单词 | 美国方言 |
释义 | 〔chaw〕The use ofchaw for chew , in both the verb and the noun, is remarkably wide in its U.S. distribution,occurring in pronunciations from New England south to the Gulf States,throughout the Midwest,and westward to Colorado and California.Chaw has a wide range of senses in regional expressions. One meaning of the verb is "to bawl someone out": He chawed her good. A Southern sense is "to get the best of someone in a bantering contest" or simply "to embarrass": "That compliment sort of chawed me" (Publication of the American Dialect Society).The nounchaw can mean "a twist of chewing tobacco" or "an attachment or hold (on someone)”; for example, a flirtatious girl in South Midland states is "tryin' to git a chaw on a feller" (Dialect Notes).In areas where Irish immigrants were seeking work at the turn of the century,chaw was a derogatory term for an Irishman. 在名词以及动词形式上以chaw 代替 chew 的用法, 在美国分得尤为普遍,就发音上来说出现在从新英格兰南到海湾各州,整个中西部地区,以及往西直到科罗拉多和加利福尼亚。Chaw 在地区用法上意义范围很广。 动词的一个意义是“痛骂,大声训斥”: 他把她狠狠了骂了一顿。 在南部它指“在互相取笑中占了某人的上风”或者简单地指“使难堪”: “那句称赞让我有些难堪” (美国方言协会出版物)。Chaw 用作名词可以指“一撮咀嚼的烟草”或者“(对某人的)爱慕或占有”; 例如,一个中南部的卖弄风情的女人 “设法让一个小伙子迷上她” (方言笔记)。在本世纪初爱尔兰移民们寻找工作的地区,chaw 是对爱尔兰人的贬称 〔culch〕"We always had a culch box around"(New Hampshire informant in DARE)“我们周围总是有一只垃圾盒”(美国方言新罕布什尔郡供稿者)〔copacetic〕We know very little about the origin of the wordcopacetic, meaning "excellent, first-rate.” Is its origin to be found in Italian, in the speech of southern Black people, in the Creole French dialect of Louisiana, or in Hebrew?John O'Hara, who used the word inAppointment in Samarra, later wrote thatcopacetic was "a Harlem and gangster corruption of an Italian word.” O'Hara went on to say, "I don't know how to spell the Italian,but it's something like copacetti.” His uncertainty about how to spell the Italian is paralleled by uncertainty about how to spellcopacetic itself. Copacetic has been recorded with the spellings copasetic, copasetty, copesetic, copisettic, and kopasettee. The spelling is now more or less fixed, however, ascopacetic or copasetic, even though the origin of the word has not been determined.The Harlem connection mentioned by O'Hara would seem more likely than the Italian,sincecopacetic was used by Black jazz musicians and is said to have been Southern slang in the late 19th century. Ifcopacetic is Creole French in origin, it would also have a Southern homeland.According to this explanation,copacetic came from the Creole French word coupersètique, which meant "able to be coped with,” "able to cope with anything and everything,” "in good form,”and also "having a healthy appetite or passion for life or love.”Those who support the Hebrew or Yiddish origin ofcopacetic do not necessarily deny the Southern connections of the word. One explanation has it that Jewish storekeepers used the Hebrew phrasekol bĕṣedeq, "all with justice,”when asked if things were O.K. Black children who were in the store as customers or employees heard this phrase ascopacetic. No explanation of the origin ofcopacetic, including the ones discussed here, has won the approval of scholars, as is clearly shown by the etymology ofcopacetic in the first volume of the Dictionary of American Regional English, published in 1985: "Etym unknown.” 我们对copacetic 这个词的词源所知甚少,其意为“极好的、一流的”。 它是起源于意大利语、南方黑人口语、路易斯安那州的克里奥耳人的法语方言还是希伯来语?约翰·奥哈拉在撒马拉的约会 中用到这个词, 他后来写到copacetic 是“变成哈莱姆黑人居住区和强盗土语的意大利词”。 奥哈拉还说,“我不知道原来的意大利词是如何拼写的,但是有点象copacetti"。与他不敢肯定如何拼写这个意大利词一样,他对copacetic 一词本身的拼法也不敢肯定。 Copacetic 曾经被拼写成 copasetic, copasetty, copesetic, copisettic 以及 kopasettee。 