§ 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 Europèan93 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 oopsetted1 | 1 oopsettet. | |
| In shdeerin lefdt und righdt.2 | 2 G. recht. | |
| Vas ofdener3 as de cleamin shdars4 | 3 G. öfter 4 shtarrss. | |
| Dat shtud de shky5 py6 nighdt.’ | 5 sky. 6 G. bei. |
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, erstaunished (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 | dwice | tvice | pefore | before | prown | brown |
| blace | place | fifdy | fifty | pegin | begin | py | by |
| blaster | plaster | giss | kiss | pehind | behint | prow | brow |
| breest | priest | led | let | plue | blue | sed | to set |
| creen | green | mighdy | mighty | pone | bone | streed | shtreet |
| deers | tears | pack n. | back | prave | brafe | veet | feet |
| dell | tell | pall | băll | pranty | brandy | vifdeen | fifteen |
| den | ten | peard | beart | preak | break | vine | fine |
| dwelve | tvelf | pecause | becauss | prings | bringss | 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 lockwouth for logwood 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 | door toor | -hood -hoot | red ret |
| ding ting | dream tream | hund- huntert | said set |
| dirsty tirsty | drop trop | middle mittle | saddle sattle |
| done tone | fader fater | pad path | 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, vhenefer (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 all1 dis eartly pliss? | 1 ol in folly. | |
| Oh, vot ish4 man’s soocksess?2 | 2 sooccess. | |
| Oh, vot is various kinds3 of dings? | 3 s turns d into t. | |
| Und vot is4 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 preak! | 6 dingss. 7 d requires b. | |
| Ve folls1 und knocks our outsides 8 in, | 8 G. seit, and final s, require t. | |
| Ven ve a ten-shtrike make.’ |
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 hup, han’ hI, hem.
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.”
Chickis, near Columbia, Pennsylvania,
Feb. 16, 1870.