Chapter X: Imperfect English

§ 1. _Broken English._

Specimens of English as badly spoken by Germans who have an imperfect knowledge of it, are common enough, but they seldom give a proper idea of its nature. The uncertainty between sonant and surd is well known, but like the Cockney with _h_, it is a common mistake to suppose that the misapplication is universal,[88] for were this the case, the simple rule of reversal would set the speakers right in each case.

It is true that the German confounds English _t_ and _d_, but he puts _t_ for _d_ more frequently than _d_ for _t_. In an advertisement cut from a newspaper at Schwalbach, Nassau, in 1862--

Ordres for complet Diners or simples portions is punctually
attented to and send in town--

there seems to be a spoken reversal of _t_ and _d_, but I take 'send' to be an error of grammar, the pronunciation of the speaker being probably _attentet_, and _sent_. "Excuse my bad riding" (writing) is a perversion in speech. A German writes 'dacke' _take_, 'de' _the_, 'be' _be_, 'deere' _deer_, 'contra' _country_, and says:--

I am æbple [able] to accommodeted with any quantity of dis kins
of Ruts [kinds of roots]. Plies tirectad to ... Sout Frond Stread
... nort america.

Here there is an attempt at the German flat _p_ (p. 11) in the _b_ of 'able'; the surd _th_ of 'north' and 'south' becomes _t_, and the sonant _th_ of 'this' becomes _d_--'with' remaining under the old spelling. The _p_ of 'please' remains, but _d_ of 'direct' becomes _t_; and while final _t_ of 'front' and 'street' becomes _d_, the first _t_ in 'street,' and that in 'directed,' are kept pure by surd _s_ and _cay_. The rule of surd to surd and sonant to sonant is neglected in most of the factitious specimens of broken English.

The next is an instructive and a genuine example, being the record of a Justice of the Peace in Dauphin County (that of Harrisburg, the State Capital). It will be observed that the complainant bought a house, and being refused possession, makes a forcible entry and is resisted. The spelling is irregular, as in 'come' and 'com,' 'the' and 'de,' 'did' and 'dit,' 'then' and 'den,' 'nothin' and 'nosing,' 'house' and 'hause,' 'put' and 'but,' 'open' and 'upen.'

The said ... sait I dit By de hause and I went in de hause at de
back winder and den I dit upen de house and Dit take out his
forniture and nobotty Dit disstorbe me till I hat his forniture
out; I did but it out in de streat Before the house; and then he
dit Com Wis a barl and dit nock at the dore that the Dore dit fly
open and the molding dit Brack louse[89] and then I dit Wornt him
not to come in the hause and not to put anneysing in the hause and
he dit put in a barl Into the hause and I did put it out and he dit
put it in again and then he did put In two Sisses[90] and srout the
barl against Me; and then I dit nothin out anneymore and further
nosing more; Sworn & Subscript the Dey and yeare above ritten
before me.... J. P.--_Newspaper._

The beginning and close follow a legal formula. The PG. idiom which drops the imperfect tense runs through this, in expressions such as 'I did open,' 'I did put,' 'I did warned,' etc.; but as might be expected, the English idiom is also present, in 'I went' and 'he throwed.' Making allowance for reminiscences of English spelling, and the accidents of type, this is an excellent specimen of the phases of English from German organs. It shows that sonants and surds do not always change place, as in _did_, _nobody_, _disturb_, _out_, _that_, _not_, _come_, which are not necessarily turned into _tit_, _nopotty_, _tisdurp_, _oud_, _dad_, _nod_, _gum_.[91]

In the foregoing example, the final _t_ of _went_ (where some might have expected 'wend'), _dit_ for 'did,' _hat_ for 'had,' _streat_, _wornt_ for 'warned,' _put_, _srout_ for 'throwed,' and _subscript_,--is for Latin -AT -US, English _-ed_, and as this is _t_ in German, it is retained by the language instinct, even when represented by 'd,' as in _gol-d_. Were there not something different from mere accident here, Grimm's Law would be a delusion. The _t_ of _out_, _disturb_, and the first one in _street_, is due to the surd _s_ beside it, or in the German _aus_ and _strasze_.

