Read American Language Supplement 2 Online
Authors: H.L. Mencken
American Language Supplement 2 (77 page)
This encouraged Miss Morrison, and in 1928 she pledged her word that she had heard it so used at Lynchburg, Va., and also in Missouri.
5
The Southern brethren were baffled by this, for the Confederate code of honor forbade questioning the word of a lady, so Axley had to content himself with slapping down a German professor who had stated incautiously, on what he had taken to be sound sub-Potomac evidence, that
you-all
was often reduced to
you’ll
.
6
The professor, of course, was in error: the true contraction, as Axley explained, was and always has been
y’all
.
7
At the same time Miss Elsie Lomax offered indirect testimony to the use of
you-all
in the singular by showing that a plural form,
you-alls
, prevailed in Kentucky and Tennessee. Early in 1929 a witness from Kansas testified that he was “addressed as
you-all
twice in the singular,
in one day, at Lawrence,” the seat of the State university.
1
The Southerners thus seemed to be routed, but in June, 1929, Axley returned to the battle with a polished reply to Miss Morrison, in which he argued that, even if
you-all
was occasionally used in the singular in the South, it was not “widespread,” and then retreated gracefully by referring unfavorably to Al Smith’s use of
foist
for
first
, to George Philip Krapp’s curious declaration that
a.w.o.l
. was pronounced as one word,
áwol
, in the Army, and to the imbecility of comic-strip bladder-writers who were trying to introduce
I-all
.
2
In the years following various other depositions reporting
you-all
in the singular were printed in
American Speech
,
3
but the Southerners stuck to their guns, and in 1944 they got sturdy support from Guy R. Vowles, a Northerner who testified that, in nineteen years in the South, he had never heard
you-all
used in the singular.
4
Mr. Vowles added that he had often heard a second
all
added to
you-all
, as in “
Y’ll all
well?,” and cited support for it in the German “Geht es euch
allen
gut?”
5
The
I-all
denounced by Axley is not recorded in any dictionary save Wentworth’s, where it appears only as a jocosity by a radio crooner. But Webster 1934 lists
he-all
, though not
she-all, him-all
or
her-all
. It also lists
who-all
. Wentworth lists
he-all
from Webster and records
they-all, me-all
and both
we-all
and
we-alls
, but omits the others. Oma Stanley says in “The Speech of East Texas”
6
that the white freemen of that area use
you-all
“only as a plural,” express or understood, but that the blackamoors “may use it with singular meaning as a polite form.” Its declension in the Ozarks is thus given by Randolph:
It will be noted that
us-all
, which Wentworth finds in Kentucky and North Carolina, is omitted, and also
he-all, she-all, her-all, him-all, his-all
and
them-all
. In the same paradigm from which I have just quoted Randolph gives the following declension of the analogous forms in -
un
:
| First Person | |
| Nominative | we-uns |
| Possessive | we-uns |
| Objective | us-uns |
| Second Person | |
| Nominative | you-uns |
| Possessive | you-un’s |
| Objective | you-uns |
No singular forms and no third person forms are listed. Other observers, as Wentworth notes, have reported
he-un, she-un, them-uns, this-un
and
that-un
. Wentworth’s examples show that the use of -
un
is especially characteristic of Appalachian speech, though it has extended more or less into the lowlands. Some one once observed that the eastern slope of the mountains marks roughly the boundary between
we-uns
and
you-all
, and that the Potomac river similarly marks off the territory of
you-all
from that of the Northern
yous
. But such boundaries are always very vague. In 1888 L. C. Catlett, of Gloucester Court-House, Va., protested in the
Century
2
against the ascription of
we-uns
and
you-uns
to Tidewater Virginia speakers in some of the Civil War reminiscences then running in that magazine. He said: “I know all classes of people in Tidewater Virginia, the uneducated as well as the educated. I have never heard anyone say
we-uns
or
you-uns
. I have
asked many people about these expressions. I have never yet found anyone who ever heard a Virginian use them.” But while this may have been true of Tidewater, it was certainly not true of the Virginia uplands, as a Pennsylvania soldier was soon testifying:
At the surrender of General Lee’s army, the Fifth Corps was designated by General Grant to receive the arms, flags, etc., and we were the last of the army to fall back to Petersburg, as our regiment (the 6th Pennsylvania Cavalry) was detailed to act as provost-guard in Appomattox Court-House. As we were passing one of the houses on the outskirts of the town, a woman who was standing at the gate made use of the following expression: “It is no wonder
you-uns
whipped
we-uns
. I have been yer three days, and
you-uns
ain’t all gone yet.”
