The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1888-04-05
ENGLISH As SHE Is SPOKE.
Southern Provincialisms Traced to Old
English Authors.
from the Southern Journal of F,duta-
ton

From the Southern Journal of Educ Il
. Professor Charles Foster Smith, of
Vanderbilt University, began his first
lecture on this subject by showing how
difficult it is to be thoroughly correct
speaker of English. He iilen referred
to the southern pronunciation Of such
words as dear, clear, fear, etc. e long,
which in the south are sounded dear,
fear, clear, eic. (e short. Here, he said,
is commonly pronounced hycr. This
pronu.: citation, as we'll as the South
Carolina pronunciation OF air, fair,
prayer, bear, there, namely, ear, fear
prear, bear, (e short, was claimed to be
survival Of the speech Of Chaucer's
time. Anothar peculiarity alluded to
was that which obtains i'll Virginia and
to some extent also in South Carolina,
lie. cyar, gyarden, kyind, etc, which
is also survival from early English.
Another habit of speech not peculiar
totour section, but more common here,
perhaps, than anywhere else, iSa care
lessness in enunciating final SyllableS,
producing e. 9. winter for Window;
dropping and re, namely do for door,
mo- for more; the dropping Of final 6
and even d and t, e. e. thinkin', roun',
won do it. But Richard Grant White
has shown that the English nobility
drop their final g's, and Mr.. Lowell
cited from Cromwell, minister of Hen
ry VIII, worle for world, and from Il
letter of Queen Mary to William III.
''dear husban'."
Still other peculiarities are the omis-
sion of h in the pronunciation OF such
words as shrill, Shrek, shrimp. Almost
universal among Southerners, outside
of Virginia, is the pronunciation calm
ia short) for calm, palm "a short for
palm.
Some words that are almost systc-
matically accented on the wrong sylla-
ble are exquisitely, eNquisiteness, per-
emptory, obligatory, inquiry, ally, acu-
men, albumen, vagary. As to the pro-
nunciation of proper names, Il gentle
man told the lecturer he had recently
heard preacher in reading part Of
the last chapter of Romans mispro-
nounce 8 out Of the l3 proper names.
The speaker himself had heard preach
ers put the accent on the antepenult in
Aphrodite, Aegean, Achilles, Ulysses,
and on the penult of Boreas.
The survival in the south Of certain
words or forms Of words that are now
obsolete elsewhere, was next discussed.
Among these are to bat ito wink the
eye), certain for certainly, drouth and
heighth for drought and height, to fair
off, to favor (resemble), to feaze or he is
a feaze, heap for much, lily for i'll, low
for short, mighty for very, pert for
lively, plead for pleaded, to pleasure,
poor (prol. pore, rising for swelling,
soon for early and vice versa, to sum-
mons, to suspicion, to use for frequent.
Next it was shown how old are many
of the forms and uSageS which we now
consider vulgariSms or corruptionS, (.
e.; Chaucer said hit for it, shet for shut,
het for heated: Dryden riz for rose:
Dlayton thriv for throve; Lord LciccS-
ter said becaise for because; Walter Al
bion's England has git for get; Marga
ret, mother Of Henry VII, wrote seche
for such, and Chaucer wrote sich; Dry
denis wife, an earl's daughter, wrote
tell for till, and the great duchess of
Marlborough >ence for since. Shak-
\ speare- .renched for rinsed; Sir Philip
wrote furr for far, and Lord Ba-
furder for further. Tindall has
}ss- and "Jack. .:ugler' scacely. Dry
;,,6<;sSife spells worse wosce, and
:, or p.s p.SstsSonounced worst wust. The
soc;etv in England in Voltaire'S
Said hams STTS,kercher, and in PepyS'
, +bev said cha -ise%.
,oc1ure was coz tcn ?qcluded with some
la1sS az, : Va bscoming m0re,;Sr aad more COM
.ieh ' Of IS lady for women n,sm2 " wife, and
'd ailSnsa s6sara examples s Of ISSS 1rixvr g~ti'"
on were ssxt; wsimar Ars Iy> Ns!, !" the tine
nan: "an that wants ,@s t" Tm 70 the *snsa nn'u e.
YES" s; soins to drive YOU" Ga, to the |.
a,sasGn @ssean s september .nt ,s 'Ss oD5 to
gang Of %xn a party Of nasss sasv TS to Ftc- SS
aan ns ! man Stat,ns ,s,n in 81, his
'1s',:.r men: said, ~ sentls9sa.'-. .--s>f:twart
county stole Il horse Scntry (haltlng
the wife ethe gcnersl), "The generals
orders; 1na'am; no one can pass" "But
P.cl the generals lady" you couldn't
pass, ma Jam, if YOU We're his wife"
From New OrleanS) "A lady caused
the arrest of a policeman for calling her
Il woman: The judge, after carefully
leliberating, decided that she was Il
woman, thus aggravating the insult"
\ woman was one day brought before
the judge Ola police court. She said in
her defence. "Me and another lady WAS
Il having afew words, and she called
me .'hindewidual,' and ups with Il
pail of water and chucked it ali over
her, and that began the row between