American Language Supplement 2 (51 page)

BOOK: American Language Supplement 2
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1
See
American Speech
, 1925–1945: The Founders Look Back,
American Speech
, Dec., 1945, pp. 241–46.

2
For example, Words From Maryland,
American Speech
, Dec., 1940, pp. 451–52.

3
Its delegates are Malone and Dr. Isaiah Bowman, president of the university. Pennsylvania is represented by the American Philosophical Society; Virginia by Archibald A. Hill and Atcheson L. Hench, of the University of Virginia; and North Carolina by George R. Coffman and Howard W. Odum, of the University of North Carolina, and Paull F. Baum, of Duke University. The Rev. H. E. Zimmerman of Myersville, a small town in the Pennsylvania German area, published a list of Maryland terms in
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part V, 1916, p. 343, but it ran to but 23 items. They included
Jersey wagon
, a wagon with a top;
limerick
, lingo; and
snatched up
, in a hurry. Some are already obsolete. There is a spoofing account of current Baltimore pronunciation in Baltimorese and Mountainese, Baltimore
Evening Sun
(editorial page), Oct. 16, 1946.

4
I am reminded of these by Mr. Charles E. Fecher of Baltimore; private communication, Aug. 23, 1945.

1
Mrs. B. J. Cleaves, of Garrett Park, Md. (private communication, Feb. 19, 1946), calls my attention to the fact that the pronunciation of
donkey
, in Maryland, makes it rhyme with
monkey
. From Mr. John Wm. Siegle, of Baltimore (private communication, April 27, 1940), I have received some curious specimens from the vocabulary of his great-grandmother, born in Baltimore in 1851,
e.g., bampoolap
(with the accent on the first syllable), an elderly dandy;
Dink Dare
, a saucy colored person of either sex;
flagary
(with the accent on the second syllable), a tantrum;
pechly poorly
, honestly ill and deserving sympathy;
aahaahoo
, a haunt. He also lists
pillgarlick
, a chronic groaner, reported by Wentworth from Cape Cod. For
Sebastopol
see my Happy Days; New York, 1940, pp. 15 and 136.

1
Cape Cod Dialect,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. II, Part V, pp. 289–303.

2
Cape Cod Dialect,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. II, Part VI, 1904, pp. 423–29, and Cape Cod Dialect: Addenda,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. III, Part V, 1909, pp. 419–22.

3
Addenda to the Cape Cod Lists From Provincetown and Brewster, Mass.,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part I, 1913, pp. 55–58; Cape Cod,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part II, 1914, pp. 155–56, and Notes From Cape Cod,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part IV, 1916, pp. 263–67.

4
Notes on Cape Cod Dialect,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. V, Part VII, 1924, pp. 286–88.

5
Cape Cod-erisms,
Atlantic Monthly
, Oct., 1927, p. 576.

1 In this paradigm, I assume,
i
is used to represent the
ee
-sound.

2
In recent years there seems to be some movement in the other direction. Mr. Paul Grimley Kuntz, of Dennis. Mass. (private communication, Dec. 26, 1943). tells me that he has heard
wed
as the past tense of
to weed
.

1
Edgartown, the capital of the Vineyard, was formerly called
Old Town
.

2
The Nantucket Scrap Basket, printed by the
Inquirer and Mirror
Press in the town of Nantucket. Second edition, with additions; Boston, 1930. This word-list was reprinted in
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part V, 1916, pp. 332–37.

3
A word-list prepared by James Mitchell, a native of the island, in 1848, is printed in Nantucketisms of 1848, by Allen Walker Read,
American Speech
, Feb., 1935, pp. 38–42. In this paper Read quotes from other early accounts of the island speech.

4
Word-List – Chilmark, Martha’s Vineyard, Mass., 1917,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. V, Part I, 1918, pp. 15–17.

5
Other Nantucket word-lists are in Nantucket, by W. P. Adams,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part II, 1914, pp. 156–57; More Nantucket Sayings, by W. F. Macy,
Proceedings of the Nantucket Historical Association
, 1935, pp. 27–29; and Nantucket, the Far-Away Island, by W. O. Stevens; New York, 1936, Ch. VIII. For Martha’s Vineyard see Country Editor, by H. B. Hough; New York, 1940. For the analogous dialect of New Bedford see There’s Apt to be Katowse on Deck if Scuttle isn’t Hitched When Sky Begins to Look Typestric, New Bedford
Standard-Times
, March 28, 1937.

