LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.04.30 (01) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 30.APR.2004 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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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: Montgomery Michael <ullans at yahoo.com>
Subject: LL-L "Language varieties" 2004.04.22 (14) [E]

Dear All

Kevin Caldwell is certainly correct to say that many
of the expressions in David Hackett Fischer's account
are known in East Tennessee, as I can attest from my
first twenty-five years in that part of the state
before heading away to graduate school.  However, to
characterize them as "north British" contributions to
"Highland English" (as Fischer does) has little
meaning because most of them are very general in the
British Isles (so could just as easily come to North
America -- and the Appalachians -- from southern
England) or are so widespread in the U.S. that there
is little point in calling them "Highland English" on
this side of the water.  So while most are bonafide
terms in the southern mountains, there in little point
in claiming they represent the southern Highland
linguistic inheritance from north Britain.

My assessment is not one subjectively arrived at.
Rather, sometime ago I studied Fischer's list in
detail and have in addition spent the past fourteen
years editing a historical dictionary (800 pages) of
southern Appalachian English (just published by the
University of Tennessee Press under the title
_Dictionary of Smoky Mountain English_).  For this
volume I canvassed a vast amount of published and raw
material.  Also I have worked frequently in archives
and with the linguistic literature from Scotland and
Ireland attempting to ascertain valid linguistic
connections between that part of the world and mine.
Much of what Appalachian speech has inherited from
those parts of the British Isles is identified in the
etymologies to the dictionary and in  the forthcoming
book _From Ulster to America: The Scotch-Irish
Heritage of American English_, which will feature
around 350 terms.

I offer a few additional comments below.  Though I
obviously don't put a lot of stock in the linguistic
work of David Hackett Fischer (who is actually a
friend of mine), I think it is worth pointing out that
the excerpt from his book that was sent to Lowlands-L
did not identify its author and most likely was posted
(along with ghost footnote numbers) without the
author's permission.  I respectfully suggest that this
list not copy and circulate material whose author is
not acknowledged and credited.

Michael Montgomery

> 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."

Actually, the form "they's" ALWAYS represents "there"
+ "is," never the pronoun "they," as Fischer says.

> > 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....

Actually, his book does say "pretence."  Whoever typed
(or more likely scanned) the text didn't proof it.
Yes, "lettin on" is known in the mountains in this
sense.  Fischer takes the passage from an account by
Anne Newport Royall written in 1826 on visiting West
Virginia.

> 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."

This is one genuine inheritance from "north Britain."

> > >
> > > 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".

Fischer's evidence for "fixin to" is completely
obscure.  No dictionary of British or Irish English
has it with this meaning, and it is undocumented in
the U.S. before the 1820s.

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

Thanks for the valuable book tip.  We should add this title to our offline
resource guide for English.

For the sake of completion (and this is in keeping with our rules, should
not be interpreted as commercial), here some more bibliographical details:

Montgomery, Michael B., and Joseph S. Hall, _Dictionary of Smoky Mountain
English_, Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press
(http://utpress.org/),  Cloth Edition, $75.00, Cloth ISBN: 1-57233-222-0,
Library of Congress No.: LC 2003012372.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron


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