NYT: "blather" from Pa.? (UNCLASSIFIED)

[Mullins, Bill AMRDEC]

Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

Wasn't it recently proven by Daniel Cassidy that all these phrases were
Irish in origin?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU] On Behalf Of Benjamin Zimmer
> Sent: Tuesday, April 01, 2008 12:29 PM
> To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU
> Subject: NYT: "blather" from Pa.?
>
> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       Benjamin Zimmer <bgzimmer at BABEL.LING.UPENN.EDU>
> Subject:      NYT: "blather" from Pa.?
> --------------------------------------------------------------
> -----------------
>
> From a New York Times article about Obama's campaigning style
> in Pennsylvania:
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/01/us/politics/01obama.html
> "Pennsylvania's culture, as the historian David Hackett
> Fischer noted in his book 'Albion's Seed,' is rooted in the
> English midlands, where Scandinavian and English left a
> muscular and literal imprint. These are people distrustful of
> rank, and finery, and high-flown words. It should come as no
> surprise that the word 'blather' originated here."
>
> Hackett doesn't actually claim that "blather" originated in
> Pennsylvania, but argues that it's one of many importations
> from the North Midlands to the Delaware Valley (which itself
> may be a questionable claim):
>
> "Not only the pronunciation but also the vocabulary of the
> England's North Midlands became part of American midland
> speech. In the word lists of Cheshire, Derbyshire, Lancashire
> and Yorkshire we find the following terms, all of which took
> root in the Delaware Valley:
> _abide_ as in "can't abide it," _all out_ for entirely,
> _apple-pie order_ to mean "very good order," _bamboozle_ for
> deceive, _black and white_ for writing, _blather_ for empty
> talk, [...] None of these words was invented in America,
> though many have been mistakenly identified as Americanisms.
> All were carried from the North Midlands of England to the
> Delaware Valley, and became the basis of an American regional
> vocabulary which is still in use today." (_Albion's Seed_, pp. 472-3)
>
>
> --Ben Zimmer
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>
>
Classification:  UNCLASSIFIED
Caveats: NONE

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org