Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-04-14
SOME CURIOUS
NEW LANGUAGES
From Best-Sellers' Language to
Selling Talk There's Much in
Argot, Slang and Dialect to
Make Dictionaries Useless

I LANGUAGES change, but some survive. I'm
IL der the title I'm Shakespeare's America"
w. A. Bradley tells in Harper's Magazine
about the curious survivals of Elizabethan
English that he found In the Kentucky noun.
tains--"holp" for helped "whup" for whipped
'wrop" for wrapped, "clomb" for climbed
He's TUX franzy SPELL" a phrase used to
describe mountain suddenly bereft of
his senses, harks buck, says the writer to Sir
Philip Sidney. ITO smother" In the noun
tains means to roast, Ambitious" is to be
angry, "worrited" means tired and molasses
is always used in the plural as these mo.
lasses"
Then there's the best-seller language. From
a magazine story comes this delightful pas
sage: when Casey came to himself again
he was lying bed-where, he knew not
He was conscious only that Marion, her face
tear-stained and very near his own, was
kneelng beside It, 'Well?' he husked"
Husked! One would like to hear DIR. Samuel
Johnson's comments on such Il word If he
had had to deal with It as a dictionary maker.
Na-POOhed Somewhere in France
Next on the program of languages is the
sanguase of the trenches. to which exte led
references have been made on previous occa-
sions. Just now we'll hear a cockney sergeant
talking French, as reported by Ian Hay in
Blackwoods:
Bong jooer, Mrs. Pankhurstw he observes
breezily to the plump epiciere. This Is his
invariable greeting to French ladies' who dis
play any tendency to volubility-and they are
many. Bon jour- Msieu le Caporalw replies
the epiciere, smiling. "Msieu lie Capora de.
sire?" The sergeant allows his reduction in
rank to pass unnoticed. He does not under
stand the French tongue, though he speaks it
with great fluency and incredible success. He
holds up a warning hand. Now keep your and
off the tap of the gas meter for one minute, II
you please" he rejoins, "and let me get a word
in edgeways. 1 want"--with great emphasis
"vinblank one, vinrooge two. bogeys six, Dom
one. Compree?" BY some miracle the smiling
lady does "compree" and produces white wine,
red wine candles and-a bottle of Benedic-
tine! Sergeant Coffin always names wines
after the most boldly printed word upon the
label. He once handed round some cham
payne. which he insisted on calling "a bottle
of brute.') "Combine?" Is the next ObserVa-
ton The epiciere utters the series of short
sharp sibilants of which all French numerals
appear TO be composed. 1t sounds like Song
song The resourceful Coffin lays down
a 20-franc note Take 1t out of that" he
says. grandly. He receives his change and
counts IL Win a great air OF wisdom. Ihe
epiciere breaks into rapid recital-lt sounds
rather like our curate at home getting 10 work
on when the wicked man-of the beauty and
succulence of her other wares Up goes Gof-
fms hand again. ma pooh" he exclaims
Bong jooer!" And he stumps out TO the
messcart ma pooh" is a mysterious but in
valuable expression. Possibly it is derived
from I'll ny a plus" II means "All over!"
You say ma pooh!" when you push your plate
away after dinner. It also means mot likely!"
or Nothing doing" BY further development
It has come TO mean dome for" finished" and
in extreme cases, dead" Poor Bill got ma
poohed by rifle grenade yesterday" says one
mourner TO another.
According to New Dictionary
From slang we turn to dialect. Judge Rup-
penthal, of Kansas, has just published die
tionaTy OF Kansas language. Sure there's a
Kansas language We quote proof from the
dictionary:
Armstrong, adj, operated by the arm as
opposed to machinery; used loosely of
seythes, sickIes. saws etc.
Chow, n, food, eating. TITS about time for
chow"
Cogilate. y, l.. variant of calculate, sup
pose. reckon"
Compushency n, necessity; eompulsion.
1T was case Of compushency, so l went"
Dead in the shell, adj. phr., utterly worn
out. IF have 10 go without sleep I'll be
just dead In the shell"
Dangling, p. a., contamination of diagonal
ana angle. He went dangling across the
block"
Fleas In ones nose, n. phr., chimeHeal no
tions-
Goback land. n. phr., land once cultivated.
but long since neglected. The grass gener-
ally IS ranksr on gobaek land than on prairie
sod"
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