Tag Archives: Southern

You Can’t Get Blood From a Turnip

Occupation: Computer Technology Services
Residence: Salem, VA
Language: English

Text: “You can’t get blood from a turnip” (Proverb/folk speech)

Context:

K is my sisters fiance, they’ve been together for about 9 years so he is pretty much a part of the family already. He lives in Salem, Virginia and grew up right by Salem, in Roanoke County. He often heard this piece from his father or grandfather when asking for money from them as a child.

K- “You can’t get blood from a turnip, you know like the vegetable. My father says this all the time really, I’ve heard it all my childhood and when I was little I never understood what it meant”

Interviewer- What does it mean?

K- “It means you can’t get any money out of someone who doesn’t have any (begins laughing) I would ask my dad for money when I was little and he would say ‘you can’t get blood from a turnip son’…yeah that was always pretty funny”

Analysis:


The proverb “You can’t get blood from a turnip” is an expression used to convey the idea that someone cant extract something valuable or useful from a source that lacks that particular quality or substance. In this case, the metaphorical image is of trying to obtain blood, which is often associated with vitality or essential components, from a turnip, which is a root vegetable with no blood or valuable content. In this particular setting the person was comparing the blood to money and the turnip, their father/his wallet. The saying is often used to emphasize the futility of expecting more than what is realistically possible from a given situation, person, or resource. It suggests that one should not demand or expect something that is simply not present or available. It encourages a practical and realistic approach to expectations and outcomes.

My Dogs Are Barking

Occupation: Middle school teacher
Residence: Salem, VA
Language: English

Text: “My dogs are barking” Folk speech/colloquialism

Context:

M is my older sister who is a middle school teacher. While she has heard this expression before, it has had a resurgence with her students recently as it become a trend to call your toes “dogs”.

M- “My dogs are barking. (Laughs) I know it’s a funny one and it’s has even become a meme nowadays with my kids, my kids at school I mean. They love to say it if they’re tired or were running in gym. It means that your feet really hurt.”

Interviewer – Can you remember a time when you have heard it?

M- “Yeah, actually, Gran (our grandmother) would say it all the time when we were growing up. I was probably like 12 when I remember her saying it but you were probably too young that’s why you don’t remember. But yeah she would sit down and say ‘whew! my dogs are barking’ after we would take a walk or if she had been standing while cooking in the kitchen for a long time”

Analysis:

In my interpretation I would guess that not only does this have to do with your feet being in pain, but also with them possibly being stinky. It is a pretty silly phrase, especially when used today with a younger audience. I would guess though that someone might say their dogs are barking if they had sweaty feet and the odor was giving off something that would alert you to their smell like a bark. However, it does make sense in the idea that people will say a part of their body is ‘barking’ in pain, which in this case would mean that their feet are barking in pain.

Country as Cowshit

Performance Date: 2/22/2024
Language: English

Text: (Folk Simile/Colloquialism)

“Country as Cowshit”

Context:

T is my mother who lives T heard this from neighbor/friend who lived and grew up deep in the Appalachian Mountains. She lives in Salem, Virginia, but grew up all around the country traveling with her family as her father’s job took them to new locations often. She has lots of folklore experiences from her own family to ones she has heard while traveling and those from the friends she surrounds herself with. She decided to share this simile/colloquialism when I asked for a piece of folklore she has heard a lot.

T- “When someone is describing someone they can’t understand because they talk so country they’ll saw they’re Country as Cow Shit.”

Interviewer- Which means they are from so far out in the country that you can hardly understand what they are saying, like they have a really deep accent?

T- “That’s what country as cow shit means, it means they talk like a hick, yeah, just really hard to understand them, they’re just very country.”

T told a story she was told by her friend who she heard it from. T said that he would talk to his wife and call her name and his wife would call his name back, and no one else knew what their names were because they couldn’t understand what they were saying. He would call her and people thought her name was “Janey” and people thought that his name was “Mack” (neither names are their actual names).

