The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1894-12-09

Nb0h uAgEkIOou TUT NAbhNN kpNbg Wv
you say right good, pretty good, or quite
goodi Is a bunch Of cattle familiar TO you :
Do you occasionally say | guess or I reckon
for / Think Do you say kerosene, coal oil,
oil, or petroleum, and in kerosene do you
accent ker or sene3 Would you say Just
feel, smell, taste Of IT," or Just feel it, :
Do you pronounce VIII like W in wharf, or
in Why, yesr' "Why Why"i IL Is
easy to see what n mass Of information on
daily life in America the replies to these
questions must give.
A flood of light Is EAST on life and customs
across the North River by Mr.. LEES pic
turesque list Of Jerseyisms In tbs same
number. AS he points out, the natives
have never accepted the qualification
New; 1t is always Jersey TO them. In Salem,
Sussex, and Burlington counties the proper
name for the best known product of the
State is jack only foreigners speak of 1t as
Jersey lightning; when a slug or an eye
opener " say four fingers" Of this, or more
II need be, is consumed, the effect on the
consumer is apple palsy, or he may be 20,
be joyful" that is, hilariously drunk,
but he does not have a jag, since that In
Jersey means a small load Of hay. Should
he fear intoxication, he can drink instead
bellywbistle, a compound Of molasses, wine
gar, water, and nutmeg, or turn TO ticky,
which Is Rio coffee, WITH OF without set
offs, sugar and cream. II the Jersey
be pious, and show IL In his ap-
pearancc, he is a dominie-looking Teller
and goes to extra meetin', where he may
be placed on the anxious bench or seat; the
0nllaatfOn Ia crra tN ha lftnI that Ga AoIror,
up, and while the sistern may think his
clothing hikes, II it does not set well, they
will turn out to hear his funeral preached
should he die. The Jersey Democrat dis
with his leader, a big man with
little brains, who has made q bad fist
Of 1t, can relieve himself by calling
him a bag o. CUTS" and be under
stood. He may sail along his coast,
past young beach and old beach, past swalo
and fast land, buck darting through reach
and thoroughfare, or spooming before the
wind; and then mudwallop after fish or
return with a backload OF ducks, or he may
prefer to snu on the canal in a chunker or
coal boat, past fields, which in Jersey
means deserted farms, sometimes a century
overgrown with timber. II he be asked
ehO AiCiohS hC II DOukuUtu |
Or guy he may esteem 1t shopping by the
FRYING inquirer and snag gag or quarrel
With him.. When he Is in doubt he Is duber-
'ome; when things are in a muss 1t Is o
to him.
The thrifty farmers Of western Con-
,ecticut twenty years ago, as Mr.. BAB-
'rTr reports, knew the difference be-
the long or Yankee shillin' and
he York shillin'; among them yeast was
'mptins, a fat person was pussy, eager wa
arse, as in Hes dretful farse to 20
shin cattle were critters. "Letter In the
POST Office" amongemall boys denoted the
appearance Of the shirt through the seat of
he trousers. There is a vivid picture
II New England life in q phrase like "If
through with meat victuals, they's
lie comm" or in the decision OF pronuncia-
in country store: "Of course, they're
'verhauls; o haul them on over your
'ants, don't you :"
In a paper on the u%naccented 1, Mr.. C. H.
i~RANDGENr sums up the results of his
Investigations into the exact sound of the
Inaccented vowel, which is expressed in
spelling by q dozen or twenty differ
mt signs. What will strike the lay reader
not so much the evidence of the slight
iferences of SOUND that Mr.. GRANDGENT
as collected, as the arraignment of our whole
bsurd system of spelling and of dictionary
ronunciation by the fact thai of $50
ighly educated speakers, representing all
ne States but five east Of the Mississippi
nd seven west of the river, practically
II pronounce the a of courage, the ny of
londay, the g Of college, finest, and sonnet,
Ike the l in rabbit or lick, and that ninety
er cent. of them give the same sound to the
of orange and senate and the Q of fishes,
aked, goodness.
Within a fortnight from the appearance
THE sun Of the article on the work of
,e American Dialect Society Mr.. E. H.
of Columbia College, the Secretary,
over a hundred communications
ON persons whose interest in the subject
as strong enough to make them write down
leir observations, and material comes In
all sides every week. The greater part
these contributions are of great value;
'me would have been very useful II the
riters had only taken care to say where or
hen the word was used, or by what sort
person. One gentleman, who for years
I'd been collecting material, offered
send 1t all to the society IL only some
'ospect could be held out hat it would be
'ed some day in a dictionary of American
alect forms. Such a dictionary, large or
nall, as its funds will allow, the society
ust inevitably print one of these days; at ~,
'esent it is collecting material. The words ,
o entered on cards; the information re- ,
lived is added as fast as practicable, and {
hen the story Of a word is fairly complete +,
is printed in the Notes. The English :
lalect Society recently appealed to the +,
lglish public for money to publish its die ,
mary, some idea of the size of which !
ay be formed by the fact that two hun :
ed weight of cards nave been prepared =
: the letter S alone. The task of the !
Society is a different one; the 4
Of American dialect forms will \
OF much greater practical use when it .
made, but 1t may be years before 1t /.
aches the point where printing can be \