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Just goes to show where my ancestors came from. My husband makes fun of me saying “I have to do the warsh” (At least, he used to. I don’t say it that way anymore.); we are going to Warshington. And I always walked down to the “crick” in the pasture.
I grew up in rural Iowa. When I go home, I slip back into the dialect.
Techteach
This crick thing is interesting, when I was a kid, (not that long ago) we used to take the cream cans down to the creek to get water, Iam sure it was uphill both ways, a soda is a pop up here, and a bar is where you drink beer, a chocolate bar is not candy, ( maybe a whole new food group), street people are either “rubbies” or river rats, berries are not fruit, we do do not have dawgs or curs but dogs proper.
Mothers are Moms and fathers are Dads, there’s a couch in the living room we eat breakfast, dinner and supper, snacks and no high tea our gardens is the yard and we cut the grass, occasionally, when the English over the fence asked what are you doing I would reply “mowing the lawn”!
Anyway, a really neat topic.
Coharie Roy wrote: Rockhound,
My friends find it amusing when I announce that I’ve got “cash money” to do a deal. Cash is sufficient they say. As is money. “Cash money” is redundant, they say.
That comment made me think of Thomas Beverdige’s book, “Ozarks” (a friend’s website):
http://www.rollanet.org/%7Econorw/ozarks/ozarks.htm
http://www.rollanet.org/%7Econorw/ozarks/ch15.htm
OZARK REDUNDANCIES
H.L. MENCKEN, authority on word use and dialect, stated that there is no Ozark dialect. Vance Randolph, who has spent 50 years studying Ozark word usage and dialect, appropriately dedicated his classic Down in the Holler – A Gallery of Ozark Folk Speech” to Mencken. Randolph’s 1953 publication is out of print, but available in at least three Phelps County libraries.
Because much of Randolph’s work was done between 1920 and 1950, some of the terms and pronunciations he cited are rarely heard or have survived only in remote areas. A significant percentage of Randolph’s citations can still be heard within the boundaries of Phelps County.
Randolph and students of southern Appalachian speech cite the over-development of redundancies (usage of superfluous or repetitious words) which have survived, including “widow woman,” “killed dead,” “bare naked,” “tooth dentist,” and “toady frog.” In older times, “preacher man” would have been listed, but modern trends in ordination have justified the sex identification. “Sweet milk” may sound redundant, but isn’t. The pioneers drank very little fresh milk; thus the distinction between buttermilk, sour milk, and sweet milk.
Redundancies persist in modern words: e.g., “old antiques,” “free gifts,” “ink pen,” and “hot water heater.” Such usage is not confined to the Ozarks as in the cases of “new innovation,” ”true facts,” “I personally,” and “close proximity.” Missourians have avoided one redundancy trap; they say “median” on highway signs, whereas the Oklahoma Turnpike has a “center median.”
A recent local add for “oral mouthwash” posed the intriguing speculation of what the alternative to “oral” might be. The record for local redundancies was established in the early 1950s by an ad for a “female waitress.”
A punctuation feature common in, but not restricted to, the Ozarks which Randolph did not cite is the Ozark possessive plural. The Ozarker has a penchant for using an apostrophe whenever an “s” is added. As a result, billboards and other signs advertising everything from “fresh pear’s” to “pizza’s” are commonplace. The possessive apostrophe persists into college where “its color” is still punctuated as “it’s color.”
http://www.rollanet.org/%7Econorw/ozarks/ch16.htm
IDIOMS AND ACCENTS
IN THE preceding chapter mention was made of the Ozark possessive, the tendency to add an apostrophe in front of a pluralizing “s.” Another punctuation characteristic common in, but not restricted to, the Ozarks is the Ozark quote, the tendency to drown words in quotation marks.
Between Vienna and Westphalia, signs advertising the “CAFÉ” might raise questions in the mind of the outsider. Is it a bona fide cafe? If so, what about the quality of the cuisine? Visitations have erased all doubts-it is a cafe and the quality is good.
An ad not many months ago referring to “Authentic” Chinese Cooking again necessitated a culinary check. The quote quite often appears as an embellishment on names in ads such as sales bills; e.g., “The property of my late father, ‘Guido Zwilch’ will be sold at auction ___________.” The uninitiated might be tempted to open the closet door in a search for skeletons, but this is unnecessary-Guido is the true father!
In Vance Randolph’s classic study on Ozark word use he cites passels of correlations between word usage in the Ozarks and old English. What might sound like bad grammar really isn’t (in many cases) but, rather, is old grammar or word use.
