Deep South Dispatch #7: The Bubba Abides

Being back in the South for part of the summer has also brought back the opportunity to hear Bo (or Beau) used as a personal pronoun between men. As in: "How you doin' Bo? I ain't seen you in ages!"

I think the derivation of Bo is from the French Beau although my wife disagrees. She thinks that like Bubba, Bo is easier for little children to enunciate than is 'brother.' Okay, now we've let the Bubba out of the bag. One morning at the Liar's Club (breakfast of retirees and semi-retirees that mon pere attends) I heard one septuagenarian fella say "Thank you Bubba" to a business friend. It struck me that Bubba and Bo play a really important linguistic role. If you call someone Bubba or Bo you must know them and like them. It is a term of masculine endearment like 'Mon ami'.

Buddy, is essentially the same as Bubba in origin and use but seems to be pretty widely used throughout the country.

Dude versus Bubba and Bo
It strikes me that outside the Deep South Dude is often used this way. Dude can  say - I know you and you know me and we are cool with each other so that we can be informal. Of course Dude is proven to be a shape-shifting word as seen in the inspired ad below. For the record, Uncle Stumpy and I used to play this Dude game out in our college dorm room or in the cafeteria before the ad compaign. I only wish we could have made money off of it.

Now, can you use Bo or Bubba or even Buddy this way? You wouldn't say: "Bubba, what the heck is that smell" unless you know the guy pretty well. I think Bubba is used in neutral or positive interactions not in accusatory ones. Unless the person has Bubba as their full-time nickname, which, of course, happens quite a lot.

I think Bo is even more flexible in its usage. If you are at a gas station and a guy you don't know pulls up and is blaring his music you can, within the socially accepted but unspoken code, say: "Bo, dial it down."

Wikipedia says Bo is short for Dude. This is wrong. It is a different word performing much of the same function and I would bet you a box of Little Debbie oatmeal cream pies that Bo, as I'm writing of it, has been in use longer. I think that Dude as we use it now took off from Fast times at Ridgemont High. Whether the writers had heard it used that way or invented the new usage I don't know, but I am only a hammock (in teh winter an armchair) linguist and not a professional.

The ubiquity of Dude is such that in Beaufort, South Carolina there is a free newspaper for men called Dude.  It seems to me that this does not make Dude more southern and it really leans on that older use of the word.

There may be a linguistics paper that already covers this. On the other hand, like our Dude bi-play in college, maybe others have thought of this but I am writing it down. I know. I still won't make any money off of it.

Jim 2-10

Deep South Dispatch #6: Most Influential South Carolinians

My students and I have had a joke in which I bring up a historic person and ask if they know where the person was born and they guess South Carolina. I bring this up to illustrate my personal obsession which might be diagnosed as South Carolina exceptionalism.

I can't help it, I take note of people who are from South Carolina like Joe Frazier, Lauren Hutton or Kevin Garnett. Recently I have been mulling a top ten list in this vein: who are the most influential living people from the Palmetto State?


It will sound too pretentious to say I had a methodology for this. It is more of a parlor game, but I did come up with a few ground rules.

• The person must be living and either born or raised in South Carolina.
• The breadth and depth of the individual's influence is of paramount importance. Mere fame for a long time isn't enough. Demonstrated influence counts. Sorry Chubby Checker, but don't stop twisting.
• The person's influence must be felt beyond the borders of the Palmetto State. Sorry Mayor Riley.
• A candidate for the top ten needs to have been around long enough to prove she or he has lasting influence: sorry Aziz Asari but keep going!

The Short List

Ben Bernanke
Charles Bolden
Stephen Colbert
Pat Conroy
Jim DeMint
Marian Wright Edelman
John Edwards
Leeza Gibbons
William Gibson
Joseph L. Goldstein
Lindsey Graham
Fritz Hollings
Jesse Jackson
Young Jeezy
Jasper Johns
Sallie Krawchek
Andie McDowell
Kary Mullis
Chris Rock
Darius Rucker
Armstrong Williams

If you have an opinion on who should make the top ten let me know.