The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1886-10-01
THE GEORGIA DIALECT.
Curiosities OF the Language as Used in the
Empire state OF the south.


Among the pecuGarities Of orr dialect
is the putting Of the defining Worc before
the object defined, as that ere man" Tor
arbar man. there that ere book" Tor
athis book. here - These expressions must
sound strange in cultivated ears, accus-
toned 70 BosUOuian English, and yet there
are several million people who use IheLn
constantly. stop" for "leave me alone
j. Deremptorv, and conveys the exact
meaning Of the speaker In the same way
"duit" or drop" or "let' are USED. I OF Ia
stance, one viii say drop IL or crap IT,
as the expression is frequently used,
meaning SAY no more about 1t Hoo
on" means to stay proceedings, and go II,
with peculiar futonatiOn, means go on
I'm vour own way, / have nothing more TO
say"
Sect mp" is understood as demand to
move along ITS shore to be So means
that the assertion, or the existing c1rcum-
stances are, beyond a doubt, exactly as
stated. ITO put out" lamp does not mean
TO carry il outside, but to eXtlngulsh the
light To "holler" is to cry aloud and
think there is not more expressive word
in the language. To cry in common
parIance means "to weep while according
to the dictionaries it may mean variety
Of sounds of the voice. 1t is never used
among the country people in any other
sense than to weep. They have different
word for other noises, as yell, a shriu cry;
WhOOp, fullsOunded cry; hOller, sort
of cross between the two, as used in com
mon with either word, etc. The rather
pugnaciOus expression "beat him all hOl
Ter" however, means that the one alluded
to first is far superior to the other. Occa
siOnally the rustic drifts into a redundancy
of expression quite surprising. He says
"his'n," "her'n," "their'n," equivalent to
Hhis own" their own" instead of simply
"his," "hers," theirs" By this seems tO
impress the idea of proprietorship by the
addition of the word Gown" The word
"split," to divide, is used as "cut down" is
to diminish or decrease. "Tolerably welI'
means moderately we'll"
These words and phrases are all good
English to those who use them constantly,
and you would be surprised to know just
how many people use them constantly.
There is one little remnant of cOckneyism
that is observable in the language of the
common people. Thistle leaving off the
aspirate Besides "I've," we've" and
"they've," which can hardly be placed in
this class, because "pu," well" and
they'll" show the contraction of the
auxiliary verb in the same way. 1 have
noticed that the prOnOuns suffer most
from the process of decapitatiOn. "Is'
I'm, and e" Tor ms, MIN, ana ne,
are examples, Another peculiar thing is
the prefxing of "a" to active verbs
"ahuntin'," or "afishin'," "arunnin' ,
"awalkin'," and similar instances. AL
these pecuGarities are noticeable in south
ern dialect, and many of them are com
mon to all English-speaking people. As
for real straightout dictionary English
you will hunt a long time before you are
able to secure enough strictly accurate
speakers to make up a snug dinner party
and when you have secured them yoC
may safely address every one of them a:
professor. Constitution.