Randolph cites British Isles usage going back to the 1300s as examples of archaic language preservation in the Ozarks. He refers to ourn, hisn, and hern being used in the Wycliffe Bible of 1380, to holp and holpen (help) in the Psalms. In the King James Bible, Job 2:7, Job was afflicted with biles (boils). the term right is commonly used as an Ozark synonym for very, whereas in northern United States such usage has survived mainly as an ecclesiastical title as in the Right Reverend John Smythe.
Sir Walter Scott referred to a chimley (chimney) in Rob Roy, and the term remains a common one in the Ozarks. Randolph authenticates many other usages by Shakespeare, Chaucer and others going back to 1300 which might make some outsiders cringe as they hear them used by Ozarkers whose English is old but not necessarily bad. Included are growed, blowed, et, fit (fought), riz (rose), heered, and deef (deaf).
The commonly used term stob for a stake or stub is cited as Middle English by Webster.
Woods colt is a much more euphonious (and interesting) word than the contemporary synonym for a child of uncertain parentage. The term disremember is rapidly becoming extinct despite being just as good as or better than “forget.”
http://www.rollanet.org/%7Econorw/ozarks/ch17.htm
SPEECH PATTERNS
THE RETENTION of old English in the Ozarks is not confined to word usage and pronunciation, but also includes sentence form, with a tendency to retain words today considered superfluous. An example is the Ozark reflexive; e.g., “I got me a _____,” “you got you a ______,” and “he got him a _________.” The Ozark for to is a common species as exemplified by “I’m going to town for to get me a new chain saw.” The Ozark infinitive (e.g., “I had him to do it”) defies extinction as does the Ozark superfluous (e.g., “I feel like that I’m going to be sick”).
Mixed allegiances in the Ozarks during the Civil War dramatized the identity of the area as being neither North nor South. The Ozarker does not drop r’s as the Southerner does, nor does he pronounce vowels as would his Corn Belt neighbors. In the Ozarks the short i and e may be interchanged so that one writes with a pin and gets stuck with a pen. The long i may become an a as in “A’hm tarred” (I’m tired). The long a may become an ee as in “pull up a cheer,” or “I’ll need more steeples if I build fence today,” but it may also become a short e as in “Sent Louis.” Such vowel changes have been the object of many humorous lexicons and pose the trap of endless citations. One example cited above commonly involves a redundancy; the Ozarker may write with an “ink-pin” rather then a pen.
Some of the examples cited would not be applicable to all Ozarkers, but regardless of degree of education, one universal Ozark pronunciation is Babtist for Baptist. The author has devoted years to the cause of removing the second b but has made no converts.
The shifted emphasis is a pronunciation characteristic common in, but not restricted to, the Ozarks. Whereas a northerner would put a letter in an envelope, the Ozarker puts it in an envelope, cement becomes seement, and equator becomes eequator.
The author’s linguistic background is insufficient to determine whether the Ozark simplified past tense is Old English or just plain bad English. Regardless, conjugation of verbs can be quite simple as in I was, you was, he was, we was, you was, they was, and I seen, you seen, he seen, we seen, you seen, and they seen. This system is far superior to French irregular verbs, n’est-ce pas?
Oui! parler vous… Adieu. Love that language …wish I knew alot more than I do. My Spanish is but minimal too and I recall uttering: Que Chevare!!! (it’s GREAT! or How wonderful!) to a recent Mexico City immigrant who stared at me like I lost my mind…oh well…I’ll thank my Venezuelan friend Alex for that dialectic misnomer…later. LOL I remember trying soooo very hard to learn French when I worked as a “visually impaired” counsellor some years back (my co-worker/assistant was a NON-English Speaking young man from a French-Canadian Province) and feeling right proud when I finally mastered asking Michel: Voule vous le dejune’ avec moi? to which he laughed his bum near off at me and said: you need only say: Le Dejune? when you wish to share a meal. *eye roll* More challenging still is/was the task of defining a “crick” to a person who has never before seen one…to a visually impaired client. I realized then that I was severely challenged! Blessings still…thsi has been a very funa nd informative thread. Kudos to you Rockhound…you “pot stirrer” you. ~~~~Laurie
Wow, well I’m glad you guys like this topic. I enjoy it.
The funny thing is, when I read all of your “old talk”, I am thinking to myself, “what’s wrong with that…I say that!” (BTW I am only 29)
I “mow the lawn” and “cuss” at times…I didn’t think those were backwards in any way.
Anyone “fair to middlin” today? http://www.worldwidewords.org/index.htm
My grandpa always ends his sentences with “on that.” “That’s all there is on that.”
