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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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Wed, 20 Feb 2019 18:54:23 -0800
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Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]>
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"John H. Muller" <[log in to unmask]>
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In Washington, DC ... among local folks, often black Washingtonians, folks
say "umbled" without the "h" sound.

Donneybrook .... is making a comeback, too, it seems.

On Fri, Feb 15, 2019 at 1:10 PM Hal Bush <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> BTW:  even today there are pockets in America, often in the south and
> among more ardent groups of evangelical and/or fundamentalist Christians,
> who continue to pronounce the word "humble" as "umble."  As in, "he's an
> umble man!"
>
>
> I even know a few.
>
>
> That fact sort of reminds me of all the ballyhoo & brouhaha when our great
> leader the President mentioned "2 Corinthians."  Actually, it turns out
> that many pockets of church folks still call it 2 Corinthians, or 2
> Timothy, or whatever.  Of course it is beyond the scope of this post to
> argue that our leader said it that way due to his sympathies for the blue
> collar believers of the flyover district.
>
>
> ballyhoo & brouhaha are 2 great words making a comeback in our umble Age
> of Trump...
>
>
>
> Dr. Hal Bush
>
> Dept. of English
>
> Saint Louis University
>
> [log in to unmask]
>
> 314-977-3616
>
> http://halbush.com
>
> author website:  halbush.com
>
> ________________________________
> From: Mark Twain Forum <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Leslie MYRICK <
> [log in to unmask]>
> Sent: Thursday, February 14, 2019 12:40:44 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: Rediscovered Twain Sketch?
>
> It appears that "humble" was occasionally pronounced with a dropped H even
> in the US at the time, especially if the speaker was from a family that
> immigrated from the UK, or, like the Express's political editor, from
> Canada. (Bob Hirst would know whether Larned's editorialzing was ever this
> *sustainedly* humorous).
>
> Or, as I think someone else has noted, "an humble" could have been in this
> case, if it *was* written by MT, a typesetter's mistake.
>
> I took a look at "an humble" in the NYS newspapers archive, and found an
> interesting case of "a humble" vs "an humble" in the transcription of a
> speech by an Illinois congressman on the effects of Republican tariffs on
> farmers. If you compare these two versions, whose links will hopefully
> preserve the highlighting, you'll see at least one case of humble treated
> with a silent H and a voiced H in two reprints, suggesting an intervention
> based on differences in dialect.
> Geneva Gazette, 10 Jun 70
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__nyshistoricnewspapers.org_lccn_sn83031108_1870-2D06-2D10_ed-2D1_seq-2D4_-23date1-3D01-252F01-252F1869-26index-3D6-26date2-3D01-252F31-252F1874-26searchType-3Dadvanced-26SearchType-3Dphrase-26sequence-3D0-26words-3Dhumble-26proxdistance-3D-26to-5Fyear-3D1874-26rows-3D20-26ortext-3D-26from-5Fyear-3D1869-26proxtext-3D-26phrasetext-3Dan-2Bhumble-26andtext-3D-26dateFilterType-3Drange-26page-3D1&d=DwIFaQ&c=Pk_HpaIpE_jAoEC9PLIWoQ&r=f7i-Uq4rMQU8-TBe45qVLg&m=BuDtlZHCJHyBlf3h10-HisntoNDpMHXAqbPsxUoX3pE&s=SIIkmP3l4lRXiZF_U176dVFoRkNSv3hV1OoCv-Ai9qQ&e=
> Herkimer Democrat, 3 Aug 70
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__nyshistoricnewspapers.org_lccn_sn83031101_1870-2D08-2D03_ed-2D1_seq-2D2_-23date1-3D01-252F01-252F1869-26index-3D2-26date2-3D01-252F31-252F1874-26searchType-3Dadvanced-26SearchType-3Dphrase-26sequence-3D0-26words-3Dflannel-2Bhumble-2Bshirt-26proxdistance-3D-26to-5Fyear-3D1874-26rows-3D20-26ortext-3D-26from-5Fyear-3D1869-26proxtext-3D-26phrasetext-3Dhumble-2Bflannel-2Bshirt-26andtext-3D-26dateFilterType-3Drange-26page-3D1&d=DwIFaQ&c=Pk_HpaIpE_jAoEC9PLIWoQ&r=f7i-Uq4rMQU8-TBe45qVLg&m=BuDtlZHCJHyBlf3h10-HisntoNDpMHXAqbPsxUoX3pE&s=LNyV6qFT08f4UGZP0RnTigIayuZ4EUcUQsQ5b4vV5Nc&e=
>
> A survey of the same speech in newspapers.com shows 44 cases of "an
> humble," which is apparently how it was enunciated by Rep. Marshall, and
> faithfully transmitted, vs 9 cases of "a humble." The typesetter's or
> editor's intervention was apparently the dropping of the "n" in this case.
> But this sort of intervention could go both ways, depending on a person's
> dialect affinities
>
> All to say, I suggest that "an humble" could just be a typo, and not
> necessarily a viable data point -- or what I used to call, before I retired
> from MTP, "a glitch."
>
> I say data point, because in at least one branch of stylometry, articles,
> conjunctions, and other words more unconsciously generated by a writer's
> brain appear to make the best case for identification.
>
> For Too Much Information on how stylometry works (yet you can cherry pick
> really useful information from it) see
>
> https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__programminghistorian.org_en_lessons_introduction-2Dto-2Dstylometry-2Dwith-2Dpython&d=DwIFaQ&c=Pk_HpaIpE_jAoEC9PLIWoQ&r=f7i-Uq4rMQU8-TBe45qVLg&m=BuDtlZHCJHyBlf3h10-HisntoNDpMHXAqbPsxUoX3pE&s=vfp8dReeCNT4rgCh1AlUx3IEy30LApZzm5Ke3z2D9_w&e=
> Leslie
>
> On Wed, Feb 13, 2019 at 10:13 PM Clay Shannon <[log in to unmask]>
> wrote:
>
> > Thanks, Barb! I've added it to my amazon shopping list - will purchase it
> > later.
> > - B. Clay Shannon
> >
> >     On Wednesday, February 13, 2019, 5:57:19 PM PST, Barbara Schmidt <
> > [log in to unmask]> wrote:
> >
> >  Clay asked --  Has anybody compiled a list of Twain's "vocabulary" --
> > Yes.
> >
> >  A MARK TWAIN LEXICON by Robert Ramsay and Frances Emberson. Published in
> > 1963.
> >
> > Barb
> >
> >
>


-- 
John Muller
202.236.3413
Capital Community News l Greater Greater Washington l Washington Syndicate

*Frederick Douglass in Washington, D.C: The Lion of Anacostia
<http://www.amazon.com/Frederick-Douglass-Washington-D-c-Anacostia/dp/1609495772/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_nC?ie=UTF8&colid=H42HP4SBZ8OA&coliid=I34OMAR1SV8L9G>*
[The
History Press, 2012]  Winner of 2013 DC READS
Mark Twain in Washington, D.C.: The Adventures of a Capital Correspondent
<http://amzn.to/19PzIFd> [The History Press, 2013]

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