American Language Supplement 2

by H. L. Mencken

  2 Dialect Research in Canada, Dialect Notes, Vol. I, Part II, pp. 43–56. See Supplement I, p. 169, n. 1.

  3 Spoken English, by Thomas C Trueblood, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol. XIX, 1933, pp. 513–21. Another phonologist, Martin Joos, agrees in A Phonological Dilemma in Canadian English, Language, Vol. XVIII, 1942, pp. 141–44. “Ontario English,” he says, “differs from the neighboring General American speech (for instance, in rural New York or Wisconsin) in only two items of any phonological consequence.” These are (a) pod and pawed are homophones, and (b) the diphthongs ai and aw (but not oi as in boy) each have two variants.

  1 Montreal English, by Helen C. Munroe, American Speech, Oct., 1929, p. 21.

  2 A Note on Canadian English, by W. S. W. McLay, American Speech, April, 1930, pp. 328–29. “No Canadian, no matter how strongly his heart beats for the Empire,” said a writer signing himself J. R. M. in the Winnipeg Free Press, June 20, 1936, “ever says goods-train or lorry or petrol.” Under date of Dec. 3, 1945, Mr. Ralph O. Bates, of Melrose, Mass., writes: “The Canadian language lies between English and American, though much nearer to American. Canadians are likely to use the English return ticket, nib (pen point), mudguard, braces (suspenders) and meat-pie (pot-pie). In my boyhood in Canada both the American hog-pen and the English pig-sty were heard, but the most common term was pig-pen.” The extent to which Americanisms are encountered in the debates of the Canadian Houses of Parliament was discussed in Parliament Goes Hollywood (editorial), Ottawa Journal, April 7, 1934.

  3 An unfamiliar Americanism, even an old one, is sometimes resisted stoutly by the Canadian equivalents of the English connoisseurs of American linguistic atrocities, but always in vain. In 1931, for example, there was an uproar from them when a Montreal coke company used raise in pay in an advertisement instead of the English rise. But nothing came of it. See Raise or Rise, by Helen C. Munroe, American Speech, Aug., 1931, pp. 407–10.

  4 A Note on Canadian Speech, by Morley Ayearst, American Speech, Oct., 1939, pp. 231–33.

  5 But I have often heard córnet in the United States, and destiny seems to be on its side, for the general tendency of American, as we have seen, is to move the accent forward.

  1 Ontario Speech, by Evelyn Ahrend, American Speech, April, 1934, pp. 136–39.

  2 Our Canadian Speech, Toronto Saturday Night, June 29. Macphail was born on Prince Edward Island in 1864, but spent his life on the mainland. He had some reputation as a pathologist, but, like Sir William Osler, had literary inclinations and wrote a number of non-medical books. He was knighted in 1918, apparently for his services in World War I.

  1 Supplement 1, p. 71. Other references to Canadian speechways are on pp. 90, 97, 178, 184, 320, 353, 477, 490, 545, 596, 599, 601 and 608. Not a few common Americanisms have come into the language from Canada, especially through Canadian French, e.g., chowder, toboggan and portage.

  2 The Polyglot Vernacular of the Canadian North West, by E. L. Chicanot, Modern Language Review, Vol. X, 1915, pp. 88–89; Western Canadian Dictionary and Phrase-Book, by John Sandilands; Winnipeg, 1912.

  3 New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland, Vol. I, Part VIII, pp. 377–81. To Tweedie’s vocabulary the editors of Dialect Notes added some terms gathered by the Rev. William Pilot in Newfoundland.

