Spuds!PotatoesandChange - Reaseach Paper and Bib

Steele Hannah Steele Dr Latta Eng 410 30 November 2007 Spuds! Potatoes and Change in the English Language or “You Say ‘Po-tay-toh,’ I say “Po-tah-toh’” Languages are dynamic and fluid constructions Their evolution cannot be stoppedunless they die out- at most merely slowed English is no exception The vocabulary that surrounds “potato” (the term as used here represents all the tubers of its family, including what is now known as the sweet potato) in English aptly demonstrates some of the ways by which language can change Even though potatoes did not originally grow in an English-speaking country, the English language has continually developed around their terminology, and these developments demonstrate several linguistic ideas or concepts By studying the evolution and adoption of potato-related terms in English, linguists can clearly see the active nature of language change through a variety of influences, the relation of the terminology to standardization, and a demonstration of the Principle of Linguistic Relativity, which claims that speakers’ world view is shaped by their language (Foley 193) Figure 1: Mr Potato Head Potatoes have permeated culture so much that they have inspired classic children’s toys – an example of how language (the term “Mr Potato Head”) shapes thought (potatoes are fun) Citation: “About Mr Potato Head” Steele According to leading linguist Barbara Fennell, language change can be caused by either external or internal factors External factors include geography, contact, new vs old phenomena, imperfect learning, a substratum effect, and social prestige factors (Fennell 7) Geography factors include living in a remote area or moving to new ones Contact factors involve invasion, colonization, shared borders, trade relations, and diplomacy New vs old phenomena includes any new events (such as changing technology) that require new terms to be invented Imperfect learning changes language when spellings, pronunciations, and definitions are passed on or learned incorrectly Substratum factors involve the language differences between social classes Social prestige factors privilege one word or pronunciation over another (Latta) Internal factors include ease of articulation, analogy, reanalysis, and randomness (Fennel 7) Ease of articulation factors admit that some sounds are more difficult to produce than others and cause the pronunciation to change so that the word is easier to say Analogy factors are regularizing factors Reanalysis factors change words or phrases when they are interpreted differently than their original pronunciation (Latta) The randomness factors allow for some words to spontaneously appear in language (Fennell 7) The incorporation and adaptation of the word(s) for and about potatoes demonstrate both external and internal factors, although not every type of subfactor Contact, old vs new phenomena, as well as possible imperfect learning, can be seen in the English language surrounding potatoes In addition, ease of articulation and randomness (or spontaneity) are noticeable Although potatoes are not indigenous to (originally) English-speaking countries, they were slowly introduced through exploration, colonization and immigration contact factors Originally from South America, potatoes were first discovered by Europeans when Spanish conquistadors conquered the native peoples, in particular the Incas The Incas referred to Steele potatoes generally as “papas,” but they also had multiple words for different types of potatoes that they raised Some of these terms translate to names that mean “weep blood for the Inca,” “knife breaker,” “human head,” and “red mother.” Additionally, once potatoes were freeze-dried (in a primitive manner) to be stored or moved, they were referred to as chuno (Guenthner 4) The introduction of potatoes to Europe is not specifically recorded, and the existing information points to multiple possibilities Pedro de Cieza de Leon wrote about potatoes he had seen in Peru in 1538, but the first officially noted potato sale/purchase in Spain was not until 1573 One theory is that Cieza took potatoes back to Europe after his South American explorations (Gilbert 11) Another theory claims that other European explorers, such as Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh, introduced potatoes to Europe either from South America or North America (the Virginia colonies) (Guenthner 5) Yet another source, perhaps the most specific, claims that potatoes went from South America to Spain to Italy to France (where it was originally called a truffle) and then to England (Fink 228) Regardless of how they arrived, potatoes eventually reached Europe by the late 1500s, and over 150 years, potatoes spread throughout the European continent nearly every country (Guenthner 6) Again, the movement of potatoes and their language was a result of contact factors Once in England, potatoes became