There is a Franglais-like language in parts of Canada called Chiac, based on French grammar and syntax but with some English words thrown in. I was reading the example sentences given (such as Ej schwimmais dans l’océan pis j’tais right soaking wet (I swam in the ocean and got soaking wet) and noticed the odd use of the word ‘right’, as an amplifier. My in-laws use the same construction, using ‘right nice’ to mean that something was better than ‘nice’. It appears that the Acadian people and the residents of the Independent Republic of Yorkshire have more than their internal loyalties in common.
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2 Comments
I think that’s archaic English. And survives to some extent in rural parts of the South, particularly the hills.
“Those folks are right kindly.”
I’m sure you’re right. Another example is the way my grandmother (born in 1911) would say “five and twenty past” if it was 25 minutes past the hour. That sounds odd, until you realize that in German 25 is ‘funf und zwanzig’, i.e. five and twenty. Both languages have similar roots, and clearly some of that had carried forward in the rural Midlands.