Boontling

By: Andrew Thomas

"Tom, Tom, the Piper's Son" 

Cerk, Cerk, the tooter's tweed,
Strung a borp and shied;
They gormed the borp
And dreeked wee Cerk
And he piked plenty greeneyed
-From A Wee Deek on Boont Harpin's

A slib o' harpin's

“Yibe, I’m still ottin’ here at the steinber region. Is there anything in particular you wanted to harp on, or is it just the ling itself that caught your deekers?

 Boont was built on lorry of the dames and kimmies that treeked these shams from around the 1870’s. If a boonter was bahl on something, then it became harpins’; from afin’ to a horn o’zeese.

Most harpers are strung and piked to the dusties now, more each dee, but there may be 20 or so left harpin’ the ling.

The steinber kimmies have kept it going to shay their beeson tree region steinbers. I greymatter that’s bahl.

My tweeds got hens eggs and ovalins’ on it in the wee heese, but these dees it’s a boarch de-jefferin’ tidrick just schoolchin’ English to the tweeds.

Here’s hopin’ that the yinks and minks will pick it up before it’s dees are piked!

Shy the nonch harpin’s and neemer hark, and may you treek bahl neath ol’ Sol.

I’m pikin’ south to the Boarmeeks region for dubs weeks, but will return if you want to harp a slib then.It may be whiteoakin’ to deek on dubs boonters these dees, but with a dee or dubs leek beeun, maybe ol’ Deekin’ harps yibe on a shattequaw and a horn o’ zeese.”

 —-Talkfest with Rod DeWitt

Boontling is a dialect that formed in the late 1800’s in this isolated town Boonville In Anderson Valley In Mendocino County. The combination of English, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic, and Pomoan (from local Native American tribe Pomo) produced a language that is right on the border of what is considered jargon vs. full blown dialect. 

It was developed mainly by secret groups to converse in harvest fields or to gossip in parts of town so that any outsider would have no idea what they were saying. It became the norm for Boonville conversation by the early 1900’s but with recent generations moving out to bigger cities or new foreigners coming in, Boontling is almost extinct. There are still a dedicated handful of residents of the area that still converse in Boontling in an effort to keep it alive with how unique of a dialect it was.

For more information pick up a copy of Charles C. Adams 1971 book Boontling: an American Lingo with a full history and word dictionary.

Also stay at the Boonville Hotel and eat at the Table 128 restaurant for the best accommodations and meals in Mendocino County (reserve well in advance).