In _the_, _de_; _then_, _den_; _wis_; _anneysing_, _nosing_; _srout_, the sonant _th_ becomes _d_ by glottōsis,[92] and the surd one _s_ by otōsis, or _t_ by glottosis also, and 'no_th_ing' is more likely to become no_ss_ing or no_tt_ing, than no_dd_ing--and English _z_ is not known to many German dialects. On the other hand, _z_ as the representative of sonant _th_, is legitimate in the broken English of a Frenchman.

The _p_ of 'open' and the _g_ of 'against' are influenced by the German forms _öffnen_ and _gegen_.

In "I dit nothin out annezmore"--_any_ is made plural, and 'did out' (for the previous 'put out') seems to be a reminiscence of the German _austhun_.

§ 2. _The Breitmann Ballads._

In these ballads Mr. Leland has opened a new and an interesting field in literature which he has worked with great success, for previous writers wanted the definite, accurate knowledge which appears in every page of Hans Breitmann, and which distinguishes a fiction like the Lady of the Lake from a figment like Hiawatha. Here we have an attempt to represent the speech of a large class of Europèan[93] Germans who have acquired English imperfectly, and who must not be confounded with the Pennsylvania German, altho the language of the two may have many points in common.

Apart from their proper function, and under their present spelling, the Breitmann ballads have but little philologic value. Instead of being the representative of an average speech, they contain forms which can hardly occur, even when influenced by the perversity of intentional exaggeration, such as shbeed, shdare, shdory, ghosdt, exisdt, lefdt, quesdions, excepdion, and where the sonant _d_ occurs beside the surd _sh_, _f_, and _t_, in the lines:--

'De dimes he cot oopsetted[1] 1 oopsettet.
In shdeerin lefdt und righdt.[2] 2 G. rech_t_.
Vas ofdener[3] as de cleamin shdars[4] 3 G. öf_t_er. 4 shtarrss.
Dat shtud de shky[5] py[6] nighdt.' 5 sky. 6 _b_ei.

In these pages an _average_ speech is assumed as the basis of comparison, and also the average German who does one thing or avoids another in language. In such examples of bad English, surd and sonant (_p_,_b_; _t_,_d_; _k_,_gay_) must be confused, and German words like 'mit' for _with_, and 'ding' (rather than 'ting' or 'sing') for _thing_, may be introduced at discretion, as in Mr. Leland's use of _ding_, _mit_, _blitzen_, _erstaun_ished (for _-isht_), _Himmel_, _shlog_, and others.

When German and English have the same phrase, it should be preserved, _book_ (G. _buch_) has a sonant initial and a surd final in both languages; a German therefore, who brings his habits of speech into English, will not be likely to call a book a _boog_, _poog_, or _pook_; and Mr. Leland's habits as a German scholar have led him to write _book_, _beer_ (and _bier_), _fear_, _free_, _drink_, _denn_, _trink_, _stately_, _plow_, _born_, _dokter_, _togeder_, _hart_ (hard), _heart_, _tead_ (dead), _fought_, _frolic_, _goot_, _four_, _hat_ (had, hat,--but in the latter sense it should have been _het_), _toes_, _dough_ (though), _tousand_, _pills_, etc. Under this rule, his 'ploot' and 'blood' (G. blut) should have been _blut_:--

benny _penny_
blace _place_
blaster _plaster_
breest _priest_
creen _green_
deers _tears_
dell _tell_
den _ten_
dwelve _tvelf_
dwice _tvice_
fifdy _fifty_
giss _kiss_
led _let_
mighdy _mighty_
pack n. _back_
pall _băll_
peard _beart_
pecause _becauss_
pefore _before_
pegin _begin_
pehind _behint_
plue _blue_
pone _bone_
prave _brafe_
pranty _brandy_
preak _break_
prings _bringss_
prown _brown_
py _by_
prow _brow_
sed _to set_
streed _shtreet_
veet _feet_
vifdeen _fifteen_
vine _fine_
wide _vite_

