311 Chapter 7: Pioneers! O Pioneers! ( ) Pioneers! O Pioneers!

312 The Story of English By Don L. F. Nilsen Based on The Story of English By Robert McCrum, Robert MacNeil and William Cran (Penguin, 2003)

313 The Declaration of Independence Philadelphia, 1776 We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; That they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, That among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness…. (McCrum )

314 Early Americanisms NOTE # 1: The British Loyalists mostly fled to Canada and kept the British words and pronunciations as in “about the house.”(McCrum 267) NOTE # 2: Words coming into American and British English from French, German, Italian, Spanish and Yiddish were very different in tone and texture.

315 Yankee Go Home! British Lyrics Stolen by Americans Yankee Doodle went to town, a-ridin’ on a pony. Stuck a feather in his hat and called it Macaroni. Yankee Doodle went to town, Yankee Doodle Dandy. Stuck a feather in his hat, And called it Macaroni.

316 Canadian English after 1776 (McCrum 246/266)

317 Early Americanisms Words: Bluff Bookstore Calculate Lengthy President Seaboard Pronunciations: Noah Webster Forehead, Thorough, Secretary, waistcoat, schedule, tomato, missile, progress, new (McCrum ) Spellings: Curb vs. kerb Defense vs. defence Fiber vs. fibre Honor vs. honour Plow vs. plough Theater vs. theatre Tire vs. Tyre Wagon vs. waggon Z vs. zed McCrum )

318 Canadian Loyalists after the War of 1812 Out and about the house in the South Canadian –eh Schedule Light Center, twenty, Toronto

319 Steamboat Language—Down the Mississippi to New Orleans Boarding High falutin’ Hogwash Landing Letting off steam Mici Sibi (Chippewa meaning “big river”) Paddlesteamer Poker Riffraff (people who floated downstream on rafts with riffs [oars]) Riverboat River Gamblers Roustabout Showboat Steamboat (McCrum 269)

3110 Outlandish Dress and Behavior Mark Twain said that a riverboat is like a wedding cake without the complications. The West bank of the Mississippi River was called the “Outland,” and the dress and behavior of the people there was “outlandish” Coonskin caps, buckskin clothes, etc.

Western Frontier (McCrum 258/280)

3112 Riverboat Poker Language Ace up someone’s sleeve Ante Up Big deal (sarcastic) Blue chip investments Bluff Call someone’s bluff Cash in one’s chips (die) Chips of someone are down Deal me in/out. Fair Deal For openers Hit the jackpot New Deal Pass the buck (buck-horn handled knife) Penny ante Play a wild card Poker face Put up or shut up Raise the stakes Raw Deal Square deal Stud Poker Throw in one’s hand Up the ante You bet! (affirmation) (McCrum

3113 Western (Frontier) Exaggerated Language Absquatulate (Go away) Bootleg whiskey Buckskins  bucks (meaning dollars) Catawumpus (diagonal) Discombobulated (confused) Eager beaver Lallapalooza (Huge or extraordinary) Saloon Skedaddle (Go away) Squablification (quarreling) (McCrum )

3114 The Gold Rush in 1849 Bonanza Drifter Eager beaver El Dorado Eureka A gold mine Hitting pay dirt Prospecting The Real McCoy Stake a claim Strike it rich To pan out A wildcat (oil well) Work like a beaver (McCrum 274) NOTE: The San Francisco Football Team is named “The San Francisco Forty- Niners.”

3115 Spanish Frontier Ranch Life Arena Bandana Bronco Chaps Corral Desparado Lariat Lassoo Mustang Pinto Poncho Ranch Rodeo Sombrero Stampede Vamos (McCrum 275)

3116 Cattle Terms Bite the Dust (die) Bronco Buster Buckaroo (from vaquero) Cow Hand Cowboy Cowpoke Hand Hot under the collar Maverick (from Texan Samuel Maverick) Ranch Hand Range Rider Rustlers Wrangler (McCrum 275)

3117 The Railroad All aboard All fired up Backtrack Berth Boarding (from ships) Cabin Fare Freight Gravy train Letting off steam Main lining Make the grade One-track mind Purser Reach the end of the line Sidetracked Stay on track (on line) Steward Streamlined To railroad someone Whistle stop (McCrum 277)

3118 Buffalo Bill At 13, Bill Cody was panning for gold. At 14, he was riding for the Pony Express. At 16 he fought in the Civil War. Then he was hired by the Kansas Pacific Railroad to hunt buffalo to feed the railroad workers. He was skilled at shooting from the saddle of a galloping horse. In 1876 he served General Custer in the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In 1883 he formed the Buffalo Bill Wild West Show. (McCrum 276) Later, Larry McMurtry and others wrote books about him.

