recently discovered a tech podcast where the hosts all have a slightly southern accent (I’d guess Texas). Quite often, an opinion is prefaced with the phrase “I reckon”. I’ve seen this in other shows where they’re interviewing people with that country/southern accent.
Is “I reckon” a verbal placeholder (like “well …”, “so …”, etc.), or is it more of a politeness thing (i.e. ‘this is just my opinion, it may be wrong, if you have a different one that’s perfectly ok and expected’)?
Most of the time when I hear somebody voicing an opinion, that ‘this is just my opinion, yours could be different, etc.’ part is implicit unless you’re discussing a sensitive issue or tempers are running high.
I’ve tried searching, but didn’t find any useful results.
Some assertions are not regarded as mere opinions. Saying “I reckon” kind of underlines that this one is acknowledged to be so.
“The guv’nor is a rapscallion and a thief”, he stated. He took a long sip of his Pabst and burped. “I reckon we’ll be done with him after this November”.
I’m not a southerner, but I think the expression has about as much validity as “you know,” a phrase sprinkled in many conversations without meaning, you know, really much about what you really know. You know?
Some friends of mine had an American exchange student to stay for a while, and she found it absolutely hilarious how much they said “I reckon” - as far as I’m concerned it’s just another version of “I think”, but she just couldn’t help herself repeating, in a Southern drawl … “well aaaaah reck’n” every time she heard it. Which was a lot. Apparently Australians say ‘I reckon’ all the time. I’d never noticed before, it’s just a normal unobtrusive phrase to me, but I reckon she was probably right.
I read an awful lot of Dick Francis too, but I couldn’t even tell you off the top of my head if he’d ever used the phrase - it just slides totally under the radar for me
Its certainly common in Australian speech. Its intended to be slightly more definitive that ‘maybe …’, or ‘I think …’ or ‘perhaps …’, but still essentially is flagging that its only unbacked opinion.
People who bail you up in pubs and offer their unsolicited view of the world are very likely to say ‘I reckon …’.
Not sure if your cowboys do this, but in Australia its also used as a fairly vaguely committed response in a discussion where you need to show you were paying attention.
An example - friend ranting to you about something which they are obviously more passionate about, and you do not particularly care. A suitable response from you when they draw breath is ‘Yeah, I reckon’ or just ‘Reckon’.
Yeah, as an American, I actually associate the phrase “I reckon” or “what do you reckon” moreso with the Brits, but I probably have more social interactions with Brits than Southerners.
I’m not sure anybody is saying that it’s not “legitimate” English. But it is certainly a turn of phrase that is common in some dialects and not in others. It would certainly stand out in mine.
There’s no reason it can’t be both. Plenty of constructions that are “perfectly legitimate” in standard English are observed in much greater frequency in certain regions, and so people rightly tend to associate them with those regions.
Since you consider dictionaries an authority on this subject, I’ll point out that the Oxford English Dictionary marks the various senses of “reckon” that we’re discussing here as “Now usu. colloq., esp. in the U.S. (formerly chiefly in southern States).” and “current in the southern States of America in place of the northern I guess.”
We don’t hear “I reckon” on radio, TV, or in politics. I guess that’s because it admits to uncertainty or the possibility of error. The filler we do hear is “now”. Which doesn’t mean ‘right now’ or ‘around now’ or anything at all. It’s just a filler word used in the media at the beginning of sentences.
