Little Falls transcript. [volume] (Little Falls, Morrison County, Minn.) 1876-1894, 1886-05-14
seems pro able. The figures sof tho.
march ara 22, 90 infantry 8, 100 cav
airy, 900 an illerY, 900 volunt
and something over 4, O0 Oin thenatiye
cont inaent
SOU THERN SPEECH.

-
The pulpo Of this paper is, how
over, to present, il . succinct way 4
few Of tho ;qua intnesses Of pronnncia-
ton and constr uction held to ~ the
Southern people as I class. Among
these tho FIRST that comes to mind Il
the custom Of. uniting the last two
letters Of such words as .snnore, =
t:store, e our, which are pro
nonnced mo" .ssto,' and 10 :
hat q clock ID it," you ask the
Carolinian, and ten to one he tells you
il i "llalf pas 70, if that happens to
be the hour. u. 5#..sss
Another common Southernism is
the use of t.like as IT, or t.like'' for
the words cas- it, if = 4. 8 She looked like
she knew me, {, is 4. common. express
sion, or ssshe looked like as If she'd
die. This is very common in Wash
ington and in all states south of Ma
son and Dixon's line. :. ,,3s :S.s.5s s: !.
. The word funny" is freq tly used
instead Of strange, and sometimes
with startling effects. A young South
ern girl was visiting us once and a call
er was telling of the death other moth
'er through swallowing a fish bone.
ooh! wasn't it funny?" exclaimed our
visitor, at the close Of the narrative.
81 think you mean strange, said the
caller, az soon as she recovered from
the astonishment. Our girl friend has
never used the word funny" since.
1fyou happen to hear anybody say
frye cheer" you may know it is in
tended to mean fright here" For in
stance:. A South Carolinian i'll say,
where was he at last night?' and his
fellow citizen will say, s'He stayed rye
cheer with me-" Djear-pronounced
in one syllable lis not Russian word,
as might be supposed; it means: "Do
you hear?" and is usually addressed
to servants in this form: :t*You, Jim!
bring in that wood, djear?"
s''To get to co. is essentially a Geor-
gia expression. They say: "Do, don't
fail to come tonight" and the reply
is: owe tried to get to go for three
weeks, now, SO l reckon I'll be there
t. night" ~.
The expression, DO don't, is heard
in Georgia and South Carolina, but
rarely elsewhere. One of the most
laughable things you ever heard is the
pronunciation. Of the word "about."
It is impossible to express the South
Carolinian's pronunciation phoneti-
cally. It sounds like "abaout'-pro-
nounced very quickly in three sylables.
"Quare" for "queer," is another word.
The use of "reckon" for sspresume' is
said to have been derived from the
Yankees, as was the expression "right
smart" for the word "much."
Low.country people and the resi-
dents of Middle South Carolina say
''gee-arden" :or garden" 'tgee-yard'
for 'guard' with the hard sound Of
"g." So, too,> with such words as
'card." "car," and "cart," into which
is introduced the sound of "kee," to
take place of the first consonant, thus:
"Kee-ard," "kee-ar," "kee-art"
The use of delightful for delicious in
such q sentence as ''The ice-cream is
delightful y is very common. "Pretty''
is word very often misused-for in
stance: "Isn't this a pretty day?"-
and this erroris a. very general one.
North Carolinians say the scenery is
.'pretty"-meaning picturesque; the
day is 'pretty-meaning fine, and that
a persons :. manners are "pretty"
meaning wellbred. ST:
"You all, "or, as it should be abbrevi-
ated, "y'ail," is one ofthe most ridicu-
lous of all the Sonthernlsms can call
to mind. It usually means two or
more persons, but is sometimes used
when only one person is meant. For
instance, a caller on taking her de-
parture, says: "Y'all come and see
u.s. She means the lady upon whom
she is calling and her husband may
call. "<