Q: I was blessed with a mother from Central Texas whose speech was enriched with phantom diphthongs (“Let’s go out to the raynch”), stony rhotics (“and rahde harrsses”), and funny sayings. Recently, while shopping with a girlfriend, a Yankee from New Jersey, I lamented that my bank account was down to “chips and whetstones.” My friend had never heard the expression and asked if it was a Texas saying. I had to think about it for a while, to no avail. Is it?Molly Dare, San Marcos, CaliforniaA: The Texanist, as a native speaker of Texan, is quite familiar with the crazy colloquialisms, disparate dialects, idiotic idioms, and funny phraseologies used across the Lone Star State. Indeed, he’s heard them all. Or so he thought. The Texanist…
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