Apple Talk · 2:11pm Nov 2nd, 2015
Applejack has always been my least favorite of the main six, but it was hard to say exactly why. After a while I realized a big part of my problem with Applejack was how she talks. She sounds like a Canadian voice actress trying to mimic what she's heard on episodes of Hee Haw. Nobody talks like that. I grew up on a ranch here in Texas, and we didn't talk like that. Now, I can't rightly convey an accent in text, but I can give a few authentic suggestions for those of you wanting to write this kind of dialog. Thus I present:
The Apple Dictionary
y'all: You all, you guys. Always plural.
wal: well (as in “well now…”)
just: sounds like jist
bidness: business
mout'n: mountain
that (or them): Often used instead of "the".
ol': Old. Used often for anybody or anything that's well familiar to the speaker, regardless of age.
pen: sounds like pin
sure: sounds like shore
your: sounds like yore
dog: Always pronounced with a long O, rhymes with rogue.
chance: rhymes with ranch
rinse: sounds like wrench
dinner: The main meal of the day, taken around noon.
victuals: rhymes with skittles
ain't: aren't, or isn't.
long siege of it: An extended session of tiresome activity.
water haul: A wasted trip.
cut a dido: To perform an acrobatic stunt, or to zig-zag evasively as when being chased.
blare it: To run, ride or drive at full speed to get somewhere in a hurry.
scotch: To block or chock a wheel to prevent rolling.
lit up: drunk
puffed up: angry
out of pocket: Unable to be located or communicated with.
snowed under: Overloaded with work, especially to the point of not being able to take on any more.
brake: A very thick stand of trees.
hacker: Somebody who cuts trees for use as fence posts.
hydrant: Any water faucet, but especially one outdoors.
papa: Favored synonym for father.
slap your daddy down: What you would supposedly do when unwilling to share food with him. (The actual presence of a daddy is not required.)
larapin (or larrupin): delicious
terrapin: A turtle.
dry land terrapin: A tortoise.
tank: A stock pond.
dry as a powder house: bone dry
duke's mixture: A collection of dissimilar items, or items that clash.
divan: a sofa
okree: a slimy green vegetable reputed to taste like swamp scum
It all started one day when we was eatin’ dinner — red beans, cornbread and a fresh batch of batch of boiled okree. Then Big McIntosh said to Granny Smith: These vittles are larapin!
I agreed, and I had to add: A day without okree is like a day without sunshine.
She answered back: Darn tootin’! It’ll make you slap your daddy down.
When we’d finished up, I had just barely started to wrench them dirty dishes under the hydrant when I heard a most peculiar noise from outside, from the direction of the tank. When I got out there, I could see all the water was gone! That tank was dry as a powder house, with minnows and terrapins flopping around in the bottom of it. And there, sitting on the bank, was a critter made up from a duke’s mixture of different animal parts — but I recognized him right away. It was Discord!
So I said, hay, what did you do with all our water? He acted like he was barely listening, and he said: What? Was that your water? I didn’t see your name on it.
I was getting mighty puffed up at him, and I told him: You know darn straight that was our water. That tank is part of Sweet Apple Acres, and everything on the place belongs to the Apple family. Bring our water back!
He huffed and said he was jist borrowin’ it for a while, and I should mind my own bidness. Wal now, I figgered Sweet Apple Acres is my bidness! If it ain’t, then what is?
About that time ol' Rainbow Dash flew down to where I was at, and she said she saw a great big blob of water jist float off towards Ponyville. So I told her to blare it on over to Canterlot and tell Princess Celestia what Discord’s up to. Maybe she can keep him in line.
Then Discord said no you don’t, and he pulled out a big butterfly net, and he tried to catch Rainbow Dash right out of the air. She was too quick for him, though. She cut a dido and got away like a streak of lightnin’, headed toward the mout’n top where Canterlot Castle sits.
I kept an eye on Discord to make sure he didn’t try nothin’, and I was gettin’ ready for a long siege of it, but pretty soon Rainbow Dash came back. It turned out her trip was jist a water haul, on account that Celestia was snowed under, and Princess Luna was out of pocket entirely, so neither one of ’em could help us.
Speaking as a natural born texan, you're wrong. You and Y'all can refer to both singular and plural nouns. It's really the plurality of the verb that affects the word choice; hard to grasp, yes, but "You carry that," "Y'all carry them," both correct.
How do you differentiate between "Dog" and pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/378800000822867536/3f5a00acf72df93528b6bb7cd0a4fd0c.jpeg
then?
3516433
I do not know what that creature is.
3516700
A meme named "doge"
Pronounced "d-Oh-j"
Aj's accent I think is kinda like Chinese food: it's not actually what the Chinese eat. But it's what most Americans will now recognize as Chinese.
Thanks for the vocabulary lesson!