Dialectical Studies in West Virginia. 31 



gAAnt, HAAut, DzhAAnt, etc.) Among all classes here, and 

 especially among the uneducated, the mid-back-wide sound of a 

 is retained in a large class of words where it either reflects the 

 older pronunciation or shows the influence of the negro ele- 

 ment. The negro is very fond of this a-sound, but I am in 

 doubt whether it is natural to him or whether he may not have 

 acquired it in early times from the whites themselves and re- 

 tained it pure and uninfluenced by the change which this vowel 

 has undergone in the progress of the language, just as the Irish 

 have retained the older pronunciation of English. According to 

 Elllis, E. E. P., this was the usual sound of the vowel a in the 

 sixteenth century. In this list we find words like clear, pair, 

 there, where, fair, learn, prepare, queer, hear, square, were, 

 rearguard, search, swear, etc., in all of which the mid- 

 back- wide is heard (klaar, paar, dhaar, whaar, etc.); we sel- 

 dom hear the low-front-narrow (dhaer, etc.) as in Charleston, 

 S. C, but more usually the low-front- wide (= « in man). 

 I am inclined to think that this sound is midway between 

 the loAV-front-wide and the low-front-narrow. The negro 

 pronunciation of here is (Hj'ar). Among the white popu- 

 lation two pronunciations obtain: both ('ji'r) and ('ja'r) are 

 common. 



Under Sweet's mid-front-wide (our e in met, either long or 

 short) we must class one peculiarity not yet noticed elsewhere, 

 though found in England, viz., the pronunciation of the word 

 make as mek, that is, mid-front-wide instead of mid-front- 

 narrow. In the 17th century we find the same sound in Eng- 

 land in the words main (meen), major (meedzhar), mayor 

 (meer), naked (neeked), nature (neetwr). Dryden has pains of 

 hell (peenz of Hel) and (mee) for may. Garth has distress 

 rhyming with place (plees). In the 16th century this word 

 make was pronounced (maak), that is, Sweet's mid-back-wide 



