ARCHAIC MEANINGS AND FORMS IN THE DIALECTS
So far we have considered only those words which, whether recently or
long ago, have left the ranks of standard modern English and become
‘dialect’. But another wide field for study opens up when we come
to look at common standard English words as they are used in the
dialects. We shall find that the dialects have frequently preserved a
well-authenticated old meaning which we have let slip, and now express
by some quite different word or phrase. What may now sound to us like
a perverted sense is often historically correct, for whereas learned
influences, the introduction of foreign words--which makes for further
specialization and differentiation of meaning--and the general march
of civilization affecting manners, customs, and habits of thought,
all tend to divert the normal course of language, the dialects have
meanwhile kept the noiseless tenor of their way unmolested. Thus it
may often happen that it is we of the literary speech who use a word
in a perverted or specialized sense, while the unlearned rustic is
keeping to one which has been handed down steadily from father to son
since the days of Wyclif or Shakespeare, or to go still further back,
since the days of Alfred or Chaucer. A few examples of these words
used with their older meanings are: _able_ (n.Cy. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm.
Yks. Lan. War. Hrf.), well-to-do, rich, e.g. Bob’s a yabble chap, he
can live wi’oot wahkin’, cp. ‘Able (wealthy), _opulentis_,’ Coles,
_Dict._, 1679; _admire_ (Irel. Wm. Yks. Chs. Lei. Nhp. War. Oxf.
Som.), to wonder at, notice with astonishment: e.g. Yan wad admire
how yau gits sec cauds [such colds], or used with _at_: Ah caan’t bud
admire at t’waay he did it. Cp. ‘Admire not in thy mind, why I do call
thee so,’ _Twelfth Night_, III. iv. 165. The word is frequently used
in this sense in Jervas’ Translation of _Don Quixote_ (1742), e.g.
‘The duchess could not forbear laughing to hear the simplicity of her
duenna, nor admiring to hear the reasonings and proverbs of Sancho’;
‘he admired at the length of his horse,’ vol. ii, p. 272, l. 6; p. 120,
l. 15, World’s Classics edit. Cp. ‘I wondered with great admiration,’
A.V. _Rev._ xvii. 6. _Anatomy_ (in gen. use throughout dials. except
in se. counties), a skeleton, a very thin emaciated person, e.g. She’s
dwinnel’t away til a atomy, ’Er little un’s nuth’n but a natomy, cp.
‘They brought one Pinch, a hungry lean-faced villain, A mere anatomy,’
_Com. Err._ V. i. 238; _baby_ (Dur. Wm. Lan. Lin.), a doll, cp. ‘The
baby of a girl,’ _Macb._ III. iv. 106, and:
Whilst all the house my passion reads,
In papers round her baby’s hair.
Matt. Prior, _To a Child of Quality, Five Years Old_, 1704.
_The Author then Forty_, ll. 15, 16.
[Sidenote: _Examples of Archaic Meanings_]
_Bachelor_ (Irel.), an admirer, a suitor, cp. ‘broom-groves, Whose
shadow the dismissed bachelor loves,’ _Temp._ IV. i. 67; _bid_ (Sc. Nhb.
Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Stf. Der.), to invite, especially to a wedding
or funeral, hence: _bidden-wedding_, one to which a large number of
guests are invited, and as at a penny-wedding, expected to contribute,
cp. ‘As many as ye finde, byd them to the mariage,’ Tindale, 1534,
_Matt._ xxii. 9; _bravery_ (War. Brks.), splendour, fine clothes, cp.
‘With scarfs and fans and double change of bravery,’ _T. of Shrew_, IV.
iii. 57; _bride-ale_ (n.Cy. Som.), a wedding feast, O.E. _brȳd-ealo_;
_budget_ (Sc. Nhb. Yks. Lan. Stf. Not. Shr. Wil. Dor.), a workman’s bag,
generally made of leather, especially a tinker’s wallet, Fr. _bougette_,
sac de cuir que l’on portait en voyage. There is an old saying in
Nottinghamshire: Yer mun wait while [till] yer get it, like the tinker
an’ ’is budget, alluding to the frequent pawning of the budget, to pay
for the tinker’s board and lodging, cp.:
If tinkers may have leave to live,
And bear the sow-skin budget.
_Wint. Tale_, IV. iii. 19, 20.
