16
IDIOMS AND ACCENTS
IN THE preceding chapter mention was made of the Ozark possessive, the tendency to add an apostrophe in front of a pluralizing “s.” Another punctuation characteristic common in, but not restricted to, the Ozarks is the Ozark quote, the tendency to drown words in quotation marks.
Between Vienna and Westphalia, signs advertising the “CAFÉ” might raise questions in the mind of the outsider. Is it a bona fide cafe? If so, what about the quality of the cuisine? Visitations have erased all doubts-it is a cafe and the quality is good.
An ad not many months ago referring to “Authentic” Chinese Cooking again necessitated a culinary check. The quote quite often appears as an embellishment on names in ads such as sales bills; e.g., "The property of my late father, ‘Guido Zwilch’ will be sold at auction ___________." The uninitiated might be tempted to open the closet door in a search for skeletons, but this is unnecessary-Guido is the true father!
In Vance Randolph's classic study on Ozark word use he cites passels of correlations between word usage in the Ozarks and old English. What might sound like bad grammar really isn't (in many cases) but, rather, is old grammar or word use.
Randolph cites British Isles usage going back to the 1300s as examples of archaic language preservation in the Ozarks. He refers to ourn, hisn, and hern being used in the Wycliffe Bible of 1380, to holp and holpen (help) in the Psalms. In the King James Bible, Job 2:7, Job was afflicted with biles (boils). the term right is commonly used as an Ozark synonym for very, whereas in northern United States such usage has survived mainly as an ecclesiastical title as in the Right Reverend John Smythe.
Sir Walter Scott referred to a chimley (chimney) in Rob Roy, and the term remains a common one in the Ozarks. Randolph authenticates many other usages by Shakespeare, Chaucer and others going back to 1300 which might make some outsiders cringe as they hear them used by Ozarkers whose English is old but not necessarily bad. Included are growed, blowed, et, fit (fought), riz (rose), heered, and deef (deaf).
The commonly used term stob for a stake or stub is cited as Middle English by Webster.
Woods colt is a much more euphonious (and interesting) word than the contemporary synonym for a child of uncertain parentage. The term disremember is rapidly becoming extinct despite being just as good as or better than "forget."
“Sir Walter Scott
referred to a chimley [chimney] in Rob Roy”
East of Yancy Mills, Missouri; note back-to-back fireplaces.