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  • From: Clansgian AT wmconnect.com
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Homestead] Geography was: Tell me again why Republicans are good for peo...
  • Date: Thu, 4 Dec 2008 11:51:10 EST



> >I just recently found out I have Cherokee ancstors. How
> would you describe the Cherokee influence on southern
> speech? I have not heard about this influence before.
>

I have a collection of recordings of native Oklahoma Cherokee speakers and of
course Morganton, NC, is close by where most of the Eastern Cherokee are
located. After having lived in Oklahoma for 180 years (after the removal)
the
people's speech, whether speaking Cherokee or English, has the pure
Appalachian
twang to it.

The people who first populated the wild craigs and ridges of this part of the
world (I say 'first' because the place is so hardscrabble that even the
Indians didn't live here, they just visited) were not in the majority English
speakers. They spoke various forms of German, French, Gaelic, and there were
even
enclaves of speakers of Portuguese and Italian. Each of those left its mark
on the lingua franca that developed. For example, in Scottish Gaelic there
is
no actual present tense of the verb. The present tense is expressed thus:
instead of saying "I am drinking" one says "I am at drinking" (Tha mi ag ól.

Pronounced roughly 'ha me a goal'). This pattern carried over into
Appalachian
version of English as "I am a thinking, I'm a going.") From the Romance
languages Southern English and Appalachian English in particular absorbed the
copious use of the reflexive which is common in those languages "I'm a
thinking
I'll get myself down to the store and have myself an RC."

But back to the Cherokee. When the folk looked around for an example of
common English speech, the best English speakers were the Cherokee. Cherokee
has
six vowel sounds and no diphthongs. The vowels are the continetal values of
a,e, i, o, and u, plus a completely nasal vowel written in translitertions as
'v' (since that letter has no other use in Cherokee). English, however, has
no pure vowel sounds. ALL vowels in English are either diphthongs or glides
or
both. For example, the word 'they' is pronounced in English as "thay-ee"
and "note" is pronounced "noh-oot". This feature of English makes it a
somewhat
difficult language to learn to pronounce if you weren't born to it.

So the Tsalagi speaker came into contact with the English speakers and heard
them saying two vowels with every syllable. But the Tsalagi speaker didn't
use diphthongs so they took the one vowel sound and said it twice imitating
the
glide.

When we say "I" we are saying vowel that does not occur by itself in common
English but is sort of like "ah" then followed by "ee". Try saying "I" but
cut
it off short before you add the "ee" on the end. The Cherokee heard the
rhythm of the glide, but said the "ah" part twice as "ah-ah" (no hiatus
between
them, say it as a glide). Thus Appalachian English acquired the
characteristic
of holding and gliding the same vowel twice rather than making a diphthong
out
of it.

That's why you hear "boh-oh" and "oh-ohl" instead of "boy" and "oil".

The Cherokee word (one of them) for "yes" is "hv-hv" and this carried over
into common speach here and is used to this day often writen "uh-huh".

Around here you will most often hear the expression "ever where" and "ever
what" and "ever when" instead of "where ever", "whatever" and "whenever".
This
traces back to a Low German influence.

Could go on all day but mustn't. Got to get a going, uh-huh!



James





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