The Bennington banner. [volume] (Bennington, Vt.) 1858-1894, 1892-07-01
NEW ENGLAND DIALECT.

NEW GCVhANO D1AAANSAs
1t is often amusing to see the bewilder-
ment with which a city bred New
Highlander listens to the dialect of his
native soil, a dialect which is as
characteristic, strongly, marked and
persistent as that of any part of the
country. That anybody who claims to
be native OF Yankeeland, should fail TO
understand dialect which has become
historic IN it's rugged simplicity and
homely expressiveness, seems almost in
conceivable; yet there are thousands of
city bred persons, descendants of the
old native stock, in all the large COM
munities of New England, who would
hardly be more puzzled by sentence
out of the Koran, than by some of the
dialect expressions which are current in
the rural sections of their own States.
Right here in Massachusetts,, within fifty
miles of the gilded State House dome,
are communities whose everyday
language, larded as it is with Yankee
isms which date back well-nigh a
century, would be in large part utterly
unintelligible even to Harvard OF
Boston University philologist.
And yet this New England dialect is
not only time honored and descended
from the best families" but it is really
strong, picturesque and expressive be-
You'd that of any other section of this
great country of ours, which is so
polyglot in respect to dialects. Every
New Highlander, city bred or country
bred, ought to be familiar with the
Characteristic dialect of his section. He
will meet with it more or less in
literature. and great deal in real life,
should he chance to go into what are
called the "back districts" of New
England. Furthermore, it is embarras-
sing to be appealed to, as native New
Highlander, by people from other parts
parts of the country, as to the meaning
of some of these odd Yankeeisms, and
have to confess ones unpatriotiC
ignorance. With view, therefore, to
providing a brief key to some of the
more characteristic phrases of our New
England dialect, jot down, with trans
lations, the following colloquialisms:
''Fell into sog." Sog is used in the
sense of stupor. 1t is generally applied
to state of Inconsistencies during
disease, and is quite common word in
northern New England. 1t would be
hard to find more onomatopoetic word.
Its very sound suggests the state il
represents.
''Lug it off," This depression means
''carry it away" Lug corresponds with
the Southern tote, and the Western tack
flor "take'O.
"Marster." An adjective, meaning
very. A marster big tree, means very
big tree; a marster good story, a very
good story.
Get scrunched," means get injured,
or hurt; as, 81 thought you would fall
and get scrunched."
Grid" is commonly used for rode, and
'clim''or "clum' for climbed.
"Gon-ter." for going to. Example,
"Are you gon-ter buy that cow?"
"Vally," for value. 81 set great vally
on it."
"B'ris," for berries; strawb'ris,
huckleb'ris, etc.
sight o." for deal of. SIT done me
"Set store by" means esteemed, or
loved. ''She set great store by her
husband"
Canning" uncouthly. 'His clothes
fit awful gauming."
"Skimigilious,S similar, or like. "She
is awful humbly (homely) and her bunnit
(bonnet) is skimigilious.'
"Yow," yawl. "The cat VOWS"
"Yip," yelp. "Hear the dog yip."
"Begrutchin," begrudging. 81 amt
begrutchin you"
8Patrige," for partridge.
"Skun,h for skinned. HE killed q
mushrat (muskrat) and skun it,"
"Petered out" tired out. "rm al
petered out"
Another common word for tired is
tuckered, So and so is completely
tuckered."
Hitched," for married. "John and
Susan was hitched yestiddy yesterday
"Chimbly," for chimney.
Climber" for material. "There's
good timber in that colt"
"Fit," for fought.
~ swami" an exclamation.
"Dicker," trade. 81 made dickel
"Hern," hers. "Yourn," yours
"His'n," his, etc.
"Housen," houses. The suffix en- il
frequently used for forming plurals.
There are scores of other expressions
equally odd, but which are easily under
stood from their likeness to the words
corrupted; such as boss, for horse, ma sh
u IGl for ones, them, for those, Mis-, TO
Mrs, umbril, for umbrella, kittle, TO
kettle, callated, for calculated, sasser
for saucer, luther, for leather, cut, TO
coat, etc. The New Highlander also ha
a peculiar word for reckoned, or guessed
it is lowed. 81 lowed it would com,
out So" The above is fair ''sampl
lot" of New England dialect expressions
| Thnca ryhicb have haap eri van ara for I'll
most part common to all the New
England States. of course, there ar
many localIsms which can be picked u
only by residence in certain sections
current coin all over rural New England