4 ms·

I am American and have a slight Southern/rural USA accent (much less slight when visiting family), and the responses I get vary so wildly. Some Irish women I me

I am American and have a slight Southern/rural USA accent (much less slight when visiting family), and the responses I get vary so wildly. Some Irish women I met in a bar absolutely loved it, while in big cities in the USA I am sometimes assumed to be an absolute moron.

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
I get that, a lot, around here; especially when I say "howdy!". In the real South, Marylanders are considered damn Yankees. In New York, we're considered damn rednecks.
- zasdffaa 4y ago
  I'm a brit, I don't know much about stuff, so, what is implied by 'yankee'? I wasn't aware it was still used - Is it an insult? And something to do with the civil war? Why are you considered a 'damn Yankee' by Marylanders? I assumed redneck was an insult but it seems not always from what I've heard. I guess it is here. But what does it mean? These may seem odd questions but I truly don't know. TIA
  - ilc 4y ago
    "Yankee" is a term used in the south for a northerner. It is usually not used a positive way. Much the same, "redneck" is not meant in a positive way up north. As with many insults, the group the insult is hurled at can own it, and take it up as a term of almost endearment.
    - jen20 4y ago
      It’s also used in the north no? New York even has a baseball team featuring it, which may be more or less positive depending on which borough you’re from.
  - i_am_jl 4y ago
    Some background before I answer your question: Between the "North" and the "South" on the Eastern seaboard there is a central area that is in some ways renounced by both "regions". There's some remainder of the Civil War/Mason Dixon line there, but it doesn't follow that delineation today. For example, in New York someone who grew up in rural Maryland would likely be viewed culturally as a "Southerner". But so would someone from Western Pennsylvania. So would someone from West Virginia, despite West Virginia and Pennsylvania being part of the Union. People in the Deep South would view residents of these areas as "Yankees". In both cases what is meant is that "Your cultural experience is different enough from ours that you're not 'us', you're 'them'." where 'them' is Southern or Northern, wherever you're not. The thing is, there's a big chunk of the mid-Atlantic seaboard that is unique, not traditionally Southern or Northern. "Redneck" is usually pejorative for a working class, white, Southerner. When rednecks say "redneck" it usually isn't an insult, but when others use the word it usually is. Calling somewhere a "Redneck bar" is fine, but calling someone in that bar a "redneck" is usually not. "Yankee" is just a term for Northerner. I'm sure you could say it as an insult, and I'm sure some people think "yankee" is an insult, but if someone calls me a yankee I'd happily agree with them.
    - antod 4y ago
      >"Redneck" is usually pejorative for a working class, white, Southerner. When rednecks say "redneck" it usually isn't an insult, but when others use the word it usually is. Calling somewhere a "Redneck bar" is fine, but calling someone in that bar a "redneck" is usually not. Here in NZ, "redneck" seems to be morphing away from the "hick" or working class definitions to more of a "racist bigot" connotation that could be applied more widely.
  - mhink 4y ago
    tl;dr- the joke here is that a Southerner would think Maryland is "the North", and a Northerner would think Maryland is "the South". "Yankee" is/was a derogatory term for Northerners, most typically used by Southerners during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. If you want to get technical, it applies most strongly to New Englanders, but when used by a Southerner, it's a pretty broad brush. Nowadays, you'd be hard pressed to actually find someone using the term "yankee" in any sort of serious or angry way. It's much more common to hear it in a tongue-in-cheek way, which is how the parent commenter was using it. "Damn Yankee" is something of a stereotypical phrase you might hear from that time period, especially Reconstruction, when there were still a lot of hard feelings about the war, as well as about Northerners who moved south to participate in Reconstruction, often known as "carpetbaggers" and who were thought of as profiteering from the situation. But nowadays it's more of a cultural joke, or meme. Like for example, if someone were to recommend me a barbecue restaurant in, like, Vermont or something, I might say "I don't know if I trust a damn Yankee to make good barbecue!" (To be fair, I would have very low expectations all the same. Barbecue just isn't the same outside the South.) As for "redneck": it's still something of a disparaging term, and connotes poverty, poor education, and general backwardness. It's sorta like the word "hillbilly" or "country bumpkin", except with a more distinctly Southern vibe. However, it's been partially reclaimed and is often used by country folks to refer to themselves. However, it's not exactly a term used only by Northerners- it wouldn't be at all surprising to hear (for instance) a Southern doctor or lawyer grumbling about "a bunch of stupid rednecks" causing trouble.
    - axus 4y ago
      Washington, DC is the city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency.
      - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
        > Washington, DC is the city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency. Man, I wish I could multi-upvote...
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago

