brogue

[Jonathan Lighter]

Discussed before, I think, in the general (and now uncommon) sense of any
marked regional pronunciation.
OED offers no American exx.  In addition to the East Tennessean I heard use
it in 1974-75 (to describe rural E. Tenn. speech) add this, which is laden
with linguistic interest:

1863-1919 Chauncey H. Cooke _A Badger Boy in Blue_ (Detroit: Wayne State U.
P., 2007) 52: Columbus, Ky., May 12th, 1863...They say one Butternut...is
good for four Yanks. Poor ignorant devils. They don't know but little more
than the negroes, they use the same brogue. If you shut your eyes you would
think from their jargon you was talking to a lot of "niggers" as they call
the blacks.

Cooke was from Gilmanton, Wis., from a strongly religious and abolitionist
family.  When he published his Civil War letters in 1919 he admitted that
he'd revised them, so the precise date of the ex. is unclear.
JL
--
"If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."

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