Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-15
QUEER USES OF WORDS.
Curious Expressions Peculiar to the North
and South

Curious Expressions Peculiar to the North
and South.
| Chautauquan.
1t seems the most natural thing in the
world for Southerner in calling another
person to say, go, Johnl' but it always
seems to amuse our friends across the
way. 1t is the s'O'' that excites their
merriment, and in attempting to give
| the popularity they often represent us as
| saying, "Hoi John, - which we never
! say.
Another Southern expression which
always sounds queer to Northern ears is
| the use of the word 90 mighty as an
| adverb. But to those accustomed to it,
''Mighty pretty conveys an idea of
| beauty that the overburdened Northern
word "lovely' doesn It reach. Turning
to Webster to see if it must be given up,
we find that it is allowable when used
colloquially Good? We should never
want to use il except colloquially.
In the North a man fills his wagon
''box' with corn and ''draws'' it to
town; in the South he fills his wagon
"bed'' with corn and 'hauls'' it to the
same place.
In New England they say ''the going''
bad; in the South they say 'the travel
ling - is bad Perhaps to say the roads
are bad would be more Ineligible than
either.
Southerners say 'flike'' for Gas if''
AS she looked like she wanted to go -
They laugh at it in the North and IN the
same breath say ''as'' for 'that ''-f'I
don e know as ever heard it here -
and then the Southerner laughs and both
are happy. So ingrained are both ex-
pressions, however, that the delinquents
are seldom conscious of the delinquency
A large proportion of grammatical
mistakes are common to the uneducated
wherever they are found, but there are
some which are so peculiar TO certain
sections that their use settles at once the
question of whether the person using
them is from the North or the South
The expression CT seen, for 81 saw
Is very common mistake in the South
and rare in the North, while 81 seen
him yesterday - for % I saw him yester-
nay - so common even among educated
people at the North, is never heard in
the South.
This makes It difficult for writers who
have never lived in certain section to
initiate successfully the dialect of that
people. They are apt to be betrayed into
the mistake OF putting into the mouths
of certain class in another part of the
country such words as they would
hear from the same class in their
own section This undoubtedly is the
difficulty which many Northern
writers find in truthfully portraying
the negro dialect. They take as models
the negroes they have known, and
Judge, incorrectly, that the talk Of the
Southern negro would be the same; con-
sequently, practiced ear can almost
always detect the difference between one
who assumes a familiarity and one
who is ''to this manner born -
The iucongruity of making
Southern negro say, "'Whar be you
goin '?' as we saw recently iuseame
story, is inexpressib1T Mdicroust 10 one
familiar with their Dialect He <Rieht
say, 'whar you goinz? "a or = phafis
you goin '?'' but neyegs WhaT Sc you
goin '?'' The honor or the sSlon
- You be'' belongs. eeiustYel " q tfle3
North. What he w6tHd 5se see kelg
TO say is, FWhar you gSfne?