I get that, a lot, around here; especially when I say "howdy!". In the real South, Marylanders are considered damn Yankees. In New York, we're considered damn rednecks.

zasdffaa 4y ago
I'm a brit, I don't know much about stuff, so, what is implied by 'yankee'? I wasn't aware it was still used - Is it an insult? And something to do with the civil war? Why are you considered a 'damn Yankee' by Marylanders? I assumed redneck was an insult but it seems not always from what I've heard. I guess it is here. But what does it mean? These may seem odd questions but I truly don't know. TIA
- ilc 4y ago
  "Yankee" is a term used in the south for a northerner. It is usually not used a positive way. Much the same, "redneck" is not meant in a positive way up north. As with many insults, the group the insult is hurled at can own it, and take it up as a term of almost endearment.
  - jen20 4y ago
    It’s also used in the north no? New York even has a baseball team featuring it, which may be more or less positive depending on which borough you’re from.
- i_am_jl 4y ago
  Some background before I answer your question: Between the "North" and the "South" on the Eastern seaboard there is a central area that is in some ways renounced by both "regions". There's some remainder of the Civil War/Mason Dixon line there, but it doesn't follow that delineation today. For example, in New York someone who grew up in rural Maryland would likely be viewed culturally as a "Southerner". But so would someone from Western Pennsylvania. So would someone from West Virginia, despite West Virginia and Pennsylvania being part of the Union. People in the Deep South would view residents of these areas as "Yankees". In both cases what is meant is that "Your cultural experience is different enough from ours that you're not 'us', you're 'them'." where 'them' is Southern or Northern, wherever you're not. The thing is, there's a big chunk of the mid-Atlantic seaboard that is unique, not traditionally Southern or Northern. "Redneck" is usually pejorative for a working class, white, Southerner. When rednecks say "redneck" it usually isn't an insult, but when others use the word it usually is. Calling somewhere a "Redneck bar" is fine, but calling someone in that bar a "redneck" is usually not. "Yankee" is just a term for Northerner. I'm sure you could say it as an insult, and I'm sure some people think "yankee" is an insult, but if someone calls me a yankee I'd happily agree with them.
  - antod 4y ago
    >"Redneck" is usually pejorative for a working class, white, Southerner. When rednecks say "redneck" it usually isn't an insult, but when others use the word it usually is. Calling somewhere a "Redneck bar" is fine, but calling someone in that bar a "redneck" is usually not. Here in NZ, "redneck" seems to be morphing away from the "hick" or working class definitions to more of a "racist bigot" connotation that could be applied more widely.
- mhink 4y ago
  tl;dr- the joke here is that a Southerner would think Maryland is "the North", and a Northerner would think Maryland is "the South". "Yankee" is/was a derogatory term for Northerners, most typically used by Southerners during the Civil War and Reconstruction eras. If you want to get technical, it applies most strongly to New Englanders, but when used by a Southerner, it's a pretty broad brush. Nowadays, you'd be hard pressed to actually find someone using the term "yankee" in any sort of serious or angry way. It's much more common to hear it in a tongue-in-cheek way, which is how the parent commenter was using it. "Damn Yankee" is something of a stereotypical phrase you might hear from that time period, especially Reconstruction, when there were still a lot of hard feelings about the war, as well as about Northerners who moved south to participate in Reconstruction, often known as "carpetbaggers" and who were thought of as profiteering from the situation. But nowadays it's more of a cultural joke, or meme. Like for example, if someone were to recommend me a barbecue restaurant in, like, Vermont or something, I might say "I don't know if I trust a damn Yankee to make good barbecue!" (To be fair, I would have very low expectations all the same. Barbecue just isn't the same outside the South.) As for "redneck": it's still something of a disparaging term, and connotes poverty, poor education, and general backwardness. It's sorta like the word "hillbilly" or "country bumpkin", except with a more distinctly Southern vibe. However, it's been partially reclaimed and is often used by country folks to refer to themselves. However, it's not exactly a term used only by Northerners- it wouldn't be at all surprising to hear (for instance) a Southern doctor or lawyer grumbling about "a bunch of stupid rednecks" causing trouble.
  - axus 4y ago
    Washington, DC is the city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency.
    - ChrisMarshallNY 4y ago
      > Washington, DC is the city of Northern charm and Southern efficiency. Man, I wish I could multi-upvote...
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]