Saint Mary's beacon. [volume] (Leonard Town, Md.) 1867-1983, 1878-12-19
How We Tan.

snolecs oS our dialects on enfering col
lege at Princeton. The college gath
cred It's students from various parts Of
the land; great varieties of fspeech we're
soon made evident. The recitation af-
ter dinner was called By some the afIey-
noon recitation, by others the ecening
recitation. The hour At which il was
held was, according 20 some, half-past
three Ia as in fay); according 10 others,
"a as In fatl. II was heard. as some
sad, by choofer. IS others said. by s
fo0ftsy while according 20 others still.
the person was neither the one nor the
other of these, bat rather something be-
tween them, namely, fescfer. The lit
tie word here, in answering TO the cal
ling Of the roll. One would say here (r
fully. another keak, another kear, and
another gtar. II soon became evident
that such differences marked the differ
ent sections Of the country from which
the students came.
The dialects Of our country arise in
great part, no doubt, from our diversity
Of local and national origin. The dia-
lects Of the mother-country are, 10 some
extent, preserved and perpetuated here.
We have, too, many Scotticisms and
Scotch-Irishisms. Then. besides the
mofheT-country, the father-land is rep
resented among US. as also, TO some
extent, France, Holland and other ma
tons.
A knowledge Of our dialects gives i'm
portant hints in regard to The early col
onization Of our country, and in regard
to the various movements of the differ
ent elements Of our population IRON the
first until now. The second respect in
whicL knowledge Of our dialects is inn
portant is to be found in the connection
subsisting between language and man
ner Of life.
Let us see. then, first, how our histo-
ry is illustrated by our dialects. Any
one going into the neighborhood Of New
York City will speedily be made aware
that the descendants of The Dutch are
about him. He will discover il from
the names ofthe people, from the names
Of localities in the country and streets
in the city. and from the use of Dutch
words W which he has not heard elsewhere.
Among the people TO whom he is intro
duced he will find an extraordinary
number of "Vans"-Van Dyke, Van
Bokkelin. Van Buren, Van Benskoven.
The localities Of Hoboken and Staten
Island, and Cortlandt street, New York,
and Schermerhorn street, in Brooklyn,
will constantly be heard. He will find
himself making an excursion on the
Harlem Railroad and crossing Spuyten
Duyvel Creek. IL il is winter he will
be eating "crullers." or Dutch dough-
nuts; if il is summer, he will be resting
after dinner in the cool "stoop" or porch
of the Dutch farmhouse. And, when
Sunday comes, it will surely be the
domino" whom he will hear preach.
Now, in The prevalence of such names
and words may the existence Of the
descendants OF the Dutch be detected
and their movements be traced wher-
ever they have gone in our land. BY
glancing at map Of our country we see
the footprints Of the French in The geo.
graphical names which are heard every
day. Whence are the names of Vim
cennes and Terre Haute in Indiana, and
Fon Du Lac and Prairie Du Chen in
the Northwest but from The early French
settlersi The single word "pralrie,"
in universal use 10 describe the immense
natural meadows Of the West, is a suf-
cient testimony that the French were
the first Europeans TO explore the re-
gions to which they belong. Why is IL
that Illinois is spelled with final as"
yet pronounced withoutit Would not
this indicate that the French were the
first TO make the acquaintance OF the
Illinois Indians and TO write their name,
We may infer with certainty the early
establishment and permanent abode Of
French population in missouri" from
the geographical names. See the num-
Der of saints-St. Louis, st. Charles,
st. Genevieve and ST. Joseph. See such
other names as Des Moines on the north
and Cape Grardin on the South. In
st. Louis they measure land not by
''acEe" but by ''arpens. This admix-
ture Of French Is undoubtedly much
larger in the people Of the South than
in those of the North. And, accord
ingly, we find the Southern dialects as
similating TO the peculiarities Of the
French language. This is seen partic-
ularly in the disposition TO throw the
accent of words f0rCard at the South,
and the opposite disposition atthe North.
Thus. al The South the vulgar almost
invariably say president and testament
and excitemeaf and gentlemen. 60 m
words Of two syllables. the accent Is fre-
quently placed on tie last syllable,
when at the North il would be placed
On the first. The tendency North in
such cases to draw the accent back
when it probably is thrown forward.
appears in whole classes OF words
Thus m words of three syllables, per-
sons are disposed TO saw illustrate for IL
lustrate, aud opponent for opponent, and
iaquiry for inquiry. So in words oftwo
syllsbles. there is disposition 10 say
recess for recess.
A more important variety of our
speech is that which is of Scotch Irish
origin. The dialect Of Pennsylvania is
mainly Scotch-Irish. This is the more
remarkable when we remember that
the first settlers Of Pennsylvania were
largely Of the class Of English Quakers:
and that subsequently the Germans
hare come in in almost overwhelming
force. From Eastern PENNSYLVANIA The
Scolch-Irish spread abroad, going up
the Cumberland Valley into Virginia.
snd crossing the AIIrghanies both in