LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.04.22 (06) [E]

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From: Glenn Simpson <westwylam at yahoo.co.uk>
Subject: Origins of southern highland speech in USA

Ron,

Lowlanders may be interested in this article, altho
may be some have already seen it. It states that
northumbrian & ulster-scots/scots have influenced the
dialect in USA.

gan canny,

Glenn

Backcountry Speech Ways:
Border Origins of Southern Highland Speech


In the United States, a distinctive family of regional dialects can still be
heard throughout the Appalachian and Ozark mountains, the lower Mississippi
Valley, Texas and the Southern Plains. It is commonly called southern
highland or southern midland speech.34

This American speech way is at least two centuries old. It was recognized in
the colonies even before the War of Independence, and identified at first in
ethnic rather than regional terms, as "Scotch-Irish speech." In the
backcountry, it rapidly became so dominant that other ethnic stocks in this
region adopted it as their own. As early as 1772, a newspaper advertisement
reported a runaway African slave named Jack who was said to "speak the
Scotch-Irish dialect."35

The earliest recorded examples of this "Scotch-Irish" speech were strikingly
similar to the language that is spoken today in the southern highlands, and
has become familiar throughout the western world as the English of country
western singers, transcontinental truckdrivers, cinematic cowboys, and
backcountry politicians.

This southern highland speech has long been very distinctive for its
patterns of pronunciation. It says whar for where, thar for there, hard for
hired, critter for creature, sartin for certain, a-goin for going, hit for
it, he-it for hit, far for fire, deef for deaf, pizen for poison, nekkid for
naked, eetch for itch, boosh for bush, wrassle for wrestle, chancy for
china, chaw for chew, poosh for push, shet for shut, tea-it for bat, be-it
for be, narrer for narrow, winder for window, widder for widow, and
young-uns for young ones.36 When they would say presence, they say
lettinon....Its grammar also differs in many details from other English
dialects. Verb forms include constructions such as he come in, she done
finished, they "rowed up, the plural they is judged, the interrogative you
wasn't there, was you, the emphatic he done did it, and the use of hoove as
a past participle of heave. The indefinite article as she had a one
frequently occurred in the southern highlands, as did the emphatic double
negative, he don't have none.37 It also used prepositions in a curious ways.

In the early nineteenth century, James Parton recorded examples such as "He
went till Charleston" and "there never was seen the like of him for
mischief." Parton wrote, ". . . these are specimens of their talk."38

Southern highland speech also has its own distinctive vocabulary in words
such as fornenst (next to), skiff (dusting of snow), fixin (getting ready to
do something), brickle (brittle), swan (swear), hant (ghost), hate (it ain't
worth a hate), nigh (near), man (husband), cute (attractive), scawmy
(misty), lowp (jump), lettinton (pretend), sparkin (courtin), hippin (a
baby's diaper), bumfuzzled (confused), scoot (slide) and honey as a term of
endearment.39

Scholars generally agree that this language developed from the "northern" or
"Northumbrian" English that was spoken in the lowlands of Scotland, in the
North of Ireland, and in the border` counties of England during the
seventeenth and early eighteenth century.9 Every vocabulary word which we
have noted as typical of American backcountry speech also appears in word
lists colpected in the English border counties of Cumberland and Westmorland
during the nineteenth century. W. Dickson observed, for example, that man
was "the term by which a Cumbrian wife refers to her husband," as in "stand
by your man." He noted that honey was "a term. of endearment expressive of
great regard" in the English border counties, northern Ireland and the
southern lowlands. Dickson and others recorded in Cumbria usages such as let
on for tell, scawmy for thick or misty, cute for attractive, nigh for near,
fixin for getting ready, and lowp for jump, hoove as a past participle for
heave, and fang sen or langseyne for long since. This emphatic double
negative had long been common in border speech. One Northumbrian gentleman
wrote to another, "I assure your honour I never sold none."40

In North Britain, this speech way tended to be broadly similar on both sides
of the border. One early nineteenth century student of speech in Cumberland
and Westmorland observed that "in the Border and all along the verge of the
old Marches or debateable lands the speech of the people is completely
Scotch, in everything, excepting that there is but little tone."41 North of
the border, another speech-scholar described the accent of the Scottish
lowlands as "nothing more than a corruption of that which is now spoke . . .
in all the northern counties ofEngland."42

This border dialect became the ancester of a distinctive variety of American
speech which still flourishes in the southern highlands of the United
States. The process of transmission was complex. Southern highland speech
was not merely an archaic North British form this was not a simple story of
stasis and replication. New words were required to describe the American
environment, and many were coined in the backcountry. Other expressions were
borrowed from Indians, Spanish, French and Germans. But the strongest
ingredients were the speech ways of North Britain in the seventeenth
century.


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From: R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: Language varieties

Thanks a lot, Glenn!

Who is the author?  Has it been published, and, if so, where?

"Cute," "scoot" and "honey" have entered mainstream American English, of
course, and at least "cute" has entered Global English.

Gan canny!
Reinhard/Ron

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