[Sidenote: _Dizzy, Fond, Foul_]
In a treatise on English Dogs translated from Latin in 1570, we read:
‘This kind of dog is called, in like manner, Canis Sarcinarius; in
Latin, and may aptly be Englished, a Tinker’s Cur. Because with
marvellous patience, they bear big budgets fraught with tinker’s tools
and metal meet to mend kettles, porridge-pots, skillets, and chafers.’
_Burrow_ (Nhp. War. Wor. Shr. Hrf. Glo. Oxf. Bck. Wil.), shelter from
the sun or wind, cp. ‘A burrow (covert), _latibulum_,’ Coles, _Dict._,
1679; _child_ (Lan. Shr. Glo. Oxf.), a female child, a girl, cp. ‘Mercy
on’s, a barne; a very pretty barne! A boy or a child, I wonder?’ _Wint.
T._ III. iii. 71; _dizzy_ (Sc. Nhb. Yks. Chs. War. Shr. e.An.), foolish,
stupid, half-witted, O.E. _dysig_, M.E. _dysy_, foolish; _enough_ (Yks.
Lan. Lin.), used elliptically for enough cooked, e.g. T’beef’s enough,
cp. ‘He took his simples, and made a compound of them, mixing them
together, and boiling them a good while, until he thought they were
enough,’ _Don Quix._ i. 134, Jervas; _fond_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Dur. Cum.
Wm. Yks. Lan. Not. Lin. e.An.), foolish, silly, daft; a very common
simile is: as fond as a besom. There is an old English proverb: He’s a
fond chapman that comes the day after the fair. The substantive
_fondness_, foolishness, nonsense, occurs in Wyclif’s Bible: ‘And in the
profetis of Samarie Y siȝ fonnednesse,’ _Jer._ xxiii. 13. _Foul_ (Yks.
Lan. Chs. Der. Not. Lin. War. Wor. Shr.), ugly, e.g. There never wur a
fou’ face but there wur a fou’ fancy to match it; Fawn-freckles han made
a vow They’ll noan come on a face that’s feaw, cp. ‘Fairing the foul
with art’s false borrow’d face,’ Shaks. _Sonnet_ cxxvii. 6. _Frame_ (n.
country dials.), to set about doing anything, to prepare, &c. Cp.
Milton:
The nations all whom Thou hast made
Shall come, and all shall frame
To bow them low before Thee, Lord,
And glorify Thy name.--_Ps._ lxxxvi, ll. 29-32.
_Garret_ in the sense of watch-tower, is obsolete now, but remained in
Newcastle-on-Tyne into last century, cp. ‘garyteȝ ful gaye gered
bi-twene,’ _Sir Gaw._, l. 791, O.Fr. _garite_, a tower on the walls of a
town; _gossip_ (Sc. Irel. Yks. Lan. Lin. Lei. War. Shr. Hrf. Suf. Som.
Dev. Cor.), a godparent, a sponsor at baptism, O.E. _godsibb_, a
sponsor; _haunt_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Yks. Chs. Som.), a custom, practice,
e.g. at your oud hants, at your old habits, cp. ‘Of cloth-makyng she
hadde such an haunt,’ Chaucer, _Prol._ l. 447; _hind_ (n. dials. also
Sus. Dev. Cor.), a farm-labourer, servant, or bailiff. The final _d_ is
excrescent, and the word is formed from O.E. _hī(g)na_, gen. pl. of
_hīwa_, _hīga_, member of a family, servant, M.E. _hine_, cp.:
Ther nas baillif, ne herde, ne other hyne,
That he ne knew his sleighte and his covyne [deceit].
_Prol._ ll. 603-4.
[Sidenote: _Hugger-mugger, Lead, Learn_]
_In hugger-mugger_ (Sh.I. Nhb. Yks. Der. Suf. Dev.), clandestinely,
privately, in a sneaking way, cp. ‘that his body should be honourably
buried, and not in hugger-mugger, _et non point à cachettes_,’ North’s
_Plutarch_, 1579, cp. _Hamlet_, IV. v. 67; _imp_ (Sc. Dur. Cum. Yks.
Hrf. Rdn. Dev.), a shoot from a tree or fence, a sucker, an ingrafted
slip, O.E. _impa_, a sucker, scion; _lead_ (Sh.I. Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum.
Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Not. Lin. Rut. War. Shr.), to carry, cart, convey
goods by cart, used especially of corn or hay, O.E. _lǣdan_, M.E.
_leden_, to lead, to carry, cp.:
With him ther was a Ploughman, was his brother,
That hadde i-lad of dong ful many a fother [load].
_Prol._ ll. 529, 530.
_Learn_ (gen. dials.), to teach, e.g. ’E nivver larnt me nowt, he never
taught me anything. In O.E. the two verbs _lǣran_, to teach, and
_leornian_, to learn, were kept quite separate in meaning, but already
in M.E. _lernen_ sometimes took over the sense of _leren_. Chaucer has:
‘To lerne a lewed [ignorant] man this subtilte,’ _Chanounes Yemannes
Tale_, l. 844, cp. ‘Lead me forth in thy truth and learn me,’ _Prayer
Book_, _Ps._ XXV. 4. In a Northamptonshire churchyard, there is an
epitaph on a village singing-master, dated 1729, which runs as follows:
He larned singing far and near,
Full twenty years and more;
But fatal death hath stopt his breth,
And he can larn no more.
[Sidenote: _A ‘painful’ Preacher_]
_Like_ (Sc. n.Cy. Yks.), to please, be agreeable to, e.g. If it likes
them to do it, let them do it. In O.E. this verb was always used
impersonally in this sense, but during the M.E. period it came to be
used personally as well. _Lodge_ (Sc. Irel. Yks. Chs. War. Shr. Oxf.
Brks. Ken. Sur. Sus. Wil.), of corn or grass: to lie flat, to be beaten
down by wind and rain, generally used in the past participle, cp. ‘Like
to the summer’s corn by tempest lodged,’ _2 Hen. VI_, III. ii. 176;
_loft_ (n. counties and midl.), the upper floor of a house of two
stories, an upper room, cp. ‘Eutychus ... fell down from the third loft,
and was taken up dead,’ A.V. _Acts_ xx. 9; _meat_ (in gen. dial. use in
Sc. Irel. Eng.), food in general, victuals, also used as a verb, e.g.
Well, ya see, ma’am, he meats hissen, an’ ah weshes him, i.e. he finds
his own food, and I wash for him, O.E. _mete_, food. We are all familiar
with the word in this sense in the proverb: One man’s meat is another
man’s poison, and in the Bible, cp. ‘And if thou bring an oblation of a
meat offering baken in the oven, it shall be unleavened cakes of fine
flour mingled with oil, or unleavened wafers anointed with oil,’ A.V.
_Lev._ ii. 4. _Nephew_ (Ken.), a grandson. This meaning occurs in
Shakespeare, and several times in the Bible, cp. ‘And he had forty sons,
and thirty nephews,’ with the marginal note: ‘Heb. sons’ sons,’ A.V.
_Judges_ xii. 14. Dr. Johnson gives it, but as an archaism: ‘The
grandson. Out of use.’ Similarly _niece_ (Ken.) is used to signify a
granddaughter, cp. _Rich. III_, IV i. 1. _Owe_ (Sh.I. Irel. n.Cy. Cum.
Yks. e.An. w.Cy.), to own, possess, e.g. Let ta awe ta, an’ ta tither,
let the one person possess the one, and the other person the remaining
one, O.E. _āgan_, cp. ‘the noblest grace she owed,’
_Temp._ III. i. 45; _painful_ (Yks. Chs.), painstaking, hardworking,
active, cp. ‘Such servants are oftenest painfull and good,’ Tusser,
_Husb._, 1580. An inscription on a memorial brass dated 1639 begins
thus:
The body of Henry Rogers
A painful preacher in this church
Two and thirty yeeres.
