The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-07-04
REGULARITY OF LANGUAGE.
Negroes Who Are Taught Broken En-
gIish and Know No Other.
Detroit Free Press.

Detroit Free Press.
Brought up in Kentucky as / was" said
the man who gets around some, lit never
occurred to me that a negro could speak
any other language than his master had
taught him, and as his master was always
plain American ii was natural that he
should speak the language of the Amer
leans. The first time / went TO New Or
leans and heard the colored roustabouts
and stevedores on the wharves and the
nurses with their white charges on the
streets jabbering away i'm French l could
scarcely realize that the Louisiana darkey
was or the same nation as his Kentucky
confrere, although quite as apt as not the
parents of the French-speaking ~roustabout
in New Orleans had been born in Kentucky
and sold South. AT that time l first heard
the joke that was current alcng the Ohio
and Mississippi about the German immi-
grant IN had got a job as a deck hand on
a steamboat. About the second day of his
cruise a darkey who spoke German was
added TO the crew, and as the raw German
listened to his talk In establishment his
acknowledgements told him that the black
man used to be as white as he was. but
that two or three trips in southern waters
always turned a Dutchman black, and at
the very next landing the immigrant
slipped ashore and disappeared.
Once in Venice. when / was pretty hun
CRY to see something American, l saw a
black man who looked as natural as if he
were fresh from the blue grass, and /
hailed him as a man and a brother, quite
regardless of the fact that we have Jim
NFAVN AaiS III INV
ever, of his talking TO me in my own lam
guage he started in on some unknown
tongue, and at once he seemed TO me 10 be
quite the barbarian, and / got away from
him as fast as I could. Later i learned
that he was a sailor from a Greek ship In
the harbor. He looked like a home darkey
just the same.
But 1t is in New York city that l have
found the oldest specimens. Sometimes
black. but oftener yellow, these darkies are
at work as walters, elevator boys and at
other night labor. and | had frequently
heard them talk witt an accent which was
accounted for by the fact that they were
from the West Indies. | supposed their
broken English was the result OF their ef-
forts to get away from their mother
tongue. but recent inquiry develops the
know only broken English, and had been
taught 10 speak ii so. Or, rther, they had
not been taught at all, but had picked up
the language as they had heard IL spoken
by their parents and elders. The last one
4 talked to was an elevator boy, and he APP
peared to speak with such an effort that |
began TO question him how long he had
been in the United States and where he
had come from. Antigua was his home,
he had been in the United States a year.
and he only knew broken English. and had
never known any other language. l could
hardly believe him, and watched closely
to catch him lapsing into his mother
tongue, but he did not, simply because
broken English was all he knew. He had
an excellent command Of that. but excel
lence in this regard is hardly 10 be COM
mended. ! think. 1t is noticeable that these
West India colored people do not talk after
the fashion of our Southern negroes. and
they use the r as freely as do Northern
people"