Folk-Speech of Cumberland and Some Districts Adjacent: Being Short Stories and Rhymes in the Dialects of the West Border CountiesGibson, Alexander Craig
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Folk-Speech of Cumberland and Some Districts Adjacent: Being Short Stories and Rhymes in the Dialects of the West Border Counties
Gibson, Alexander Craig
English language -- Dialects -- England -- Cumberland -- Texts
Sang or nèa sang, t’ thowtes o’ hevin’ “hūr to feàce,” an’ that gaily
seùn, rayder brong me to my oan oald sel’ ageàn. I set off yance mair,
an’ this time, I dūdn’t stop while I gat fairly into t’ foald. Faith
seed me cūmmin’, an’ met me oot side o’ t’ hoose dooar, an’ says
Faith, “Whoar t’ meear an’ t’ car, fadder?” I dropp’t my basket, an’ I
geàp’t at her! Lal Jacop com runnin oot, an’ says Jacop, “Fadder, whoar
t’ meear an’ t’ car?” I swattit mysel’ doon on t’ stean binch, an’ I
glower’t at them—furst at yan an’ than at t’ tudder on them. Betty com
limpin’ by t’ God-speed, an’ says Betty, “What hes t’e meàd o’ t’ car
an’ t’ meear, thoo maizlin?” I gat my speech ageàn when Betty spak’,
an’, hoaf crazet an’ hoaf cryin’, I shootit oot, “’Od’s wūns an’ deeth,
that’s what I’s forgitten!” That was what _I_ said. What _Betty_ said I
think I willn’t tell yè.”
WISE WIFF.
It was a fine job for Wilfrid Wankelthet ’at his fadder was bworn
afooar him. If he’d cùm’t into t’ warld pooar, he wad ha’ bidden pooar,
an’ geàn pooarer an’ pooarer still, till he’d finish’t on t’ parish.
He was yan o’ t’ hafe-rock’t mack, was Wiffy, varra lāl in him but what
was putten in wid a speùn, an’ that hed run a gay deal mair to body nor
brains.
For o’ that he wasn’t a bad fellow, an’ he wasn’t badly thowte on. Many
a body said ’at Wise Wiff, if he hedn’t mūch in him, t’ lāl he hed in
him wasn’t of a bad pattren; an’ es for his manishment, if he’d nò’but
stuck till his fadder’ advice, he needn’t ha’ gitten sa varra far
wrang.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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