LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.04.22 (14) [E]

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A=Afrikaans Ap=Appalachian B=Brabantish D=Dutch E=English F=Frisian
L=Limburgish LS=Lowlands Saxon (Low German) N=Northumbrian
S=Scots Sh=Shetlandic V=(West)Flemish Z=Zeelandic (Zeêuws)
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From: Kevin Caldwell <kcaldwell31 at comcast.net>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.04.22 (12) [E]

> From: Montgomery Michael <ullans at yahoo.com>
> Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.04.22 (06) [E]
>
> Dear All
>
> The material presented under the subject heading below is from the book
> _Albion's Seed: Four British Folkways in North america_ by historian David
> Hackett Fischer (Oxford University Press, 1989).  Only some of its
> information is reliable, so Lowlanders are cautioned about citing it as
> authoritative.  Usages like "they is judged" (i.e. "is" with the plural
> pronoun "they") are unknown in American English.

I wouldn't make such a sweeping generalization.  I heard a lot of this type
of construction in East Tennessee (where I lived from age 7 to age 10 and
again from age 15 to age 25), usually shortened to "they's".  Of course,
sometimes "they" means "there", as in, "They ain't no more aigs.  Ah bettah
go to the store 'n git some."

> Many of the
> pronunciations
> cited are either Americanisms (e.g. "hard" and "far" for "hired" and
> "fire")

Some of my favorite examples are "war plars" for "wire pliers" and "bobwar"
for "barbed wire".

However, some of the examples in the article were unfamiliar to me, such as:

> > boosh for bush,... chancy for
> > china, ... poosh for push,...
> > tea-it for bat, be-it
> > for be,

I especially have no clue what this one is referring to (perhaps he meant
"pretense", but then I would expect "puttin on," not "lettin on"):

> > When they would say
> > presence, they say
> > lettinon....

This too is unfamiliar:

> > and the use of hoove as
> > a past participle of heave.

As for the following:

> > ...as
> > did the emphatic double
> > negative, he don't have none.

The double (or compound) negative for emphasis is quite common all over the
US, despite years of teachers trying to stop children from using it.

I'm particularly fond of the double modal myself, especially "might could."

> >
> > 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),

Often heard as "a-fixin to".  I've never heard "fornenst" or "skiff".

> > brickle (brittle), swan (swear), hant
> > (ghost),

I've always heard this pronounced as "haint". "Brickle" I know, but not
"swan".

> > hate (it ain't
> > worth a hate),

I've never heard this use of "hate", but it makes sense.

> > nigh (near),

Why would this be considered Southern highland speech?  Isn't it quite
common in English poetry? It's also used in the KJV bible.

There's also "purt near", meaning "pretty nearly" or "very nearly," as in,
"You purt near blowed my haid off with 'at 'ere shotgun o' yorn."

Which reminds of a joke I heard in my childhood, probably from my father.
Supposedly there was a small town just on the Georgia side of the
Tennessee-Georgia border.  The name of the town was Plum Nelly, and the
supposed origin of the name was that it was plum out of Tennessee and nelly
out of Georgia.

> > 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.

Of these, I'm only familiar with "man", "cute", "scoot", and "honey", and
maybe "bumfuzzled" (there are so many similar sounding words for "confused"
that it seems to me difficult to ascribe any particular one to a particular
dialect).

Kevin Caldwell (kcaldwell31 at comcast.net)

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