Richmond daily palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1905-1906, 1906-01-16

Of History, Fourth Quarter, l9Oo..
In the cities of our State, the
schoolmaster, the newspaper and the
railroad have long since wrought such
changes from the Indiana of Edward
Eggleston, that the English heard IN
Indianapolis or TT. Wayne differs but
little from the English of New York
or Philadelphia. But this can not
be said of our rural districts, fol
there the forces that tend to produce
uniformity of speech operate more
slowly.
Yet even in the country there has
really been much change in the Ian
guage spoken; and, In view OF the
rapid extension Of electric lines, the
growth of better schools, and the in
creased reading of books and news
papers, it is probable that the change
will be much more rapid IN the fu-
ture. If the old Hoosier dialect is
ever to be studied and the results re-
corded, the work must be done soon;
even now it is almost too late.
The Hoosier dialect has never
been uniform the State over. There
have always been local variations,
not only III peculiar expressions, but
lin accent. Occasionally there are
slight differences even between adj
joining counties.
Particularly marked is the dissim-
ilarity between the folk-speech of the
northern part Of the State and that
of the southern part The settlers
in the north came mainly from New
England, Pennsylvania, New York
and northern Ohio, and, in conse-
quence, there exists in the north a
strong Yankee twang. Those i'll the
southern part came mainly from Vir-
ginia, Maryland, southern Ohio, the
Carolinas, Kentucky and Tennessee;
and the dialect shows the Southern
influence, containing some points OF
similarity to the negro and the ''poor
whiteD or "cracker' dialect. The
expression "right SMART as in the
sentence: "IIe has a right smart
chance Of corn is an illustration of
the dissimilarity. The expression
is used generally in central and
southern Indiana, but is rarely met
with farther north.
Exact geographical bounds can not
be given to the Hoosier dialect. 1t
does not end with State lines, but ex-
tends beyond them into Kentucky
Ohio, Michigan and Illinois, gradual
Y becoming modified and shading off
into other dialects. Much the same
may be said in regard to the other di-
alects extending into Indiana
Doubtless, also, in many States far
Their west there are colonies of trans
planted Hoosiers, where the dialect
is spoken in almost its original puri-
ty; while all over the United Stataes
expressions of Hoosier birth have be.
come domiciled.
The fact is, it has always been true
and never more so than in these days
of rapid communication and shifting
population, that in nothing is the
student of folk-speech so liable to
error as in assigning geographical
limits to word or phrase. Our 10,
cal dialects, as well as the local En-
glish dialects from which we gel
many of our folk-words and phrases
are pretty thoroughly mixed.
For example, take the familiar
word, "tote,'' word which we know
did not originate in Indiana, yet
which has become part of Hoosiel
dialect nevertheless. Most persons
if questioned as to the origin an6
range of this word, would doubtless
connect it with the negro, and certain
it is that the negro-especially the
negro in dialect stories-uses the
word freely. As matter of fact
however. the word was in use in Nir
ginia mt least as early 1877, wher
there were four times more white
bond-servants than there were ne
groes; there are old, abandoned pos
tage roads in Maine, where negroes
were unknown, that went by thu
name of "tote roads, and, further