Speaking English in Ozark style

I grew up speaking the Ozark language, which is much like the Texas language. These two are part of what we call the English language, but with their own variances, differences of pronunciations, and so on. I hear from people to whom English is a second language that English is a hard language to grasp and to speak. I can’t make comparisons from having experience with other languages, since I have only studied German briefly and over the years have learned a few words in Spanish. But I think even English speakers have some difficulties with English.

I remember having some difficulty early on catching the differences in the sounds of words that sound somewhat alike. An example was what I initially thought was “sandwich bread.” It was actually “sandwich spread,” which is something you put on bread rather than being a kind of bread. Then, of course as an Ozark speaker

I had some difficulty with standard English words like “aren’t” and “isn’t.” Standard English adds some distinctions with those two that we didn’t worry about in Ozark.

In Ozark, of course, “ain’t” serves for both “aren’t” and “isn’t.” It wasn’t that the two standard English words were that much harder to say than “ain’t,” but to a redblooded country boy they just sounded sissy to me; so that gave me difficulty in using them in real conversations. I could write them OK, but to actually say them in the presence of my friends was something else. I kind of compromised by adopting my own variation by saying “idn’t,” which for some reason seemed less sissy even if it was incorrect for both English and

Ozark English.

One of the difficulties with English is with a number of words of different meanings which nevertheless are pronounced the same way, and may even be spelled in the same way. An example is “bear.” We have the big growly animal which is a bear. We also have bear markets. Then, we bear arms, or we bear pain or we bear with various other difficulties and inconveniences. Besides that, we also sometimes go with bare arms, especially in summer when shortsleeved shirts and bare arms are cooler. Then we may get our credit card payments down to the bare minimum. Also, sometimes the cupboard is bare, which is a pretty bleak situation.

Back in the 1950s, we began to have malls in northwest Arkansas. The Northwest Mall went in way out in the country north of Fayetteville, near Johnson. Also, in Rogers, we got the mall which these days is known as the Frisco

Station Mall. I can’t remember the original name of the mall. It still seems strange to me to call it the Frisco Station Mall, since it is several miles from the Frisco tracks and from the old Frisco Station on First Street in Rogers.

Of course, on the farm, for a long time before the 1950s, we had post mauls. A post maul is nothing like a shopping mall.

We used the heavy post maul to drive wooden posts in the ground when building fence. First the fence posts would be split from a log, cut to length, sharpened on the bottom end by hacking with an axe; then we would punch a hole in the ground with a post hole punch, set the sharp end of the new post in the hold, and start driving it in using the post maul. Learning to use a post maul was an essential farming skill. In order to get the heavy hammer head going with strong momentum, you swung the

the maul around behind you and up and over, connecting with the top of the post with a solid whack. Making that solid whack was the skill to develop. If you missed in your swing, you might splinter off some of the top of the new post, or mangle the handle of your maul, or bring the whole hammer down on your toe. That wasn’t good, so it was wise to hit the top of the post with a solid whack by your post maul. I understand it was also possible to get mauled by unfriendly persons or animals. I can’t speak from experience on that. I don’t think it would be much like hitting yourself with the post maul.

Another set of words that sound the same but have different meanings is “sail” and “sale.”

You sail in a boat, especially in a sailboat, or you even set sail in a steamboat which doesn’t have any sails at all; and on the other hand you may go to a sale, or you may go where you can buy something “on sale” (which is supposed to be at reduced price), or you can do your own yard sale or garage sale. Of course the idea of a yard “sale” is that you will “sell” things. That is, you have a “sale” to “sell” some stuff. At the same time you are selling stuff, you will probably have your “cell” phone with you. With that, you may not be selling anything while you are celling, you may just be killing time. I guess “celling” is probably not a word. Are smart phones still cell phones? I know that my flip phone is a cell phone, but in these days of smart phones, I’m not so sure about the designations.

One of the difficulties that English speakers have with English is trying to figure out when to say “he and I” or “him and me.”

In Ozark, that was not considered to be a problem, since we just normally said

“me and him” are gonna do this or that, or that the coach called for me and him to get out there and play basketball. The school began teaching us that me and him ain’t right if we are thinking we are gonna do this or that. Rather, it should be that “he and I” are planning to do this or that.

So, sometimes in trying to get that straight, even people who have studied English in school may assume that it should always be “he and I,” even if the coach calls for “he and I” to get out there a play basketball. Well, in that context, “he and I” ain’t right. It should be that the coach called for him and me to get out there and play. You wouldn’t say that the coach called for “I” to get out there, you would say that the coach called for “me” to get out there.

So, where it is correct to say “I,” it is correct to say “he and I” or “she and I.” And where it is right to say “me,” it is also right to say “him and me.” In Ozark, we almost always said “me and him” so we were right about half the time. Even in Ozark we knew that we should not say me is gonna do this or that, so when an I is the subject, we should have said “he and I” are gonna do this or that.

••• Editor’s note: This column was originally published Feb. 20, 2008. Jerry Nichols, a native of Pea Ridge, is an award-winning columnist, a retired Methodist minister with a passion for history. He is vice president of the Pea Ridge Historical Society. He can be contacted by e-mail at joe369@ century tel.net , or call 621-1621.