peops = peeps

Benjamin Zimmer bgzimmer at RCI.RUTGERS.EDU
Wed Sep 28 04:18:31 UTC 2005


On Tue, 27 Sep 2005 23:54:24 -0400, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:

>Earlier still from Making of America, representing the speech of a French
>musician named Monsieur Matthieu:
>
>-----
>Solomon Smith, 1868.
>_Theatrical management in the West and South for thirty years_, p. 173/2
>"I hear," said he to me, "dat in dis Cincinnati de peops very mush fond
>of de musique, and de eat and de drink is _sheep_ [cheap]; dat dey have
>de _cochon beaucoup_ - plenty! Trois sous de pound, and de spare-rib
>throw him in, begar! and here I sal make some casting of my anchor, as
>de sailor say."
>http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/pageviewer-idx?c=moa;cc=moa;g=moagrp;idno=AEH1378.0001.001;view=image;seq=00000175
>-----

Looking for more Franco-American dialect writing, I found this from 1847:

-----
Janesville (Wisc.) Gazette, Jan. 23, 1847, p. 4/6
The following concise and appropriate prayer was once offered in the
Michigan Legislature, by a French chaplain: "O Lor! Bless de peeps and
their servant de representatives. May dey make laws for de peeps and not
for demselves — amen."
-----

The same squib appears in the _Madison (Wisc.) Express_, June 17, 1847, p.
3/3; and the _Waukesha (Wisc.) Democrat_, Sep. 12, 1848, p. 4/5.


--Ben Zimmer



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