The morning star and Catholic messenger. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1868-1881, 1874-11-15
Some Few of the Local Idioms of the United
States.
Universities OF SPEECH IN VARIOUS PARTS
OF THE COUNTRY.

No person of observation, says the New
York Times, can travel far, nor tarry long
| in different quarters of our land, peopled as
| it is by the descendants of SO many differ
emit nationalities, without being impressed
by their diversities of speech, which are
perhaps more remarkable than the differ
| ences in their manners and customs. A
| brief glance at a few of the former may not
| be altogether improbable, as the subject is
| a curious one, and is largely suggestive of
| the effects of local pursuits aud habits, as
we'll as the fact of ancestry in changing
and modifying that English tongue which
is supposed to be the common language of
America.
I visited New Hampshire while lad, and
was impressed with the oddity of several
idioms which were then, and presume are
now, part of the daily speech of the peo-
pie. They were certainly unlike anything
that had ever heard in New York. Thus
-, farmer, desiring to know whether
his neighbours oxen are well broken. and
draw we'll in the yoke, invariably puts the
question, Are they handy?' In New
York the adjective might we'll be applied to
a useful boy, or a smart servant girl, bnt
never to an animal.
If the remarkable pronunciation of I" be-
gretch for 4" begrudge is ever heard else
where than in the Empire Statef If go,
never happened to hear it elsewhere. So
have heard people from other States criti.
else, with good-natured ridicule, the fire.
qaent use in New York Of the ungrammati.
cal expression, He hddnt ought to Go it,"
an expression by no means inirequent.
The use of the words "done" and s'done
gone" not only by the negroes, but by
many of the whites of the South, to express
the idea of full and complete performance
or happening, has very often been COM
mented upon by observers of Southern
t,of hit n hn tot, -A
of this idiom that ever heard-and yet no
more absurd than the use that is daily
made of twas by my negro servant, who
volunteered to inform me one evening that
the sun had "done sot."
"We'ups" and "you'uns," manifestly
corruptions of such tautoiogy as eve ones"
and you ones" were expressions which
SO often greeted the ear of the Northern
soldier during the war, that he almost
ceased to think them outlandish.
Perhaps more singular to alien ears than
anything that / have herein noticed is the
expression, +" those molasses," which actu-
ally prevails in some + rte of the West.
molasses should not be plural as well as
ashes7
"Gobble" and {" skedaddle +" were pecu-
liar to the army in wartime, and have not
outlived that period, believe, to any ex-
tent. They were very expressive words
anu gave u bIRuiuC6ub mchuluK I'd WuaG
would otherwise have been called "plunder"
or Capture" and flight" They were used
both as verbs and nonns.
"Bummer"-that perfectly descriptive
word for a military vagabond and piunderer
lis still heard occasionally in the press or
in common speech, and may possibly sur
vive the war long enough to become in
grated upon the language with other queer
additions of the last two decades.
l believe the use of the expression,
"outen" for I" out of" is not confined to
any locality. 1 have heard it in widely
separated places.
sTouse," which appears as a dictionary
turbance, has become obsolete almost
every where in this country; though have
heard it used in New England as the ex.
pressions " traiaing" and carrying on :"
are elsewhere used to designate the capers
and praDks Of exuberant young people.
Upon reviewing the above find that the
Great Unabridged contains "forehanded,"
"tote," and skedaddle." The latter ia
stated TO be an importation from Sweden
and Denmark, and to have been in use
among emigrants to our Northwestern
countries for several years. The word was
certainly never known to the nation at
large till the war popularized it, and
furnished illustrations of its meaning.
"Ornery" for " ordinary" has been in
use in many parts of the country for some
years. And the list might be almost in
definitely extended.
1t is quite apparent to any one who has
paid much attention to the use of this " ar
got " (Uide Victor Hugo in Les Miserables),
that in its creation it is the offspring of
common and uneducated people. But its
chief popularity is its wonderful tenacity
of life, and it's faculty of spreading among
the refined and educated. And although
these slang and corrupted words always
lead the existence of pathological outlaws,
and only crowd themselves into the lexicons
when their use becomes go prevalent that
they can no longer be ignored, yet it may
truthfully be said of nearly each Que of
them, as the poet sang of Plymouth Rock
"It lives it lives, and it meier will dc
Should any person doubt the absolute
truth of this assertion, let him remember
that the word ''bully," that slaugiest of all
slang words. which we find in much wider
use to day than it should be, had it's exist
ence in Shakespeare time, and was even
uaa3 nv ShakaDeare himself "a in the