a novelty Although most recently known as food for the common people, potatoes were originally rare in Europe because they had to be imported, and therefore they were a food of the upper class (Stuart 378-9) Even Shakespeare mentions them in his play The Merry Wives of Windsor, written before 1616, when he says “let the skie raine Potatoes” (“potato” Def 1a OED) However, the English (British) language had not yet been standardized when potato words were adopted into the vocabulary or lexicon (Fennell 156) As a result, words for potatoes were spelled several different ways Hence, the word for potato Steele was also spelled “potatus,” “potades,” “partaton,” “partatoes,” and “patatas” (“potato” Def 1a, 1b OED) In 1681, a man named C Jeaffreson, cited as a reference in the OED, wrote a letter in which he spelled the word “puttatoes” (“potato” Def 1b OED) Potatoes were also occasionally referred to in English by a Spanish term, “batatas,” since Spain found potatoes before the rest of Europe (“potato” Def 1a OED); batatas referred to the type of potato now called the sweet potato (“batata” Def OED) In a short period of time, the word for potato transformed from the Incan “papa” to the Spanish “batata” to the English “potato.” This may be an example of how imperfect learning, first by the Spanish and later by the English, changed the term In addition, although the Incas had valued potatoes enough to have multiple words for them, European languages did not make this accommodation when acquiring potatoes, so only one of the words was incorporated The limited acquisition of terms may also be considered a type of imperfect learning, since it was not complete Again, histories relate different tales about how potatoes arrived in Ireland (much of Ireland speaks English rather than Gaelic) One theory claims that potatoes were probably planted after being found on grounded and shipwrecked Spanish ships that had been destroyed when the Spanish Armada was beaten in 1588 (Guenthner 7) However, an alternative theory claims that Sir Walter Raleigh dropped off potatoes in Ireland in 1585-6 while returning from the Virginia colonies (Gilbert 15) Potato production in Ireland boomed and became the main food source for the nation They were so important to the national diet that farmers were not known as bread winners but as potato winners, giving rise to a phrase that was particularly suited to its speakers (Fitzpatrick 596) Then potatoes (as a food source, for some forms of potatoes were indigenous to North America) began to spread to America (Guenthner 4) Although some believe that potatoes were surely introduced to the New World by European, specifically Steele Spanish, explorers, their use in North America is not recorded until much later (Gilbert 14) In 1719, some of the first Irish immigrants arrived in North America at Londonderry, New Hampshire (a British colony), and they brought potatoes with them In addition, President Thomas Jefferson developed a taste for potatoes while in France, and he brought some back to America to grow He also ate them for dinner while he was President (Guenthner 10) In 1785, Jefferson mentioned in writing that he grew “both the long and the round” kind of potatoes (“potato” Def 1a OED) Even though the first wave of Irish immigration and a presidential endorsement introduced potatoes to North America, potatoes had not yet reached their current popularity in English-speaking countries Potatoes became more important in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, approximately the same time that potato farming was on the rise in Ireland (Stuart 379), and already the words surrounding potatoes were beginning to change The OED cites references to potatoes as “spuds” in both England and Scotland in the mid-1800s In Scotland, baked potatoes were known as potatoes with their “jackets” (skins) still on them (“spud” Def 5a OED) In addition, fries, also known as “chips,” became a commonly consumed food in England during this time period (Walton 243-4) and a vital nutrient source for England’s working class (Salaman 456) These types of change can be categorized under “randomness factors” in language change However, potatoes did not only change spellings and pronunciations and synonyms Potatoes also changed parts of speech As their agricultural value was realized, potatoes became not only a noun, but also a verb –- by 1805, fields could be “potatoed” (“potato” v Def 1a OED) The word was also transformed into a participle to make phrases like “potatoeing time” (“potato” v derivative OED) Steele In 1845, blight (a fungal plant disease) struck the potato field in Ireland, and starvation forced up to 100,000 Irish to immigrate annually to the United States until approximately 30% of cities like Boston and New York were composed of Irish immigrants All of these immigrants had subsisted off of potatoes in Ireland, eating as much as 12 pounds of potatoes daily (Oxford 