It is really interesting that in China people often ask their friends '吃了吗? (Have you eaten?)' rather than '嗨 (Hi)' in daily life. So initially I thought this post was describing something in Chinese w/o my noticing the URL.
Has entered mainstream as a cliche of Scottish parsimony but does exist in the wild.
Though I have extracted one dinner from an Edinburgh man who deploys the phrase, but that was probably because his ( English ) wife had put it on to cook earlier!
I'm in Canada and not redneck I wonder if jeet is actually used in the US.
The one bit of that I consistently use is "agnishna", for "air conditioner".
E.g.: "space ghettos" (in standard American accent) becomes Scottish "Spice Girls" :D
Not really. Foxworthy's joke isn't that that is actually a word, which it's not; it's that that is how the phrase "Did you eat?" comes out sounding in the accent of his home, which is a couple states east of mine. (Also apparently in the accent of New Jersey, which suggests to me that this particular trait may be more coastal than specifically Southern.)
If the question "你好吗" ("How are you?" although literally translates to "Are you good?"), you can answer with "好" ("Good"). If you're asked "你是老外吗" ("You're a foreigner?") you can answer "是的" ("I am").
So it usually depends on the verb that was used in the question. Although you often can say "对", which is with “是的" the closest Chinese have to "Yes".
In this specific case, you would likely just answer "吃了" ("I ate") or "吃了，你呢？" ("I hate, what about you?").
Keep in mind that this is more or less the equivalent to"How are you doing?" or "What's up?" in the US; it's a greeting and people aren't necessary expecting an actual answer.