海角大神

A聽reader wrote in asking about words like a-maying 鈥� what does the 鈥渁-鈥� mean? So even though spring鈥檚 a-comin鈥� slowly, and some of us will have to keep a-shoveling for a few more months, let鈥檚 talk about what linguists call 鈥渁-prefixing.鈥�

Today, this construction can be celebrated as poetic, or stigmatized as incorrect and 鈥渦neducated,鈥� depending on who is doing the a-ing. We love it in carols such as 鈥淭he Twelve Days of Christmas,鈥� which features 鈥渟ix geese a-laying鈥� and so on, as well as with old-fashioned verbs such as maying (celebrating spring by gathering flowers and dancing around a maypole). But if we heard, say, 鈥淵ou ain鈥檛 got nary a cow but the one you a-leadin鈥�,鈥� as one Ozark man told his uncle, many of us might simply see it as wrong.

The a- was once a variant of the preposition on, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It was affixed to verbs and began to emphasize motion or process, the idea that something was still in the doing. Fifteenth-century noblemen 鈥渞ode a-hunting,鈥� for example, while diarist Samuel Pepys recorded that 鈥渢he Queene was a-coming鈥� in 1660.聽

A-prefixing was used in formal English until the 1700s, and occasionally even later. Yale University鈥檚 1795 law code includes a rule that 鈥淚f any Scholar shall go a-fishing or sailing鈥� without permission, he could be fined 34 cents.

We can see the register of a-prefixing begin to change in the works of Robert Herrick (1591-1674). His poems are formal in that they feature elevated diction and are metrically precise, yet they are about 鈥渃ommon鈥� people living a 鈥渟imple鈥� country life. His frequent use of a- verbs 鈥� 鈥淐ome, my Corinna, come, let鈥檚 goe a Maying鈥� or 鈥淥ld Time is still a flying鈥� 鈥� hints that a- verbs were slipping out of formal English and becoming associated with nonstandard, rural dialects by 1648, when his poetry was published. 聽

While a-prefixing can still be found in Ireland, Scotland, and England, today the primary home of this venerable construction is the Southern United States. It is a hallmark of speech in Appalachia and the Ozarks. Because these dialects are considered to be 鈥渘onstandard,鈥� a-prefixing can mark its users as 鈥渓ower-class, backwoods,鈥� as Professor Emeritus Mary Jane Hurst puts it, in the eyes of people whose language follows the norms of standard English.

Linguist Crawford Feagin argues that a-prefixing is a key, deliberate part of Ozark and Appalachian storytelling. It serves as 鈥渁 stylistic device that adds color and immediacy to a story,鈥� as in 鈥淎ll of a sudden a bear come a-runnin鈥�, and it come a-runnin鈥� towards him.鈥� 聽

It turns prose into poetry 鈥� 鈥淎ll of a sudden a bear come a-runnin鈥欌�� is a series of almost perfect dactyls. Herrick would be proud.