52), and they brought this element of their Old World culture with them in the United States Thus, yet another contact factor introduces a potato-reliant people to America and American English Once potatoes reached America, they became a widely spreading crop Beginning in New England with immigrants, potatoes soon spread across the country When the West opened to Americans, pioneers took potatoes wherever they traveled Their movement is part of geographical factors in language change In addition, the displaced Native Americans were pushed by missionaries like Henry Spaulding in the 1830s to grow potatoes as a way to fit in to the new, white culture (Guenthner 10) This is yet another example of contact (through domination) The spread of potatoes to various regions of the United States would lead to several regional terms for potatoes as language adapted to them Since the 1800s, potatoes and their uses have continued to grow and evolve throughout the world, and language has adapted to accommodate the changes However, although the spelling of “potatoes” has been officially standardized, many spellings and pronunciations still appeared in American English Some of these differences may be due to factors such as imperfect learning and ease of articulation Some of the biggest variations in spelling and pronunciation occur as one travels from the east coast to the west In other words, the Midwest has more variations than the East Coast Steele There are only two commonly noted variations in New England (even today noted for the most standard version of English), and they are “batado” and “batayda” (“potato” Def A1 DARE) The Midwest, on the other hand, changes the word more significantly An article entitled “Middlewestern Farm English” published in 1937 claims, “They commonly make use of such mispronunciations as batadoes The potato is also called the tater or the spud Potatoes with the outer skin partly rubbed off are said to be feathered” (Prescott 107) According to the Dictionary of American Regional English, in 1843, an Indiana text contained the term “smashed petaturs” rather than mashed potatoes In southwestern Illinois, an 1846 text claimed, “George made sweet pertater hills today.” The Ozarks is also noted for pronouncing and spelling the word potatoes as “pertaters” from 1916 to the present In Kentucky, the Dictionary of American Regional English records the word pronounced as “potater.” Interestingly enough, there is also a difference noticed between halves of the same state The example given is eastern versus western Iowa: “‘have you tried Edith’s po-tay-toes au gratin?’ you may hear at an eastern Iowa church potluck, while western Iowans help themselves to more ‘po-tay-tuh’ salad, or more often just grab a handful of ‘tater sheps’” (“potato” Def A1., A2 DARE) It would seem that the Midwestern spellings and pronunciations have more in common with the earliest, nonstandardized versions of English than with the contemporary New England pronunciations Potatoes began to take on other meanings, as well In British English, having a potato in a sock or stocking meant that there was a hole in the fabric, particularly is the hole was at the heel of the sock (“potato” Def 4e OED) In Australian English slang, a potato referred to a girl or woman, but this definition is rare now (“potato” Def 4g OED) These changes may be the result of factors like new vs old phenomena and randomness Steele Of course, American English adapted the meaning of the word potato also, both by region and by time In the South and southern Midwest, the phrase “hold your potatoes/taters” is used instead of “hold your horses” or “be patient.” In Louisiana, the two phrases are combined into “Hold your horses and fry your potatoes.” In Mississippi, the phrase becomes “hold your potato till it gets cool” (“potato” Def B3 DARE) Potato also comes to represent other oblong shapes In Massachusetts, it was used in the place of the term “goose egg” for a knot or bump on the head (“potato” Def B4 DARE) Rather than having a goose egg, one would have a potato on his or her head Slang words and phrases also lent new meaning to the word potato In some cases, to be “the potato” was to be the genuine article (“potato” Def 4c OED) In other uses, “potatoes” (specifically used in the plural form) was used synonymously with US dollars (“potato” Def 4f OED) Another slang phrase to denote something of diminutive value is “small potatoes” or (rarely) “few in the hill” (“potato” Def 4a OED) “Potato” also took on different connotations over time After the 1600s, the potato was nearly always a food of the poor masses (as shown by the Irish), and so the potato lent its name to “potato shows.” These events were usually the showing of a movie during the Depression at which the admission was an item of food that was later donated to the impoverished (“potato show” Def DARE) In Idaho in the 1930s, the potato was so important that it had a