  1 Canada, Dialect Notes, Vol. IV, Part V, p. 332.

  2 Newfoundland Dialect Items, Dialect Notes, Vol. V, Part VIII, pp. 322–46.

  1 See also Notes on the Dialect of the People of Newfoundland, by George Patterson, a paper read at a meeting of the Montreal branch of the American Folk-Lore Society, May 21, 1894, Journal of American Folk-Lore, Jan.-March, 1895, pp. 27–40. Patterson noted the Newfoundland use of knowledgeable, which became a counterword in England years later. See Supplement I, p. 423. Otherwise his word list did not differ materially from those I have abstracted. In the same journal, Jan.-March, 1896, pp. 19–37, he published some notes on Montreal speech, and in July-Sept., 1897, pp. 203–13 he followed with further notes on Canadian speech.

  2 Terms From the Labrador Coast, American Speech, Oct., pp. 56–58.

  3 More Labrador Survivals, American Speech, April, pp. 290–91.

  4 The Dialect of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Language, June, 1935, pp. 140–47.

  1 Emeneau published A Further Note on the Dialect of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, in Language, July-Sept., 1945.

  2 Toronto, 1940.

  3 The dialects of the other British possessions and of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales lie outside the purview of this book, but I add a note on them for readers who may be interested. A bibliography running down to the end of 1922 is in Kennedy, pp. 380–405. For Cockney, since that time, see Cockney Past and Present, by William Matthews; London, 1938; Cockney H in Old and Middle English, by G. Ch. Van Langenhove, Leuvensche Bijdragen, Vol. XV, 1923, pp. 1–50; Bernard Shaw’s Phonetics, by Joseph Saxe; London, 1936; Cockney, John o’London’s Weekly, March 25, 1938, p. 1017, and The Cockney Tongue, by W. M. Eager, Contemporary Review, Sept., 1922, pp. 363–72. The dialect of Australia is dealt with exhaustively in The Australian Language, by Sidney J. Baker; Sydney, 1945, an extremely valuable work, and Baker is also the author of A Popular Dictionary of Australian Slang; Melbourne, 1941, and New Zealand Slang; Christ-church, 1941. See also New Zealand English, by Arnold Wall; Christ-church, 1938; Meet New Zealand, a pamphlet issued for the guidance of American soldiers by the New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs; Wellington, 1942; Pocket Guide to Australia, issued by the American War and Navy Departments; Washington, 1942, especially pp. 46–48; Australian Slang, London Morning Post, June 15, 1936; Australian Slang, by Wilson Hicks, Life, May 18, 1942, pp. 15–17; Australian Slang, by E. S. Moore and others, London Observer, Oct. 23, Nov. 6 and 13, Dec. 11, 1938; Fiddlers, Ropies and Skiddies, New Zealand Free Lance, Aug. 18, 1943; How They Say it in Australia, by Philip Faxon, This Week, June 29, 1941; The Dinkum Oil, London News-Review, Aug. 2, 1945; Americans May Learn New Lingo in Australia, Baltimore Evening Sun, March 20, 1942; Timely Tips to New Australians, by Jice Doone (Vance Marshall); London, 1926; Australian Slang, in Slang Today and Yesterday, by Eric Partridge; second edition; London, 1935, pp. 414–21; Australia and the Mother Tongue, by B. T. Richardson, Baltimore Sun, Dec. 28, 1943; A Christmas Letter From Australia, by Robert B. Palmer, Journal of the American Medical Association, Dec. 11, 1943; I’ve Been in Australia, by Lucille Gordon, Good Housekeeping, Sept., 1942; Down Under, by John Oakes, New Yorker, Sept. 28, 1935; Pardon My Aussie Accent, by Harold Rosenthal, Newspaperman, Jan., 1945; Cobber, Dinkum and Swag Test Americans Down Under, Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 30, 1942; Slang Down Under, New York Times Magazine, Jan. 17, 1943; English as it is Spoken in New Zealand, by J. A. W. Bennett, American Speech, April, 1943, pp. 81–95, and The Pronunciation of English in Australia, by A. G. Mitchell; Sydney, 1946. See also Burke, pp. 146–48. For South African English the authority is South African English Pronunciation, by David Hopwood; Cape Town, 1928. For that of India it is A Glossary of Anglo-Indian Colloquial Words and Phrases, by Henry Yule and Arthur Coke Burnell; London, 1886. See also Some Notes on Indian English, by R. C. Goffin, S. P. E. Tract No. XLI, 1936, pp. 20–32. The English Dialect Society has brought out volumes on the speech of nearly all the English counties, and there are many more by private venturers. The British Museum is making phonograph records of all of them, for many are dying. For a general survey of English colonial speech see Spoken English, by Thomas C. Trueblood, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Vol. XIX, 1933, pp. 513–21.

