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A STUDT OF THE SPEECH OF EAST FELICIANA PARISH, LOUISIANA
A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements f< ree of y Doctor of in The Department of Speech
By Hilda Brannon Fisher B.A.. Louisiana State Normal College, August,
1949
1933
UMI Number: DP69351
All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion.
Dissertation Pub) h*r>g
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MANUSCRIPT THESES Unpublished theses submitted for the master*s and doctor*s degrees and deposited in the Louisiana State University Library are available for inspection* rights of the author.
Use of any thesis is limited by the
Bibliographical references may be noted, but
passages may not be copied unless the author has given permission. Credit must be given in subsequent written or published work. A library which borrows this thesis for use by its clientele is expected to make sure that the borrower is aware of the above restrictions. LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
119-a
TABUS Of CQDTEilTS
Page LIST Of FIGURES.................................... ACKSOffUSPgRMBSTS
V
.............................
A B S T R A C T ............................ I. II.
PURPOSE AHD METHOD Of PROCEDURE .
ri Til
...........
I
HISTORY Of EAST TEUICIASA P A R I S H .............. . 13
III.
THE IHFQRHASTS....................
53
IV.
KESPOHSE R E C O R D S ..................
91
V.
PHOSETIC ANALYSIS . . . . . . .
...........
. . 174
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175
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EAST FELICIANA PARI5H LOUtSfAl*^ JLoeatior* o f Xnfoartmptii
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4
To complete the coverage of the parish# with an even geographical distribution of communities investigated# the author chose four additional informants J TCF* Lindsay# Louislana MFR# Wilson# Louisiana iUft# Ethel# Louisiana MLS# Clinton# Louisiana fhe accompanying amp of Mot Feliciana Parish shows the location of all the Informants* In the collection of data# the select!on of informants was of primary importance.
Standards set by the Linguistic
Atlas of the United States and Canada were applied.
The
author assisted In locating five of the ten Informants inter** viewed by other stud antes
ffi# FEtKf# &TK# MCE and PJT*
Biographies of informants# In Chapter III# indicate their qualifications* the medium for securing desired responses was the work** book of the Linguistic Atlas of the United States and Canada# which was compiled by members of the Atlas staff# and corrected for the Louisiana area by Johnny* Akin Fenn (Ph.IL# Louisiana State University# 1938).
The work-book contains
upward of a thousand words and phrases# arranged so as to elicit responses about most phases of everyday life* It is not claimed that conditions of Interviewing were identical in all cases*
To secure unguarded and spontaneous
responses# interviews must be extremely informal and
5
unhurried.
It Is preferable to take notes during guided con
versation* and to avoid as much as possible the formal questlon-amd-answer procedure* emphasises this method*
ft*aining of Interviewers
Some work-books evidence the ideal
procedure better than others; Ife may be noted that work-books for GOB* MWG* VCR* *FG* MG and FJT reflect a more formalised method of investigation* and that they therefore reveal fewer "conversational® forms*
In contrast* work-books FteB and W k
are particularly rich In colloquial vocabulary and pronunci ation*
Likewise soma work-books contain more numerous syn
onyms* spontaneous corrections, the reporting of obsolete expressions* Kegro usage* and those forms current In the community but not used by the Informant; the MFft work-book is outstanding In this regard* responses are transcribed in phonetic notation*
Close
transcription rather than broad transcription is employed* so that the notetlcm Indicates fine shades of difference In pro nunciations* and represents as accurately as possible the exact sounds heard* Data represent the transcriptions of nine interviewers* It is unlikely that entire consistency In notation would obtain*
In dais connection* Kurath states; "There are ’subjective* variations result ing * * * from the field worker’s tendency toward a broader or narrower notation* Broad notation disregards variations within the pho nemes* narrow notation Identifies them* Bo field worker’s notation is equally narrow or broad tn all parts of the ’vowel spectrum1 * * • Other *subjective’ variations result from the
THE INTERNATIONAL PHONETIC ALPHABET
........ _ -A.
CONSONANTS
f1
Pi-labial ...
. ..
... L
Plosive
.
Masai
.
,
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,
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Dental and Alveolar t d n
Retroflex
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Lateral Fricative. Lateral Non-fricative .
1
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.
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Fricative . § p Frictionless Continuants w H \ and Semi-oowels t Close. (y a u ) to (Y U) ►4 Half-close ♦ . (0 0) Half-open
«
f V u
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j
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s 5
P r
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x 3
j (h)
20 (Del.,Ind. (Conn*,U* J., (Mass.jVt. .> 5 England 4 6 Ireland Scotland 2 France 4 Germany 14
20 to }9
40 to 59
60 and above
Total
593 133 63
30 23 40
4 3 7
2,376 354 130
74 37
149 36
66 6
294 96
50
21
7
97
24 12 32 9 9 53
16 5 13 4 3 20
2 0 5 0 0 2
47 21 56 16 94
Certain conclusions may be drawn from these figures*
44
The largest group in the column headed ”60 and above” consists of people born in South Carolina, North Caro lina, and Virginia. headed ”40 to 59.”
