antedating (?) "Katy, bar the door" (1890)

[Beverly Flanigan]

A similar thing happens in early New England literature, right?  I recall
being puzzled as a teenager by Whittier's "harrd hearrt" (close, I think,
though I don't have the poem, or its title, handy).  Fifty years and
linguistic training on, I assume it was meant to indicate the low central
vowel /a/, with of course no /r/ at all, but when I was young and naive, I
pronounced it [hOrd hOrt].

Beverly

At 12:13 PM 10/3/2007, you wrote:
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>Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
>Subject:      Re: antedating (?) "Katy, bar the door" (1890)
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Wilson,
>
>It's very doubtful that this orthographic /r/ indicates a phonetic
>one. In reading the JC Harris stories, for example, folk who don't
>know southern speech interpret such things as Br'er Rabbit as BRY-er
>or some such silliness. We know, of course, that it is is "brother"
>(bruh) and that Harris was using the "r" to indicate vowel quality
>(usually wedge or lengthening, as in "bar" in your quote I think, or
>both).
>
>dInIs
>
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> >Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >Poster:       Wilson Gray <hwgray at GMAIL.COM>
> >Subject:      Re: antedating (?) "Katy, bar the door" (1890)
> >-------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ------
> >
> >"When she say that, hit's 'Katy, bar _ther_ do',' then, _fer_ she's
> >gwine _ter_ do it."
> >
> >I assume that the passage is a bit of eye-dialect BE.
> >
> >Therefore, FWIW, I note that shwa [I spell it this way because I
> >choose to] is replaced by shwa+r in this way in some fairly rare
> >dialects of BE to this day. A ninety-ish cousin of mine from down home
> >in Texas uses it and I've heard it used by the odd speaker/singer from
> >bluesman to hiphopper. It sounds rather strange, hearing someone use
> >an "r" where nobody else does, whereas the person doesn't use "r"
> >where the standard, at least, does use one.`
> >
> >-Wilson
> >
> >
> >On 10/3/07, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at babel.ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
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> >>  Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> >>  Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> >>  Subject:      Re: antedating (?) "Katy, bar the door" (1890)
> >>
> >>------------------------------------------------------------------------
> -------
> >>
> >>  On 10/3/07, Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at ling.upenn.edu> wrote:
> >>  >
> >>  > 1888 _Current Literature_ Dec. 499/1 When she say that, hits 'Katy,
> >>  > bar ther do, then, fer she's gwineter do it.
> >>  > [HNP Doc ID 229263831]
> >>
> >>  Sorry, missed some punctuation in there:
> >>
> >>  1888 _Current Literature_ Dec. 499/1 When she say that, hits 'Katy,
> >>  bar ther do', then, fer she's gwineter do it.
> >>
> >>
> >>  --Ben Zimmer
> >>
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> >
> >
> >--
> >All say, "How hard it is that we have to die"---a strange complaint to
> >come from the mouths of people who have had to live.
> >-----
> >                                               -Sam'l Clemens
> >
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>--
>Dennis R. Preston
>University Distinguished Professor
>Department of English
>15C Morrill Hall
>Michigan State University
>East Lansing, MI 48824
>517-353-4736
>preston at msu.edu
>
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