LEARN NC

2.3 The Official Lumbee Vocabulary Test or How to Tell a Lum from a Foreigner

By Clare J. Dannenberg, Hayes A. Locklear, Natalie Schilling-Estes, and Dr. Walt Wolfram

Provided by North Carolina State University / North Carolina Language and Life Project.

This quiz has been created for A Dialect of Lumbee English which contains a comprehensive list of Lumbee English words and phrases with definitions.

  1. lum
    1. a Robeson County native
    2. a Lumbee Indian
    3. a restaurant
    4. a graduate of Pembroke State
  2. bate
    1. fishing lure
    2. a lot of
    3. a small box
    4. die down
  3. buddyrow
    1. the last row in a field
    2. a famous rock and roll singer
    3. a type of hoe
    4. a very good friend
  4. chicken bog
    1. a large dish of chicken and rice
    2. a barnyard swamp
    3. a hawk
    4. the left drumstick
  5. on the swamp
    1. in the water
    2. feeling discouraged
    3. fishing
    4. in the neighborhood
  6. purty
    1. small chicken
    2. pow wow
    3. knickknack
    4. alert
  7. chauld
    1. Southern pronunciation of child
    2. very embarrassed
    3. burnt to a crisp
    4. a pot full of stew
  8. pocosin
    1. leather used in making moccasins
    2. an Indian baby
    3. a large swamp
    4. a small hiding area
  9. pure arnt
    1. certainly
    2. very artistic
    3. realistic
    4. acting like an ant
  10. cooter
    1. a small insect
    2. a swamp snake
    3. a small motorbike
    4. a turtle
  11. gaum
    1. a chicklet
    2. an island in the Pacific ocean
    3. a call to a horse
    4. a mess
  12. juvember
    1. slingshot
    2. early autumn
    3. early summer
    4. a plant unique to the South
  13. headnes’
    1. a head wrap
    2. very bad
    3. a pillow
    4. a headache
  14. jubous
    1. bright
    2. joyful
    3. Jewish
    4. strange
  15. swanny
    1. swear
    2. faint
    3. sweat
    4. fear
  16. sorry in the world
    1. sad about a situation
    2. doing poorly
    3. repentant
    4. acting in a crazy manner
  17. toten
    1. an emblem of a group
    2. an unusual sign indicating supernatural powers
    3. a new subcompact made by Ford
    4. a special sack
  18. ellick
    1. a lock of hair out of place
    2. a touch of the tongue
    3. a sick stomach
    4. a cup of coffee
  19. gambrel
    1. to place a bet
    2. a drinking trough
    3. an apparatus for hanging a hog
    4. a circle for dancing
  20. yurker
    1. a jerk
    2. a mischievous child
    3. a device for pulling objects
    4. a bottle opener

Lumbee English Vocabulary Score

0-5 = total foreigner
6-10 = an educable foreigner
11-15 = an average Lumbee speaker
16-20 = a Lumbee genius

Answers and examples

  1. (b) He acts like a real Lum.
  2. (b) She ate a bate of greens.
  3. (d) You’re a real buddyrow for doing that.
  4. (a) Come on down and we’ll have some chicken bog.
  5. (d) How are things on the swamp?
  6. (c) Momma keeps a purty up on that shelf.
  7. (b) I was so chauld I liketa died!
  8. (c) I think there are snakes in that part of the pocosin.
  9. (a) You pure arnt made a mess in that kitchen!
  10. (d) The child caught a cooter in the swamp.
  11. (d) Don’t make a gaum of your homework.
  12. (a) The boys made juvembers from twigs they had found.
  13. (b) He made the headnes’ mess in his room.
  14. (d) I felt right jubous after I saw that haint.
  15. (a) I swanny, I’ll punish you if you don’t behave!
  16. (b) She was sorry in the world when her mother died.
  17. (b) They tell stories about how she heard her cousin’s toten.
  18. (d) Fetch me an ellick of coffee; I need to wake up.
  19. (c) We need to build the gambrel before we can start killin’ the hogs.
  20. (b) I know you’re responsible for this mess, you little yurker.