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
oald buck if he hed o’ udder things to match when he gat sec a stock
o’ white britches. Nowte wad sarra t’ wife, when we’d leukt at them,
but I mud try them on theear an’ than, an’ see hoo they fittit. We gat
a terrible begonk when we fund ’at they wadn’t gang on at o’. He was
rayder a wizzent oald fellow than, an’ he’d been a wizzent fellow when
he’d geàn sproguein’ aboot iv his white corduroys mebbe thurty year
afoor, for t’ knees on them, wid o’ t’ buttons lowse, wadn’t come ower
t’ bo’s o’ my legs, an’, what was warse nor o’ t’ tudder, ther was
nowte left o’ t’ seam to let them oot wid. Sooa they wer laid bye be
theirsel’s at oor hoose, just as t’ tudder five par on them wer liggin’
laid bye togidder at Ireby.
A gay while efter that, when I’d forgitten o’ aboot t’ white britches,
an oald crony o’ mine chanced to be iv oor part, an’ co’t to see us,
an’ stopt o’ neet. We nwotish’t ’at he hed shoes on, an’ t’ bonniest
spats we’d ever owder on us seen; for they fittit roond his ancles
an’ ower his shoe tops widoot ayder a lirk or a lowse spot, an’ I
said, ‘Charley,’ says I, ‘whoariver did tè manish to git sec fitters
as them?’ ‘O!’ says he, ‘I hed t’ pattren on them frae Scotland, an’
my sister maks them for me as I want them.’ ‘Thy sister maks them!’
says I, ‘Whey, I wad ha’ sworn thoo’d been to t’ varra heid tailior
i’ Whitehebben for them!’ ‘Well,’ says he, ‘t’ pattren’s sa plain an’
simple ’at she cuts them oot by it, an’ mak’s them quite easy; an’, as
ye say, they fit as weel as if t’ best tailior i’ t’ land hed been at
t’ makin’ on them. But if ye like, I’ll send ye t’ pattren by post, an’
Mistress Railton may try her hand at them for thee.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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