I heard an educated gentleman say, 'Like the flag-officer did.' His cook or his butler would have said, 'Like the flag-officer done.' You hear gentlemen say, 'Where have you been at ?' And here is the aggravated form--heard a ragged street Arab say it to a comrade: 'I was a-ask'n' Tom whah you was a-sett'n' at.' The very elect carelessly say 'will' when they mean 'shall'; and many of them say, 'I didn't go to do it,' meaning 'I didn't mean to do it.' The Northern word 'guess'-- imported from England, where it used to be common, and now regarded by satirical Englishmen as a Yankee original--is but little used among Southerners.

They say 'reckon.' They haven't any 'doesn't' in their language; they say 'don't' instead.

The unpolished often use 'went' for 'gone.' It is nearly as bad as the Northern 'hadn't ought.' This reminds me that a remark of a very peculiar nature was made here in my neighborhood (in the North) a few days ago: 'He hadn't ought to have went.' How is that?
Isn't that a good deal of a triumph?
One knows the orders combined in this half- breed's architecture without inquiring: one parent Northern, the other Southern.

To-day I heard a schoolmistress ask, 'Where is John gone ?' This form is so common--so nearly universal, in fact--that if she had used 'whither' instead of 'where,' I think it would have sounded like an affectation.
We picked up one excellent word--a word worth traveling to New Orleans to get; a nice limber, expressive, handy word--'lagniappe.' They pronounce it lanny-yap.

It is Spanish--so they said.