American Language (91 page)

27
Burned
, with a distinct
d
-sound, is almost unknown to the vulgate.

28
Burst
is seldom heard. In combinations,
e.g., on a bust, bust-head
and
trust-buster, bust
is almost Standard American.

29
The use of
bust
as the preterite is probably promoted by the fashion for a crude historical present, mentioned in Section 1.

30
Boughten
is in common use as a participial adjective, as in
boughten bread
.

31
Catched
, which was good English in the Eighteenth Century, is in Lardner, and also in Huckleberry Finn, The Biglow Papers and Thomas C. Haliburton’s The Clockmaker, 1837, but I incline to believe that it is now used relatively seldom.
Cotched
is heard only in the South, and mainly among Negroes. It appears in the vocabulary of provincialisms printed in Adiel Sherwood’s Gazetteer of the State of Georgia, 3rd ed., 1837, and was condemned by Noah Webster in his Dissertations on the English Language; Boston, 1789, p.
III
, as “frequent” and “barbarous.” As we have seen in Chapter VII, Section 2,
catch
is usually pronounced
ketch
.

32
Alexander reports finding
chose
as the past participle in a military diary of 1774, and
choosen
, now obsolete, in the town records of Jamaica, L. I., 1695. He says that the former was used as the participle of
to choose
so early as the Fourteenth Century, and that it survived in good usage until the days of Southey.
Choosed
is in Sherwood’s Georgia Vocabulary,

33
Clumb
is in Lardner, and also in Huckleberry Finn and The Biglow Papers.
Clomb
was in good usage down to the end of the Seventeenth Century, and has survived as a poetical archaism.

34
Come
as the preterite is very old, but
came
as the past participle is apparently recent.

35
To curse
is used only when the act shows a certain formality and solemnity. “The blind man
cursed
the guy what robbed him” would be heard, but not “He
cursed
his wife.” In the latter situation
to cuss
would be used, most often followed by
out
. Bartlett, in his Dictionary of Americanisms, 1848, listed
to cuss
as then “common to various parts of the Union.”

36
Dast
is more common in the negative, as in “He
das’n’t
do it.” It was originally a form of the present, and is sometimes still used.

37
Dove
seems to be making its wav into Standard American, apparently supported by
drove
. It occurs in Theodore Roosevelt’s Hunting the Grizzly; New York, 1905, p.
III
, and in Amy Lowell’s Legends; Boston, 1921, p. 4. The judges appointed by the National Council of Teachers of English decided against it, but there was apparent among them a trend toward accepting it. See Leonard, above cited, p. 117. In 1926 Leonard submitted it to a committee of 26 eminent academic authorities on English. Five of them approved it unreservedly, and 11 called it sound “cultivated, informal English.”
Div
is reported from the Ozarks, in Snake County Talk, by Jay L. B. Taylor,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. V, Pt. VI, 1923, p. 205.

38
Menner reports hearing
done
used as the preterite by persons belonging to all three of his classes. But he heard
did
as the past participle only among “people with little education and no background.”

39
Vance Randolph, in The Grammar of the Ozark Dialect,
American Speech
, Oct., 1927, says that
dremp
is the usual form in the Ozarks. But elsewhere, I believe,
drempt
is more common.

40
Drinked
is in The Biglow Papers and in Artemus Ward, but it seems to have gone out, save maybe in remote areas. The committee of judges appointed by the National Council of Teachers of English condemned the preterite use of
drunk
, but “linguists and members of the Modern Language Association, probably because of their awareness of the historical justification for the form, placed it higher than the other groups.” See Leonard, above cited, p. 116. Menner reports the use of
drank
as the perfect participle by persons of all three of his categories.

41
Driv
and
druv
seem to survive only in humorous use, save maybe in the remoter rural parts. Both, as past participles, are in The Biglow Papers, and Bartlett, in his Dictionary of Americanisms, 1848, listed
druv
as a preterite then in common use.
Driv
was denounced as a New England provincialism by T. G. Fessenden in The Ladies’ Monitor; Bellows Falls, Vt., 1818, p. 171.

42
This in the active voice. In the passive, I think,
drowned
is more common. “This is so common,” said the Rev. John Witherspoon in The Druid, No. VI, May 16, 1781, “that I have known a gentleman reading in a book to a company, though it was printed
drowned
, read
drownded
.”

43
Ate
, in my observation, is seldom used as the preterite, though it appears in Lardner, and is reported bv Menner. The use of
eat
as its own preterite was formerly sound in English, and still survives more or less on relatively decorous levels. I find it in Of Human Bondage, by W. Somerset Maugham; New York, 1915, p. 24. It is encountered plentifully in Shakespeare. According to Leonard, above cited, p. 118,
et
as the preterite is “entirely correct in England, incorrect in the United States.” It is so given in Broadcast English; London, 1935, and H. W. Fowler, in Modern English Usage; Oxford, 1926, actually condemns
ate
as “wrong.”

44
Eaten
is seldom used. In The Vulgate in American Fiction,
American Mercury
, Dec., 1927, Wallace Rice says that
eat
was used as the perfect participle by Shakespeare, Fletcher, Fuller, Evelyn, Mary II, Purchas, J. Collins, Arbuthnot, Pope, Malmesbury, Johnson, Prior, Coleridge, Jane Austen, Marryat, Tennyson, Dickens and Thackeray. He says that the Imperial Dictionary; London, 1892, prefers
eat
to
eaten
, and that it has been approved by various American grammarians.

45
Fotch
seems to be mainly confined to the Appalachian mountain dialect, though I have heard Lowland Negroes use it. Noah Webster, in his Dissertations on the English Language; Boston, 1789, p.
III
, says that it was then “very common in several States, but not among the better classes of people.”