  1 Bilingualism in the Middle Colonies, 1725–1775, American Speech, April, 1937, pp. 93–99.

  1 The English at home had been aware of the curious dialect of the Welsh since Elizabethan times, as is shown by the speeches of Fluellen in Shakespeare’s Henry V, c. 1599, e.g., “Got’s plood! Up to the preaches, you rascals! Will you not up to the preaches?” (Act III, sc. II). The Englishman’s French had been the butt of French humorists since the Middle Ages. See The Fabliau “Des Deux Anglois et de 1’Ane
l,” by Charles H. Livingston, Publications of the Modern Language Association, June, 1925.

  2 A Maryland court record of Sept. 11, 1762, printed in Documents Concerning Charles Willson Peale, Maryland Historical Magazine, Dec., 1938, p. 389, includes this: “She always understood and from his speech and pronunciation of his words believes he was an Englishman.”

  3 Literary Dialects, in The English Language in America, by George Philip Krapp; New York, 1925, Vol. I, pp. 225–73. See also The American on the Stage, Scribner’s Monthly, July, 1879, pp. 321–33, and Minority Caricatures on the American Stage, by Harold E. Adams, in Studies in the Science of Society, a Festschrift in honor of Albert Galloway Keller, edited by George Peter Murdock; New Haven, 1937, pp. 1–27.

  4 The best discussions of Irish-English that I know of are in English as We Speak It in Ireland, by P. W. Joyce; second edition; Dublin, 1910, and Irish Pronunciation of English, by Alexander J. Ellis, in his Early English Pronunciation; London, 1874, Vol. IV, pp. 1230–43.

  5 Cooper’s Leatherstocking was given a dialect greatly resembling that of the contemporary Yankee. See The Dialect of Cooper’s Leatherstocking, by Louise Pound, American Speech, Sept., 1927, pp. 479–88.

  1 The Present State of New England, by a merchant of Boston; London, 1675, p. 12. I take this from Krapp, who speculates as to the meaning of stawmerre and concludes that it is either an Indian corruption of understand or an Indian term of the same meaning.

  2 He was an amateur philologist of some skill, and published books on Pidgin English and the language of Gypsies. In 1889–90 he and Albert Barrère brought out A Dictionary of Slang, Jargon & Cant in two volumes; revised edition, 1897. He was born in 1824 and died in 1903. He was a native of Philadelphia, and after being graduated from Princeton, spent three years at Heidelberg and Munich. He wrote more than fifty books, including translations from Heine and other German authors. His most popular book, Hans Breitmann’s Barty, was published in Philadelphia in 1868. In the preface to a subsequent English edition it is stated that the prototype of Breitmann was “one Jost, a German trooper of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cavalry.” I am indebted here to Judge Robert France.

  3 Mine Schildhood, by Adams, Harper’s Magazine, May, 1880, p. 952.

  4 An earlier specimen of German dialect, in prose, is in the Editor’s Drawer of Harper’s Magazine, May, 1857, p. 859.

  1 Lewis Maurice (Lew) Fields and Joseph Weber, his most successful impersonators, first tackled him as juvenile comedians in 1877. They organized their own company in 1885, and opened their music-hall in New York in 1895. Fields was born in 1877 and died in 1941.

