"_Chote well ar aim wai t' yie ouz n'eer a blowe_."
the word _chete_ is, I suspect, compounded of _'ch'_
[_iche_] and _knew_, implying _I knew_, or rather
_I knew'd_, or _knewt_. [Footnote: The following is
from, an amatory poem, written, in or about the reign of Henry
II., during which the colony of the English was established in the
county of Wexford.
"Ichot from heune it is me sent."
In Johnson's _History of the English Language_, page liii. it
is thus translated--
"I wot (believe) it is sent me from heaven."
To an admirer of our Anglo-Saxon all the lines, twelve in number,
quoted by M. Todd with the above, will be found a rich treat: want
of space only prevents my giving them here.]
The modern English of the line will then be,
_I knew well their aim was to give us ne'r a blow_.
I suspect _zitckel_ is compounded of _zitch_, such, and
the auxiliary verb _will_. _I view ame_, is _a veo
o'm_; that is, _a few of them_. _Emethee_, is
_emmtey_, that is, abounding with ants. _Meulten away_,
is melting away.
_Th'ast ee pait it, thee'st a paid it_; thou hast paid it.
In the _English translation_ which accompanies the original
_song_ in _General Vallancey's_ paper, some of the words
are, I think, beyond controversy misinterpreted, but I have not
room to go critically through it. All I desire should be inferred
from these remarks is, that, although this _Anglo-Saxon_
curiosity is well worthy the attention of those who take an
interest in our early literature, we must be careful not to assume
that it is a pure specimen of the language of the period to which,
and of the people to whom, it is said to relate.
A GLOSSARY OF WORDS COMMONLY USED IN THE County of Somerset,
BUT WHICH ARE NOT ACCCEPTED AS LEGITIMATE WORDS OF THE ENGLISH
LANGUAGE;
OR WORDS WHICH, ALTHOUGH ONCE USED GENERALLY, ARE NOW BECOME
PROVINCIAL.