In cases where the two languages do not agree in phase, either phase may be taken, as in 'troo' or 'droo' for English _through_ with a surd initial, beside German _durch_ with a sonant; but as German cognate finals are more likely to be surd than sonant (as in loc_k_wou_t_h for lo_g_woo_d_ at the end of Ch. I. p. 6), _goot_, _hart_ and _holt_, as breitmannish forms, are better than _good_, _hard_, and _hold_. Mr. Leland practically admits this, as in 'barrick' (G. _berg_, a hill), which, however, many will take for a _barrack_.[94] The following have a different phase in German and English:--

day tay
ding ting
dirsty tirsty
done tone
door toor
dream tream
drop trop
fader fater
-hood -hoot
hund- huntert
middle mittle
pad path
red ret
said set
saddle sattle
drink trink

but _k_, and the pure final German _s_ would turn _d_ to _t_ in 'bridges,' 'brackdise,' 'outsides,' 'holds,' 'shpirids;' it would turn _g_ to _k_ in 'rags,' and it makes 'craps' (crabs) correct. The power of English _z_ can scarcely be said to belong to average German, or to the breitmannish dialect; it should therefore be _ss_ in 'doozen,' 'preeze' (breeze), and 'phaze.' When it is present it occurs initial, and we have 'too zee' once, against numerous _s_ initials like see, sea, say, so, soul, six.

The ballads have many irregularities in spelling like--as, ash; is, ish; one, von; two, dwo; dwelf, dwelve, twelve, zwölf (for tvelf); chor, gorus; distants, tisaster; dretful; tredful; eck (the correct form), egg; het, head, headt; groundt, cround, croundt; land, lantlord, Marylandt; shpirid, shpirit, shbirit; drumpet, trumpet; foorst, foost, first, virst; fein, vine; went, vent; old, olt, oldt; teufel, tyfel, tuyfel.

English _J_ is placed in soobjectixe, objectified, jail, jammed, juice, jump (shoomp, choomp); it is represented by _sh_ in shoost, shiant, shinglin; by _ch_ (correctly) in choin, choy, choke, enchine; by _g_, _dg_ in change, hedge; and by _y_ in Yane and soobjectifly--which is not objectionable. English _Ch_ remains in catch, child, chaps (and shaps), fetch, sooch, mooch; and it becomes _sh_ in soosh (such), shase, sheek.

English _Sh_ is proper in shmoke, shmile, shplit, shpill, shpoons, shtart, shtick, shtrike, shtop, shvear; it is omitted in smack, stamp, slept; and it is of doubtful propriety in ash (as), ashk, vash (was), elshe, shkorn, shkare, shky.

English _D_ final is often written _dt_ that the word may be recognised and the sound of _t_ secured, as in laidt, roadt, shouldt, vouldt, findt, foundt, roundt (and round), vordt (and vord), obercoadt. English _ed_ and its equivalents should be _et_ or _t_ in broken English, as in loadet, reconet, pe-markt, riset, signet, rollet, seemet, slightet, declaret, paddlet, mate (made), kilt; _-ed_ being wrong, as in said, coomed, bassed, scared, trinked, smashed, rooshed, bleased.

English _F_, _V_, _W_, receive the worst treatment, and are judged by the eye rather than by speech. German _folgen_ and English _follow_ are turned into 'vollow'; German _weil_ is 'vhile' and 'while.' Other examples are wind and vindow; vhen, vhene_f_er (turning not only German _v_, but English _v_ into _f_), fery for _very_,--but svitch, ve (we), veight, vink, are proper. The following example is from 'Schnitzerl's Philosopede'--

'Oh vot ish all[1] dis eartly pliss? 1 _ol_ in _folly_.
Oh, vot ish[4] man's soocksess?[2] 2 sooccess.
Oh, vot is various kinds[3] of dings? 3 _s_ turns _d_ into _t_.
Und vot is[4] hoppiness? 4 _iss_ or _ish_, not both.
Ve find a pank node in de shtreedt,[5] 5 shtreet.
Next[-sht][6] dings[6] der pank ish[7] 6 dingss.
preak! 7 _d_ requires _b_.
Ve folls[1] und knocks our outsides[8] 8 G. _seit_, and final _s_,
in, require _t_.
Ven ve a ten-shtrike make.'

