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
_Leetle_, a diminutive of little. "I never see one of these here
gurt men there's s'much talk about in the peapers, only once, and
that was up at Smiffle Show adunnamany years agoo. Prime minister,
they told me he was, up at London; a leetle, lear, miserable,
skinny-looking chap as ever I see. 'Why,' I says, 'we do{a}nt count
our minister to be much, but he's a deal primer-looking than what
yourn be.'" (_Gurt_, great; _Smiffle_, Smithfield; _adunnamany_, I
don't know how many; _lear_, thin, hungry; _see_, saw.)
_Sarment_, a sermon. "I likes a good long sarment, I doos; so as
when you wakes up it ain't all over."
_Tempory_ (temporary), slight, badly finished. "Who be I? Why, I be
John Carbury, that's who I be! And who be you? Why, you ain't a man
at all, you ain't! You be naun but a poor tempory creetur run up by
contract, that's what you be!"
_Tot_, a bush; a tuft of grass. "There warn't any grass at all when
we fust come here; naun but a passel o' gurt old tots and tussicks.
You see there was one of these here new-fashioned men had had the
farm, and he'd properly starved the land and the labourers, and the
cattle and everything, without it was hisself." (_Passel_, parcel;
_tussicks_, tufts of rank grass.)
_Twort_ (for _thwart_), pert and saucy. "She's terrible twort--she
wants a good setting down, she do; and she'll get it too. Wait till
my master comes in!"
_Winterpicks_, blackthorn berries.
_Winter-proud_, cold. "When you sees so many of these here
winterpicks about, you may be pretty sure 'twill be middlin'
winter-proud."
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Ancren Riwle; ed. Jas. Morton. Camden Soc., 1873. (About 1230.)
Anglo-Saxon and Early English Psalter. Surtees Society. London, 1843-7.
2 vols. (See p. 25.)
Beda.--Venerabilis Bedae Historiae Ecclesiasticae Gentis Anglorum Libri
III, IV; ed. J.E.B. Mayor, M.A. and J.R. Lumby, B.D. Cambridge, 1878.
---- The Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History; also the Anglo-Saxon
Chronicle (both in English). Ed. J.A. Giles, D.C.L. London, 1859. (In
Bohn's Library.)
Dictionaries containing dialect words. (See p. 100.)
Durham Ritual.--Rituale Ecclesi{ae} Dunelmensis. Surtees Society. London,
1840.
Earle, Rev. J.; Anglo-Saxon Literature. London, S.P.C.K., 1884.
E.D.D.--English Dialect Dictionary (to which is appended the English
Dialect Grammar); ed. Dr Joseph Wright. Oxford, 1898-1905.
E.D.S.--English Dialect Society, publications of the. London, 1873-96.
E.E.T.S.--Early English Text Society, publications of the. London,
1864-1910. (Contains Alliterative Poems, Ayenbite of Inwyt, Barbour's
Bruce, Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight, St Juliana, Kentish Sermons,
Lyndesay's Works, etc.)
Jackson, Miss.--Shropshire Wordbook, by Georgina F. Jackson. London,
1879.
Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. A new edition, ed. J. Longmuir and
D. Donaldson. Paisley, 1879-87. 4to. 4 vols. and Supplement.
Layamon's Brut; ed. Sir F. Madden. London, 1847. 3 vols.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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