1
In the same issue of the
Century
Val. W. Starnes, of Augusta, Ga., reported hearing both
we-uns
and
you-uns
among “the po’ whites and pineywood tackeys” of Georgia, and also in the Cumberland Valley and in South Carolina. Wentworth gives examples from every State of the South, both east and west of the Mississippi, and Miss Jane D. Shenton, of Temple University, tells me that
you-uns
and
you-unses
are also common at Carlisle, Pa.
2
Jespersen says that the pronouns in -
uns
are derived from a Scottish dialect.
3
The DAE omits
we-uns
, but traces
you-uns
to 1810, when it was reported in Ohio by a lady traveler.
4
It was new to her, and “what it means,” she said, “I don’t know.” With this solitary exception, neither
you-uns
nor
we-uns
was recorded by any observer of American speech before 1860. Socrates Hyacinth said in 1869
5
that he had first heard the form in the South during the Civil War, and Bartlett said in his fourth edition of 1877 that it was “developed during the war.”
“The pronoun of the second person singular” – to wit,
thou
—, says Wright in “The English Dialect Grammar,”
6
“is in use in almost all the dialects of England to express familiarity or contempt,
and also in times of strong emotion; it cannot be used to a superior without conveying the idea of impertinence.… In southern Scotland it has entirely disappeared from the spoken language and is only very occasionally heard in other parts of Scotland.” In the United States it dropped out of use at a very early date, and no writer on American speech so much as mentions it. The more old-fashioned American Quakers still use the objective
thee
for the nominative
thou
, and the singular verb with it,
e.g., thee is
and
is thee?
The question as to how, when and why this confusing and irrational use of
thee
originated has been debated at length, but there seems to be no agreement among the authorities.
1
Margaret Schlauch suggests in “The Gift of Tongues”
2
that
this-here, these-here, those-there, them-there
, and
that-there
may reveal a pair of real inflections in the making. That is to say,
-here
and
-there
may become assimilated eventually to the pronouns.
3
Wright says in “The English Dialect Grammar”
4
that in some of the English dialects
-here
has begun to take on the significance of proximity, not only in space but also in time, and that -
there
similarly connotes the past as well as distance. Wentworth’s examples show that
this-here
frequently occurs as
this-’ere, this-yere, this-yer, thish-yer
, and
this-hyar
, with like forms for
these-here
, and that the -
there
of
that-there, those-there
and
them-there
changes to -
ere, -ar, -thar, -air, -are
and -
ah
. Witherspoon, in 1781, listed
this-here
and
that-there
among vulgarisms prevailing in both England
and America, and noted that they were used “very freely … by some merchants, whom I could name, in the English Parliament, whose wealth and not merit raised them to that dignity.” This use, he added, exposed them “to abundance of ridicule.” Mark Twain used
thish-yer
in his “Jumping Frog” story, 1865, and in “Tom Sawyer,” 1876, and
this h-yere
in “Huckleberry Finn,” 1884. The NED traces
this-here
to
c
. 1460, but offers no example of
these-here
before the Nineteenth Century. It traces
that-there
to 1742. All these forms are constantly and copiously in use in the American common speech.
1
1
In the Art of Reading and Writing English; London, 1721, Isaac Watts the hymn-writer hazarded the guess that they were used “at first perhaps owing to a silly affectation, because it makes the words longer than really they are.”
2
A Grammar of the English Language. Vol. III. Syntax; Boston, 1931, p. 528.
3
The origin of some of these -
n
endings is not settled, but it seems likely that the suffix may derive from
own
. Major William D. Workman, Jr., tells me that
his own
, as in “That is
his own
,” is in use in Charleston, S. C.
4
See AL4, p. 460.
5
The DAE says, in discussing
everyone
, that “the pronoun is often plural: the absence of a singular plural of common gender rendering this violation of grammatical concord sometimes necessary,” but under
everybody
it calls the sequence “incorrect.” I am indebted here to An Author Replies, by C. A. Lloyd,
American Speech
, Oct., 1939, p. 210.
6
A patient’s letter in the
Journal of the American Medical Association
, March 25, 1939. Singular nouns are followed by plural pronouns in many other situations. Here is a specimen from one of the late Will Rogers’s newspaper pieces, 1931: “This is the heyday of the shyster lawyer and
they
defend each other for half rates.” Also, singular pronouns are followed by plural verbs, as in the omnipresent
he don’t
. One of the late Woodrow Wilson’s daughters is authority for the statement that he used
he don’t
in the family circle. See Current English Forum, by J. B. McMillan,
English Journal
, Nov., 1943, pp. 519–20.
1
AL4, p. 134, n. 4.
2
The New American Language,
Forum
, May, p. 754.
3
French
on
– English
one
, by George L. Trager,
Romanic Review
, 1931, pp. 311–17.
