Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1886-07-29
THE GEORGIA DIALECT;

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|M x1pke state Of the South.
Among the peculiarities Of our dia-
lect i the putting of the defining word
before the object defneds as s'thas
sers man. for that man, there, !" ''thaf
'ere book, for .sthis book, here. !"
These expressions must sound strange
70 cultivated ears, accustomed to Bos-
tonian English, yet there are several
million of people who use them con-
stantly. '.Stop" for ''leave me alone
is peremptory, and conveys the exact
meaning of the speaker. In the same
way quit or ''drop" or ''let'' are
used. For instance, one will say '.drop
it, or ''drap it," as the expression is
frequently used, meaning ''say no
more about it." '..Hold on'' means to
stay proceedings, and Ego it." with q
peculiar intOnation, means Ego on in
your own way, l have nothing more to
say" ''Get up" is understood as q
demand to move along. 'It's shore to
be So means that the assertion, or the
existing circumstances are, beyond a
doubt. exactly as stated. ITO put out"
a lamp does not mean to carry it out
side, but to extinguish the light To
''hOller" is to cry aloud, and / think
there is not a more expressive word in
the language. To ''cry" in common
Eparisnce means 'to weep. while ac-
cording to the dictionaries it may
mean q variety of sounds of the voice.
It is neversused among the country
people in any other sense than to weep.
They have a different word for other
noises, as yell, a shrill cry; whoop, q
full-sounding cry; holler, asort of cross
between the two, as used in COM
mon with either word, etc. The rather
pugnacious expression ''beat him all
holler," however. means that the one
alluded to first is far superior to the
other. Occasionally the rustic drifts
into a redundancy of expression quite
surprising. He says 'his'n !" ''her'n''
and "their' n, equivalent to 'his own. -
.'their own," instead of simply ''his."
s'hers, - 'stheirs." By this he seems to
impress the idea of proprietorship by
the addition of the word ''Own." The
word ''split,'' to divide, is used as ''cut
down." is to diminish or decrease.
''Tolerably well'' 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 observ-
able in the language of the common
people. This-the leaving off the as
pirate. Besides ...I've," we've" and
''they've, which can hardly be placed
in this class, because 'I'l," ''we'I"
and ''they'Tl' show the contraction of
the auxiliary verb in the same way.
have noticed that the pronouns suffer
most from the process of decapitation.
s''is,' '''im," and ''e," for ''his,"
'him," and She" are examples. An
Other peculiar thing is the preixing of
''a' to active verbs-''ahuntin',"
.'afishin'," "arunnln',' s'awalkin',"
and similar instances. All these pecu-
liarities are noticeable in Southern dia-
lect, and many of them are common to
all English-speaking people. As for
real, straightout dictionary English
you will hunt long time before you
are able to secure enough strictly ac-
curate speakers to make up snug din
ner party, and when you have secured
them you may safely address every one
of them as professor. atlanta Constitss-
zion.