[Sidenote: _Archaic Meanings_]
_Pity_ (Sc. Cum. e.Yks.), impers. it fills one with pity, e.g. It fair
pitied me to see t’poor auld galloway so sairly failed, cp. ‘It pitieth
them to see her in the dust,’ _Prayer Book_, _Ps._ cii. 14; _proper_
(Sc. Nhb. Glo. e.An. Ken. Hmp. Wil. Dor. Dev. Cor.), handsome, fine,
well-grown, cp. ‘This Ludovico is a proper man,’ _Othello_, IV. iii. 36,
‘they saw he was a proper child,’ A.V. _Heb._ xi. 23; _quick_ (n. and
midl. counties), alive, e.g. I thoht thaay was dead last back-end, bud
thaay’re wick eniff noo, cp. ‘I had rather be set quick i’ the earth,’
_Mer. Wives_, III. iv. 90. We are of course familiar with the word in
this sense in the Bible and Prayer Book, and in phrases such as: a
quickset hedge, the quick of the nail, quicksilver, &c. A quickset hedge
is a living hedge, as distinct from a dead fence or stockade, and the
young thorn-plants for forming such a hedge are known in the dialects as
_quick_, or _quicks_. The following is an advertisement which appeared
in the _Oxford Chronicle_: ‘Quick! Quick!! QUICK!!! for hedgerows.
1,000,000 for sale,’ February 1, 1901. _Sad_ (many dials.), solid, firm,
compact; of bread, pastry, &c.: heavy, close; also: grave, discreet. The
original meaning of O.E. _sæd_ was satiated, the word being cognate with
German _satt_, e.g. _wīnsæd_, satiated with wine, but already in Middle
English it came to mean quiet, discreet, solid, cp.:
In Surrye whylom dwelte a companye
Of chapmen riche, and therto sadde and trewe.
_Man of Lawes Tale_, ll. 134, 135.
[Sidenote: _Sad, Serve, Silly, Speed, Tell_]
Wyclif has: ‘And whanne greet flood was maad, the flood was hurtlid to
that hous, and it miȝte not moue it, for it was foundid on a sad stoon,’
_St. Luke_ vi. 48. Similarly, _sadness_ (Yks. Lan. Chs. Lei. War.),
solidity, seriousness; _in good sadness_ means in earnest. Shakespeare
plays upon the two meanings of the word in a well-known passage
beginning: ‘Tell me in sadness, who is that you love,’ _Rom. & Jul._ I.
i. 205. Connected with these words is the verb _sade_ (n.Cy. Chs. Stf.
War. Wor. Shr. Hrf. Glo. w.Cy.), to satiate, also to become weary or
tired, especially used in the phrase _sick and saded_, O.E. _sadian_,
to become satiated or weary. _Serve_ (Nhb. Cum. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Not.
Lin. War. Wor. Shr. Oxf. Hmp. Wil.), to supply an animal with food, e.g.
Ah’ll gan an’ sarve t’pigs, cp. ‘See cattle well serued, without and
within, and all thing at quiet ere supper begin,’ Tusser, _Husb._;
_shed_ (Sc. and n. counties), to part, separate, O.E. _scādan_,
_scēadan_, to divide, separate, a meaning which is retained in the
standard language in the compound _watershed_; _silly_ (Ess. Som.),
simple, rustic, (Nhb.) pure, innocent, e.g. The bit bairn’s asleep,
silly thing, cp.:
Perhaps their loves, or else their sheep,
Was all that did their silly thoughts so busy keep.
Milton, _Nat. Ode_, ll. 91, 92.
Another dialect form of the word is _seely_, O.E. _gesǣlig_, happy,
blessed. _Speed_ (Sc. Yks. Lan. Lin. Glo. Cor.), success, is familiar to
us in certain phrases and sayings, such as: More haste worse speed. An
old Lincolnshire parish clerk affirmed that in his young days it was
customary for men, before they began work in the morning, to say: May
God speed us well. Another of the fraternity used to call out in church:
God speed ’em weel, in a high monotone immediately after the publication
of banns of marriage. _Godspeed_ (Lakel.) is the name for a wooden
screen or barrier against the wind within the door, apparently so called
because leave-takings or good-byes were said there. _Spill_ (Sc. Midl.
Ken. Sur. Sus.), to spoil, ruin, destroy, O.E. _spillan_, to destroy;
_stickler_ (Glo. Som. Dev. Cor.), an umpire, especially an umpire at a
wrestling-match or bout of singlestick, cp.:
The dragon wing of night o’erspreads the earth,
And stickler-like, the armies separates.
_Troil. & Cres._ V. viii. 18, 19.
_Tell_ (many dials.), to count, reckon up, e.g. Tell them ther ship
[sheep], ’ooll ’e, an let I knaw how many ther be on ’em, O.E. _tellan_,
to count, cp.:
And every shepherd tells his tale,
Under the hawthorn in the dale.
