Talking Southern – Sistuh.

An old Southern custom, now mostly vanished in the mists of time, weas that of younger siblings in a family calling their oldest sister not by her first name, but by simply “Sister,” which was usually pronounced, “Sistuh.”  This was almost always the case with a first-born child who happened to be female.  It was a badge of distinction; younger siblings tended to use the quaint honorific till  the whole generation had died.

Occasionally the nickname would totally eclipse the girl’s name for friends and neighbors as well, and she would be known to everyone as “Sistuh” (or sometimes just “Sis”) for the entirety of her life.  When courtesy titles came into play, the result could be funny:  “Aint Sistuh” and “Miss Sistuh” were heard, perhaps not commonly, neither rarely, around the South in days gone by.  The late Fayette County author Ferrol Sams wrote in his marvelous Christmas Gift! story that his aunt, who was his father’s oldest sister, and his grandmother Sams were called by those respective titles all their lives.

Your compiler’s mother worked with an older woman for many years who had been called “Sistuh” as a child and had clung to it tenaciously, as she vastly preferred it to her own name, which was one along the lines of Bertha Sue, Effie Belle, Edna Maude, or Erma Nee.  Everyone knew this woman only as “Sis” – she admitted to no other name.   So not only was “Sistuh” a badge of distinction, it could also serve as salvation from a truly despised first name.

The paternal grandmother of your compiler, who was born in Brooks in 1905 and lived her whole life there except for college and a time in Virginia in the 1920s and 1930s, was “Sistuh” to her younger siblings, Helen, Norma, and Frank.  They called her that all their lives, both face-to-face and in referral:

    “I’ll have to ask Sistuh about that.”

    “We’re going to Sistuh and Hubert’s for supper.”

     “Sistuh’s probably the only one can tell you that because she’s the only one old enough to remember.”

     “I’m so mad at Sistuh I can’t see straight!”

      “Sistuh, what can we bring for the party Saturday night?”

     “The preacher at Sistuh’s funeral did a wonderful job remembering her.”

Your compiler never once heard any of them refer to her by her given name, which was “Kathryn,” although everyone else of her generation did.

Your compiler supposes “Brother” may have been used in some places as a similar honorific but does not recall hearing a single case of that usage.  But he recalls hearing “Sistuh” as a means of address many times, from many different people, and very much misses that genteel old honorific.   He wonders if he is the only one who does.

He also wonders how it vanished so rapidly from general usage, but guesses that three or four generations where it was not taught as being the thing to do would tend to wipe it out.  But he is thankful he lived long enough to be a young adult and even a middle-aged man in a world where lots of old folks used the term, “Sistuh,” to address their eldest female sibling.  It was a usage that to him always smacked of good raising and gentility and believes we have lost something lovely in its passing.