I'm curious about a bit of (apparently) southern dialect. I'm not sure how to spell it, but it sounds like "do what?" or "du what?" or "d'what?" and seems to mean the same thing as "what?" or "huh?" or "say that again?" I'm from the Northeast, and the first time I heard this, it sounded really strange to me, like people were just adding "do" to the beginning of "what" for no reason. Does anyone know its origin, what part of the U.S. it's prevalent in, and what it means exactly? (Google was no help.)
posted by Tin Man on Apr 14, 2004 - 29 answers