“ The original English folks is now a provincialism in this country. It should be noted that most of the New England words and forms used by Lowell in the Biglow Papers are provincialisms. Some Eastern provincialisms are in general use in the Central West.
Early writers on Americanisms were wont to stamp every odd or vulgar word and expression as American, with the lamentable result, as Richard Grant White complained, of creating a belief that there is a distinctive American language, “a barbarous, hybrid dialect, grafted upon English stock;” ”

“ We may mention here that cheerful retains in some parts of the South its old pronunciation, cherful. In the pronunciation of proper names, English and American usages frequently disagree. In England Ralph is pronounced Rafe; Brownell, Parnell, etc., are accented on the first syllable; the last syllable of Gladstone is sounded short. With English surnames and geographical names cultivated Americans should seek to follow English usage. In Christian names Englishmen generally use only the first, while Americans always give the full form. In England we read of Ralph Emerson, Edgar Poe, etc. ”

“ American newspapers are largely to blame for the mongrel and high-sounding words heard in the United States, especially those derived from the Latin or the Greek. The oratory of political campaigns gives rise to not a few astonishing Americanisms, and our humorists have coined many more that are beloved by the public. ”

“ Again, it might reasonably be expected that, in the course of three centuries, the political and social changes which we have undergone, and the peculiar circumstances attending the settlement of new regions, would have separated us so widely from the mother country that, in spite of kinship and commercial and literary intercourse, some radical differences in language would have been evolved. ”

“ The language of the “stage Yankee,” and that of the characters in dialect-stories, Northern and Southern, are with few exceptions English, provincial or obsolete in the mother country, and not “American” in the true sense of the word. ”

“ These are only a few; for an American philologist has stated that of the words, phrases, and constructions found in the Bible and Book of Common Prayer, “about one-sixth, which are no longer used in England in ordinary prose-writing, would apparently be used without thought or hesitation by an American author.” Among the many English words used in a different or perverted sense are barn for stable; boards, for deals; buggy, a four-wheeled vehicle — in England, two-wheeled; calico, printed cotton, in England means unprinted ”

“ White prepared a long list of words and phrases supposed to be indigenous, and proved their British origin by citing early dates at which they appear in literature, or the names of authors in whose works they occur. Selecting from this list, and indicating by the letter "a." words known to be ancient, by "m." such as are still used in provincial speech, and by "Bible," King James' version, we submit the following: To admire, in the sense of to wish eagerly (Chapman's Homer, 1655) ; to advocate (Milton) ”

“ The Eastern paper bag is in the central West a sack; a scuttle or pail is a bucket. The British perambulator is in the East a baby carriage, and in the Central West a baby buggy or cab. A comfortable is a comfort. A distinction, furthermore, should be made between words that are used in large cities and those that are in the main confined to small communities. In the country, people hire help and keep girls; in the cities they have servants or maids ”

“ T. W. Higginson (see Bibliography, infra) , in examining a glossary of the slang used about 1798 by British prisoners in the Castle in Boston Harbor, now Fort Independence, discovered a number of words that had been classed as of recent origin, the most familiar of which are grub, victuals; douse the glim, to put out the light; and spotted, for found out. Also some that are not given in any English glossaries, as briar, a saw; nipping-jig, the gallows; and wibble, a dollar. Most of these expressions belong to the argot of thieves. ”

“ The West, using the term in its old sense, which included the interior States as well as the Northwest and Southwest, in addition to words derived from the French and Spanish, some of which have already been cited, has brought into its vocabulary many peculiar words and expressions. Such are after-clap, a demand made after a bargain is closed; Arkansas toothpick, a kind of bowie-knife; bad man, a murderer ”

“ Examples of the provincialisms of Pennsylvania, which were introduced by the English, Scotch-Irish, and Germans, and in many instances have been carried beyond her borders by emigration, are: after-night, for after candle-light; Aprile, for April (Cumberland Valley) ; barrick, a hill; bealing, suppurating; brickle, brittle; dipsey, the sinker of a fishline; dozy, timber brittle from decay; fouty, trifling; to get shut, to get rid; gums, for overshoes (eastern Pa.) ; horsebeast; to lift, a collection in church, to take up ”

“ Southern; (3) Western; (4) Pacific or mining; and he adds as a possible (5) English-Dutch (German) of Pennsylvania. This convenient arrangement enables us to separate such words and phrases as are limited to particular sections or localities (provincialisms) from those that may be called national. Beginning with New England, we have: to admire, for to like, e.g., “I should admire to go;” ”