The Atlanta School Board, feeling left out by the fuss over "Ebonics," has decided to designate Southern slang, or "Hickphonics," as a language to be taught in all Southern schools. Here are excerpts from the Hickphonics/English dictionary:
HEIDI — noun. Greeting.
HIRE YEW – Complete sentence. Remainder of greeting.
Usage: "Heidi. Hire yew."
BARD — verb. Past tense of the infinitive "to borrow."
Usage: "My brother bard my pickup truck."
JAWJUH — noun. A state just north of Florida. Capital is Hot-lanta.
Usage: "My brother from Jawjuh bard my pickup truck."
MUNTS — noun. A calendar division.
Usage: "My brother from Jawjuh bard my pickup truck, and I ain’t herd from him in munts."
IGNERT — adjective. Not smart. See "Arkansas native."
Usage: "Them N-C-TWO-A boys sure are ignert!"
RANCH — noun. A tool used for tight’nin’ bolts.
Usage: "I think I left my ranch in the back of that pickup truck my brother from Jawjuh bard a few munts ago."
ALL — noun. A petroleum-based lubricant.Â
Usage: "I sure hope my brother from Jawjuh puts all in my pickup truck."
FAR — noun. A conflagration.
Usage: "If my brother from Jawjuh don’t change the all in my pickup truck, that things gonna catch far."
BAHS — noun. A supervisor.
Usage: "If you don’t stop reading these Southern words and git back to work (or studying), your bahs is gonna far you!"
TAR — noun. A rubber wheel.
Usage: "Gee, I hope that brother of mine from Jawjuh don’t git a flat tar in my pickup truck."
TIRE — noun. A tall monument.
Usage: "Lord willin’ and the creek don’t rise, I sure do hope to see that Eiffel Tire in Paris sometime."
RETARD — Verb. To stop working.
Usage: "My grampaw retard at age 65."
TARRED — adverb. Exhausted.
Usage: "I just flew in from Hot-lanta, and boy my arms are tarred."
FAT — noun, verb. 1. a battle or combat. 2. to engage in battle or combat.
ARE — pronoun. Possessive case of we used as a predicate adjective.
RATS — noun. Entitled power or privilege.
Usage: "We Southerners are willin’ to fat for are rats."
FARN — adjective. Not local.
Usage: "I cuddint unnerstand a wurd he sed… must be from some farn country."
DID — adjective. Not alive.
Usage: "He’s did, Jim."
EAR — noun. A colorless, odorless gas (unless you are in LA).
Usage: "He cain’t breath … give ‘im some ear!"
BOB WAR — noun. A sharp, twisted cable.
Usage: "Boy, stay away from that bob war fence."
JEW HERE — Noun and verb contraction.Â
Usage: "Jew here that my brother from Jawjuh got a job with that bob war fence cump’ny?"
HAZE — a contraction.
Usage: "Is Bubba smart?" "Nah… haze ignert."Â
SEED — verb, past tense.
VIEW — contraction: verb and pronoun.
Usage: "I ain’t never seed New York City… view?"Â
HEAVY DEW — phrase. A request for action.
Usage: "Kin I heavy dew me a favor?"Â
GUMMIT — noun. A bureaucratic institution.
Usage: "Them gummit boys shore are ignert."