TreeTrunks
New Member
Ever wonder why there’s a language difference in West coast falling communities vs East coast felling communities.
In the Midwest, East coast, and England “fell” is used as a present and past tense. Example: “I fell a tree yesterday, I currently fell timber, I’m a timber feller, I’m going to fell a tree today,” and “falling/felling” are used interchangeably as a present participle.
Whereas in the West coast we tend to use “fall” in present tense “I fall timber for a living, I’m a contract faller in the state of California, I’m going to fall the fir on the left,” I’m a timber faller,” and “fell” is used past tense. “I fell for Siller’s for awhile in the 80s, I fell all those last friday.” And “falling” as the present participle “I’m currently falling for Robinson Timber” and unusually also as a past participle “They were falling in those redwoods in the 20s and 30s.”
Of course this isn’t everyone in the west coast, there are some variations, but on to the point. There’s a reason why we tend to speak the way we do in the west and how I figured it out was from the mystery word “staub.”
Not a lot of people use the word staub/staab/stob and you won’t find the word in the dictionary but you will see “stub” but some of us in the logging community I grew up in use staub, not stub, from my grandfather complaining about some firewood cutter leaving them like punji sticks waiting to maim someone out on some piece of property somewhere to my dad teaching my brother and I why you don’t leave sharp af cut saplings and shrubs “staubs” because you’re leaving a hazard for yourself or someone else, to one of bosses criticizing a new bucker for doing just that, leaving stobs behind.
It’s such a commonplace word around here never thought about it much until I started thinking about why most people call them stubs, not staubs/staabs/stobs.
It’s because we’re speaking in remnants of old English.
The word “stub is derived from old English “stybb, stubb, or in some areas “stobb.”
That got me onto “fall.”
Fall comes from old English “feallan” it’s past tense is “feoll” and it’s past participle is “feallen.”
Feallan was shortened to fall, feoll became fell.
However here’s where a divergence occurred. In one group feallen ceased to be used and “feoll/fell” began to be used in place of feallan/fall, their meanings were consolidated into one word meaning all.
“I fell a tree yesterday, I fell timber for a living all those years ago, I currently fell for a company back east, I’m going to fell that tree tomorrow,” and “felling” replaced “feallen.”
Whereas another group continued to use the three different words, one for present tense, “feallan/ fall” as in “I fall that tree,” I’m going to fall up the road next season,” one for past tense, “feoll/fell” as in “I fell a monster pine down in Arizona,” and one as a present participle “feallen/ falling” as in “he’s in Oregon falling one of the burns” but rather than adopt “felling” as a past participle instead “falling” is used” “he’s been falling since he was 16.”
Present tense old English “feallan/feall a treo.” Modern west coast “fall a tree.” Modern East coast/British “fell a tree.”
Past tense old English “feoll a treo.” Modern West coast “fell a tree.” Modern East Coast/British “fell a tree.”
Present participle old English “feallen a treo.” Modern West coast “falling a tree.” Modern east coast/British “felling a tree.”
Past Participle Old English ? Modern West Coast “falling timber.” Modern East coast/British “felling timber.”
Why are west coast logging communities speaking in remnants of old English and not the east coast? The only thing I can guess at is that it’s due to population dense areas vs isolated communities and cultural rigidity. Education was restricted to upper classes and nobility in England for much of it’s history and the English language wasn’t a uniform single entity until relatively recently, even now there are still wide differences in accents and regional dialects in England and every English speaking country. America didn’t have a streamlined public education system until relatively recently. The east coast has had a higher population density compared to the west, language and culture are more likely to find an equilibrium in a population dense area rather than isolated rural areas.
Even now there’s a much stronger likelihood that someone who becomes a logger or faller does so because their family is already involved in the business in some way or if they’re growing up in a logging community, it’s far less likely for outsiders to choose the occupation and lifestyle, many of us can point out a grandparent, or ancestor who was involved somehow in the timber industry and this likely goes way back. The first timber harvesters likely came from families involved in the occupation in one way or another from various parts of Britain and Europe who came here and mostly interacted with others of the occupation and more and more rarely with any outsiders as they moved west into broader and more isolated forest communities.
