the proper southern dialect of english!

Its easy to imagine that written records from a 19th century american would be easy to understand, though in spoken context we couldn't understand anything.

[TN Outlaw]

.In the movie, Cottontop was the admitted bastard of Ellison Hatfield, but I don't think they told who his mother was. Supposedly, it was Ellison's and Anderson's first cousin.

i wonder if thats why he was kind of mentally handicapped in the series?

[NRA]

finished watching last night! great show! even the wife watched it with me.

[Guest bkelm18]

i wonder if thats why he was kind of mentally handicapped in the series?

Randolph McCoy was married to his first cousin. Had about a dozen children.

[TN Outlaw]

Randolph McCoy was married to his first cousin. Had about a dozen children.

well they weren't the Smartest either lol

[Guest bkelm18]

Well they weren't as bad as Cotton Top.

[Steelharp]

well they weren't the Smartest either lol

Ah, but Charlie McCoy... a direct descendant... is one of the most brilliant musicians ever...

[Ramjo]

This is sorta off topic, but watching this series rekindled my interest in my geneology. I have traced records of one of my family names back to my 7th great grandfather. I found out I have relatives that fought in the revolutionary war, the war of 1812, and the civil war.

[TMF]

I hope the success of this series motivates the History Channel to do more like it. I thought it was well put together with good acting to boot.

[Guest bkelm18]

This is sorta off topic, but watching this series rekindled my interest in my geneology. I have traced records of one of my family names back to my 7th great grandfather. I found out I have relatives that fought in the revolutionary war, the war of 1812, and the civil war.

My grandfather used to be huge into genealogy. I of course had a ancestor who was a General in the Civil War. I believe my grandfather traced us back at least a thousand years to northern France. Not sure how he did it but he traveled a lot for research.

[Oh Shoot]

...Years ago there was a scottish fellow who wanted to buy an old sampler expander circuit board I had. We talked online on multiple occasions and his english was as good or better than my english. Then one day he called on the phone to seal the deal and I couldn't understand a word he was saying, and most likely he couldn't understand much of my southern drawl either. ....

Yeah, in Scotland years ago, about half the folks I met, no probs understanding them (except for different names of objects and whatnot), but the other half, wasn't like any form of English at all. Sort of the diff between "educated London Briitish" and blue collar Yorkshire (which also was largely a foreign language to my ear).

Oddly, even those damn tough to get folks seemed to understand me better both in North England and Scotland than I did them.

- OS

[media=]

[/media] Edited June 4, 2012 by OhShoot

[CQB Elite]

I'd like to see them do other mini-series as well. As far as the different dialects go- we have fairly different ones within our own part of the country. I grew up in the Florida Panhandle but when I talk with others from the South they all ask if I'm from Georgia. My doctor even pointed this out because he had a roommate in college that was from GA. He said it was the way I pronounced certain words, such as "our". Oddly enough, people that grew up outside the South all ask if I'm from Texas.

[dickenscpa]

I was playing XBox online about 4-5 years ago and I was playing against some guy from Lord knows where. We're talking back and forth and he finally says, "Dude. I gotta know. You from Middle TN or North GA?"

I had to laugh.

Brad