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Appalachian speak

Guest

2012/10/29 - 8:15pm

Maybe some of you can help with the origin or any of these words. I was born and raised in S.E Ky and grew up hearing this words daily in the context I offered.

1. yaggering- ?arguing, loud boisterous; My grandmother yelling at us "you kids stop that yaggering now"

2. nus or nussin- My grandmother hands me my baby sister (I was 7) "here, nus this baby while I go out to the kitchen"

3. drekley- Was used I'll be back drekely, I thought it meant later but as an adult I believe it was meant to be directly.

4. kivers- Grand father used to call covers.

I "googled" Yaggering and found it in a summary Ky court case where a witness states he "saw the victim exit the barn, yaggering with the two defendants". I also found it in summary text on a couple of books, used in the same context as above. I have a feeling that yaggering is German in origin. The others I'm not so sure. Thanks.

I love the show and hope you can provide some background on these words.

Terri

EmmettRedd

859 Posts

(Offline)

2012/10/30 - 7:40am

I think drekley and kivers are simply modified pronounciations of 'directly' and 'covers'. I suspect that nus is a modified pronounciation of 'nurse'. I do not have a clue about yaggering.

Emmett

Nina

5 Posts

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2012/10/31 - 9:50am

tlcINdy said
Maybe some of you can help with the origin or any of these words. I was born and raised in S.E Ky and grew up hearing this words daily in the context I offered.
1. yaggering- ?arguing, loud boisterous; My grandmother yelling at us "you kids stop that yaggering now"
2. nus or nussin- My grandmother hands me my baby sister (I was 7) "here, nus this baby while I go out to the kitchen"

"nurse" in the sense of "(at)tend to" not "breastfeed"

3. drekley- Was used I'll be back drekely, I thought it meant later but as an adult I believe it was meant to be directly.
"directly"

4. kivers- Grand father used to call covers.
"covers"

Not sure about "yaggering" but the others are just words spoken with a particular accent. I like this question because the words sound like some people I know and when I read "nuss" especially it is in their voices.

Guest

2014/01/18 - 11:47am

I found this from the Dictionary of American Regional English- but still NOT the ORIGIN of the word

http://dare.wisc.edu/?q=node/466

YAGGER

yagger v, hence vbl n yaggering, n yaggerings [Cf EDD yaggle v. 1 â€œTo wrangle; to quarrelâ€; cf Intro â€œLanguage Changesâ€ IV.4] esp KY

To talk excessively, noisily, or angrily; of an animal: to bark or growl threateningly.

1901 Youth's Companion 31 Oct 573 NV, The bears increased their threats and yaggerings until the little caÃ±on roared with the horrid noise. 1917 in 2007 (acc) Lexisâ€“Nexis Legal Research State Case Law: KY (Internet), He heard a conversation between the two which he terms â€œyaggering.â€ It is not explained what he means by that term, but we suppose it was some general talk passing between the two such as occurs between persons more or less intoxicated. 1922 Cobb Kinfolks 44 KY, Times I would sull up like a possum while / The travelers would yagger to theirselves. 1944 PADS 2.22 sAppalachians, Yagger [jÃ¦gÉš]. . . To cavil. â€œOh, I wouldn't yagger about a little thing like that.â€ 1949 Hornsby Lonesome Valley 8 eKY, Do this! This! This! Do that! That! That! Yagger, yagger every minute of the time. Ibid 82, Crit had a good right to quarrel about Lucindy that morning after the way she yaggered at him in front of Johnny. Ibid 147, When girls got together they cut up worse than a bunch of pups romping in the yard, hanging on to each other and yaggering. 1978 Hiser Quare Appalachia 181 eKY, I went to bed . . , a-leavin the three women a-settin in front of the far a-yaggerin like women folks will at ain't seed one another in a spell.

And I finally found this from the English dialect Dictionary archived https://archive.org/stream/englishdialectdi06wriguoft#page/562/mode/2up

Yaggle -meaning to argue or quarrel...would have sworn it was german.

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