More features of the local dialects:

The double modal. The doubling of modal auxiliaries is somewhat widely known and identified with Southern speech, but I had never heard it “in the wild” until coming here. Unlike many other Southern dialectical features, it seems not to correlate with social class, at least insofar as I have been exposed to wide enough a range to say so. I don’t know if this is the result of upward mobility and the deterioration of the South’s old social classes, or if it was always thus. I have heard them most from Dr. Mullins (Executive Assistant to the Chancellor of Ole Miss; co-founder of the Mississippi Teacher Corps), who usually doubles his modals at least once or twice during every class he teaches. I have heard my students use them also, but much more rarely. Common examples are might could and might should. Past tenses are formed might’a could and might’a should. Dr. Mullins often says may can (it may can help you. . . .) A similar construction that I’ve had a hard time categorizing, though I don’t think it is strictly a double modal (a modified progressive?) is you don’t suppose to be, as in, you don’t suppose to be usin’ pencil anyway. Actually, that would more likely be said, you don’t suppose to be usin’ pencil noway.

Use of noway as anyway.

I’m is, meaning I am. An emphatic. Not used for simple predication (for that the copula would be dropped, or [with an aspectual distinction?] replaced with be). Viewing the verb system objectively, this is a rich addition, as the standard dialect has no special emphatic for to be (you can’t say I do am, unfortunately, as you can with other verbs) and the emphasis can only be expressed with intonation.

Blood meaning blood pressure, as in, I get faint ’cause my blood low. See sugar and sinuses in previous post.

To brag on x. I don’t think I’d ever heard brag with the preposition on (instead of about) before coming here. This might be a usage for a broad swath of the country rather than the South specially; I considered that perhaps my own dialect prefers the minority usage, but the Oxford American Dictionary reflects only mine, and a Google search for “brag about” returns 4.95 million hits, while one for “brag on” returns 230,000. Nevertheless, I’ve heard it used by very many people here, including those who are not from Mississippi, though I don’t think I’ve heard my mother use it, and she was raised in Nashville. Mississippians seem to use it exclusively.

Behind as a textual location, meaning after. When correcting sentences at the board, and students call out where to place, say, a comma, they say, for instance, behind ‘place’ rather than after ‘place.’ When seeking a location in a sentence, a preposition with a word in that sentence can only mean two things: before the word or after it. It nevertheless took me a while to understand that behind means after.

And, briefly, some slang:

Got ya covered or got ya faded (?), meaning, sure, or no problem.

To be straight, meaning, to understand one another, to have no problems, to be on the same page. As in, Do you understand? Is there a problem? Nah, we straight.

Bet (?) as an emphatic affirmative. It took me a very long time to understand what this word was, as it is pronounced quickly like an explosion through the lips, and the t may or may not become a light glottal stop. For a long time I thought it was beh or peh. It can be used to agree with something, or simply as a celebration. As in, Do you want to go to lunch five minutes early? Bet! or, upon receiving a scored test with high marks, Bet! Perhaps a contraction of you bet?

Gutter as adjective meaning hood, thug, gangsta, etc. Unfortunately used widely with some degree of approval or admiration. In a class discussion of September 11, the war in Iraq, and terrorism, in reference to the Jordanians who own and operate several gas stations here, We got A-rabs in Sardis, Mr. Pollack, but they straight gutta!

Womb, vulgar slang, as substantive for sexual intercourse (to get some womb). May or may not refer generally to female genitalia.

Crucial, meaning intense, serious, troubling, etc. That movie was crucial!

Somewhat more broadly on the subject of dialect, I read an interesting usage recently in some national magazine (I forget which — Smithsonian?). An educated adult, some teacher or researcher, said of something that it “reminds a boy that school is crucial to their mission in life.” I was struck by the pronoun. We are all accustomed to using the plural as a non-specific singular (“Somebody forgot to put their name on their paper.”), which is presumably to avoid the old, sexist use of the masculine when the sex of the antecedent is not specified. But in the sentence from the magazine, the sex of the antecedent is specified as masculine, and the plural is used anyway, which looks like the plural is perhaps becoming the non-specific third person pronoun, regardless of the specificity of the sex — which is to say, only specifically identified persons receive a gendered pronoun.