The daily gazette., 1880-04-22
The English Language in America


one prominent characteristic of the
speech OF the mother country, taken as
q whole, has never perpetuated itself
with us. This In Its own division into
broadly-marked dialects. These, indeed,
are beginning to pass away In Great
BIitain with the general spread Of edu-
cation, which inevitably carries with it
the language Of literature. Still they
exist and the differences between the
popular speech even OF adjoining dis
trlcts are sometimes conspicuous. In
this country, ON the other hand, there
are, properly speaking, no dialects. The
peculiarities which distinguish either
the pronunciation or the vocabulary of
the dwellers in any part Of the United
States are neither go universal within
the limits assigned, nor SO strongly
marked In their own nature as to war
rant the application TO them OF that
term,-at least In the sense in which we
employ IL when describing the corres-
ponding variations from the literary
language found In England. What We
call the Yankee dialect, for instance, Is
never the characteristic tongue of one
man, or Of any one class, or of any one
district. It Is nothing more than q
lsborious collection of the peculiarities
which ara to be found In various parts
Of New England !; sli Of which are not
to be met with in the speech Of any one
community, but some Of which can be
found in the speech of every one.
Certain it Is that many and perhaps
most OF the colloquial expressions, which
both here and abroad 60 under the
name of Ameficanisms, are found also
in the colloquial speech Of the proyin-
cial dialects OF England. From there
they were brought here. These is little
originality, 80 far as we are concerned,
IN those odd words and phrases Which
we hear on every side, those peculiar
pronunciations, those linguistic changes
of every Kind, which amuse if they do
not edify. Objects and practices, pee
uliar TO this country, are of course to be
excluded from any such statement. 1t
must be, admitted, moreover that the
special difficulty, already mentioned,
attends the Investigation of this branch
Of the subject. 1t is only within the
last six years that society has been or
ganized in England for the express purr
pose of collecting aud preserving thu
peculiar words, phrases, and pronuncia-
tioDs still existing in It's provincial dia
ects: and not until that work has been
FULLY completed shall we be in pos
ition here TO compare the colloquial
language of the two countries, and sepa
rate in our own speech what is original
from what Is imported. At present, all
assertions, must be based upon the
scattered labors of Independent obser-
vers, possessing, it is Ito. be added,
in nearly every case, very imperfect
quail fications for the task. Still, even
With these defective sources OF informa-
tion, the results obtained are somewhat
striking. Let us take, for illtstratioD,a q
-olitary volume, the glossary of words
and phrases used in the Country Of
Suffolk, compiled by Edwin Moor, and
published in London in 1928. In this
one small work, confined to the call
quial speech of single shire, and en-
bodvlng that incompletely, will be found
much that we have been disposed to-
consider as peculiarly our own. 49d
A rapid glance over its pages will re-
veal such proDunciations as cute for
acute, chdW for chew, dro,ended for
d owned, hoss for horse, gal for girl,
ndtur for nature, tdtsrs for potatoes !.
sucn phrazes as "to flop in chair :"
''to trim ones jacket =" ito haul over
the Goals !" "to ride like blazes;p "gift
of the gao " sin a horn :" ain a jiffy -
ga tip-lop fellow" "before you could
say Jack Robinson;" "that's \ whop-
per " such oaths and EXPLANATIONS as
'by gum !" "by eosh," "darnation 4"
"dang it," "lawk-a-daisy; )" such words
as bObbery for disturbance, qd,oky fol
awkard, gtutm for gloomy, gumption for
sense, huiiabaloo for clamor, obstropo-
tous for obstreperous, sdppy for silly,
scdiy for shabby, and spree, with It's
" de varieties of meaning; such contri-
buttons to culinary speech as CLAP
jacks" "apple-fritters," aud, indeed,
"saace," as applied to garden vegetables
generally; the same felicitous descrip-
tiOn of states of mind conveyed by such
expressions as "tO be in a tantium -
'to be in pucker;" such terms of
abuse as "dunderhead," "ninnyham.
mer," "nincompoop," and a whole tribe
Of vigorous common words denoting
hastistment, such as "baste,"
'larrup," "lather," click" "welt, ""wal-
lop," and "wback; and in addition to all
these, that peculiar qualifying phrase,
he ard often with us, of kinder Il. e.,
kind of in the sense of s'somewhat,p
as, she IS kinder cold" The list of ex
pressions common to the colloquial
speech Of the two countries, which is
in this one work, has by no
means been exhausted but enough has
b, en- quoted to make it clear that we are
not so original as many of us are incin-
I'D to Think. r. Lo,nSbsayy In Inter-
nat tondi Reuieto TOR Mdy.