The American Language

[An t-Ileach]

I remember reading excerpts from a book discussing the similarities between Elizabethan English and the US Southern Dialect. They author was positing that it was actually part of an astounding linguistic conservatism in which aspects of Elizabethan English have simply persisted in the American South while being long since left behind in other parts of the English speaking world. Among the examples given was the use of the double negative. Apparently, using double negatives was a particular favorite of Queen Elizabeth I herself!...

I must have read the same book. There are clear survivals in AE from Tudor times, especially noticeable in past participles such as "gotten" (BE uses "got") and (strong preferred to weak - weakening the pps is said to be a 'progressive' (is that the right opposite to 'conservative'?) trend) "dove" (BE - "dived"). I think the spelling system is less important, although I don't understand the rationale behind the AE dropping of 'u' (it's used everywhere else in the English-speaking world - except by chavs who don't seem to be able to spell consistently in any sort of system). And a modern Webster's dictionary gives the BE forms as well anyway.

[macwilkin]

Also pointed out that he spoken English of Shakespeare's day had many similarities to what we consider Southern USA dialect in terms of pronunciation and inflection.

Noted Ozark folklorist Vance Randolph also raises this Ozark speech patterns and dialect in his book: Down in the Holler: A gallery of Ozarks folk speech. It's still fairly easy to find and well worth the read. I'll have find my copy and see what he has to say specifically.

Ironically, today my storytelling compadre and I will be talking about Randolph and Ozarks folklore to an English class at the University! :mrgreen:

Cheers,

Todd