Old Grumpy

June 2000 Table of Contents

OLD GRUMPY
[Our Curmugeon at Large]

The amount of vandalism we see on Abaco is distressing. As you go into Dundas Town you see letters peeled off the welcoming signs that render them useless. You have to feel sorry for people who look for self esteem through such witless means.

Then I had to give pause for thought. There is a National Forest sign between Marsh Harbour and Spring City which has had the capital aitch of Harbour removed from just about the time the sign was erected. Nothing else has happened to it. It was very, very naughty of whoever removed the aitch but at least a little wit was shown.

The Loyalists who populated Abaco brought with them a very English manner of speech, mainly a London cockney which both dropped aitches and then added them to words beginning with a vowel. Marsharbour, Habaco is a perfect example. Annibal crossed the Halps on is helephants is another. A fascinating 300-year odyssey of the English language preserved itself on the Cays and central mainland of Abaco. Linguists from North Carolina University (and others) visit Abaco regularly to study the speech patterns and idioms of Abaconians.

These linguists are fascinated by the speech patterns used by native Abaco people, not all of them white by any means. Although Sandy Point and Crossing Rocks people lack the aitch disposition, they often transfer vees and double u's. They play wolleyball and Villiam may be the umpire.

I have noticed over the years that Abaco-born people are becoming a little self-conscious about their dialect. They, like everybody else, want to become mid-Atlantic, neider tewibly pwoper English nor blatant Murrican. But the true Abaco accent is rich in history and is fast disappearing. Those linguists had better keep on the ball and record their findings quickly.

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