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]