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"Whether common ones as to callings and earnings," pursued Joe, reflectively, "mightn't be the better of continuing for to keep company with common ones, instead of going out to play with oncommon ones,—which reminds me to hope that there were a flag, perhaps?"

This paragraph except the last sentence is so puzzling to me(especially the bold faced ones). Im assuming the words dont mean what they mean today. Can anyone decipher each sentence in todays words?

H S park
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  • Joe, a common blacksmith without book learning, is pondering a philosophical question, whether a common person, one whose occupation involves manual labor of some kind and who earns relatively little, might do better to keep company with his peers instead of going out to play with those who are higher up on the socio-economic scale, "uncommon ones". – TimR Mar 14 '17 at 10:07
  • "continuing for to keep" = continuing to keep. This is an older construction which survives in some regional dialects; for no longer introduces the infinitive in contemporary standard English. – TimR Mar 14 '17 at 10:13
  • "common ones as to callings and earnings" = those who are common in regard to their occupations and the amount of money they earn, that is, those whose occupations and earnings put them low on the socio-economic scale. – TimR Mar 14 '17 at 10:16

1 Answers1

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The entire paragraph is written in a dialect I'm not familiar with, but I expect it is a typical lower-class dialect from around the time and place of the novel (Kent and London in the early to mid-19th century).

I confess I never read "Great Expectations" (although I probably should), but from a glance at the plot summary it seems Pip is just coming back from a visit to a wealthy woman's house where he was made to feel ashamed of his working-class family. To which Joe considers:

As to who you visit socially or work for ... might it be better to continue to keep company with common people (those of your own station) than "uncommon" (upper-class) people?

"Keep company (with)" is a common English expression meaning to associate with, or visit. Also common is the structure "continue to (do something), for example:

He said that, in the long run, it was better if I continue to work on my college degree, rather than drop out to get a job.

Another example from the same chapter of the book:

"Well, Pip," said Joe, "be it so or be it son't, you must be a common scholar afore you can be a oncommon one, I should hope!"

I don't know of any modern dialect that uses "son't", but hopefully you can get the meaning ("be it not so") from context. Similarly "afore" means "before", and although no one I know uses it I think there are many places where it's natural.

Meanwhile, I believe "oncommon" is just a spelling quirk to indicate dialect, although I'm not sure why it's not written "an oncommon". Again, possibly a quirk of that dialect. People still frequently say "I should hope!" though.

You should also imagine both Pip and Joe speaking in a heavy working-class English accent. See this scene from the 1946 movie for the general idea.

Andrew
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