Oh, but Charlie WAS singing FAR, FAR! How else would you say it?

It is amazing and encouraging to me that regional dialects are still surviving in this day of plain vanilla television and radio homogenization of language. Even here in North Central Arkansas, one cannot hear the language of the people on television, except in the home made commercials, but step out into the streets and schools, and the language is little changed from what it was before the outside influences began to encroach. What they are talking ABOUT may have changed, but the way they say the words and the localisms are still hanging on. Just this evening (last evening, now) I was discussing this very subject with a couple of high school(pronounce that hahh school)students. One of the students was, as the locals say, from off, meaning they spoke the language differently where they had lived before. That meant, of course, that some local expressions would not be immediately clear to them. I realize that I am getting off topic here, but I think that somewhere down the line we really ought to explore this subject more fully. Transcribing lyrics is made all the more difficult when a person from one area tries to figure out what someone from another area is saying. It may as well be a foreign language sometimes. (pronounce that one sometahms) I know that Stewie and I have talked about this very thing, while discussing lyrics of the Carter Family.

One last thing ~~ up in Illinois, where I lived before, a student would likely respond to a favor by a school secretary with a "Thanks, Donna." whereas here the phrase is almost invariably, "Thenk yeeouu, Miss Donna." regardless of whether Donna is married or not. (note that you is never pronounced as a single syllable, it's more like three or four ~~ trying to describe it is virtually impossible, but you'd know it if you heard it)