1
The common speech of the city has been described as one-third Harvard, one-third hick, and one-third mick.

2
Phonemic Analysis of the English of Eastern Massachusetts,
Studies in Linguistics
, Dec., pp. 21–40. Trager followed it with a commentary, pp. 41–44.

3
Private communication, May 17, 1933.

4
Private communication, May 31, 1933.

5
Other papers on Massachusetts speech: Expressions, Chiefly of Whalers, Noted at New Bedford, Mass., by Edward Denham,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part III, 1915, pp. 240–42;
Pixilated
, a Marblehead Word, by Fannie Hardy Eckstorm,
American Speech
, Feb., 1941, pp. 78–80; Boston Accent a Myth, Boston
Globe
, editorial section, April 25, 1937, p. 3; Boston Accent, by J. H. Sweet, New York
Times Magazine
, Oct. 1, 1944, p. 24; Words Coined in Boston, by C. W. Ernst,
New England Magazine
, Nov., 1896, pp. 337–44 (also articles by the same author, of the same title,
Writer
, Vol. XII, 1899, pp. 145–47, and
Proceedings of the Bostonian Society
, 1900, pp. 39–47); Survivals in American Educated Speech. II. Bostonisms, by S. D. McCormick,
Bookman
, Nov., 1900, pp. 243–46; Slur on Boston “Dialect” Draws Broad-
a
Broadside, Boston
Evening Globe
, Sept. 28, 1945.

1
Private communications, July 8, 13 and 17, 1946.

2
Private communication, Aug. 5, 1946.

3
Notes on Michigan Speech, by John Seaman,
American Speech
, Dec., p. 295.

4
A Letter From East Africa to Mr. Mencken, Feb., pp. 51–60. The letter was dated Aug, 1, 1944.

1
But not, apparently,
you-all
.

2
New York, 1916.

1
Notes on American-Norwegian, With a Vocabulary,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. II, Part II, p. 118.

2
A Word-List From Minnesota, by Fr. Klaeber,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part I, 1913, p. 9.

3
Private communication, Sept. 26, 1937.

4
Minnesota Localisms,
American Speech
, April, 1945, pp. 153–54.

5
Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi; published by the author, 1893. I am indebted for the loan of a copy of this pamphlet, now very scarce, to Mrs. James D. Oliver, librarian of the University of Mississippi.

1
Here, I suggest, the influence of Appalachian was visible.

1
Folk-Speech in Missouri,
Arcadian Magazine
, June, p. 13. Read was then an instructor in English at the University of Missouri. See also his The Strategic Position of Missouri in Dialect Study,
Missouri Alumnus
, April, 1932, pp. 231–32.

1
Notes From Missouri,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. I, Part V, pp. 235–42.

2
The Dialect of Southeastern Missouri,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. II, Part V, pp. 304–37.

3
Jay L. B. Taylor, in Snake County Talk,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. V, Part VI, 1923, pp. 197–225, included a long glossary from McDonald county, the most southwesterly of Missouri counties, in the heart of the Ozarks. It did not differ materially from those of Vance Randolph, already noticed.

4
His vocabulary is discussed at length in Mark Twain’s Vocabulary, by Frances Guthrie Emberson,
University of Missouri Studies
, July 1, 1935, and in A Mark Twain Lexicon, by Robert L. Ramsay and Dr. Emberson, the same, Jan. 1, 1938. A list of other contributions to the subject by students of Ramsay is in Attitudes Toward Missouri Speech, by Allen Walker Read,
Missouri Historical Review
, July, 1935, p. 268, n. 39. See also A Word-List From Missouri, by Constance Bey and others,
Publication of the American Dialect Society No. 2
, Nov., 1944, pp. 53–62.

1
A Word List From Montana, Vol. IV, Part III, pp. 243–45.

2
New York, 1939, pp. 413–16. This volume was one or the American Guide Series prepared by the W.PA. The list was first published in
Frontier and Midland
, Summer, 1938, pp. 246–48.

3
The vocabulary of Montana miners is discussed in The Folklore, Customs and Traditions of the Butte Miner, by Wayland D. Hand,
California Folklore Quarterly
, Jan., 1946, pp. 1–25, and April, 1946, pp. 153–78.