It’s real common in St. Louis for people to say “warsh” instead of “wash.” Highway 44 is “farty far” instead of “forty four” to some (my grandma). A “fork” is a “fark” by those from the city too.
My wife’s father’s family are Dutch and are from Iowa. I tell her they sound like the chef off of the Muppets “hordy hordy dord!” (he’s Swedish, btw). Her grandma says “yah” for “yeah” and calls a couch (or a sofa) a “davenport.”
This is my 2 cents worth……………….. The word RIGAMOROLE was a word used By my paternal grand’s,which was passed down to my father and then to me when there was a chaotic disturbance in our household. Has anyone else heard that word before ?
We used that word (pronounced it that way, with four syllables, too). It’s actually a kind of interesting old English word, rigmarole. Here’s a link for it:
http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-rig1.htm
I’d like to know if anybody else used the expression “shike-poke” to refer to an especially skinny person. My dad (and grandfather, when he was living) often called me that. I was about fifty (and not skinny) before I got around to asking if it meant anything. Turns out, my dad knew it was a bittern (a skinny legged wading bird). Then I looked up bittern, and the bird book said “shag” or “poke” were nicknames for it, but not shike-poke.
You bet yer “bippy” we used Rigamarole too! Jinkies….so many words that were , I suppose “made up” for useage…makes me think of: “thingamabobber”, “whatchamadooger” or “rinkydink”…which I know I uttered just as much as my own name growing up. We were told to “skidaddle” as kids when we got in the way. This one is right odd but Granny Trap and my mother used to both say “chicky” when someone sneezed…dad used the German “gesundheit” (sp?)…whereas I still yet say “Bless you”…..which I was once told was originally begun because when we sneeze, we come closer to death than any other time in our lives because our heart rate temporarilly/secondarilly ceases to beat and the blessing offered is a way of thanking God for our very temporary “passing moment”. I never before heard about the woods wolf as an expression for a slender or slight of size person…we used to just say “he/she’s as skinny as a frog’s hind leg” or “thin as a rail” or “skinny as a bean” or “bean pole” or “frail as a wagon wheel” . I’d be right interested in a discussion of folk songs/lyrics that others were sung to as children too…my mother just LOVED singing to us and was never without song when cleaning and cooking ’round the house. Y’all take care~~~~Laurie
I sang Johnny Cash songs to my son when he was a baby. I had quit my teaching position when he was born and my husband had to sing in piano bars to pay the bills. So I sang his Johnny Cash songs.
I often wonder if he would remember the lyrics now that he is 25.
Techteach
Hey Techteach *smiles* …you can be certain that you son does remember the songs you sang to him. I’m admittedly 40 and I definately remember many of the songs and “ditties” that mother sang to me…one of the oldest memories is when she would sing that lil alphabetical folk song that went: “A you’re adorable…B you’re so beautiful…C you’re a cutie full of charm…D you’re delightful…E you’re exciting…F you’re a feather in my arms…” and so on…I, in return sang it to all 5 of my children. Imagine MY delite when just 2 years ago when my youngest daughter , named after my mother as Ivy Elizabeth was born and I was out shopping and happened upon it in Book form! I had no idea it even existed in a children’s book. It is aptly titled: “A You’re Adorable” and is written by Martha Alexander (words by Buddy Kaye, Fred Wise & Sidney Lippman.) I was equally elated at the explanation of it’s origins on the back cover: ” A delightful ditty for your darling, a song for your sweetheart, or a valentine for any time! The popular song of the ’40s is as “heavenly” as ever, and illustrations by Martha Alexander make wandering through this alphabet a merry jaunt.” It was copywritten (first printing) in 1948.
The most memorable song my father used to sing to me was one I have never before heard anyone else utter or even know tell of and it’s origins are a mystery to me: “There was a miss who went to pick some flowers….she sat in the grass , right up to her ankles deep…she went to the coop, to take a poor little chicken out….and she let the big farmer take her home.” I sang that lil song so often in fact, that once, when I was 5 a neighborhood boy named Richard fetched me from my kindergarten class one morning and walked me all the way upstairs to the “big kid hallway” and had me sing it for his entire class. I remember thinking: well, okay…I can do that…but what the heck for? In return for my “performance”, Richard gave me a huge white kitten bank…which I still to this day have…LOL.
Without exception, all of my childhood babysitters played and sang what I call “country/gospel” songs…which I still ecclectically enjoy. I can’t sing for beans but do it anyways, oft times to my children’s cringing if done publicly.
Bless y’all~~~Laurie
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