ATD question about Lake's speech (217)

[Mark Kohut]

Matthew Cissell writes:
Many of the first people to pass through the Cumberland gap, which allowed passage through the mountians, were catholics from Maryland who wanted to escape the increasing intolerance towards catholics there.
Could the Traverses have crossed the same mountains, albeit further south and a bit later, as Mason and Dixon?

Oh, check out those piled up prepositions. Somebody mentioned that in Munich and I think also in Lublin conferences (same person I believe); he argued it was a way to create disjointed syntax, or something like that. I just recall a british friend teasing me about american phrasal verbs with 3 prepostions. For example. "Y'all betta get on off down the road." People in Chicago do not speak like that.

ciao
mc otis
 
 
Paul and Matthew,
I am intrigued by the Appalachia remark, since I grew up and have returned to a periphery area of Appalachia---Pittsburgh, PA. (NEVER heard or at least never remembered the area being called Appalachian when I grew up----since it wanted to be Other, I'm sure. ) 
 
I also think Pynchon is so good with language even in dialogue characterization---even if we think characterization is not a strength nor a major interest in some of the works. Look at the "what it is, is..." and that he has 7 (seven) OED entries for first print usage of certain words...[incl. "shrink"!]
 
We also know Pynchon uses certain older meanings of words from the beginning---they are there in V. (see wiki, early pages even)
 
Paul speculates so interestingly: "The Traverses must have arrived early in the New World, remained isolated in
 Appalachia, until moving west in the 19th Century."
According to Vineland, the Traverse clan began (in the fictions) as loggers in the Pacific Northwest. Did they get there from appalachia
in the 19th Century?  The family heads WERE adventurous, courageous for survival at least, so very maybe. I love the possibility that TRP 
might show this in what the dictionaries call "archaic' language, embedding the Traverses deep into early American history silently. 
 
The only other writer I have read who does capture some of the historic speech of largely Scottish-Irish--English immigrants to the Appalachian area, some of whose speech patterns/usages survive, is Cormac McCarthy, although
I am sure there are others (and there are some good local-area writers who seem realistically accurate, but they mostly capture contemporary talk). 

----- Original Message -----
From: alice wellintown <alicewellintown at gmail.com>
To: pynchon -l <pynchon-l at waste.org>
Cc: 
Sent: Saturday, April 28, 2012 3:30 PM
Subject: Re: ATD question about Lake's speech (217)

What other examples of Appalachian speech by characters can we
identify? And, is the use of "behind" to mean "in the future" or "yet
to come" Appalachian? Maybe it's a mistake.

> The Traverses must have arrived early in the New World, remained isolated in
> Appalachia, until moving west in the 19th Century.
>
> Maybe.
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