Talk:Yokel

Untitled
Help would be appreciated from Wikipedians from other parts of the English speaking world who can tell us how Yokels or unsophisticated country people are viewed in their areas.

The Stereotype section needs some work. "English yokels speak a country dialect from some part of England." then a broken link. Could it be any more vague? Some part? There are many different accents that 'yokels' in England use, which may have some features in common. But there is no one yokel accent. 134.225.169.16 (talk) 09:03, 28 April 2010 (UTC)

I removed Larry Bird from the list of fictional yokels for obvious reasons. --- 12/1/2007

It only seems to talk about the English version of the stereotype. Perhaps the article should include some information on the American "hick" stereotype? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 216.67.5.25 (talk) 20:55, 15 April 2008 (UTC)

Why?
Why is there an encyclopedia article on this? "Yokel" wouldn't merit more than a single line in a dictionary. 71.205.170.70 (talk) 01:13, 13 July 2008 (UTC)
 * It could develop into an interesting essay on urban/rural stereotypes. I think that in England probably townie would be an equivalent word used by yokels to refer to members of the urban population. --Northernhenge (talk) 00:07, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

"Jim Goad argues that this stereotype has largely served to blind the general population to the economic exploitation of rural areas, specifically in Appalachia, the South, and parts of the Midwest." Economic exploitation? This must be a joke. New York and other commercial centers contribute orders of magnitude more to GDP than rural areas. Who is exploiting whom? Seems to me like NY/CA/IL produce most of the tax revenue and rural areas consume a disproportionate amount. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.23.94.203 (talk) 01:12, 19 August 2008 (UTC)

Etymology
"Yokel" derived from a comic pronunciation of the word "local"? Really? Very unlikely. Since when has a word that starts with l come to be pronounced with a y sound? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 152.3.200.83 (talk) 15:18, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
 * Another solution is the German male name Jockel (local form of Joachim), an archetypal Southern country simpleton, pronounced similar to "yokel". — Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.157.44.97 (talk) 20:54, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

Maybe it could be derived from the yoke (tool used for farming)? --89.245.255.145 (talk) 18:35, 4 January 2016 (UTC)

St Helens
I see someone's put St Helens on the list, but it links to a dab page. If it's supposed to be St Helens, Merseyside, that's too urban itself to contain yokels. Liverpudlians use woolyback for St Helens people. I've wikilinked woolyback, but it might be better to just remove St Helens from the list. --Northernhenge (talk) 00:07, 26 August 2008 (UTC)

More
Origins of "hick" -- Mention "Hix Nix Stix Pix" from Variety? Hicksville, NY on Long Island started as farming community, c. 1834; do any references to hicks predate it? "Local yokel" is probably more common than "yokel" alone. Joachim seems like a wild guess, and given the predominance of "Scotch Irish" roots in Appalachia, farfetched. If Joachim is mentioned, the off-chance that the rhyme is not a happy accident deserves equal attention. --Jerzy•t 13:11, 3 November 2011 (UTC)

The link to the german website
....is senseless. Jockel means something totally different. Change it, please--88.130.50.116 (talk) 15:35, 23 March 2013 (UTC)

partial article misrepresents
The article at the moment is a conflation of American stereotypes and UK ones. THese may vary. FOR example there is no aspect of WOMEN included in good ol boy, but for sure women can be called yokels in England. Apart from this gender bias there is also class. SO in the UK "Horsey set" might be seen as a rural eqivalent of a Sloan Ranger - but would also be seen as Huntin Shootin FIshin WHICH has a class dimension, seen in fox hunting for example (ie upperclass not working or lower class). I added in townie too. AT present there is no good explanation on this term in wikipedia - it is not the same as chav as use of townie predates common usage of chav in rural areas. COntrast with the term pikie - where it has shifted from gypsies to other uses. To reference all of this is not easy and would take a lot of time, but I am pretty sure as an ENglish language proof reader and teacher with some linguistic studies. 178.190.193.212 (talk) 10:09, 24 August 2015 (UTC) M Petz178.190.193.212 (talk) 10:09, 24 August 2015 (UTC)

External links modified
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Wrong Link?
This was linked and titled as 'Hick' and that info is not here. 2600:4040:53F0:9D00:55C5:DFAB:37E2:729 (talk) 00:09, 15 March 2023 (UTC)