The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1914-03-29
SOUTHERN DIALECTS.
nsmebred. GRACIOUS. Bewilfering wkiely
Variant T0ngues.

To THE EDITOR or THE SuN--Str. Tho
question OF dialect Is, and must always be-
vexed one we Southcrners do not deny,
defend or blush for the Inaccuracies ana
Inconsistencies OF our speech. nor do we
ALI seek to hurl a specific tn QuoQue. with
illustrations, at our accusers. But per-
haps ] may be pardoned. these premises
being borne In mind, II "offer few OBJ
servauons' from the angle Of vision or "A
Southerner who has often and for long
periods crossed Mason and Dixon's and
even remoter lines. and who therefore may
venture to regard himself as In some de-
gree enlightened. " not wholly unbiased.
Travelling or even residence In the South
does not guarantee ones dialect: any un-
accustomed iocution will be heard In as
many ways as there are persons present
to hear H.. Moreover. the user Of dialect
distracts the seeker of local color by an
utter disregard for uniformity. Mr.. Hor-
ace kephart In his recent able book upon
the people Of Appalachia points out that
the same person will say. for example, 1T
or hit as euphony or the occasion may
demand. The same In true In varying de-
grees of other Southerners. widely differ
ent as they are from the mountain peo-
pie but II n general rule can be laid down
L. will. think. be found that the friend
lier and less formal our attitude toward
our audience the more likely we arc to In
dulge ourselves in half humorous quota
ton OF the slpshod talk OF the "mam-
mics and other house servants Of our
early youth. This In by no means trick
of the uneducated: II can hardly be called
a vulgarism. II was the charming Nir-
ginia born wife OF a professor of Greek
who said TO me: I'D like nightly to have
y'all tsingularl come and professor
In a Southern college has frequently de-
lighted my soul with "Sure enough? Hue
Gomez
Your three correspondents upon the
you all problem. and I, the fourth as well.
no doubt. are all both right and wrong
II is IA matter of geography. land then
some" "You-all' for you" singular II. az
have heard II all over the South. gener-
ally the colored house servants way OF
softenine courteously the too abrupt and
direct pronoun "Miss May does y'al,
wan me To set de table, Teddy. y'all
Kit burn right black in dc hot sun"
Mist Rob. rs all rsldy to go whenever
you-all Is" The children catch up the
phrase later they quote IL IN Jest. and
often, like slang. II slips out" unintended.
II Us difficult for the unaccustomed ear 10
differcntiste these shades of usage, as dif-
hcult as II is to catch the down South
intonation. To hear singer who has
never lived among Southerners trying TO
cope with Mighty LAX Rose" and kin
dred songs Is 20 the Dixie ear weird ex-
perience. on the other hand tho ultimate
Joke may be on US. a Georgia friend
and I once. seeking to revenge ourselves
upon Chicago man who had jeered al
our "provincialism'' of diction, treated
him without warning to all the variants
OF Southern dialect. We talked like coast
negroes like neid hands. like every one
We could recall from the Eastern Sho
to Key West. at was all thrown away on
me-" he said calmly when we owned UP
Il didn't notice any difference from your