Date:  Mon, 27 Mar 1995 20:02:30 EST

From:  Terry Lynn Irons <t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MSUACAD.MOREHEAD-ST.EDU>

Subject: Re: Gesundheit!



Leo Horishny writes,



> Perhaps someone can explain for me this puzzle about Cincinnatians...

> Now, I've long wondered if this is so, why is it that they do NOT use the

> term, "Gesundheit"? I can't remember hearing this term since moving to

> Cincinnati just, "God Bless You" or "Bless You".  I do remember hearing it,

> from time to time growing up in the West. Nothing as frequent as an,

> either/or occurence, but often enough to be aware that these were two equally

> appropriate forms of expressing concern for another's soul possibly flying out

> of their mouth.

>

> Has anyone come across any reason or research into this blatant disregard for

> the Teutonic concern for the souls of others?

>



I grew up in southern Ohio, and if I had stayed there instead of moving

to Missouri and then Georgia before relocating sensibly to north-eastern

Kentucky (Rowan Cty--guess how that should be appropriately pronounced!),

I would be a bona-fide 7th or 8th generation native speaker of the Ohio

Valley dialect (my mom and dad are both). Anyway, credentials out of the

way (but I continue to find my family a wealth of dialect information,

access to which is invaluable), my maternal grandfather, who was born in

1890, always used to respond to a sneeze by others with the phrase

"Gesundheit." He also used to sneeze in a manner that sounded something

like "Ashhellik" and I've wondered what that might mean. The background

of my family, however, I should point out, in not german, but truly

english, with a touch of mayhaps scots and irish, dating to migration

from the 1670's. They moved to Ohio in 1804 from NJ. I suspect that

my grandfather picked up the term from the people he worked with.



I grew up hearing and using the term "gesundheit" to respond to

a sneeze. I would suggest that if you no longer hear the term

in southern Ohio, that fact is indicative of yet another change

indicative of dialect loss and obselescence (sp?), a topic preposed

for this year's ADS meeting by Walt.



Terry



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Terry Lynn Irons    t.irons[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]msuacad.morehead-st.edu

Voice Mail:       (606) 783-5164

Snail Mail:       UPO 604 Morehead, KY 40351

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