University of Virginia Library



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EXPLANATORY.

In this book a number of dialects are used, to wit: the Missouri negro dialect;
the extremest form of the backwoods South-Western dialect; the ordinary
"Pike-County" dialect; and four modified varieties of this last. The shadings
have not been done in a hap-hazard fashion, or by guess-work; but pains-takingly,
and with the trustworthy guidance and support of personal familiarity with these
several forms of speech.

I make this explanation for the reason that without it many readers would
suppose that all these characters were trying to talk alike and not succeeding.

THE AUTHOR.


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