The Language of Home

I grew up in a family where my dad, the English teacher required correct speech.  He was often correcting the "cans" with "mays".  I feel that I learned how to speak well from my Dad even if I sometimes didn't appreciate the corrections while I was growing up.

The contrast was my mom who also by in large used correct grammar.  She came from southern Indiana people who had some folkways in their language. I never even thought about it until I went out into the wider world.  My mom used words that either she made up or were part of her folk heritage.  I have wondered about this, but I could find little evidence that some of Mom's words were real words.

I have decided that I don't want to forget some of them, so I will put them down here.  Mom had a temper.  She was a redhead with green eyes. When Mom lost her temper she called it having a "tizzy." Looking up tizzy online I see that it is a word, but the origin is unknown. When Mom got really mad she would give you a "scutching."  Looking that word up I see that it is related to beating flax.  I wonder how that word got passed to Mom? And Mom used "defugalty" to mean a disagreement, which really means a miscommunication. Looking online, I see that these are really words.  They were not words that I found in a regular dictionary in my youth and I have been made fun of for using them a time or two.

I think there were some words that I have forgotten over the years. Mom's colorful speech has changed over the years and she doesn't give scutchings anymore and it has been a long time since she has been in a tizzy. The past couple of years have brought some defugalties between my siblings and myself, but I think that we can iron them out.