'Oh, that is too difficult.' This is a "Now Ida, write fifteen times, case where schwer' means difficult. I do not want to be cross with you, but I am fast losing all patience. You must write your sentences as I did when I was learning German; if you do not take pains with yourself, all my teaching will be of no avail.” It is most desirable that you use forcible, idiomatic English, and this will tend to make your language terse, or compact, saying much in few words. But there is no fixed boundary between accepted idiom and the most barbarous slang, which is trying to become new idiom. Hence, you are here called upon to exercise all the good taste at your command. Not to be bookish nor overliterary, on the one hand, and not to be slangy nor coarse, on the other, is the way of wisdom. Here, as in every path of life, I urge you to follow the advice Apollo gave his son Pha'eton, when the boy would fain drive his father's sun-chariot," Seek the middle course." I shall hope that you will heed this advice better than did the unlucky Phaeton. EXERCISES I Oral: Discuss in class the meaning of each proverbial expression quoted in the body of this chapter, and try to use each in a complete and appropriate sentence. II Oral, and later Written Expand the following idiomatic expressions into full proverbs, learning the complete form, if need be, by conversation with older persons: III Suggested Oral: Discuss in class all examples of native and of foreign idioms which may be suggested by yourselves or by your teacher. Where lies the land to which the ship would go? On sunny noons upon the deck's smooth face, On stormy nights, when wild Northwesters rave, Where lies the land to which the ship would go? Arthur Hugh Clough CHAPTER VI PROVINCIALISMS AND DIALECT Colloquial English often comes to be full of the peculiarities found in some one place or among some one class of people. It may then be called a dialect. Dialect is merely the idiom of an entire class or locality. Dialects are as many and as varied as are plants, and the British Empire alone has over two hundred languages and dialects. Every literary language was once a dialect, which, for some reason or other, had a better chance to live and grow than did the other dialects around it. Even our own English was once merely one among a great group of Germanic dialects. So, also, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian were at first Latin, or Roman, dialects. For this reason, they are now called Romance tongues. They are much alike, too, as you might expect, being all children of the same mother tongue. The Scottish speech is a strong, vigorous, and racy dialect of English, which you will surely love when you know it well. The Irish dialect, or " brogue," is the result of combining seventeenthcentury English with old Irish. The English which was brought to America at about the same time had a better chance to remain pure and unchanged than did the English which went to Ireland. In fact, we know now that American English contains many good old words which have been lost out of the English of England. Every dialect is made up of countless provincialisms. A provincialism is an expression peculiar to some one place, or province. The use of just one provincialism often tells where the person using it was born and bred. Even children may at once recognize the Irish and the negro dialects, as well as others less singular. The person who uses provincialisms or dialect may be wholly unaware of this fact. There is a good story of two Scots which is in point here: These men were Canadians. They had emigrated from the land of kail at about the same time. They used to meet once or twice a year, and talk about home. One day the first asked the second how long he had been in Canada. Then, in a patronizing voice: "About sax years," was the reply. "Hoot, mon," exclaimed the first. "Why hae ye na lost yer accent, like mysel' ?" The use of provincialisms is, of course, most marked in the wholly uneducated, who have no knowledge of literary English. No educated person will use a provincialism intentionally, for such use always betrays ignorance greater or less in degree. Even in our everyday speech, we all wish to know and to observe the best customs. In a sketch of Thomas H. Benton, by his daughter, Mrs. Jessie Benton Fremont, the following little story is told of a French Bishop of St. Louis at about the time of the purchase of Louisiana : It was a point of honor among the older French not to learn English; but the Bishop needed to acquire fluent English for all uses and for use from the pulpit especially. To force himself into familiar practice, he secluded himself for a while with the family of an American farmer, where he would hear no French. Soon he had gained enough to announce a sermon in English. Mr. Benton was present, and his feelings can be imagined when the polished, refined Bishop said: "My friends, I am right-down glad to see such a smart chance of folks here today." The manner of pronouncing certain vowel sounds sometimes betrays one's native place. The Deacon, in Holmes' " Wonderful One-Hoss Shay," pronounced now as if spelled naow. To one accustomed only to literary English, this Yankee dialect sounds almost like a foreign tongue. New York, Ohio, Tennessee, and Louisiana afford examples of states which often have widely differing pronunciations of the same words. For instance, the letter r after a vowel, as in far, is not sounded in New York nor in some other places; and the Tennesseean pronounces pin almost exactly as the Ohioan pronounces pen and nearly as the New Yorker pronounces pan. Ah becomes awe to the Southerner, and nearly eh to the New Yorker. The dictionaries must have key-words as guide; but when a person mispronounces the key-word, he will mispronounce all other words of the same class. This accounts for considerable growth in dialectic differences. While you will do well to avoid slang and all provincialisms, you should still aim to use vigorous, idiomatic, colloquial English. If you "talk like a book," your friends will be likely to find you tiresome, and may think you affected. Short words are preferable to long ones, when equally fitted to express the thought. I should like to give you, right here, a dozen pages filled solely with delightful examples of dialect; but I must content myself with three or four passages, leaving you to make a collection of such selections in a scrapbook, for yourself or for your school. I love to start out arter night's begun, An' all the chores about the farm are done, The critters milked an' foddered, gates shet fast, An' Nancy darnin' by her ker'sene lamp, I love, I say, to start upon a tramp, |