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"get along" er "git along" or "go along" (does vehicular usage matter?)?

English Language & Usage Asked by prosody-Gab Vereable Context on November 9, 2020

Why is that individual (quote attached as screenshot for evidence, servant turned their back to face away before issuing the command, to/for the conductor to drive) saying "get along" and not "go along"?

Is the carraige/stagecoach the reason for why they’re saying get instead of go?

Strangely wording at https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/get_along does not by definition, but https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/git_along does by definition, and https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/go_along definitely says "to move along or proceed".

The actual wording from reading/watching Jane Eyre (BBC) steaming from Hulu is "Get along!".

Is that just how they actually spoke back then, did the editor/transcriber/writer/subtitler/captioner act correctly or make a mistake there, did the speaker slur the command "get" with "git" (like saying "ride") because of the horses present or being around horses so much, was rider/conductor/speaker’s social class/status relevant to the usage, or were other factors defining that as passing for actual functional English?

If the vehicle moved, that means the code I mean language worked?

"Screenshot from 2020-07-28 09-32-07 #Quote #"get along" #lang $lang.png" taken with Ubuntu Linux "Default Screenshot Hotkey" by prosody—Gabriel C. Chrome "Fizzle" Google Chrome Theme in Purple free.

2 Answers

There is no mystery. "Get" is the imperative, and "along" is its adverb complement. "Get along." is still used (at least in BE) as an order commanding, usually an animal, to move. "Get" is approximately the same as "start to move."

"Go along" is not idiomatic as a command.

"Git" is a dialect version of "get".

The OED gives the non-imperative version that is used for humans:

to get along

  1. intransitive. a. To proceed, progress, advance. Also (frequently in the progressive): to depart, go on one's way, get going. Also formerly: †to go in company with.

1897 B. Harte Three Partners vi. 271 I must be getting along... I've got to catch a train at Three Boulders Station.

2007 Z. Roos Sea Spray & Cherry Peppers 94 When three of the six weeks had passed and Daniel could get along on crutches, Stuurman received his first disability pension.

Answered by Greybeard on November 9, 2020

One of the meanings of "to get" is without doubt "to move", "to go"; this is clear from this source: OALD, 12. However, in this particular case, where the adverb "along" is used, the verb appears without doubt to be the phrasal verb "to get along", which means "to leave a place" (OALD).

The pronunciation "git" is meant to reproduce the popular pronunciation of the times, back then, which happens to be a modern popular pronunciation in the US, in particular embraced or affected by the lower class black people. However there is no such verb in British English, where "git", except as the spelling reflecting a certain unusual pronunciation is only known as the noun meaning "a stupid person" (OALD).

Answered by LPH on November 9, 2020

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