The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-05-14
FOLK-sPEECH IN ENGLAND.
some Queer Phrases That Are Not of
Pleasing Tendency.
From The London Spectator.

From the London Spectator.
We have before us a publication of the
English Dialect Society, which gives folk
phrases Of four of our midland counties
Staffordshire, Warwickshire. Worcester
shire and Gloucestershire-wi very in
teresting glossary. Let us look at the
glossary first. One of the first phrases of
the glossary is "ayzam jayzam' to ex-
press fair and square, upright ana
down straight phrase which assur-
eddy does not interpret itself, but which
when Interpreted has a certain quaintness
and grotesqueness Of sound that excites
the imagination and seems to express the
fitness of rhyme to Illustrate the far spir-
it of popular justice. Still. what is most
remarkable in "ayzam- jayzam" is the
clumsiuess and grOteSquenesS of the
speech "Fair and square is twice as
natural and much more than twice as
lucid II is a mistake to suppose that
popular dialect seeks after directness.
Rather it seeks after a roundabout and
Unexpected way of uttering an ordinary
truism, loves flourish and oddity of lam
guage as much as it loves a certain vi
Vacity of speech. So, too, it prefers such
word Chew Chew is a much better
imitation of the sound mode in the masti-
decent people, than either "chabble" or
"chobble" but that is the very reason
why the popular spirit likes to dwell on
the noisier modes of masticating, which
brings out the louder sort of satisfaction
that men take in consuming their daily
bread.
So to "chelp" is to talk overmuch, to
chatter for the sake of chattering. Again
a "footstich" is a footstep, curious evil
dence of the shuffiing walk of the com
mon people, which suggests the contact
of the foot with superficial obstacles in
its way, rather than its more lifting up
and placing firmly on the ground. But
perhaps, one of the most disagreeable
of the popular equivalents for the reserv-
ed speech of educated people, is the word
given in the glossary for 'treacle'-name-
ly, dirty Danl' which almost indicates
d superhuity of naughtiness in the fancy
which invented it, and ought to have
been conceived by someone who disliked
treacle and wished to disguest people with
its use. That, perhaps, was the real mo-
tive of the nickname; but If so, the medi-
cine was worse than the disease A few
children with treacly mouths are less
evils than such a word as that for a food
in common use. So, to ''codge and
/ modge'' is a popular phrase for to work
badly" TO make mess of work, and lib
Der and Jumbles' is a Stratford- on-AVon
word for sweetmeats-surely a very dis
| agreeable one, indicating, we suppose,
the ostentatious manner in which the peo-
pie mouth and glOat over them, and the
distorted character of their features
while consuming them. Inquest ionably
the dialect words have a tendency to be
ugly in themselves What can be an
ugIer name for gooseberries than 'sogs''
or for nonsense. than "squit," or for a
moment than a 'stitchwhile." the time it
takes to make a stitch? There is some
thing expressive of the ugly side of life
in almost all popular dialect, something
contemptuous, and yet delighting in con-
tempt. For example what we call the
dumps or the blues, Midland poptlar
/ speech calls the "roozies," a mode Of ex-
! pressing that inner creaking and crood-
| ling Of the mind which is sheer wretch
edness rather than mere dullness or de-
| preston.