LL-L "What does it mean?" 2002.04.07 (05) [E]

[Lowlands-L]

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 L O W L A N D S - L * 07.APR.2002 (05) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From: "W. Jaap Engelsman" <engelsma at euronet.nl>
Subject: LL-L "What does it mean?" 2002.04.04 (05) [E]

Dear Lowlanders,

>  almost as live be dead as to be in the fix I am in. I hate to tell
>  you what alds me, but I can't help it. I am BUSONED. I come so to day
>  and if it get any worse I can't walk a step, but I will quit this

Could he possible mean POISONED? I can't judge whether that would be in
line with this dialect. I don't understand "alds" in the same line --
"ails"?

Jaap Engelsman

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R. F. Hahn <sassisch at yahoo.com>
Subject: What does it mean?

Thanks, Jaap.  In the meantime you may have read my second posting on
this topic.

> I don't understand "alds" in the same line -- "ails"?

That's what I assume.  Obviously, we are dealing -- in the mid-19th
century -- with a combination of insufficiencies in orthographic
standards and in formal education.  Also, please note that one of the
most striking and widespread phonological characteristics of "Southern"
English in North America (from Central Texas on eastward) is
monophthongization of rising diphthongs: /ei/ -> [æ:] ~ [E:] (e.g.,
_play_ = _pleh_), /ai/ -> [a:] (e.g., _my_ = _mah_), and /oi/ -> [O:] ~
[Q:] (e.g., _oil_ = _awl_).  The writer may have pronounced _ails_ as
_ehlz_ or even as _ehldz_ (unless he inserted the <d> out of
"ignorance").  Does anyone know of this type of d-insertion in
"Southern" dialects?  Perhaps Father Andreas can tell us if it is
possible to insert a /d/ in such cases in Appalachian (not that I want
to pretend that Appalachian and "Southern" are one and the same thing).

Please remember that at that time people were not in the habit of
writing as they spoke, that they were taught to use stilted, literary
language in writing, and that dialectal information tends to be
"muffled" by this layer of "good" English, mostly becomes apparent in
grammatical and orthographic errors.

Regards,
Reinhard/Ron

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