Volume I Part 21 (1/2)
The word great is oddly used for fine, splendid.
”She's the _greatest_ gal in the whole Union.”
But there is one word which we must surrender up to the Americans as their _very own_, as the children say. I will quote a pa.s.sage from one of their papers:--
”The editor of the _Philadelphia Gazette_ is wrong in calling absquatiated a Kentucky _phrase_ (he may well say phrase instead of _word_.) It may prevail there, but its origin was in South Carolina, where it was a few years since regularly derived from the Latin, as we can prove from undoubted authority. By the way, there is a little _corruption_ is the word as the _Gazette_ uses it, _absquatalized_ is the true reading.”
Certainly a word worth quarrelling about!
”Are you cold, miss?” said I to a young lady, who pulled the shawl closer over her shoulders.
”_Some_,” was the reply.
The English _what_? implying that you did not hear what was said to you, is changed in America to the word _how_?
”I reckon”, ”I calculate”, ”I guess,” are all used as the common English phrase, ”I suppose.” Each term is said to be peculiar to different states, but I found them used everywhere, one as often as the other. _I opine_, is not so common.
A specimen of Yankee dialect and conversation:--
”Well now, I'll tell you--you know Marble Head?”
”Guess I do.”
”Well, then, you know Sally Hackett.”
”No, indeed.”
”Not know Sally Hackett? Why she lives at Marble Head.”
”Guess I don't.”
”You don't mean to say that?”
”Yes, indeed.”
”And you really don't know Sally Hackett?”
”No, indeed.”
”I guess you've heard talk of her?”
”No, indeed.”
”Well, that's considerable odd. Now, I'll tell you--Ephraim Bagg, he that has the farm three miles from Marble Head--just as--but now, are you sure you don't know Sally Hackett?”
”No, indeed.”
”Well, he's a pretty substantial man, and no mistake. He has got a heart as big as an ox, and everything else in proportion, I've a notion.
He loves Sal, the worst kind; and if she gets up there, she'll think she has got to Palestine (Paradise); ain't she a screamer? I were thinking of Sal myself, for I feel lonesome, and when I am thrown into my store promiscuous alone, I can tell you I have the blues, the worst kind, no mistake--I can tell you that. I always feel a kind o' queer when I sees Sal, but when I meet any of the other gals I am as calm and cool as the milky way,” etcetera, etcetera.