I need help. I'm sure that's true in a lot of ways, but today I'm thinking in terms of two specific things.
The first is that I need help in determining where I'm from. I know I grew up in Louisville. That's not the issue. The question is whether Louisville is a Southern city or a Midwestern city. When I was growing up there, I always thought Louisville was part of the South. Maybe a little less so than the rest of Kentucky, but still a Southern city. Then I moved to Boston when I was 15, and my Southern accent confirmed that I was definitely from the South. But later in life, as I've returned to Louisville to visit, and as the city has evolved from a blue-collar, redneck town of cigarette factories and whiskey distilleries to a regional banking and medical center, I became conscious of the fact that Louisville was trying to change its image. Today, I think there are a lot of people in Louisville who would say they are from the Midwest. So in your opinion, is Louisville part of the South or part of the Midwest?
Regardless of your answer about Louisville, my second question will probably leave little doubt as to whether or not I'm a Southern boy. For a long time now, I've been fascinated by compound nouns. Not just any compound nouns, but the redundant compound nouns that seem to be common in the South. Is there really any doubt about where somebody is from when they ask, "Can I borrow your ink-pen?" Of course, when I was younger, I didn't usually use an ink-pen. I had a lead-pencil. And I grew up across the street from a kid named Paul-David. After school, Paul-David cleaned the blackboards with a chalk-eraser. His daddy worked on car-engines. On weekends his family went to visit his grandma-mother. At night he had sleep-dreams. When he studied for a test he used his think-brain. When I think back on it all I want to shriek-scream. Anyway, I'm collecting redundant compound nouns, so if you know any, please send me an e-mail message so I can put them on my blog-post.
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I had no idea; I thought you were a Chicago boy. I spent part of my youth in Louisville, and elsewhere in Kentucky, and graduated from UofL.
ReplyDeleteIt is most certainly a southern city ("Gateway to the South") although most of its residents probably want to view themselves otherwise. When you cross the Ohio River you cross into a land of mint juleps, tobacco spitting contests, and Confederate flag license plates that tell you you've left the Midwest behind.
I'm a Chicagoan and Louisville is definitely South. Ladies in broad-brimmed hats and beveled-legged race horses.
ReplyDeleteYour query about double nouns makes me think of retronyms, nouns whose modifiers point out how the world has changed. For example: acoustic guitar, bar soap, digital watch. However, these aren't redundant, as you requested. For that I'll have to put my think-brain on.