The same Is true for the column These figures indicate that the mi
gration stemmed primarily from those three states and that most of the families were at least a generation removed from those states by Id50.
The number for South
Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia in the ”20 to 39" age group is smaller, and in the "o to 19** group practi cally zero.
This indicates that the heaviest emigration
from those states terminated shortly after IdlO.
The
heavy figure in the ”20 to 39" ago group for KentuckyTennessee shows that the peak of migration from Virginia, North Carolina, and South Carolina was passing through those states during the first two decades of the 19th century.
The figures for Mississippi show that the peak
of migration was passing through that state between 1310 and 1350.
This is the large stream of migration which is
plotted on the accompanying map.
The emigrants were com
ing not precipitately in a rapid overland journey, but gradually, in a slow shifting of population toward last Feliciana Parish.
To be sure, some families and even
whole communities came directly by fiat boat.
But by and
large the migration appears to have been by a series of stages through the wilderness. gration is revealed as smaller.
The Georgia-Alabama mi Migration from
CRAM’S
8h x 11 O utline Map
UNITED STATES "SCALE 0
too
200
300..
mm
COPYRIGHT T H E G E O R G E F. CRAM COM PANY IN D IA N A P O L IS
105
n * u r * «•
Longitude
100
Wait
95
90
Greenwich
85
somcfls a b d c o u r s e s op b i o r a t i o k t o b a s t f b l i c i a f a p a r i s h , l o u i s i a k a
46 Pennsylvania, etc* (see table) and Connecticut, etc* (see table), consisted of small numbers of professional people* The number of people born in Louisiana reveals how new the settlement was in 1650; more than half the native in habitants were less than 20 years old*
Other figures
show that continuing migration across the Atlantic con tributed some small part* laborers and mechanics.
These were mostly tradesmen, The German element which began to
come then, has continued, but has never been amalgamated, nor has it affected the speech of the parish. With these few facts as a basis, we may speculate somewhat on the origins of the population and the reasons for their migration to West Florida* Turning to the South Atlantic colonies, we find sources and reasons for migration*
Bolton and Marshall
say, "It was the southern Piedmont which furnished lead-
49
ers for southwestward movement.w
Morison and Commanger summarise the discontent in North Carolina and South Carolina towa^ the close of the eighteenth century: In the decade of the seventeen-sixties the grievances of the frontiersmen in Worth Carolina became intolerable; and repeated petitions to the government for redress proved futile* One from Anson County enumerated particular causes for discontent, including disproportionate taxes,
Herbert Eugene Bolton and Thomas Maitland Marshall, The Colonization of North America. 1492*1763. (Hew York,
192S), p. 327.
47
venal lawyers and judges, lack of paper money, quit* rente, abuse of land laws, and religious intoler ance * * 0 * South Carolina • • • was dominated by the planter-merchant aristocracy of Charleston* . * Like the planters of Virginia they were liberal and Independent in imperial politics, but ultraconservative in questions of domestic govern ment* Qualifications for office-holding were the highest in America— five hundred acres of land and ten slaves or property to the value of #1,000, for membership in the lower House, which was called the House of Commons, the Charleston gentry controlled the government, the administration, and the judiciary. They owned most of the desirable land along the coast and on the Santee, Pedee, Ashley and Cooper, Edisto and Savannah rivers, and engrossed large tracts in the up-country. The Anglican Church was firmly established* And here, alone in the colo nies, the slaves outnumbered the white population* The South Carolina up-country was a cosmo politan as well as a democratic society; a melt ing pot of Germans, Swiss, Scotch-Irish, English, ami Welsh, staunchly dissenting in religion, levelling in political principles. Their role in the government was purely passive* 50 The situation in Virginia was very little different! Below the "first families11, but continually pushing into their level by marriage, was a class of lesser planters, to which Patrick Henry belonged; a class generous and hospitable, but uneducated, provincial, and rude. Below them was an unstable and uneasy class of yeomen, outnumbering the planters in the Piedmont* Descended largely from indentured servants and deported convicts, these peasants, as the gentry called them, were illiter ate, ferocious, and quarrelsome. Self-contained plantations, with slave artisans and mechanics, left small demand for skilled white labor, and made small farms unprofitable* Hence the Virginia
50 Samuel Eliot Morison and Henry Steele
yeoman had but the alternative of migrating westward, or of becoming "poor white trash" despised even by the slaves* It was already doubtful in 1790 that any community could endure half slave and half free* 51 Bolton and Marshall summarise the motivating forces which caused the migration across the mountains: To the frontier people were attracted by cheap land and unlimited opportunity. From the Tidewater settlements emigrants were driven by increase of population, scarcity of good land, and class conflicts* The less prosperous every where, and in the South indented servants who had served their time, were glad to begin life anew on the frontier* 52 Beyond that point we may only speculate as to the origins of these people*
Hanna would convince us that
the entire southern population is Scotch-lrish*
He quotes
Jefferson as saying that the Scotch-lrish comprised the white population west of the mountains in Virginia* He refers to Williamson as saying that they are the most numerous element in North Carolina*
He quotes from the
History of South Carolina as saying that they are more numerous than any other race in South Carolina and form 53 a controlling element of Qeorgia* Ford says that the Scotch-lrish who settled in Duplin County, North Carolina, in 173b, founded families whose 51
Ibid*. p* 201*
52
Bolton and Marshall, q p * clt.* p. 309* 53 Charles A* Hanna, The Scotch-lrish (New Xork: Q. F* Putnam^ Sons, 1902), I, S's* "".......
