Wednesday, June 10, 2026

"Southern" Greek

This summer Wipf & Stock will be publishing Toward Rethinking the Future Tense in the Greek New Testament by Philip du Toit. 

I just sent the publisher (at their request) a blurb for the cover. I'm quite excited about this book. 

Speaking of the future tense, here's a use of mellō I hear all the time at Bojangles: 

Ain't that quaint? "Fixin' to" is the absolute bedrock of Southern slang when it comes to time. Of course, it has nothing to do with making repairs. It's simply a handy phrase meaning "about to." As with the Greek verb mellō, it's a vague expression. It can cover time from "right this minute" to "sometime before I die" (as in "I'm fixin to mow the lawn"). 

I'm fixin' to add such Southern expressions to my beginning grammar -- whenever I get around to it, that is. It will join "over yonder" for ekei and "might could" for the subjunctive.

Y'all be good!