Urrer, other.

Wey, where.
Wun, when.
Wut, what.

Y’et or ut, earth.
Yeddy, or yerry, heard, hear.
Yent, ain’t, isn’t.

 

The trick of adding a vowel to sound words is not unpleasing to the ear. Thus: “I bin-a wait fer you; come-a ring-a dem bell. Wut mek-a (or mekky) you stay so?” “Yeddy,” “yerry.” and probably “churry” are the result of this—heard-a, yeard-a, yerry; hear-a, year-a, yerry; chur-a churray. When “eye” is written “y-eye,” it is to be pronounced “yi.” In such words as “back,” “ax,” a has the sound of ah. They are written “bahk,” “ahx.”

Professor J. A. Harrison of the Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Virginia has recently written a paper on “The Creole patois or Louisiana,”21 which is full of interest to those interested in the study of dialects. In the course of his paper, Professor Harrison says: “Many philologists have noted the felicitous αίθιoπίξειν of Uncle Remus in the negro dialect of the South. The Creole lends itself no less felicitously to the récit and to the conte, as we may say on good authority. The fables of La Fontaine and Perrin, and the Gospel of St. John have, indeed, been translated into the dialect of San Domingo or Martinique; lately we have had a Greek plenipotentiary turning Dante into the idiom of New Hellas; what next? Any one who has seen the delightful ‘Chansons Canadiennes’ of M. Ernest Gagnon (Quebec, 1880) knows what pleasant things may spring from the naïve consciousness of the people. The Creole of Louisiana lends itself admirably to those petits poèmes, those simple little dramatic tales, compositions, improvisations, which, shunning the regions or abstraction and metaphysics, recount the experiences of a story-teller, put into striking and pregnant syllabuses the memorabilia of some simple life, or sum up in pointed monosyllables the humor of plantation anecdote.” Professor Harrison alludes to interesting examples of the Creole negro dialect that occur in the works of Mr. George W. Cable, and in “L’Habitation Saint-Ybars,” by Dr. Alfred Mercier, an accomplished physician and litterateur of New Orleans. In order to show the possibilities of the Creole negro dialect, the following Conte Nègre, after Dr. Mercier, is given. The story is quoted by Professor Harrison, and the literal interlinear version is inserted, by him to give a clue to the meaning. The Miss Meadows of the Georgia negro, it will be perceived, becomes Mamzel Calinda, and the story is one with which the readers of the first volume of Uncle Remus are familiar. It is entitled “Mariage Mlle. Calinda.”

1. Dan tan lé zote foi, compair Chivreil avé compair Dans temps les autres fois, compère Chevreuil avee compère

2. Torti té tou lé dé apé fé lamou à Mamzel Calinda. Tortue étaient tous les deux après faire l’amour à Mademoiselle Calinda.

3. Mamzel Calinda té linmin mié compair Chivreil, cofair Mlle.