Some Peculiarities Of Speech In Mississippi

Author : H. A. Shands
Publisher : CreateSpace
ISBN 13 : 9781494982034
Total Pages : 78 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (82 download)

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Download or read book Some Peculiarities of Speech in Mississippi written by H. A. Shands and published by CreateSpace. This book was released on 2014-01-11 with total page 78 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An excerpt from the PREFACE: IN this paper, written as a thesis for procuring the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Mississippi, my object is to collect, and as far as possible to explain, those dialect words and phrases that are peculiar to, or very common in, the State of Mississippi. Many difficulties present themselves at the outset. No previous study of this special subject has, within the knowledge of the writer, been made, so that completeness is almost a matter of impossibility. The writer must depend upon the conversation of those with whom he is thrown, for whatever specimens of dialect he secures, and consequently must fall far short of obtaining all, or even a majority, of the dialectical peculiarities of his section. The derivation of nearly every colloquial expression is doubtful, and must be, for the most part, simply conjectural. In many instances, words have been so warped from their original forms and meanings, that even a guess at their origin is hazardous; but, on the other hand, a few readily disclose to the careful observer the various changes that occurred before they reached their present form in colloquial speech. In the discussion that follows, I have omitted those words and expressions that have been introduced into Mississippi by foreign immigrants, for the reason that the same peculiarities have been made known by them to every other portion of the United States. And while it doubtless would be interesting to discuss such additions to our speech, still they could in nowise be said to pertain especially to Mississippi. I have thought it best to leave out also the majority of the provincialisms that are noted as common by Bartlett or other lexicographers. As it is the object of this paper to give evidence of original research, it seems to me useless to repeat accounts already given by the dictionary-makers. I have endeavored to exclude purely slang phrases, such as, "to get on his ear," "I should smile," "on it," "in it," etc. Such phrases as are consciously used by the speaker as slang, I do not regard as a part of the dialect of the State, and hence desire to give them no place in this paper. However, it is very difficult to always determine just what expressions are slang and what are not, so that I may have erred both in excluding some and in including others. In treating the dialect of the State, I have tried to distinguish three constituent elements, — the cultivated white, the illiterate white, and the negro dialects. Of course, all three have many words in common, still they are in many respects essentially distinct; and, in treating each word separately, I have taken especial care to indicate by what class of people it is used. Where no class is named, it is to be understood that the word is used by all. The phonetic system employed is that of the American Dialect Society: all words enclosed in parentheses are spelled according to that system. In preparing this treatise, I have consulted Bartlett's "Dictionary of Americanisms," Earle's "Philology of the English Tongue," Cook's "Sievers' Grammar of Old English," Sweet's "History of English Sounds," and the standard dictionaries of the language.