4
AL4, p. 203, and Supplement I, p. 425.
5
See?
Liverpool Echo
, Sept. 21, 1938. I am indebted here to Mr. P. E. Cleator.
1
The Post Impressionist, Aug. 20, 1935.
2
My Particular Aversions,
American Bookman
, Winter, 1944, p. 39. Many other holes in the English vocabulary have been noted by the ingenious. See Needed Words, by Logan Pearsall Smith,
S.P.E. Tract No. XXXI
, 1928, pp. 313–29; Words Wanted in Connection With Art, the same, pp. 330–32; The New American Language,
Forum
, May, 1927, pp. 752–56; Verbal Novelties,
American Speech
, Oct., 1938, p. 240 (
broster
is proposed for
brother and sister
) and Needed Words, by H. L. Mencken, Chicago
Herald-Examiner
(and other papers), Sept, 10, 1934. See also AL4, p. 175.
3
I am indebted here to Mr. P. A. Browne, of the English Board of Education.
4
Dec., 1926, p. 163.
5
Who’s There? –
Me
, Oct., 1933, pp. 58–63. The
Saturday Review of Literature
, then edited by Henry S. Canby, jumped aboard the C.E.E.B. band-wagon on Aug. 14, 1926, p. 33.
1
Conservatism in American Speech, Oct., 1925, pp. 1–17.
2
Chapters on English; London, 1918, pp. 99–114. Reprinted from Progress in Language; London, 1894; second edition, 1909.
3
Macbeth, V.
4
Modern English in the Making, by George H. McKnight; New York, 1928, p. 195.
5
Who’s There? –
Me
, above cited, p. 62. Any American politician who proposed to change the name of the Why-Not-
Me?
Club, the trades union of the fraternity, to the Why-Not-
I?
Club would go down to instant ignominy and oblivion.
6
Affected and Effeminate Words,
American Speech
, Feb., 1938, pp. 13–18.
7
Vol. III, Part 2, Map 603.
1
The Way You Say It, by Doris Greenberg,
Times Magazine
, April 7.
2
This is
Me, Time
, April 1, 1946. There is a legend at Princeton (
Princeton Alumni Weekly
, Feb. 4, 1927, p. 521) that when James McCosh was president there (1868–88) he one night knocked on a student’s door, and on being greeted with “Who’s there?,” answered “It’s
me
, Mr. McCosh.” The student, unable to imagine the president of the college using “so un-grammatical an expression,” bade him go to the devil. But that was a long while ago.
3
It is
Me, Saturday Review of Literature
. The date, unhappily not determined, was after Aug. 14, 1926.
4
The Irregularities of English,
S.P.E. Tract No. XLVIII
, 1937, pp. 286–91.
5
p. 332.
6
The Language of Pepys’s Diary,
Queen’s Quarterly
, Vol. LIII, No. 1, 1946. Other examples are in The Sullen Lovers, by Thomas Shad-well, I, 1668, and The Relapse, by John Vanbrugh, V, 1698.
7
Hypercorrect English,
American Speech
, Oct., 1937, pp. 176 and 177.
1
Silva Says Killing Prompted by Insults at
He
and Buddy, Los Angeles
Examiner
, June 25, 1925, p. 2.
2
For example, in a letter from New York to the
Alta Californian
(San Francisco), May 18, 1867.
3
Horrible examples from
Liberty
, the
Red Book, Common Sense
, the
Commonweal
and an Associated Press dispatch are assembled by Dwight L. Bolinger in Whoming,
Words
, Sept., 1941, p. 70.
4
Affected and Effeminate Words, already cited.
5
Conservatism in American Speech,
American Speech
, Oct., 1925, p. 14
1
On
Who
and
Whom, American Speech
, Feb., 1930, pp. 25–55.
2
Troublesome Relatives,
American Speech
, June, 1931, pp. 341–46.
3
Piccalilli on the Vernacular,
Saturday Review of Literature
, Jan. 27, 1945, p. 14.
4
South-western Slang, by Socrates Hyacinth,
Overland Monthly
, Aug., 1869, p. 131.
1
Smith was a North Carolinian, born in 1864, and took his Ph.D. in English at the Johns Hopkins in 1893. After leaving the University of North Carolina in 1909 he became professor of English at the University of Virginia. In 1917 he moved to the Naval Academy as head of the English department, and there he remained until his death in 1924. He was the author of New Words Self-Defined, 1919, and many other books.
2
You All
as Used in the South, July. This paper was reprinted in the
Kit-Kat
(Cincinnati), Jan., 1920.
3
Jan. 2, 1904.
4
M. F. H., Jan. 16, 1904. Both communications were printed in the
Times Saturday Review of Books
.
