Celtic Influence on Southern Talk

I've decided to research a small bit of language, more precise, Southern Talk. Yes, the Celtic influenced the way people in the South talk. And I say “talk” instead of “speech” or “speak” because the Celts would use “talk.”

Let's briefly touch on some Old English and Celtic merging. The English language borrows from many languages. I learned today that the English word “cross” comes from the Celtic “crois.” And I mean cross as in symbol, not to mark something out. Old English borrowed three types of words from the Celtics, words associated with conflict and battle, loans taken over after settlements which usually meant place names, and words associated with Christianisation, “crois” for example.

America... yeah, us over here on a bigger island. There were a lot of immigrants coming to America from Europe. Most Irish-Scottish people arrived as indentured servants. That includes my family a long, long time ago. I believe the European aspects of my family were Irish and Black Dutch who married into the Creek Nation. But who doesn't have a little Irish and Native American in them these days?

The French had a good bit of land in American before 1763. They gave up their rites in the Treaty of Paris. This freed up the Appalachian lands. And when the Irish-Scottish people finished their indentured servitude, the found most lands too expensive to buy. The Appalachian lands, now open to America, was cheap. The Irish-Scottish moved right in with the Native Americans there. With them, the Irish-Scottish people brought their music and language, both of Celtic origin. Their music would become Country Music in America, which is popular and celebrated. Their language, however, is not all that well respected and often looked down upon as being ignorant or white trash.

The Appalachian lands run from Maine to Georgia. And there are parts of it that touch Northern Alabama. While I live near the middle of Alabama, some of the language has clearly made its way to me.

Before, I mentioned the use of “talk” over “speak” or “speech.” Another example, and a popular phrase down here, is “a fixing to.”

From Lorien Hightale's article “Celtic Influences on Appalachian Speech”:

“How about "a-fixing"? It turns out this isn't a simple matter of an accent. In Gaelic, sentences like this one (the "present progressive") are constructed with a particle ag and a form of the verb known as the verbal noun. Ag is almost always pronounced as just `uh' (the "schwa" sound). From this we get phrases like "a-going" (ag dul). Furthermore, this is a common way of expressing the simple present tense in Gaelic. So, "I am wanting" is very much a Gaelic, and Southern Appalachian, way to say "I want." Why "I'm a-fixing" instead of "I'm a going"? Because in Gaelic, intention to do something is expressed with the word dean, which means "to do," "to make," or sometimes, "to fix."”

I use “I'm a going” all the time. Most people here do as well.

Also from Lorien Hightale:

“"That's the guy what was walking down the street."

In Gaelic, there is one relative particle, a, which does not distinguish between "who," "what," and "which."

"Myself and John are going."

The word féin, though often translated as "self", is used much more broadly in Gaelic than in many dialects of English.

"Tis I who saw ..."

The relative construction is commonly used in Gaelic to vary sentence order, giving Is mise a chonaic ... rather than Chonaic mé

"in your face"

This idiom happens to literally translate the Scots Gaelic nad aghaidh.

"He kisses on me," and "She pets on the cat," rather than "kisses me" and "pets the cat".
In Gaelic, you put a kiss or a pet on something (cur pog ar).

In a similar vein, "He put the scare on them."

Emotions are almost always "on" a person in Gaelic (Tá bron orm translates literally to "I have sadness on me"), so it makes sense that someone put them there.

"Who with?" rather than "With whom?"

There is "no object version of interrogative pronouns" in Gaelic, and question words almost always begin sentences. So you just have to say "Who with?"

"There is not but one."

There is no world for "only" in Gaelic, and this idiom is the normal way of saying "There is only one."”

I've only briefly touched on Celtic influences on language in the Appalachian lands and the South. In fact, its something that I've only learned about a few days ago while searching the net for Celtic information. There is more to learn. And what I've found out has given me more to love about Southern language and dialect. After all, I “talk” it every day. And when I write, most of my characters are Southern and take full advantage of our language here. And I think they always will.


Sources:

A Short History of Appalachian Traditional Music by Debby McClatchy
http://www.mustrad.org.uk/articles/appalach.htm

Celtic Influence on the English Language by Claire Lovis
http://www.chass.utoronto.ca/~cpercy/courses/6361Lovis.htm

Celtic Influences on Appalachian Speech by Lorin Hightale
http://www.leyline.org/cra/1999beltaine/app_language.html

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