Analysis:

In my interpretation this can be seen as something that is silly and said lightheartedly back and forth to one another, or it could come off as an insult to a group of people. I have heard this expression myself before, and in most cases it is other people who are country (but not as country) have said this either about someone or right in front of them. When looking it up, it seems to actually be the title of a country song, on Spotify and Apple Music. The word “cowshit” is similar, but not as popular in my experience as “horseshit” or “bullshit”, both of which are usually used when calling someone’s bluff. The word is described in Green’s Dictionary of Slang as an unpopular person, or nonsense/rubbish. I think the second definition fits best, at least in this saying, as it is saying that the way speak is as country as nonsense.

“Hen-pecked”

Nationality: American
Age: 48
Occupation: Social Worker
Residence: Houston, Texas
Performance Date: 02/21/2023
Primary Language: English

1. Text (folk metaphor)

“Hen-pecked”

2. Context 

My informant heard this phrase often from her grandmother. They were born and raised in the south, Louisiana specifically, before moving to Texas. She recalls an old saying that states that you don’t let your boyfriend or husband carry your purse for that mean he’s “hen-pecked.” She further elaborated on how hen-pecked often referred to when a man “is not the head of household”, but the woman is and “as a woman, you have taken his power from him.” She heard this when she was a child growing up as a black woman in the south during the 80s. 

3. Analysis/YOUR interpretation

From my understanding of the phrase, it seems to be rooted in southern misogynistic beliefs. My informant was raised in a rural Texan community after her family moved from Louisiana. As someone who was born and also raised in Texas, I am aware of the stereotypes, traditions, and customs commonly associated. Being the head of the household typically entails the male figure is seen as the provider, masculine, and generally opposite of many stereotypical feminine traits associated with the women. So when a man holds his wife’s purse, these shared belief systems may consciously or subconsciously take hold resulting in narrow-minded beliefs. During the time my informant recalls these ideologies, hegemonic masculinity in the black community was apparent. Hegemonic masculinity at its core refers to the belief that men’s position in society remains dominant. This is often seen as the social pressures men have faced of being expected to depict a perfect “expression” of masculinity. The term hen-pecked means not seen as masculine but seen as subservient to one’s wife and therefore not upholding the hegemonic masculine standards. This is an oikotype of the original meaning. Hen-pecked originally came from the way hens are constantly pecking at the ground for food and the way a wife or girlfriend may nag at her significant other resulting in the man complying with the wife. It seems the term became used more generally not only referring to the woman pecking/nagging their partner, but anything done by the man which could be seen as subservient to women.

“Naked as a jaybird”

Nationality: American
Age: 20
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, California
Performance Date: 02/21/2023
Primary Language: English

1. Text (folk simile)

“Naked as a jaybird”

2. Context 

My informant heard this piece frequently from her grandmother. She grew up in rural Tennessee, a small town with a population of about 900 people. If you’re going outside and looked like you’d be cold based on what clothes you have on, she’d often heard her grandmother say “Put some clothes on, you’re naked as a jaybird!” When asked, my informant made me aware that the phrase is not said in a joking manner, but rather just a normal, everyday phrase. When the phrase is used, she recalls that it is said in a more serious tone and in a way that doesn’t embrace nakedness as natural, but it is taken more negatively seeing it as a shock factor.

 3. Analysis/YOUR interpretation

The folk simile “Naked as a jaybird” to me, originally, seemed to imply one is fully nude. According to my informant’s rural Tennessee background, however, it is not used by her family in the same way. This is a prime example of Von Sydow’s proposed oikotypes as the meaning of this folk simile where one does not need to be fully nude, is a local variant of the original meaning that implies one is fully nude. The implication that the idiom does not always refer to a nude body, is a logical extension of the comparative method. The phrase is likely heard in more rural areas where there is more of a connection between animals and humans as opposed to cities. There also are no sexual connotations meant to go with this phrase, it is simply meant in a harmless way to say that someone simply isn’t dressed properly and should put on more clothes. When I first heard this saying, I immediately associated it with being another way to say that a person is nude but did not associate any sexual connotations. When you hear the phrase “naked as a jaybird”, are jaybirds naked? Birds don’t have clothes hence they are always “naked” and relating nakedness to a bird, lessens sexual connotations.