Thank you kindly

October 15, 2011 11:56 AM

I have lived and worked with a lot of people from different places around the world. From one of these people I have picked up the habit of saying "Thank you kindly" instead of simply "Thank you". Is there a country or region where this is particularly common?

Google seems to think it's either from Midwest US or the TV show Due South and I don't think it's either of those.

posted by alby to Society & Culture (21 answers total)

I don't know if it's common, but I do hear "thank ye kindly" from older Southerners, especially more rural areas. (I'm in Nashville, cannot recall hearing it lately, but do recall hearing it fairly regularly when I lived in East Tennessee/Appalachia.)
posted by southpaw at 12:10 PM on October 15, 2011

Yes, I'm in Tennessee and I hear it among older people.
posted by mudlark at 12:11 PM on October 15, 2011

HL Mencken claimed it came from Irish immigrants originally in the 1921 book The American Language but today I agree that it most commonly heard by older folks, especially in the south.
posted by Lame_username at 12:14 PM on October 15, 2011

i think it's high appalachian. i grew up hearing it a lot among older folks in upper east tennessee. same people who said "bless your heart" and "ain't you just precious" a lot.
posted by patricking at 12:16 PM on October 15, 2011

Should also note that like the other phrases patricking mentioned, "thank you kindly" can be said sincerely, or loaded with extra meaning, depending on context. Like many things said by Southerners. ;)
posted by southpaw at 12:26 PM on October 15, 2011

Kurt Cobain says it on MTV Unplugged. It sounds sweet and humble when he does. I dunno where he's from (was he raised in Seattle?) But maybe they say it there.
posted by Serene Empress Dork at 12:34 PM on October 15, 2011

I'm in Alberta and I've heard people here say it.
posted by meringue at 12:54 PM on October 15, 2011

Kurt Cobain says it on MTV Unplugged. ... I dunno where he's from (was he raised in Seattle?)

This is what Wikipedia is for. He grew up in Aberdeen, WA, and I believe he always lived in Washington (Aberdeen, Olympia, and Seattle).

This webpage (the first result for a Google search of "thank you kindly") says:

In an early edition (1921) of his book The American Language, H. L. Mencken suggests that “thank you kindly” was brought to America by Irish immigrants who were “almost incapable of saying plain yes or no” and “must always add some extra and gratuitous asseveration.”

“The Irish extravagance of speech struck a responsive chord in the American heart,” Mencken adds. “The American borrowed, not only occasional words, but whole phrases, and some of them have become thoroughly naturalized.”

He notes that P. W. Joyce, author of English as We Speak It in Ireland (1910), “shows the Irish origin of scores of locutions that are now often mistaken for native Americanisms, for example, great shakes, dead (as an intensive), thank you kindly, to split one’s sides (i. e., laughing), and the tune the old cow died of, not to mention many familiar similes and proverbs.”

Both of Kurt Cobain's parents were part Irish.

Google is your friend.
posted by John Cohen at 1:17 PM on October 15, 2011 [4 favorites]

I've noticed it here in the UK in clichéd period television dramas where there are Irish characters interacting with other (generally English) characters of higher social status. It's the sort of thing you'd throw into the dialogue when you want someone to sound like a Victorian or early 20th century Irish gamekeeper or tinker. So the Irish origin makes a certain amount of sense.

However, I'm fairly sure I've also heard the phrase used in all kinds of rural and provincial British accents as well (Westcountry and Scottish accents come to mind). I suppose it's conceivable that it may have spanned both sides of the Irish sea before the Irish carried it across the Atlantic to America.

And you still hear it used today pretty widely in the UK, although usually with a mockingly subservient tone.
posted by le morte de bea arthur at 1:41 PM on October 15, 2011

I can pretty much only hear this is a broad lancashire accent. Trying to imagine it in a southern us accent is making me giggle confusedly.
posted by elizardbits at 1:52 PM on October 15, 2011

Response by poster: John Cohen - I don't think it's Irish. I've only known a couple of Irish people and I don't remember it coming from them.
posted by alby at 1:53 PM on October 15, 2011

People in Texas say it, perhaps ironically if you're younger, but not sarcastically.
posted by cmoj at 1:53 PM on October 15, 2011 [1 favorite]

Benton Fraser said it all the time on Due South, and he was not just Canadian, but super-Canadian.
posted by asperity at 2:18 PM on October 15, 2011 [3 favorites]

I've lived all over the US and I picked it up in the South (I'm pretty sure...).
posted by patheral at 2:29 PM on October 15, 2011

Another vote for east TN/Appalchian region. My grandfather is from there and says that.
posted by peanut_mcgillicuty at 2:41 PM on October 15, 2011

Western PA, Scots-Irish, we say it occasionally (and not sarcastically).
posted by HopperFan at 4:14 PM on October 15, 2011

I've heard it in Alberta, mostly from older Albertans, but never in Ontario or Quebec. Can't speak to the rest of Canada as I haven't spent much time in other provinces.
posted by kyla at 7:12 PM on October 15, 2011

...I picked it up after a marathon of "Due South" episodes.
posted by mephron at 8:09 PM on October 15, 2011

I was born and raised in a small town not too far from Asheville, NC (so Appalachian mountain culture) and I almost always say "thank you kindly."
posted by SweetTeaAndABiscuit at 8:34 PM on October 15, 2011

I heard it often growning up in northern Montana and also up Alberta. Still use it regularly.
posted by nenequesadilla at 3:33 PM on October 16, 2011

Canadian, born and raised in British Columbia. 'Thank you kindly' was used in my family, but it had a specific usage that set it across from a simple 'thank you.' When 'thank you kindly' was used, it generally was within the context of a request, usually a request that had been made several times. Example: "I would thank you kindly to pick up your shoes in the foyer and put them away in the closet." "I would thank you kindly to stop bickering." "Give me the knife you're threatening your sister with, thank you kindly." In this usage, "thank you kindly" took the place of please.

Or, when a oft-repeated request was finally fulfilled, we might get a "thank you kindly" which indicated my mom/dad/grandma/aunt/etc. was just barely holding in an "it's about fucking time." To this day, when I say "thank you kindly" to someone, it's usually because I am just barely holding it together. It's not sarcastic, exactly, but it is different from my regular thanks. Usually I pull out a "thank you kindly" when I'm dealing with a frustrating customer service problem.

And to make my usage even more complex, I often use "thank you kindly" when I am in a particularly good mood and someone is particularly helpful to me. Mostly with men, and then it is accompanied with a sir (ie. "Thank you kindly, sir!).

I live in Ontario now, haven't really noticed if other people use TYK as often as I do. I suspect they don't. I know that when I was growing up, I heard it used (in all it's forms) by the parents of friends, or by teachers. It was a phrase really only used by adults and I didn't add it to my lexicon until I nominally became one.
posted by Felicity Rilke at 9:45 PM on October 16, 2011