LINGO IN LITERATURE.

Otago Witness, Issue 2151, 16 May 1895, Page 42

LINGO IN LITERATURE.

The flood of negro talk that has discoloured our rcoent literature is not a dialect, It consists chiefly of the vulgarism, the mispro- ] nunciation and misuse of words that come of a lack of education and polite association. H*rdly any of It Is even proviuoialißm, and still less ia the survival of old forms and usages Nor is it due in any appreciable degree to locality. In fact, it axiaea from condition almost wholly, and is really the more lirgo of our lowest classes, with small diatiuction on account o£ raoa and oolour. While the negro baa a good ear for tunes, he has little or none for the diffaronce in the sounds of the vowels, and he employs them without distinction, saying ampioj, employ, imploy, omploy, aud uniploy with equal oonlidence that he is right, if not with someprido in his variations. With the consonants he is all righr,exceptastor, v,to, and the th of the, then, tbaf, &c. He says de, den, dat; bat ho has no difficulty whatever with thin, think, thing, thank, and the like— never Baying dinh, ding, nor yet fink, ting (aotwlfchotandirg many examples ia print to the oontrary) unless he has had some association with foreigners, or with an old " mammy " who has adopted this sort of talk in her vocation . as nuvee. With ror-pect te r, v, and rv, he uses them quite as often as he avoids them, and, if he sometimes f-übfjlltutes w for v, he nevsr, or han'Jy 6ver, puts v for to. Ha ind'ffdrcntly says vinegaT and winegar, vote and wote, &0., but for the final v he gives us 6, as in gib for give, Ivb for love, &c. Nevertheless he has no disability as to v, and readily eajß give, &-3 , whenever he chooses. For "give me," however, boas often says "gi' me," " gimme," and " gin me," as " gib me." and be extends this facility In variation to many word?, as giwne, a gwlne,goin\ and gori, for going. The i linal r Qt words and syllables he usually Bounds very softly, or slura over, as nearly everybody does io the Southern States ; bnfc this by no means warrants the conventional ! rule which puts an h in placa of every final r, for the nr gro oan and does pronounce r as well as anybody, aud sometimes he gives a long roll to it that would startle a Frenchman, as when, for master, instead of saying massa or mahsa, he elects to pay mar r s'err, which he frequently dees. He can and does say war, carry, carriage, marry, marriage, ocra^ioually, but be profew to s&y n'aiv, cay, en! age, m>t'y, ma age; yet he always snys sorry, harrow, harness, bar, tar, arter, narry, dar, tthatr t &c. II rarely troubles him ; yet when bo is emphatic and loud ha 1b apt to say hit for it and // ox for ox, &o. ; but I can recall ho instance where he omits h at the begin- j nieg of v/ords. He pronounceu length lengt', : where the uneducated white uses lertih; aud he cays Jtectlt' or henlftor health, mid for with, viont' for month, mouf for mouth, ka. In the particulars cited no white person talks like the negro, unless, indeed, he has become a negro in all (mt his skin. „ In his use of tho word " done," Sambo has no competitor. He employs it for various parts of the verbs to be and to have, as, "he done dead," •' doy done goao," " we done eat," &0., and be makes it do double, triple, and quadruple duty qn its own account, as, for " I have done it," ho says, "I done doce it," or "I done and done done it," or "I done and done and done done it," accordingas he wishes to be more or less impressive.— Uppincott's Magazine.