4
She was graduated from the State University in 1892, took her A.M. in 1895, became a fellow in English literature the same year, was made Ph.D. of Heidelberg under Johannes Hoops in 1000, returned to Nebraska as adjunct professor, became assistant professor in 1906, associate in 1908, and full professor in 1912.

5
Dialect Speech in Nebraska,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. III, Part I, pp. 55–67.

1
A Second Word-List From Nebraska,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. III, Part VII, pp. 541–49.

2
Word-List From Nebraska (III),
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part IV, pp 271–82.

3
In use in Maine to indicate easily broken.

4
Described as “current in eastern Nebraska.”

1
This suffix was discussed by Dr. Pound in Domestication of a Suffix,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part IV, 1916, p. 304; Addenda to IV, 4, 304, the same, Vol. IV, Part V, 1916, p. 354, and Vogue Affixes in Present-Day Word-Coinage, the same, Vol. V, Part I, 1918, pp. 1–14.

3
The American Thesaurus of Slang; New York, 1942.

3
Nebraska Sandhill Talk,
American Speech
, Dec., 1928, pp. 125–33.

4
Nebraska Pioneer English,
American Speech
, April, 1931, pp. 237–52; Oct., 1931, pp. 1–17; Feb., 1932, pp. 161–71, and Dec., 1933, pp. 48–52.

5
Supplement I, p. 251, n. 4.

1
Soddy
, a sod-house. The DAE’s first example of
soddy
is recent, but it traces
sod-house
to 1872. In 1932 Van den Bark reported that there were still 22
sod
schoolhouses in the State.

2
Interjections From Southeastern Nebraska,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. V, Part VII, p. 285.

3
Expressions From Boyd County, Nebraska,
American Speech
, Feb., pp. 230–31.

4
Private communication, May 29, 1944.

5
Obviously borrowed from the vocabulary of hog-killing.

6
Hoyt says that it was originally used, and is still used, of a cow about to calve, and hence showing a swelling of the udder.

1
Nevada: a Guide to the Silver State; Portland, Ore., n.d., pp. 58–63 and 75–78.

2
Handbook of the Linguistic Geography of New England, p. 4.

3
A Word-List From Hampshire, S. E. New Hampshire,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. III, Part III, pp. 179–204.

1
There is an account of him in
Dialect Notes
, Vol. III, Part V, 1909, p. 406.

2
Terms From S. E. New Hampshire,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part I, 1913, p. 54.

3
Rural Locutions of Maine and Northern New Hampshire,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part II, 1914, pp. 67–83; Items From South Weare, New Hampshire,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. V, Part VII, 1924, p. 295, and The Real Dialect of Northern New England,
Writers’ Monthly
, March, 1926.

4
New Hampshire,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. IV, Part II, 1914, pp. 153–55.

5
Colloquial Expressions From Hillsborough County, New Hampshire,
American Speech
, June, 1930, pp. 418–20.

1
Private communication, April 3, 1943.

2
They appeared as a book under the title of Among the Isles of Shoals; Boston, 1878.

3
pp. 69–72.

4
Jerseyisms, Vol. I, Part VII, 1894, pp. 327–37. It was followed by Jerseyisms – Additions and Corrections,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. I, Part VIII, 1895, pp. 382–83. To the latter the Rev. W. J. Skillman, of Philadelphia, a native of New Jersey, made contributions.

1
Applejack
is traced by the DAE to 1816, and
Jersey lightning
to 1860.

2
Housen
is archaic, but not exactly ancient. The NED says that
houses
is actually older.

3
A Reporter at Large: The Jackson Whites,
New Yorker
, Sept. 17, p. 30. See also A Pre-Phonograph Record, by Albert Payson Terhune, North
American Review
, May, 1931, p. 433.

1
Private communication, Aug. 10, 1943.

2
Private communication, June 15, 1935.

3
New Mexico: a Guide to the Colorful State; second edition; Albuquerque, 1945, pp. 110–19.

4
The Mexican Accent,
American Speech
, Aug., 1929, pp. 434–39.

5
The political and cultural factors entering into this controversy are too complicated to be discussed here. They are dealt with sensibly in The Compulsory Teaching of Spanish in the Grade Schools of New Mexico, by Joaquin Ortega; Albuquerque, 1941. I am indebted to Dr. Ortega for friendly aid, and also to Dr. Antonio Rebolledo, Mr. Keen Rafferty and Mr. John D. McKee.

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