English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present DaySkeat, Walter W. (Walter William)
History
English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day
Skeat, Walter W. (Walter William)
English language -- Dialects
Notes.--Miss Jackson adds the pronunciation, in glossic
notation. There is no sound of initial _h_. _Scrike_, shriek;
_sid_, seed, i.e. saw; _pecked_, pitched, fallen headlong;
_bruck_, brook; _douked_, ducked; _'out_, hold; _bonk_, bank;
_wham_, home; _wunna_, was not; _winder-rags_, shreds; _djed_,
dead; _toud_, told; _what'n'ee_, what do you; _a nour_, an hour;
_sid_, seen; _lung_, long; _wun_, were.
SOUTHERN (Group 2): WILTSHIRE.
The following well-known Wiltshire fable is from _Wiltshire
Tales_, by J. Yonge Akerman (1853). I give it as it stands in the
Preface to Halliwell's Dictionary; omitting the "Moral."
The Harnet and the Bittle.
A harnet zet in a hollur tree--
A proper spiteful twoad was he;
And a merrily zung while he did zet
His stinge as shearp as a bagganet;
Oh, who so vine and bowld as I?
I vears not bee, nor wapse, nor vly!
A bittle up thuck tree did clim,
And scarnvully did look at him;
Zays he, "Zur harnet, who giv thee
A right to zet in thuck there tree?
Vor ael you zengs so nation vine,
I tell 'e 'tis a house o' mine!"
The harnet's conscience velt a twinge,
But grawin' bowld wi' his long stinge,
Zays he, "Possession's the best laaw;
Zo here th' sha'sn't put a claaw!
Be off, and leave the tree to me,
The mixen's good enough for thee!"
Just then a yuckel, passin' by,
Was axed by them the cause to try;
"Ha! ha! I zee how 'tis!" zays he,
"They'll make a vamous munch vor me!"
His bill was shearp, his stomach lear,
Zo up a snapped the caddlin' pair!
Notes.--Observe _z_ and _v_ for initial _s_ and _f_; _harnet_,
hornet; _bittle_, beetle; _zet_, sat; _proper_, very; _twoad_,
toad, wretch; _a_, he; _stinge_, sting; _bagganet_, bayonet.
_Thuck_, that; _clim_, climb; _giv_, gave; _zet_, sit; _ael_, all.
_Th' sha'sn't_, thou shalt not; _mixen_, dung-heap.
_Yuckel_, woodpecker; _axed_, asked; _vamous munch_, excellent
meal; _lear_, empty; _caddlin'_, quarrelsome.
SOUTHERN (Group 3): ISLE OF WIGHT.
The following colloquy is quoted in the _Glossary of Isle of Wight
Words_, E.D.S., 1881, at p. 50.
I recollect perfectly the late Mr James Phillips of Merston relating
a dialogue that occurred between two of his labourers relative to
the word _straddle-bob_, a beetle.... At the time of luncheon, one
of them, on taking his _bren-cheese_ (bread and cheese) out of a
little bag, saw something that had found its way there; which led
to the following discourse.
_Jan._ What's got there, you?
_Will._ A straddlebob craalun about in the nammut-bag.
_J._ Straddlebob? Where ded'st leyarn to caal 'n by that neyam?
_W._ Why, what shoud e caal 'n? 'Tes the right neyam, esn ut?
_J._ Right neyam? No! Why, ye gurt zote vool, casn't zee 'tes a
dumbledore?
_W._ I know 'tes; but vur aal that, straddlebob's zo right a
neyam vor 'n as dumbledore ez.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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