5
See also
You-all
in English and American Literature, by H. P. Johnson,
Alumni Bulletin
(University of Virginia), Jan., 1924, pp. 28–33; Shakespeare and Southern
You-all
, by Edwin F. Shewmake,
American Speech
, Oct., 1938, pp. 163–68; The Southerners’
You-all
, by E. Hudson Long,
Southern Literary Messenger
, Oct., 1939. pp. 652–55, and
You-all
in the Bible, by Darwin F. Boock,
American Mercury
, Feb., 1933, p. 246.
1
In Dixie is Different,
Printer’s Ink
, Sept. 28, 1945, p. 23, D. C. Schnabel, of Shreveport, La., thus advised Northern advertisement writers: “And don’t – don’t – don’t have your copy character in the South saying
you-all
to one person. (Hollywood please copy.) It sounds as incongruous in the South as to say
they is
.”
1
Vol. I, Part X, 1896, p. 411.
2
You All
and
We All, American Speech
, Dec., 1926, p. 133.
3
You-all, American Speech
, Aug., 1927, p. 476.
4
The Grammar of the Ozark Dialect,
American Speech
, Oct., 1927, p. 5.
5
You-all
Again,
American Speech
, Oct., 1928, pp. 54–55.
6
The professor was Walther Fischer, of Giessen:
You-all, American Speech
, Sept., 1927, p. 496.
7
Y’all, American Speech
, Dec., 1928, p. 103.
1
More Testimony,
American Speech
, April, 1929, p. 328.
2
For more about
I-all
see Mr. Axley and
You-all
, by Herbert B. Bernstein,
American Speech
, Dec., 1929, p. 173.
3
For example, in
You-all
Again, by T. W. Perkins, April, 1931, p. 304 (in Arkansas), and More
You-all
Testimony, by Thomas C. Blaisdell, June, 1931, pp. 390–91 (North Carolina).
4
A Few Observations on Southern
You-all, American Speech
, April, 1944, pp. 146–47.
5
Further discussions are in The Truth About
You-all
, by Bertram H. Brown,
American Mercury
, May, 1933, p. 116;
You-all
Again, New York
Times
(editorial), Jan. 15, 1945; As It is Spoken,
Journal of the American Medical Association
(Tonics and Sedatives), May 20, 1944, and
You-all
, by H. L. Mencken, New York
American
(and other papers), July 16, 1934. See also Bartlett’s Familiar Quotations; eleventh edition; New York, 1937, p. 952.
6
pp. 98–99.
1 The Grammar of the Ozark Dialect,
American Speech
, Oct., 1927, p. 6.
2
Aug., pp. 477–78.
1
Notes on
We-uns
and
You-uns
, by George S. Scypes,
Century
, Oct., 1888, p. 799. There is a similar story in Americanisms: The English of the New World, by M. Schele de Vere; New York, 1872, p. 569. A Confederate soldier captured by Sheridan in the charge through Rockfish Gap is credited with “We didn’t know
you-uns
was around us all, and
we-uns
reckoned we was all safe, till
you-uns
came ridin’ down like mad through the gap and scooped up
we-uns
jest like so many herrin’.”
2
Private communication, July 14, 1937.
3
A Modern English Grammar; Heidelberg, 1922, Part II, Vol. I, p. 262.
4
A Journey to Ohio in 1810, by Margaret V. (Dwight) Bell; not published until 1920.
5
South-western Slang,
Overland Monthly
, Aug., p. 131.
6
p. 272.
1
The Speech of Plain Friends, by Kate Watkins Tibbals,
American Speech
, Jan., 1926, pp. 193–209; Quaker
Thee
and Its History, by Ezra Kempton Maxfield,
American Speech
, Sept., 1926, pp. 638–44; Quaker
Thou
and
Thee
, by the same,
American Speech
, June, 1929, pp. 359–61; Nominative
Thou
and
Thee
in Quaker English, by Atcheson L. Hench,
American Speech
, June, 1929, pp. 361–63; Some Peculiarities of Quaker Speech, by Anne Wistar Comfort,
American Speech
, Feb., 1933, pp. 12–14; and
Thee
and
Thou
, by William Platt, and The Quakers, by Isabel Wyatt, both in the London
Observer
, March 6, 1938.
2
New York, 1945, p. 147.
3
This
is itself the product of such an assimilation. The NED says that it was formed “by adding
se, si
(probably the Gothic
sai
, see, behold) to the simple demonstrative represented by
the
and
that
.” It was, at the start, inflected for case and gender as well as for number, but “in Middle English these forms were gradually eliminated or reduced, until by 1200 in some dialects, and by the Fifteenth Century in all,
this
alone remained in the singular.”
4
p. 277.
1
See AL4, p. 452.