49 progeny is scattered through the South,
,fBut la the
main," he says "the Scoteh-Xrish settlements of the South end West were derived from the overland emlgra54 tion that had its main source in Pennsylvania," Bolton and Marshall describe a double line of mi gration into the southern Piedmont, whence so large a part of the population of East Feliciana appears to have come. Some newcomers and many old settlers crossed the Tidewater and pushed over the Fall Line, But for the Germans, Swiss, and Scotch-lrish, Phila delphia was the chief port of entry and the main distributing point. Thence some pushed up the Delaware into Mew Jersey and northeastern Penn sylvania; others west Into the valleys east of the Kittatiny Range, Those who followed, find ing the lands occupied, and meeting here the mountain barrier to the westward march, moved south across the dusquehannah and up the Shenan doah Valley, whence they turned eastward into the Piedmont of Virginia, North Carolina, South Caro lina and even of Georgia, The Scotch-lrish in general kept nearest the outward frontier and became par excellence the Indian fighters. 55 Bassett says of the Scotch-Irish immigrants; It was * Pena's liberal policy which first turaddthese people toward America. They were the descendants of those Scotch Presbyterians whoa James I settled in North Ireland, hoping thus to turn that country from Catholicism. After a century of conflict with a barren soil and un friendly surroundings they were as poor as when they began, and the native Irish were no whit less Catholic, Seasoned by this experience they made 54 Henry Jones Ford, The Scotch-lrish in America (New York, 1941), p. 216. 55
Bolton and Marshall,
op.
cit,.
p,
312.
50
the best frontiersmen in America* where both natural and human environment was more favor* able than in Ireland. They began to come to Pennsylvania in considerable numbers early in the eighteenth century, settling in Lancaster County and to the west of it as far as Pittsburg. From that region they turned into New Jersey, or crossed the narrow part of Maryland into Virginia, moving thence into North Carolina. By 1760 they were going into every valley in this region, and another stream, coming from Charleston, was filling the South Carolina uplands. 56 Hansen says that Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland became the seat of "a new Ulster, whence in time sons and grandsons started off for the valley of Virginia and the 57 Carolina back country.n The reason for the earlier exodus from Ulster is well summarized by Bolton and Marshall as follows: The causes of the migration to America were both religious and economic. The Presbyterianism of the Scotch found scant -favor with the English authorities. The efforts to enforce uniformity, and the various religious laws of the reign of Charles II and Anne were especially obnoxious to Presbyterians. Though few migrated because of them, they left a feeling of injury, which, coupled with industrial hardships, brought about the great migration to America. English restrictive legls* lation was also an important factor. Laws pro* hibitibg the importation into England of Irish stock and dairy products, acts excluding Irish vessels from American trade and prohibiting direct importation to Ireland from the colonies, and the act of 1699 prohibiting the exportation of Irish 56 John Spencer Bassett, A Short History of the United States (1492*1936). (Third eiition, New York, 1939), p. 147. 57 Marcus Lee Hansen, The Atlantic Migration. 1607*1660 (Cambridge: Harvard University $ress, 19^0),
pTW.
51 wool worked greet hardships on the people of Ulster* The enforced payment of tithes to sup port the Episcopalian clergy touched both the purse and the conscience of the Scotch-lrish* But more important than any of these was the tenant system* la 1714 -171 $ many of the orig inal leases expired and the landlords doubled or trebled the rents* This is the chief explan ation of the great acceleration of the movement to America which began in 1714* Ho doubt the natural business instinct of the Scotch people, and occasional crop failures, such as the potato famine in 17? 5* 1740-1741, also hastened many who otherwise might have lingered in Ulster*.• * . During the early years of the eighteenth century a few Scotch-lrish made their way to America, but not until after the close of the War of the Spanish Succession did the movement assume large proportions * * • Many of them found homes in the tlde-water lands among the older settle ments, where vast areas were still thinly settled, but a larger number sought the frontier* $3 Bassett makes a point that all the South Atlantic 59 colonies were predominantly English* Even among the Ulster immigrants there were Englishmen.
Hanna says,
nA considerable portion of the English colonists, espec ially those who came to the London settlement in London derry county, were Puritans * . * . By the banks of the Foyle and the Bann, were planted by the action of the same far-seeing James Stuart, bands of English colonists* * • • Groups of these Puritans dotted the whole expanse of Ulster fin a later hour, when the magnificent Cromwell took hold of Ireland, these English colonists were reinforced W
Bolton and Marshall, pp. cit*, p. 322*
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