The east coast adopted the new British dialect whereas the west coast retained more antiquated language traits.
In the Midwest, East coast, and England “fell” is used as a present and past tense. Example: “I fell a tree yesterday, I currently fell timber, I’m a timber feller, I’m going to fell a tree today,” and “falling/felling” are used interchangeably as a present participle.
Whereas in the West coast we tend to use “fall” in present tense “I fall timber for a living, I’m a contract faller in the state of California, I’m going to fall the fir on the left,” I’m a timber faller,” and “fell” is used past tense. “I fell for Siller’s for awhile in the 80s, I fell all those last friday.” And “falling” as the present participle “I’m currently falling for Robinson Timber” and unusually also as a past participle “They were falling in those redwoods in the 20s and 30s.”
Of course this isn’t everyone in the west coast, there are some variations, but on to the point. There’s a reason why we tend to speak the way we do in the west and how I figured it out was from the mystery word “staub.”
Not a lot of people use the word staub/staab/stob and you won’t find the word in the dictionary but you will see “stub” but some of us in the logging community I grew up in use staub, not stub, from my grandfather complaining about some firewood cutter leaving them like punji sticks waiting to maim someone out on some piece of property somewhere to my dad teaching my brother and I why you don’t leave sharp af cut saplings and shrubs “staubs” because you’re leaving a hazard for yourself or someone else, to one of bosses criticizing a new bucker for doing just that, leaving stobs behind.
It’s such a commonplace word around here never thought about it much until I started thinking about why most people call them stubs, not staubs/staabs/stobs.
It’s because we’re speaking in remnants of old English.
The word “stub is derived from old English “stybb, stubb, or in some areas “stobb.”
That got me onto “fall.”
Fall comes from old English “feallan” it’s past tense is “feoll” and it’s past participle is “feallen.”
Feallan was shortened to fall, feoll became fell.
However here’s where a divergence occurred. In one group feallen ceased to be used and “feoll/fell” began to be used in place of feallan/fall, their meanings were consolidated into one word meaning all.
“I fell a tree yesterday, I fell timber for a living all those years ago, I currently fell for a company back east, I’m going to fell that tree tomorrow,” and “felling” replaced “feallen.”
Whereas another group continued to use the three different words, one for present tense, “feallan/ fall” as in “I fall that tree,” I’m going to fall up the road next season,” one for past tense, “feoll/fell” as in “I fell a monster pine down in Arizona,” and one as a present participle “feallen/ falling” as in “he’s in Oregon falling one of the burns” but rather than adopt “felling” as a past participle instead “falling” is used” “he’s been falling since he was 16.”
Present tense old English “feallan/feall a treo.” Modern west coast “fall a tree.” Modern East coast/British “fell a tree.”
Past tense old English “feoll a treo.” Modern West coast “fell a tree.” Modern East Coast/British “fell a tree.”
Present participle old English “feallen a treo.” Modern West coast “falling a tree.” Modern east coast/British “felling a tree.”
Past Participle Old English ? Modern West Coast “falling timber.” Modern East coast/British “felling timber.”
Why are west coast logging communities speaking in remnants of old English and not the east coast? The only thing I can guess at is that it’s due to population dense areas vs isolated communities and cultural rigidity. Education was restricted to upper classes and nobility in England for much of it’s history and the English language wasn’t a uniform single entity until relatively recently, even now there are still wide differences in accents and regional dialects in England and every English speaking country. America didn’t have a streamlined public education system until relatively recently. The east coast has had a higher population density compared to the west, language and culture are more likely to find an equilibrium in a population dense area rather than isolated rural areas.
Even now there’s a much stronger likelihood that someone who becomes a logger or faller does so because their family is already involved in the business in some way or if they’re growing up in a logging community, it’s far less likely for outsiders to choose the occupation and lifestyle, many of us can point out a grandparent, or ancestor who was involved somehow in the timber industry and this likely goes way back. The first timber harvesters likely came from families involved in the occupation in one way or another from various parts of Britain and Europe who came here and mostly interacted with others of the occupation and more and more rarely with any outsiders as they moved west into broader and more isolated forest communities.
The east coast adopted the new British dialect whereas the west coast retained more antiquated language traits.
