The dangers of harboring an old accent

When I entered the first grade in the fall of 1950 I quickly learned that our teachers had little tolerance for the Southern Indiana dialect that my classmates and I brought from home. Perhaps their disdain for hillbilly folk speech was a result of being raised with the same dialect and having to struggle to purge it from their own vocabularies.

Some of us, in varying degrees, brought words like heered (heard), afeard (afraid), deef (deaf), holped (helped), hit (it), reckon (suppose), and nigh (near), just to name a few. Of particular disdain to our teachers was our prevalent use of double negatives like “ain’t got no” and those dreaded double barreled pronouns like you-all, we-all and youuns.

Before you sigh with the thoughts of ignorant backwardness allow me to enlighten you. Words like heered, afeard, holped, hit, etc. and double negatives like ain’t got no and double barreled pronouns like you-all, you-uns and we-uns are pure 1533 - 1603 Elizabethan English. William Shakespeare loved double negatives. Double negatives were considered proper English until the mid-eighteenth century and double barreled pronouns go all the way back to the seventh century and the Anglo Saxons. Nonetheless, our teachers, wise old sages that they were, knew allowing us to continue to practice our heritage dialect would pose a serious handicap in the world they were preparing us for.

My classmates and I were predominantly decendents of Scots Irish Appalachian mountain people that migrated from Tennessee through Kentucky and up into Southern Indiana. Isolation preserved our folk speech dialect until roads and travel burst the isolation bubble and the once accepted way of speaking became associated with rural backwardness.

Fear of reprisals from our teachers forced us to abandon our home dialects while in the classroom but on the playground, fear of being accused of “gettin above of our raisin” forced us back into our old familiar ways of speaking. For most of us, it wasn’t until we got serious about making our way in the world, either via a hitch in the military or off to college, that we became truly conscious of the serious need to change our dialect.

So why did a dialect that was once acceptable, even proper, become so looked down upon and why - given the stubbornness of the Scots Irish - did we abandon it? It was because the world changed - it expanded - and in doing so forced us to leave our ancient dialect behind. We learned that in our new environment, just like in the first grade classroom in front of our teacher or on the playground with our peers, we must change and adapt to be accepted - to survive and thrive.

We live in an ever expanding universe - more so today than ever. We’re quickly approaching a time when reactive change isn’t suffi cient. To stay ahead of the curve we must constantly be on the hunt for positive proactive change. We must ask, “What’s the trend - what’s around the bend and how can I tool up (train myself) to capitalize on it?” It might be as simple as learning Quick Books to prepare yourself for a future opportunity or as complex as a complete career or business model shift. Whatever it is, it’s not about reverting back to our old ways - it’s about constantly striving to be our better selves.

I recently heard a local logger say that everything he knew about making a living has become obsolete in the last three years. He is a relatively young man with a good business head on his shoulders and is an extremely hard worker. Unfortunately, these attributes aren’t always enough anymore. Sometimes, instead of working harder and smarter at the same game, we have to fine a whole new game to play in.

Imagine if my classmates and I that started to school were faced with having to learn a complete new language like Japanese or German instead of simply having to purge our dialect of a few unwanted words and phrases? Unfortunately, that’s where many career professions and business models are at today. Sometimes we have to completely reinvent ourselves to stay relevant.

One thing is for certain and that is that we must constantly, proactively move forward. Reverting back to a familiar comfort zone after struggling to improve yourselves serves no useful purpose. As proud as we may be or our heritage, there is no future in honing an old hillbilly accent.

Ernie Mitchell, Moose Lake Hill, Orr, MN, © All Rights Reserved 2010.