现在它的拼法多少已经固定成copacetic 或 copasetic, 尽管这个词的词源仍未被确定。奥哈拉所提及的它与哈莱姆黑人居住区的关系看上去比它和意大利语的关系更有可能,因为黑人爵士歌手曾用过copacetic 这个词,并且据说在19世纪晚期它曾是南方的俚语。 如果copacetic 在词源上是克里奥耳人的法语, 那么它也是从南方来的。根据这一解释,copacetic 来自克里奥耳人法语中 coupersetique 一词, 表示“有能力与人竞争的”、“有能力处理任何事情及一切事情的”、“以好的方式的”,还表示“对生活或爱情有正常的欲望或激情的”。那些认为copacetic 来自希伯来语或意第绪语的人并不一定否认这个词与南方的关系。 一种解释认为,犹太店主们在被询问是否一切都好时用了希伯来语中的短语kol bĕṣedeq 即“一切太平”之意, 在店里作工或买东西的黑人儿童将这个短语听成了copacetic。 在关于copacetic 词源的解释中,包括以上讨论的这些,没有一种得到学者们的认可, 这一点我们可以在美国方言英语辞典 (1985年出版)第一册关于 copacetic 一词的词源解释中清楚地看到:“词源不知” 〔ferninst〕Ferninst, meaning "opposite, next to, against,” has been attributed to Irish English, brought over during the peak years of Irish immigration to the United States in the mid-19th century. However, other, earlier citations with various spellings date further back: "I walked with them to a room nearly fornent the old state-house" (Davy Crockett). These variant forms are traceable to the American colonial period, when the source of ferninst was probably Scotland or other parts of the British Isles. The term is now dying out; Craig M. Carver, in his book American Regional Dialects, reports that "only nine [ DARE ] informants, all well over sixty-five years of age, used this term.” A derived noun ferninster, meaning "someone who is deliberately contrary,” is also used: "The trouble with the Republican leaders in Congress . . . is that they are just ferninsters" (William Allen White). Ferninst 的意思是“在…对面、附近或旁边,”该词曾被认为属于爱尔兰英语,是19世纪中期爱尔兰人迁移到美国的高峰期带来的。然而,其它或更早的不同拼写的引证可追溯到更远: “我和他们走到几乎正对着那个旧客舱的一个屋子里” (戴维克·罗克特)。这些不同的形式可追溯到美国殖民时期, ferninst 的起源可能是苏格兰或英国小岛的其他部分。这个词条现在消失了;克瑞格·M·卡文,在他的书 美国地区方言 中记述了“仅九个[ 美国方言 资料提供者,年纪都已过了六十五岁,用这个词条”。派生的名词 ferninster, 意思是“故意相反的人,”也用于: 共和党领导在议会中的麻烦…是因为他们只是些自相矛盾的人 (威廉·艾伦·怀特) 〔fair〕American folk speech puts Standard English to shame in its wealth of words for describing weather conditions.When the weather goes from fair to cloudy,New Englanders say that it's "breedin' up a storm" (Maine informant in theLinguistic Atlas of New England ). If the weather is clear, however,a New Englander might call itopen. Southernfair off and fair up, meaning "to become clear,” were originally Northeastern terms and were brought to the South as settlement expanded southward and westward.They are now "regionalized to the South,” according to Craig M. Carver, author ofAmerican Regional Dialects. These phrases may be the origin of modern and less regional coinings,such asmild up, used on a television weather forecast: "The Southwest is beginning to mild up just a tad.”美国方言对天气状况的描写因其应有尽有的单词使标准英语黯然失色。当天气由晴转多云时,新英格兰人会说“孕育着一场暴风雨”(新英格兰语言学图册 的缅因消息提供者)。 但如果天气是无云的,新英格兰人也许会说open。 南部的fair off 和 fair up 所表示的放晴, 起源于东北部词语,后被带到南部成为固定用法并向南向西流传。根据克雷格M·卡弗尔,美国地区方言 的作者所说,它们如今已“被南方地区化了”。 这些词组或许正是现代不再具地区性的词句的起源,例如mild up, 用于电视天气预报: “西南将变得暖和一点”〔possum〕Since English is a language that stresses some syllables and not others, weakly stressed syllables,especially those preceding strong stresses, are dropped at times.This process, called aphesis when it occurs at the beginning of a word,is more common in regional American dialects than in the more conservative Standard English,which tends to retain in pronunciation anything reflected in spelling.Although many American dialects feature aphesis,it is most famous in the dialects of the South,where it yields pronunciationssuch ascount of for (on) account of, tater for potato, possum for opossum, and skeeter for mosquito. 由于英语是一种强调某些音节而不强调另一些音节的语言,所以弱音音节,特别是那些在重音音节之前的弱音音节就常常被省掉了。这个过程,如发生于一个字的开头就叫做词首非重读短元音省略。