Sent to: North and South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Louisiana, Texas, Arkansas,
Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri,
Mississippi, Oklahoma.
April 14, 1937
Mr. Edwin Bjorkman
State Director, Federal Writers’ Project
Works Progress Administration
City Hall, Fifth Floor
Asheville, North Carolina
Dear Mr. Bjorkman:
We have received more stories of ex-slaves and are gratified by the quality and interest of the narratives. Some of these stories have been accompanied by photographs of the subjects. We would like to have portraits wherever they can be secured, but we urge your photographers to make the studies as simple, natural, and “unposed” as possible. Let the background, cabin or whatnot, be the normal settingin short, just the picture a visitor would expect to find by “dropping in” on one of these old-timers.
Enclosed is a memorandum of Mr. Lomax with suggestions for simplifying the spelling of certain recurring dialect words. This does not mean that the interviews should be entirely in “straight English”simply, that we want them to be more readable to those uninitiated in the broadest Negro speech.
Very truly yours,
George Cronyn
Associate Director
Federal Writers’ Project
GWCronyn:MEB
This paragraph was added to the letter to Arkansas.
Mr. Lomax is very eager to get such records as you mention: Court Records of Sale, Transfer, and Freeing of Slaves, as well as prices paid.
Negro Dialect Suggestions
(Stories of Ex-Slaves)
Do not write:
Ah for I
Poe for po’ (poor)
Hit for it
Tuh for to
Wuz for was
Baid for bed
Daid for dead
Ouh for our
Mah for my
Ovah for over
Othuh for other
Wha for whar (where)
Undah for under
Fuh for for
Yondah for yonder
Moster for marster or massa
Gwainter for gwineter (going to)
Oman for woman
Ifn for iffen (if)
Fiuh or fiah for fire
Uz or uv or o’ for of
Poar for poor or po’
J’in for jine
Coase for cose
Utha for other
Yo’ for you
Gi’ for give
Cot for caught
Kin’ for kind
Cose for ’cause
Tho’t for thought