popular candy bar, the “Idaho Spud,” named after it In addition, Idaho held a Potato Day celebration that is compared to Louisiana’s Mardi Gras (Jensen 122) In the 1950s, students were given a “potato vacation” from school The students and the instructor took one or two weeks of vacation in the fall to harvest potatoes with their families Steele This term is a relative of the “cotton vacation” in the south or the “stone picking vacation” (“potato vacation” Def DARE) Beginning in the 1960s, potato began to refer to white people in a derogatory manner In 1968 in California, black people began calling white people “potato heads” (“potato head” Def DARE) The reasoning behind this term is unknown, which many demonstrate a random or spontaneous language change Potatoes had such a large impact on society that its name is occasionally used to represent an entire meal In 1982, “potato time” was recorded as an alternative term for dinner time or a noon meal However, one man in southern Idaho reports that the phrase seemed to be used by Utah residents exclusively as a term for a hot meal eaten at the dinner table at noon, not an outdoor picnic or snack (“potato time” Def DARE) Potatoes were such a common item that they became toys The entertainment market spawned new terminology around potatoes In 1952, Hasbro Company created Mr Potato Head, a toy that was originally sold with only the arms and legs and face – Hasbro intended for the consumer to provide a real potato for the body This toy was so popular that the term “Mr Potato Head” is known throughout the United States as a classic children’s toy, although now the toy comes with a plastic potato body (“About Mr Potato Head”) In 1985, an American newspaper advertised the potato gun, also known as the “spud gun” or “spudzooka” (Glowka 439-40) Other entertainment revolving around potatoes includes the children’s game Hot Potato and the children’s rhyme “one potato, two potato.” Science also took an innovative stab at the potato by developing a hybrid with it In 1940, the New York Times advertised a new vegetable called the “topato.” This vegetable was a cross between a potato and a tomato, and it was marketed to dieters as the perfect combination of Steele 10 starch and “the slimming effects of the tomato” (Meredith 303) Even though this potato (or half potato!) term has not endured, its temporary coinage and use demonstrates new vs old phenomena language change The Principle of Linguistic Relativity is best described by Whorf, a scientist, and Sapir, a linguist Whorf explains that different expressions used in a particular language form the speaker’s view of the world In the same vein, Sapir states that “the ‘real world’ is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group” (Foley 193) Essentially, the combined concept is that language somehow shapes or alters how the speaker sees reality This principle can be applied to words for and about potatoes When discovered, the potato was known by several different names in a culture that relied heavily on it for subsistence When taken to European countries that were not reliant on the potato, its spelling and pronunciation varied, but the term itself was singular, and therefore did not largely affect the people’s view of the world When the potato reached Ireland, the terminology began to evolve (hence terms like “potato winner,” and such terminology began to emphasize the importance of potatoes in the minds of the Irish people Still later when the potato reached North America, specifically the United States after 1776, the number of terms began to increase From food to euphemistic terms to children’s entertainment to science, the vocabulary for potatoes began to permeate all aspects of American life Perhaps, according to the Principle of Linguistic Relativity, the vocabulary of the word itself caused the potato’s importance in America and its prominence in the traditional “meat and potatoes” American meal and the “fish and chips” British meal Potatoes are an important part of the world’s dietary intake, but they can also have academic value Potatoes have a traceable path through languages that demonstrates several influences that promote language change The changes may be caused from internal or external Steele 11 factors, and they demonstrate how language evolves in time and place The diversity of the words, definitions, phrases, and ideas surrounding potatoes in English is vast English either intentionally or subconsciously did not keep the Spanish pronunciation “batata,” just as the Spanish did not keep the pronunciation as “papa.” English temporarily used the term “batata” but soon discarded it for its own terminology From the original linguistic choice, the synonyms, pronunciations, and spellings continued to diversify, to some degree even defying the principles of regularization or standardization in British, Australian, and American English The words and phrases changed