3119 Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Written on the back of an envelope when Lincoln was on the train traveling to Gettysburg.

3120 “Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure.”(McCrum 279)

3121 American Dialects (McCrum 238/255)

3122 Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) In Green Hills of Africa, Ernest Hemingway said, “All modern American literature comes from…Huckleberry Finn…. It’s the best book we’ve had. All American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since.” (McCrum )

3123 Huckleberry Finn and Vernacular Literature “You don’t know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain’t no matter. That book was made by Mr. Mark Twain and he told the truth, mainly.” Because this book was written in the vernacular (speech), it was considered vulgar at the time. At about the same time, Charles Dickens was writing vernacular literature in England. It was also considered vulgar.(McCrum 283)

3124 Southern Dialects in Huckleberry Finn “In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: The Missouri Negro dialect, the extremest form of the backwoods Southwestern dialect, the ordinary ‘Pike County’ dialect, and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings have not been done in a haphazard fashion or by guesswork, but painstakingly and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these several forms of speech.” (McCrum 283)

3125 European Immigration to America in 19 th Century (McCrum 266)

3126 The Statue of Liberty Emma Lazarus inscribed the pedestal: Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses, yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore, Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door. (McCrum 286)

3127 O. Henry O. Henry remarked: “It was made by a Dago…on behalf of the French…for the purpose of welcomin’ Irish immigrants to the Dutch city of New York.” (McCrum 286)

3128 Ellis Island In its heyday, Ellis Island processed 15,000 immigrants per day. In the 1840s the Irish fled from the potato famine. After the failure of the 1848 revolutions, many Germans and Italians left Europe. In the 1880s, many Jews fled Central Europe fleeing persecutions and pograms.

3129 German Words in English And how! Bummer Cookbook Delicatessen Dumb Ecology Frankfurters (hot dogs) Fresh (impertinent) Hoodlum Kindergarten Let it be! Nix No way! Ouch! Phooey Sauerkraut (Liberty cabbage) Scram! Will do! Yesman (McCrum 287)

3130 Italian Words in English Ante Pasto Broccoli Cannelloni Espresso The Family Godfather Lasagna Macaroni Mafia Minestrone Parmesan Pasto Pizza Ravioli Salami Spaghetti (Western) Tortellini Vermicelli Zucchini (McCrum 288) Plus Musical Terms

31 !Yiddish Words in English Chutzpah Ganif (thief) Kibitzer (one who plays) Kosher Kvetching (ritual complaining) Maven Mensch Meshuggener (crazy person) Nebbish (nonentity) Nosh Schlemiel (simpleton) Schlep (drag) Schlock (shoddy piece) Schmaltz (chicken fat) Schmooz (aimless talk) Shamus (detective) Shtik (business) Yenta (gossip) (McCrum )

3132 !Yiddish Expressions in English Get lost. He knows from nothin’. Him she loves! You’ll excuse the expression. I should worry (Mad Magazine). It shouldn’t happen to a dog. I need it like a hole in the head. Oedipus-schmoedipus, so long as he loves his mother.(McCrum 290)

3133 !!The First World War Barrage Bomb-proof Camouflage Civvies Convoy Digging in Dud Going over the top Red tape Sabotage Shell shocked Tank No man’s land (McCrum 291)

3134 !!!PowerPoint Jewish English and Yiddisher Dick and Jane

3135 Works Cited McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English. New York, NY: Penguin, (source of map citations) McCrum, Robert, William Cran, and Robert MacNeil. The Story of English: Third Revised Edition. New York, NY: Penguin, (source of text citations)