这种现象在美国地方方言中比在更为保守的标准英语中要常见得多,因为标准英语趋向于将拼写中的每一个字母都在发音中加以保存。虽然许多美国方言具有词首非重读短元音省略的特征,但这一现象在南方的方言中最为显著,并产生了许多新发音,如(on) account of 被读成 count of,potato 被读成 tater,opossum 被读成 possum 以及 mosquito 则被读成 skeeter 〔tump〕The verbtump, used almost invariably with over in the intransitive sense "to fall over"and the transitive sense "to overturn,”is in common use in the South.The editors of theDictionary of American Regional English have collected evidence of its use in Arkansas, Texas, and Kentucky; it is also common in Alabama, Tennessee, and Georgia.This example supplied byDARE is typical: "When he brushed against the coffee table his Coke tumped over" (Little Rock, Arkansas, informant).But another citation, taken from Gregory Jaynes's parody of detective fiction, "In New York State: Who Poisoned the Pudding?” in the June 17, 1985, issue ofTime, indicates that tump may not be exclusively Southern: "At the end he tumps over into his rice pudding, poisoned. Whodunit?” As for its ultimate origin,tump is probably related to tumble as a separate development from the same Old English verbtumbian. 动词tump 几乎总是和 over 连用, 作不及物动词表示“倾倒,翻倒”,也可作及物动词表示“弄翻,翻转”,这个词在南部普遍使用。美国方言词典 的编辑们收集证据证明这个词用于阿肯色州、得克萨斯州和肯塔基州, 也普遍用于阿拉巴马州,田纳西州和佐治亚州。美国区域英语词典 中提供的这个例句很典型: “当他擦过咖啡桌时,他的可乐打翻了” (阿肯色州小石城,密告者)。但是从格里高利·杰恩斯的模仿侦探小说的作品《在纽约州:谁往布丁里下了毒?》(该作品刊登于1985年6月17日出版的时代 )中摘录的另一处引文却显示 tump 不一定只在南方使用: “最后,他跌倒在自己的稻米布丁中,被毒死了。谁干的?” 至于这个的词的最终来源,tump 可能与 tumble 有关, 它们分别从同一个古英语动词tumbian 发展而来 〔clever〕In the 17th and 18th centuries,in addition to its basic sense of "able to use the brain readily and effectively,” the wordclever acquired a constellation of imprecise but generally positive senses in regional British speech: "clean-limbed and handsome,” "neat and convenient to use,” and "of an agreeable disposition.”Some of these British regional senses, brought over when America was colonized,are still found in American regional speech,as in the South, whereclever can mean "good-natured, amiable,” in old-fashioned speech. The speech of New England extends the meaning "good-natured" to animalsin the specific sense of "easily managed, docile.”Perhaps it was the association with animals that gave rise to another meaning, "affable but not especially smart,”applicable to people when used in old-fashioned New England dialects.在17和18世纪时,clever 一词除了其基本含义“能够轻松、有效地用脑”外,还在英国方言中具有大量不准确但明确的含义, “身材匀称且英俊倜傥”、“整洁有序且便于使用”和“令人愉快的个性”。英国方言中的一部分含义是美国被殖民统治时传播开来,在美国方言中至今仍然可见,如在南部的旧式方言中,clever 可以表示“脾气好的、和蔼的”。 新英格兰方言把“脾气好的”意思拓展到动物,表示“易于管理的、温驯的”的特定含义。可能因其与动物有关而导致另一含义“友善但不是特别机敏”的产生,适用于使用旧式新英格兰方言的人〔gutter〕Certain household words have proved important as markers for major U.S. dialect boundaries.The channels along the edge of a roof for carrying away rainwater (normally referred to in the plural) are variously known aseaves spouts or eaves troughs in New England and the Great Lakes states, spouting or rainspouts in New Jersey, eastern Pennsylvania, and the Delmarva Peninsula, andgutters from Virginia southward. The transition points mark unusually clear boundaries for the three major dialect areas—Northern, Midland, and Southern—traditionally acknowledged by scholars of American dialects.Atypically, Southerngutters seems to have become the standard U.S. term. 某些常用词作为区分美国各主要方言的标志是非常重要的。在新英格兰和五大湖区,这种装在屋顶边缘用来排走雨水的沟槽(一般都是用作复数)被叫做eaves spouts 或 eaves troughs , 而在新泽西,宾夕法尼亚州东部和德马华群岛被叫做spouting 或 rainspouts , 弗吉尼亚以南人们把它称为gutters 。 这些转变表明了美国方言三大区域通常中比较清楚的边界,这三个地区是北部,中部和南部地区,这通常已为美国的方言学者所确认。而南方人使用的gutters 似乎已经成为美国英语中正规的名称,这种情况是不太常见的 |
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