Foreign Settlements in Kansas. 



A CONTRIBUTION TO DIALECT STUDY IN THE STATE. 



Explanatory. — Some years ago when the subject of dialect study in 

 Kansas, or rather of Kansas dialect, was mentioned, Mr. Noble Pren- 

 tis, a gentleman who is warranted in speaking with authority on Kansas, 

 was inclined to think that he settled the question in short order by de- 

 claring that there is no Kansas dialect. Probably the majority of 

 intelligent citizens of the state would turn off the subject with the same 

 reply. In the sense of a mode of speech common to the inhabitants 

 of Kansas and peculiar to them, Mr. Prentis was indeed right. There 

 is no vocabulary, at least no extensive vocabulary, by which the native 

 of Kansas may be recognized in the American Babel. We have no 

 distinctive pronunciation by which we may be known from the inhabi- 

 tants of Nebraska or set apart from the citizens of Missouri. The 

 verb fails to agree with its subject and the participle is deprived of its 

 final 'g' with about equal frequency in Western Kansas and Eastern 

 Colorado. 



But in the same sense it is true that there is no Kansas flora, no 

 Kansas fauna; that is, there is no plant and there is no animal found 

 quite generally in Kansas and found nowhere outside of Kansas. The 

 remark that there is no such thing as a Kansas dialect rests upon a 

 misapprehension of what is meant by the term. In just the same way 

 that we speak of the flora and the fauna of Kansas we may speak of 

 the dialect of Kansas. Yet to avoid popular misapprehension it may 

 be better to speak of dialect in Kansas, rather than of Kansas dialect. 



Dialect study involves the observation and description of all facts 

 concerning the natural living speech of men, and especially those 

 points in which the speech of individuals or groups differs from that 

 of the standard literary language as represented in classic writers and 

 classic speakers. Standard literary English is always a little behind 

 the times. It is the stuffed and mounted specimen in the museum. 

 Dialect is the live animal on its native heath. Most people, indeed, 

 will think that their speech does not differ materially from standard 

 English. They say. We speak near enough alike "for practical pur- 

 poses," But a thousand years hence the pronunciation of our country 



(71) KAN. VNIV. qiJAK., vol.. 1., NO. 2, OCT., 1S92. 



