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Earliest
Texas Speech in Print?
William
Taylor Adams wrote many stories for boys under the pen name, Oliver
Optic. One of the earliest examples of Texas dialect in print is in
his Fighting Joe: Or, The fortunes of a staff officer,
A story of the great rebellion. It was published in 1866. In it
there is an exceedingly negative picture of the Texan. I haven’t
spent any time analyzing the dialect represented here because I doubt
the New Englander had much knowledge of Texas dialect. But here are
the main passages in which the Texan appears:
“Well,
Somers, a feller don’t allus know who his friends is in these
times.”
“Whar yer gwine?”
“Go in and count ‘em. What yer want to know fur?”
“It can’t be did.”
“Whar d’yer l’arn yer manners? He’s havin’
a bout o’ whiskey with the boys, and I’d as soon think o’
techin’ a pant’er at his grub as a sojer at his whiskey.”
(Skinley, the uncouth abomination of a man--p. 193-4)
“Now Skinley, who are those men in yonder?”
(Somers--p. 193)
“D’ye call me, cap’n?” said the Texan, coming
to the door, which was now discovered to be partially open.
“I did; you have been listening at the door.”
“Fotch ‘em as soon as I kin, cap’n” said the
burly fellow, innocently.
“None of that with me,” added Lynchman, angrily.
“Bet yer life they ain’t, cap’n.”
“Silence, you villain!” thundered the captain, taking a
pistol from his belt.
“Take keer, cap’n!”
“Can’t you hear, Skinley? If you can’t, I’ll
open your ears.”
“You told me to be deef, cap’n.”
“I did; and you have been listening to all that has been said
in this room.”
“I was afeered you mought forget some on’t and mought want
me to remound you of it.”
“Come here.”
“Here’m I, cap’n.”
“Do you know where the rest of our men are?”
“IF I don’t nobody don’t.”
“Ride over there as fast as you can and tell Sweetzer to meet
me at Tantallon cross-roads at once with all his force. Do you understand?”
“I kin hear now, cap’n.”
(Lynchman and Skinley--pp. 208-209)
“The ‘Texican,’ as he delighted to call himself, was
a stout fellow, good-humored, and immensely fond of a joke.”
(p. 211)
“Are you a soldier, Skinley?”
“You bet!”
“A true soldier always respects a woman, whether she be friend
or foe.”
“Somers, yer idees is a little too fine cut for me,” snarled
the Texan.
“Have you a mother?”
“Not’s I knows on. She gin me the slip when I wan’t
knee hight to a chaw terbaker.”
“Is she dead?”
“I cal’late she is.”
“Have you no sister?”
“Maybe I hev. See here, Somers, you kin draw yer charge on that.
Yer mought be a preacher, or sich like, but don’t yer draw that
string on me.”
“Very well; I have nothing to say, only that if you propose to
insult a woman, I am your enemy.”
“Be you?”
. . . “If you insult a woman, I am,” replied Somers, quietly
drawing a large navy revolver which he carried in his belt.
“Put up your shooter, Somers,” said Skinley, with a sickly
laugh, as he lowered his pistol.
“I am not quite ready to put it up,” replied Somers, sternly,
for he had made up his mind that the time to execute the task imposed
upon him had come. “When a man draws a pistol upon me he insults
me.”
“I only did it to see what sort of stuff you mought be made of,
Somers--that’s all,” answered Skinley.”
“I am not satisfied with that explanation. I would like to know
what sort of stuff you ‘mought’ be made of now,” said
Somers, imitating the speech of his companion.
“I’m a Texican. I was born in the woods, nussed on hickory
nuts, and turned out to paster in a canebrake. When I kim of age I fed
on gunpowder, and druv four alligators, four in hand, hitched to a sulky.
That’s what’s the matter. Don’t you know now what
sort of stuff I mought be made of?”
“Slang and brag, I should say, were the principal ingredients
in your composition. You have insulted me.”
“I ax yer pardon; put up yer shooter.”
(Somers and Skinley--pp. 216-217)
Texas
Dialect
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