and spread as invading people conquered indigenous people, moved around the world, or as people settled in distinct regions of the United States In addition, the Principle of Linguistic Relativity may be successfully applied to the idea and lexicon surrounding the potato in English Even though the potato may be commonly perceived as an object only of agricultural or culinary interest, in fact the words for potato and their development are exemplary of multiple linguistic ideas Steele 12 Works Cited “About Mr Potato Head.” Hasbro.com 2007 25 November 2007 “batata.” Def Oxford English Dictionary Online 2006 Fennell, Barbara A A History of the English Language Malden [MA]: Blackwell, 2001 Fink, Beatrice “Saint-John de Crevecoeur’s Tale of a Tuber.” Eighteenth Century Life 25.1 (2001): 225-34 EBSCOhost Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State U 20 November 2007 Fitzpatrick, David “Famine, Entitlements and Seduction: Captain Edmond Wynne in Ireland, 1846-1851.” The English Historical Review 110.437 (1995): 596-619 JSTOR Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State U November 2007 Foley, William A Anthropological Linguistics Malden [MA]: Blackwell, 1997 Gilbert, A.W The Potato New York: The Macmillan Company, 1917 Glowka, Wayne, et al “Among the New Words.” American Speech 75.4 (2000): 430-46 JSTOR Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State U November 2007 Guenthner, Joseph F “Chapter 1: History and Background International Potato Industry (2001): 3-19 EBSCOhost Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State U November 2007 Jensen, Paul “Desert Rats’ Word-List from Eastern Idaho.” American Speech 7.2 (1931): 11923 JSTOR Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State U 20 November 2007 Steele 13 Latta, Susan Lecture on Language Change Indiana State University, Terre Haute 24 August 2007 Meredith, Mamie J “Hybrids.” American Speech 23.3/4 (1948): 302-3 JSTOR Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State U 20 November 2007 Oxford, Edward “The Great Famine.” American History 31.1 (1996): 52 EBSCOhost Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State U November 2007 “potato.” Def 1a Oxford English Dictionary Online 2006 “potato.” Def 1b Oxford English Dictionary Online 2006 “potato.” Def 4a Oxford English Dictionary Online 2006 “potato.” Def 4c Oxford English Dictionary Online 2006 “potato.” Def 4e Oxford English Dictionary Online 2006 “potato.” Def 4f Oxford English Dictionary Online 2006 “potato.” Def 4g Oxford English Dictionary Online 2006 “potato – v.” Def derivative Oxford English Dictionary 2006 “potato.” Def A1 The Dictionary of American Regional English Ed Joan H Hall Vol Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2002 “potato.” Def A2 The Dictionary of American Regional English Ed Joan H Hall Vol Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2002 “potato.” Def B3 The Dictionary of American Regional English Ed Joan H Hall Vol Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2002 Steele 14 “potato.” Def B4 The Dictionary of American Regional English Ed Joan H Hall Vol Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2002 “potato head.” Def The Dictionary of American Regional English Ed Joan H Hall Vol Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2002 “potato show.” Def The Dictionary of American Regional English Ed Joan H Hall Vol Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2002 “potato time.” Def The Dictionary of American Regional English Ed Joan H Hall Vol Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard UP, 2002 “potato vacation.” Def The Dictionary of American Regional English Ed Joan H Hall Vol Cambridge: Belknap Press of Harvard U P, 2002 Prescott, Russell T “Middlewestern Farm English.” American Speech 12.2 (1937): 102-7 JSTOR Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State U November 2007 Salaman, Redcliffe N The History and Social Influence of the Potato New York: Cambridge U P, 1970 “spud.” Def 5a Oxford English Dictionary Online 2006 Stuart, William The Potato: Its Culture, Uses, History and Classification Philadelphia: J B Lippincott Company, 1927 Walton, John K “Fish and Chips and the British Working Class, 1870-1930.” Journal of Social History 23 (1989): 243-66 Cunningham Memorial Library, Indiana State U November 2007 EBSCOhost  ... (Stuart 379), and already the words surrounding potatoes were beginning to change The OED cites references to potatoes as “spuds” in both England and Scotland in the mid-1800s In Scotland, baked... consumed food in England during this time period (Walton 24 3-4 ) and a vital nutrient source for England’s working class (Salaman 456) These types of change can be categorized under “randomness factors”... variations in New England (even today noted for the most standard version of English), and they are “batado” and “batayda” (“potato” Def A1 DARE) The Midwest, on the other hand, changes the word