  2 Of these only Gross was born in the United States. Glass was of English birth, Kober is of Hungarian and Rosten is of Polish. Glass (1877–1934) published his first book of Potash and Perlmutter stories in 1910. Its characters were put into an enormously successful play in 1913. Kober and Rosten printed their stories in the New Yorker. Kober’s first book, Thunder Over the Bronx, was published in 1935. Rosten’s first, The Education of H*y*m*a*n K*a*p*l*a*n, appeared in 1937, and Gross’s first, Nize Baby, in 1926.

  3 Popular Phonetics, American Speech, June, 1929, pp. 410–16.

  1 Immigrant Speech – Austrian-Jewish Style, American Speech, Oct., 1929, pp. 1–15.

  2 Jewish Dialect and New York Dialect, American Speech, June, 1932, pp. 321–26.

  3 In Re Jewish Dialect and New York Dialect, American Speech, Feb., 1933, pp. 78 and 79.

  4 Yiddish in American Fiction, American Mercury, Feb., 1926, pp. 206–07.

  1 Manual of Foreign Dialects for Radio, Stage and Screen; Chicago, 1943, pp. 392–416.

  2 The Hermans’ book also contains illuminating chapters on the Cockney, Oxford, Australian, Bermudan, East Indian, Irish, Scottish, German, French, Mexican, Filipino, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese, Hawaiian, Swedish, Norwegian, Russian, Lithuanian, Jugoslav, Czech, Finnish Hungarian, Polish and Greek dialects, and on Pidgin English.

  1 Jewish Speech in British Fiction, American Notes & Queries, Aug., 1941, p. 73; Dec., 1941, p. 135; Jan., 1942, pp. 158–59; April, 1942, p. 16.

  2 Says Albert Jay Nock in What Are Anthologies For?, Encore, Nov., 1944, p. 388: “This idiom has as distinct a place in American literary history as the French-English idiom of Louisiana as Mr. Cable presents it; the Negro-English idiom of the upper South as Mr. Harris presents it; and the German-English idiom of eastern Pennsylvania as you find it in ‘Harbaugh’s Harfe.’ ”

  1 Notes on Negro Dialect in the American Novel to 1821, American Speech, April, 1930, pp. 291–96.

  2 The first two volumes of this Part I were published in Philadelphia. A third followed in Pittsburgh a year later and a fourth in Philadelphia in 1797. In 1804 and 1805 two volumes of Part II appeared in Philadelphia. Brackenridge (1748–1816) was a Scotsman who was brought to America as a child, and graduated from Princeton in 1771. He was a chaplain in the Revolution but afterward took to the law and became a judge in Pittsburgh.

  3 Some specimens are given by Krapp, Vol. I, pp. 255–65.

  4 The English of the Negro, American Mercury, June, 1924, pp. 190–95.

  1 The English Language in America, Vol. I, p. 253.

  2 In The Truth About You-all, American Mercury, May, 1933, p. 116, Bertram H. Brown, denied that am is ever so used. “Any Southern Negro I ever heard speak,” he said, “would conjugate the present tense of the verb to be as follows: l is; you is; he, she or it is; us is, you-all (or y’all) is, they is.” Krapp says in his American Mercury paper, before cited, that these are legacies from a northern English dialect. In Eloise, American Speech, June, 1932, pp. 349–64, Dolores Benardete gives the following conjugation of to pray: ah prays, she pray, he pray, we prays, yuh prays, dey prays.

  3 I am indebted here to Mr. George W. Thompson.

  4 e.g., Krapp, p. 250; Cleanth Brooks and L. W. Payne, Jr., quoted under Alabama, and W. Cabell Greet in Southern Speech, in Culture in the South, edited by E. T. Couch; Chapel Hill (N.C.), 1934, p. 614

  1 Said the late Grover C. Hall in a syndicated newspaper article, Feb. 2, 1936: “There are many similarities between the dialect of the unlettered Southerner and that of the unlettered Negro, but the differences are conspicuous to all sensitive ears.”

  2 This approximation was noted by Nathaniel Beverly Tucker, a Virginia lawyer, so early as 1836. See McDowell, before cited, p. 295.

