Words of Wyoming - Episode 4
Episode 4 - listen to the podcast here.
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Had you heard the word synecdoche before? Pronounced it? Fun times!
To read more about the phrase "Powder River Let R Buck", check out this article, and this one.
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I saw this lovely scarf highlighting the phrase,
exhibited at the Nelson Museum of the West, in Cheyenne.
Visit Meeteetse!
- Check out the Meeteetse Museums
- Buy all the chocolate at the Meeteetse Chocolatier
- Check out other area attractions on the Meeteetse website.
Read up about the origin of Pika as a word, and about the Pica's health as a portent of climate change.
On your way to Wyoming, visit Red Lodge Montana!
Thanks for listening and checking out the website, happy trails!
Just listened to this episode. Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteI'm a lifelong Wyoming native, which may mean that some of our unique patterns of speech aren't obvious to me unless they're pointed out, but I'll note a couple of things.
One is that for certain, but not all, streams the "the" is omitted when discussing them. For example, around here when we speak of fishing on creeks, we say "we went fishing on X Creek", not "on the X Creek". Oddly, it's not always that way. For the Platte, for example, it's "the Platte".
This is pointed out in the well done book "War On Powder River", which is where I first realized how often we do that.
On the phrase "Powder River, Let Er' Buck", I've lived near one of the forks of the river, generally, my entire life, and I've personally ridden across it on horseback many times. Anyhow, I'd note that the poem that I learned as a child, from my father, is quite a bit different from the one that you cited in the show, although I've heard that one as an adult. The poem I learned goes:
A mile wide, and an inch deep
Too thin to plow and too thick to eat
Powder River, Let Er' Buck
I never encounter this version in print, but I have quite a few times orally in Central Wyoming, so perhaps it's unique to here.
On other things, one minor thing I'd note is that according to those who study such things, people from the Rocky Mountain region have an accent, although it must be subtle and hard to detect. I recall my father relating that he was actually told by a passenger on a train that he was from Wyoming due to his accent. I was once asked if I was from Leadville, Colorado by somebody due to mine. Anyhow, whatever it is, it drives me nuts when they attempt to affect what they presume to be a regional accent for television and movie dramas. I don't know what accent that is, but isn't ours.
Thanks so much for your comment and information - I have been more focused on Instagram and missed your insights!
ReplyDelete