Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1886-07-29
THE GEORGIA DIALECT.
Curiosities of the Language Used In the
Empire state of the South.
Among the peeuliarities of our dial,

Among the peculiarities of our dialect
is the putting of the defining word be-
fore the object defined. as that ere
man. for that man, there, that ere
book, = for this book, here. These
expressions must sound strange in Guilt
waited ears. accustomed to Bostonian
English, and yet there are several mil
lion of people who use them constantly.
Stop for ''leaye me alone" is peremp-
tory, and conveys the exact meaning of
the speaker. In the same way ''quit"
or drop" or ''let" are used. For in
stance, 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
"go it." with peculiar information,
means 40 on in your own way. Ihave
nothing more to say Get up is I'M
derstood as demand to move along.
''lt's shore to be So means that the as
sertion. or the existing circumstances
are, beyond doubt, exactly as stated.
ITO put out" a lamp does not mean to
carry it outside. but to extinguish the
light. To 'holler" is to cry aloud, and
] think there is not more expressive
word in the language. To ''cry" in
common parlance means ito weep
while. according to the dictionaries, IT
may mean variety of sounds of the
voice. Ii is never used among the
country people in any other sense than
to weep. They have a different word
for other noises, as yell, shrill cry;
whoop, full-sounded cry; holler, sort
of cross between the two, as used in
common 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 redundancy of expression quite
surprising. He says ''his'n," ''her' n,
''their'n,n equivalent to This own"
''their own" instead of simply Ibis"
''hers, ''theirs." BY this he seems to
impress the idea of proprietorship by
the addition of the word Town" The
word ''split, to divide, is used as ''eut
down. is to diminish or decrease "Tol-
erably well' means moderately well. "
These words and phrases are all good
English to those who use them constant
ly, and you would be surprised to know
just how many people use them con-
stantly. There is one little remnant of
cockneyism that is observable in the
language of the common people. This
the leaving off the aspirate. Besides
1--we, we've and they've" which
can hardly be placed in this class, be-
cause 'Ill," "we'll'' and they'll"
show the same contraction of the auxil-
iary verb in the same way. have no
ticcd that the pronouns suffer most from
the process of decapitation. rs. lin"
and "'e, for Ibis" '.him," and "he,
are examples. Another peculiar thing
is the prefixing of 'a'' to active verbs
"ahuntin'." "afishin'," ''arunnin', =
',awalkin'," and similar instances. All
these peculiarities are noticeable in
Southern dialect, and many of them are
common to all English speaking people.
As for real, straightout dictionary En-
glish you will hunt long time before
YOU are able to secure enough strictly
accurate speakers to make up u snug
dinner party, and when you have secur-
ed them you may safely address every
one of them rs Professor. Atlanta Con-
StttlttOn.