  3 See Krapp, Vol. I, p. 249; The Use of Negro Dialect by Harriet Beecher Stowe, by Tremaine McDowell, American Speech, June, 1931, pp. 322–26; The Vocabulary of the American Negro as Set Forth in Contemporary Literature, by Nathan van Patten, the same, Oct., 1931; The Negro in the Southern Novel Prior to 1850, by McDowell, Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Oct., 1926, pp. 455–73; The Negro Character in American Literature, by John H. Nelson, University of Kansas Humanistic Studies, Vol. IV, No. 1, 1926; Poe’s Treatment of the Negro and of Negro Dialect, by Killis Campbell, University of Texas Studies in English, July, 1936, pp. 107–14, and The Philology of Negro Dialect, by Earl Conrad, Journal of Negro Education, Spring, 1944, pp. 150–54. But James Nathan Tidwell, in Mark Twain’s Representation of Negro Speech, American Speech, Oct., 1942, pp. 174–76, argues that the speech of Jim in Huckleberry Finn is accurately reported. H. A. Shands says in Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi, 1893, that uh is universally used by Mississippi Negroes in place of er, and that it is also the form of the indefinite article. “No sound of r,” he adds, “is ever apparent in the Negro pronunciation.”

  4 It extends up the rivers for twenty miles or more. The origin of Gullah is disputed. It may come from Gola, the name of a tribe and language of the Liberian hinterland, or from Ngola, the name of a tribe in the Hamba basin of Angola. Geechee is probably from the name of another tribe and language of Liberia.

  1 For example, W. Cabell Greet in Southern Speech, in Culture in the South, edited by W. T. Couch; Chapel Hill (N.C.), 1934, p. 612; Reed Smith in Gullah, Bulletin of the University of South Carolina, Nov. 1, 1926,
p. 32, and John Bennett in Gullah: a Negro Patois, Part I, South Atlantic Quarterly, Oct. 1908, p. 33.

  2 Notes on the Sounds and Vocabulary of Gullah, Publication of the American Dialect Society No. 3, May, 1945, p. 23.

  1 The difficulties that etymologists have had with to tote are described in Supplement I, pp. 208–10. Webster 1934 derives buckra from the Efik mbakara or makara, yam from the Senegal inhame, and goober from the Kongo nguba. It says that canoe is “of Arawakan or Cariban origin” and chigger “of Cariban origin.” It derives voodoo from the Ewe vodu through Creole French, and calls hoodoo an apparent variant.

  2 Part I, p. 346.

  3 The same, Part II, Jan., 1909, p. 52.

  1 Linguistic Persistence, American Speech, Dec., 1930, p. 149.

  2 Gullah, before cited, p. 22. The substance of this paper seems to have been presented to the American Dialect Society at its 1923 meeting.

  3 Other testimonies to its difficulty are provided by Bennett, lately cited, Part I, pp. 336 and 340, and by Annie Weston Whitney in Negro American Dialects, Independent, Aug. 22, 1901, p. 1980. Both say that this difficulty once made it necessary to employ interpreters in the Charleston courts. Mrs. Whitney adds that, in the great days of the dialect, it threw off many subdialects. “Every large plantation,” she says, “had its own. So distinct were these that a planter, by engaging a Negro in conversation, would tell at once who was his owner.”

  4 Gullah, before cited.

  5 Notes on the Sounds and Vocabulary of Gullah, before cited.

  6 Origin, Dialects, Beliefs, and Characteristics of the Negroes of the South Carolina and Georgia Coasts, Georgia Historical Review, Vol. X, 1944, pp. 186–95.

  7 Gullah, in Folk Culture on St. Helena Island, South Carolina; Chapel Hill (N.C.), 1930, pp. 3–62.

  8 Negro English, Anglia, Vol. VII, 1884, pp. 232–79.

  9 Negro Dialect, Quarterly Journal of Speech, Nov., 1933, pp. 522–28.