"Old West Pronunciation" Topic

Does anyone know of a source that does into how words were pronounced back in the Wild West? Not looking for specific vocabulary--buckaroo, chaps, remuda--so much as how they pronounced words--crick for creek is the only thing that comes immediately to mind. I think that some one syllable words got turned into two syllable words, and would like to know if this was so, and if there were any rules about how this happened.

Grelber

That would be Pea Inn.

Many pronunciations varied by region, but here are some examples:

Lasso is la-sue, accent on first syllable.
Far is fur, as in "it's a fur piece to town."
Get is git.
Learning is larnin.

I'm sure I'll think of more.

Given that the "wild west" only lasted for about two decades – three at most – I would suspect that most inhabitants used the accents they were born (and migrated) with. One of my ancestors was the first sherriff in Dodge City to drive a motor car – I have a photo of him in it somewhere. I would bet that he retained at least some vestige of his Kerry accent to the day he died.

Whilst studying the AWI period, I was surprised to learn that "Ol' Vahginnyah" words such as varmint and crittur actually come from East Anglia. There were other examples from New Jersey and New York that were originally Dutch in origin.

Most of it depended on where the speaker was from. You can look up regional dialects today, and much of it will still be the same.

Just think modern Texans:)
Y-all git orfa mah porch, Bhoy! And remember to crash each word into each other.

Just listen to one of Jeff Foxworthy's comedy routines.

Linguistically the "Old West" wasn't around long enough to develop its own accent. Basically people spoke with the accent of the areas they came from. Sure you had "crik" but you also had "creek". You had the Irish who came to build the Railroads as well as the Asians who came to do the same. You had the Mormons, many from the old Mid-West, and you also had Scandinavians immigrating as well as many other Europeans. Soldiers from both sides in the Civil War headed west as well as former slaves. Don't assume that everyone spoke the same.

Take a look at this document, the Diary of Bartlett Yancey Malone, now helpfully available online:

link

Malone was a North Carolina boy who served in the Army of Northern Virginia. His diary has attracted attention for two main reasons:

1. He always took note of the weather.

2. He wrote phonetically, as he spoke, so his diary tells us much about his dialect:

The 7th day I was on gard and it was a very coal day.

As noted above, people brought their accents and pronunciations with them from wherever they came from. And not everyone was a slack-jawed yahoo incapable of proper enunciation and pronunciation.

The novel, The Virginian, is a quite good barometer as to how people spoke back then. Well educated and erudite personages were quite abundant, on both sides of the law, along with "just plain folk".

On the specific making a one-syllable word into a two syllable word, it's usually done by stretching a vowel sound and sometimes represented by inserting a "Y". So "and" in certain populations, becomes "ayund" or something similar. But I agree with the comments that we're probably not looking at a "western accent" as such, but existing pronunciations and vocabulary somewhat modified by intermixing.
The distinctions were MUCH sharper before radio and television. More or less WWII vintage, an uncle of mine had to get on the phone and translate because the Connecticut long-distance operator and her Kentucky opposite couldn't understand one another well enough to complete the call.

But all pirates spoke like Robert Newton in Treasure Island, right? RIGHT?

Arrr! Aye,lad! All but them from Pittsburgh!

With regard to that 'one-syllable word into two-syllable word' process that you bring up and that Robert Piepenbrink comments on above, there are two clear examples toward the beginning of Malone's diary:

"A certen cewer for the Toothack if the tooth is hollow take a pease of the scale that is on a horses leg and put it in the hollow of the tooth It is a serten cewer so sais J. H. Lyon."

'cewer' for cure, 'sais' for says. This is a drawling southern accent, probably more common south of Kansas and in greater Texas. It is sometimes caricatured as an extreme Foghorn Leghorn drawl, "Befo-ah the wo-ah we owned a big plantation."

Hardly the mark of a slack-jawed yokel, I have known educated, cultured and wealthy southerners who spoke with a drawl. But there is prejudice against this regional accent to this day in many circles. Lenny Bruce noted that many people considered Lyndon Johnson to be an ignorant *-kicker, because of his accent.

I live in Cincinnati, sometimes teased as 'the northernmost southern city', and directly across the river from Kentucky, a distinctly southern state. I worked 30 years for a major national company, many of whose managers and executives came from the northeastern US.

A colleague of mine, an educated and capable man who spoke with a native Kentucky accent, was told directly in a job review that his hick accent made him sound like a fool, and that he had better lose it and learn to speak correctly if he ever hoped to be promoted. Yes, you can get away with that kind of discrimination and more in the American workplace. He listened up, lost the accent and got the promotion – ironically, to a job in Tennessee.

Me? I ain't gotta accent. *You* gotta accent. Sheesh.

youtu.be/hawQ5wobi1Y

My parents found this ad hilarious at the time,for different reasons: my father,because of COURSE the ignorant fool would have to be a southern hick; my mother because the oh-so-proper family thought the correct way to serve this was to bring to the table(by a servant,yet) a jar with a spoon sticking in it.

Come to think of it,maybe this should go on the "Insufferable Snobs" thread,although there,the attitude is directed in the opposite direction,geographically speaking.

Authentic frontier talkin:
YouTube link

Mr Zippy

The people of Cincinnati have an accent. Yes, they sound a lot like Hillbillies. And, some of the men talk an octave or two higher than they think. In most other parts of the country three-way and cornhole are not family friendly terms. Skyline is better than Goldstar! Pete Rose should be in the MLB HoF. This Summer is my fifty year reunion at Glen Este HS. Also, the last class to graduate from Glen Este. They're going to re-combine GE and Amelia into one HS.
I finally met the husband of my wife's roommate when we got married. He's from Withrow! Two women sharing a condo in Lincoln city on the Oregon Coast – both marry men from Cincinnati -what are the odds? Just means that Cicinnati is a great place to be from. Cheers. GO REDS!

DJCoaltrain! I'm happy to hear from you. I haven't seen you post for a long time.

Cincinnati is a great place to be from. As it happens, I moved here from Chicago and stayed my whole life. That's been pretty good, too. When did they start serving 'sliders' in bars and restaurants? Sliders come from White Castle!

It's spring again, and hope is renewed. GO REDS!

Mr Zippy
I hope to make Cincycon nexy year. Worse case scenario, I'd have to stay with my Sis. We get along well and I like my bro-in-law. Good people. I finally retired. Last several years I was a manager, and it was a pain in the ass. When I resigned my commission I never wanted to be responsible for others ever again. I should have listened to myself. Now I have time to be a nuisance again on TMP. My Grandfather was a cowboy at the turn of the last century. He sounded just like most other people from KY. If I visit Cicinnati, I can't stay for more than four days otheerwise I start sounding like all the other Hillbillies. Sadly, I can't eat WC like I used to. One maybe two burgers and that's the limit. I have some friends out here who are Reds fans and we watch the Reds as much as possible. Of course not much to see, but we are hopeful. Three days now, Go Reds.

One forgets that, while some spoke in a quite folksy way, others of the Victorian era chose to speak in a more stilted, sesquipedalian manner, to show off their education and manners (Mattie Ross in True Grit).