Literature
Other
literature
Language
American
Dialect
Cowboy
Dialect in Print
Writing
Writing
Other
Subjects
nature art, travel, teaching, parenting,
grandparenting husbanding
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Nonstandard
Use of Verbs
Lack of Verb
Agreement in Number
The cowboys
was
He weren't
Strong Verbs
(made weak)
He knowed.
(Will James, Sand, 50)
(alternate
forms)
I seen it
coming... (Larry McMurtry, Leaving Cheyenne, 20)
The boys et because they was hungry. (James, Sand, 112)
He never et anything out of this wagon. (Benjamin Capps, The Trail
to Ogallala, 39)
I had to lay back down (McMurtry, LC, 20)
Hell, we ain’t got room to spread our soogins, and all this wood
drug up.(Capps, TO, 52)
he'd took his willow stick and headed acrost to a wide bench land not
over a half a mile from camp. (James, Sand, 51)
Substitution
of verb
Go get your
damned clothes right now! Before I take a double rope to you and learn
you some sense! (Capps, TO, 132)
Spelling to
Suggest Pronunciation
Dropping letters
What was
the use in stoppin' at all? (Owen Wister, Members of the Family,
81)
This here’s the on’y man ever took me. (Louis L'Amour, Matagorda,
24)
I guess ever’body has. (L'Amour, M, 31)
Substituting
How does
it feel, Kid, to be away out here where the wild Injuns grow?(Capps,
TO, 52)
Deleting Preposition
Here's a
couple plates. (Russel Vliet, Solitudes,139)
Affirmation
Yep! (James,
Sand, 51)
Negation
Nope (McMurtry,
LC, 22
Euphemisms
For Deity
Goodness
me (McMurtry, LC, 22)
Compound Auxilliary
Verbs
I wasn't
going to run. If you say I was fixin' to run, I'll tell them you lie.
(Elmer Kelton, Stand Proud, 8)
She was bound to take her grudge out on something. (James, Sand,
51)
Switching
Juncture
We couldn't
get married a-tall. (Kelton. SP, 8)
Added A
Water out,
sonny. Never leave a waterin’ place without you take on a-plenty.
(Capps, Sam Chance, 23)
Technical
Terms of Cowboying
Hell, we
ain’t got room to spread our soogins, and all this wood drug up.(Capps,
TO, 52)
You ever try to dab a rope on a hog? (L'Amour, Matagorda, 31)
Double Negatives
I ain't
got none.
Substitution
of Object Pronoun for Demonstrative Adjective
Bring them
fellers over here
Intrusive
Rs
I had me
a nice can of tomaters. (Capps, TO, 39)
Intrusive
Ts
acrost (James,
Sand, 51)
Invective
You damn
sorry, lop-eared, knock-kneed, goat-necked critter.(Capps, TO,
132)
Adverbs and
prepositions of Place
He felt
no fear of the cattle as he walked on towards 'em, not with all them
riders around. Anyway he wouldn't go too close. Two bulls was fighting
outside the herd a ways. (James, Sand, 51)
Discounting
Adverbs
Anyway he
wouldn't go too close. Two bulls was fighting outside the herd a ways.
(James, Sand, 51)
Lampasas didn't rightly see how he could disagree, seeing how she was
a lady, and seeing how he wasn't going to hang up his socks in the bunk
house anyhow. (Robert Flynn, North Toward Yesterday, 1)
Terms to Describe
Animals
he seen
a high-headed, kinked-tail cow being cut out of the big herd and heading
his direction. (James, Sand, 51)
That old girl...(James, Sand, 51)
Lampassas reined up his rat-tailed, jug-headed, cow-hocked pintgo horse
on the little rise beside the lone, gnarled mesquitre which had not
yet admitted the end of winter. (Flynn, NTY, 1)
Adverbs of
Confidence and Doubt
sure enough
(James, Sand, 51)
Adverbs of
Degree
a rider
fell in behind the cow and like to turn her, (James, Sand,
51)
Then the rider, ..., turned sort of white at the sight of him. (James,
Sand, 51)
the trail takes off right about where you’ll be standing this
way (Wister MF, 83)
Intensifiers
right smartly
(Kelton, SP, 14)
They purt near bogged me in the Brazos and the Wichita too. (Capps,
TO, 130)
Dig it plum out to here! (Capps, TO, 130)
Cause
Lampasas
didn't rightly see how he could disagree, seeing how she was a lady,
and seeing how he wasn't going to hang up his socks in the bunk house
anyhow. (Robert Flynn, NTY)
Cowboy Dialect
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A
Cavalcade of Oilfield Novels
Fountain
Wells: Oilfield
Novels of Ontario, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia
Gushers:
Oilfield Novels of Texas
Poetry
Collections
Trotting
With the Fox
Harness Bells
My
Writing Guides
English
Syntax:
A Guide to the Grammar of Successful Writers—
Writing Style 1
Connecting
for Coherence:
A Guide to Building Sentences With Syntax And Logic—
Writing Style 2
Purposeful
Punctuation:
A Syntactic Guide to English Punctuation—
Writing Style 3
Skinny Writing:
A Guide to Concise Prose
for Writers and Editors—Writing Style 4
Other
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Other
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