CHICKIS, NEAR COLUMBIA, PENNSYLVANIA,
_Feb. 16, 1870._

FOOTNOTES:

[88] A boy in the street in Liverpool (1866) said to a companion--"'e told me to 'old up my 'ands an' I 'eld em up." He did not say _h_up, _h_an' _h_I, _h_em.

[89]: Compare with a word in the following note sent to a druggist in Harrisburg, Pa. "Plihs leht meh haf Sohm koh kohs Peryhs ohr Sähmting darhts guht vohr Ah lihttel Dahg Gaht lausse vor meh." [_Louse_ for _loose_ is common in the north of England. Thus in Peacock's Lonsdale Glossary (published for the Philological Society, 1869) we find: "=Louse=, _adj._ (1) loose. O.N. _laus_, solutus. (2) Impure, disorderly.--_v.t._ to loose. "To _lowse_ 'em out on t' common" = To let cattle go upon the common.--=To be at a louse-end.= To be in an unsettled, dissipated state.--=Lous-ith'-heft=, _n._ a disorderly person, a spendthrift."--_A. J. Ellis._]

[90] The _two_ shows that this is a plural. When recognised, it will be observed that the law of its formation is legitimate.

[91] For the word 'twenty-five,' the speaking and singing machine of the German Faber said _tventy-fife_, in imitation of its fabricator, using _t_ and _f_ because they occur in the German word. Similarly, feif for _five_ appears in the following joke from an American German newspaper:--

"Ein Pennſylvaniſch-Deutſcher hatte zwei Pferde verloren und ſchickte folgende Annonce: Ei loſt mein tu Horſes! Der wonne iſt a Sarrelhors, langen Schwanzthäl, ſchort abgekuthet, aber weederum ausgrown; der annerwonn is bläcker, aber mit four weiht Fieht un en weiſzen Strich in his Fähs. Hu will bring mein tu Horſes bäck to mi, will rezief feif Thalers reward."

[92] _Hald._ Analytic Orthography, § 294.

[93] This accent is not wanted for Englishmen of the present day. Noah Webster (Dissertations on the English Language, Boston U.S. 1789, p. 118) says: "Our modern fashionable speakers accent _European_ on the last syllable but one. This innovation has happened within a few years.... Analogy requires _Euro'pean_ and this is supported by as good authorities as the other." He adds in a footnote. "_Hymenean_ and _hymeneal_ are, by some writers, accented on the last syllable but one; but erroneously. Other authorities preserve the analogy." Milton has _hymenéan_, P. L. 4, 711. Milton's line "Epicurean, and the Stoic severe," P. Reg. 4 280, is strange, however the word may be accented; Shakspere's "keep his brain fuming; Epicúrean cooks," A. and C., act 2, sc. 1, sp. 9, v. 24, is distinct enough. If the long diphthong or vowel in Latin were a proper guide, we should have to say _inimī'cal_, _doctrī'nal_, _amī'cable_. These words are accented on the same plan as those taken from the French. And this would give the common _Eurō'pean_, which is now strictly tabooed.--_A. J. Ellis._

[94] The probable breitmannish form of scythes is given in these pages. Compare "Pargerswill, Box [Parkersville, Bucks] Kaundie Pensilfäni."

Transcriber's notes:

Gesperrt text marked as _= ... =_ Bold text marked as = ... = Italic text marked as _ ... _

Different spelling of some words (e.g. 'fing-er' and 'finger')
results from different usage.