46
Fit
appears to have gone out. It is in Congreve’s The Way of the World, 1700, and was apparently in good usage then. Thornton gives American examples running from 1825 to 1869.

47
“He was
found
$2” is much more common than “He was
fined.
” The pull of the preterite of
to find
is obvious.

48
Friz
seems to be archaic. It occurs in The Biglow Papers.

49
There was a time when
get
was almost invariably pronounced
git
, but the standard pronunciation is now more common. In “Do you
get
me?” the
e
is never
i. Gotten
is rare in England, save in
ill-gotten
.

50
Leonard says, in Current English Usage, p. 118: “Both linguists and dictionaries testify that this form is acceptable in the United States, although it is nearly obsolete in England.” In the late Eighteenth Century
gotten
was fashionable in both countries, and Noah Webster, in his Dissertations, 1789, listed it among the affectations of “young gentlemen who have gone through a course of academical studies, and received the usual honors of a university.”
Got
, as everyone knows, is a verb of all work in the vulgate. Its excessive use was denounced by the editor of the
English Journal
, March, 1927. See
Get
and
Got
, by Wallace Rice,
American Speech
, April, 1932. Also,
Gotten
, by George O. Curme, the same, Sept., 1927.

51
Gin
and
guv
are archaic. The former, marked rare, appears in a Maine word-list compiled by E. K. Maxfield,
Dialect Notes
, Vol. V, Pt. IX, 1926, p. 387. It was in common use from about 1800 to the Civil War, and is listed in Fessen-den’s Georgia Vocabulary, and in the glossary printed with David Humphrey’s The Yankey in England; Boston, 1815. Lardner uses both
give
and
gave
as the perfect participle. Menner reports that he found
give
in use as the preterite among all three of his classes, but that
give
and
gave
as the perfect participle were confined to “people with little education and no background.” Henry Harap lists
give
as the preterite among The Most Common Grammatical Errors,
English Journal
, June, 1930, p. 441.

52
Glode
once enjoyed a certain respectability in the United States, as in England. It is to be found in the
Knickerbocker Magazine
for April, 1856. It is also in Shelley’s The Revolt of Islam, 1818.

53
Almost invariably followed by
around
.

54
The literary
hanged
is never heard. “The man was
hung
,” not
hanged
.

55
To heat
is seldom heard. The common form is
to heaten
. When
het
is used it is always followed by
up
. Webster favored it as the preterite, and Krapp says (The English Language in America, Vol. II, p. 258), that it “only just failed to be accepted into good general use.”

56
See the note under
beat
, above.

57
Hoist
is seldom heard.

58
Both forms appear in Lardner, and both are reported by Menner.

59
To lend
is being displaced by
to loan
. The standard preterite,
lent
, is seldom heard save as noted below. Harap notes in The Most Common Grammatical Errors,
English Journal
, June, 1930, p. 442, that
to lend
has begun to displace
to borrow
. Certainly, “I
lent
a dollar from him,” meaning “I borrowed a dollar,” is now common.

60
To let
is being supplanted by
to leave
, as in
“Leave
me be,” but this substitution has probably gone furthest in the preterite. “He
let
me have it” is seldom heard; the usual form is “He
left
me.”

61
Seldom used;
lay
takes its place.
To lay
was condemned by 93% of the judges appointed by the National Council of Teachers of English, but one of them, a linguist, noted that it “was good in the Eighteenth Century.” See Leonard, above cited, p. 113.

62
To loose
is very seldom heard. Even
to loosen
seems to be going out. The popular form is
to unloosen
, which is conjugated like
to loosen
.

63
The linguists, authors and editors on the committee of the National Council of Teachers of English placed
proven
“among the disputable usages; the other groups of judges regarded it as established.” See Leonard, before cited, p. 119.

64
Riz
as the preterite of
to raise
is now confined to the rural regions. Various contributors to
Dialect Notes
report it from States as far apart as Connecticut and Louisiana.

65
Pronounced
reconize
in all three situations.

66
Used in place of
rinse
. In New England
rench
is sometimes
rense
. See
Dialect Notes
, Part II, 1890, p. 63.

67
Rid
is in Artemus Ward, but it is seldom heard today.

68
Menner reports that he has heard
rode
by persons who are “the average product of American high-schools.”

69
Always used in place of
roil
.

70
Riz
seems to be going out as the preterite of
to rise
, though it is still heard.
To rise
, says Menner, “is a rare verb in the vulgate.
Get up
(of people) and
come up
(of the sun) are substituted for it.” But bread still
rises
. In her Journal, 1704, Sarah Kemble Knight used
riss
as the preterite.

71
To sass
is always used in place of
to sauce
, which would seem a schoolmarmish affectation to the vulgar Americano. The adjective is
sassy
.

72
Lardner gives
seen, see
and
seed
as the preterite, and
saw
and
see
as the perfect participle.
See
as the preterite is in the New Haven Records (1639), the Easthampton Records (1654), the Huntington Records (1681), and the Journal of Sarah Kemble Knight (1704). It is denounced by the Rev. John With-erspoon in The Druid, No. VI, May 16, 1781, and he says that it was then “common in both England and the United States.”

73
Used almost always in place of
sit
. The preterite
sot
, once in wide use, is now rarely heard.

74
Bartlett, in his Dictionary of Americanisms, 1848, listed
shet
as then in common use. It is still heard, but
shut
seems to be prevailing. Sometimes
shutted
appears as the preterite, as in “You bet he
shutted up.
”