_L’Allegro_, ll. 67, 68.
_Whether_ (Yks. Lan.), which of two, e.g. Wether will ta ’ev, this er
that? O.E. _hwæþer_, which of two, cp. ‘Whether of them twain did the
will of his father?’ A.V. _Matt._ xxi. 31; _witty_ (Sc. Yks. Chs. Not.
Lin. Ken. Dev.), wise, knowing, sensible, shrewd, e.g. He’s a witty mon,
is yander, there’s noo bestin’ him at a bargain, O.E. _wittig_, wise,
cp.:
In them I trust; for they are soldiers,
Witty, courteous, liberal, full of spirit.
_3 Hen. VI_, I. ii. 42, 43.
_Wretch_ (War. Wor. Glo. Bck.), used as a term of endearment, sympathy,
or compassion, e.g. I set a deal o’ store by Lucy, poor wratch! cp.:
Excellent wretch! Perdition catch my soul,
But I do love thee!--_Oth._ III. iii. 90, 91.
[Sidenote: _Preservation of Historical Forms_]
Side by side with these historical meanings preserved in the dialects,
are the historical forms. Many a word which we meet in the dialects in
some unfamiliar shape, can be shown to be no mere vulgar
mispronunciation or misspelling, but a genuine old form, once under
distinguished patronage in our earlier literature. Or again, formations
which appear to be ignorant errors in grammar can be shown to be
grammatically regular, the divergence of the standard form being due to
analogy, or some other influence. It is surprising to find what a number
of cases there are where a word in literary English has become corrupt,
whilst in the dialects it has followed its normal development. To take
some examples of these justifiable dialect forms: _alablaster_ (n. and
midl. counties) for alabaster, e.g. It’s a straange nist bairn, it’s
skin’s that clear it’s like alablaster, cp.:
Why should a man, whose blood is warm within,
Sit like his grandsire cut in alablaster?
_M. Ven._ I. i. 83, 84.
[Sidenote: _Crowner, Laylock, Showl_]
This was the general spelling of alabaster in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries. _Apricock_ (n.Cy. Lan. Lin. Lei. Nhp. War. Shr.
Hrf.) for apricot, cp. ‘Yond dangling apricocks,’ _Rich. II_, III. iv.
29. The word came originally from the Portuguese _albricoque_, and
the change from the final _ck_ to _t_ was due to the French cognate
_abricot_. _Crowner_ (in gen. dial. use in Irel. and Eng.) for coroner,
e.g. I do lot as they’l ’ave a crowner’s quest on he, cp. ‘Crowner’s
quest law,’ _Ham._ V. i. 24. _Laylock_ (in gen. dial. use in Eng.)
for lilac, cp. ‘The Lelacke Tree,’ Bacon, _Essays_, ed. 1625. Our
pronunciation _lilac_ is borrowed from those dialects where _byby_ is
the normal pronunciation of _baby_. We have erred in the same direction
in discarding the older _obleege_ (now confined to the dialects) in
favour of the modern _oblige_. The correct pronunciation of the French
_ī_ is that in _machine_. _Newelty_ (Nhp. Oxf. Bdf. Hnt. e.An. Som.)
for novelty, e.g. Well! there idn very much newelty in thick there
contraption like, cp. ‘_Novella_, a tale, a parable, or a neweltee,’
Thomas, _Italian Grammar_, 1562. _Shool_ or _showl_ (in gen. dial.
use in Sc. Irel. Eng.) for shovel, cp. ‘Item, j. dressyng knyfe, j.
fyre showle,’ _Paston Letters_, 1459. This must have been the proper
pronunciation when the nursery rhyme _Cock Robin_ was composed:
I, said the Owl,
With my spade and _showl_ [mod. edits, _shovel_]
I’ll dig his grave.
[Sidenote: _‘Ballet’ and ‘Sallet’_]
Similarly, comparison with the dialects restores correct rhyme to the
_water_: _after_ in _Jack and Jill_, and correct metre to: ‘Mary,
Mary, quite contrary.’ _Abear_ for bear, endure, is widely diffused
through the dialects. It is O.E. _āberan_, to endure, suffer, a form
which apparently dropped out of the literary language in the thirteenth
century, but which has lived on ever since in the spoken dialects.
_Affodil_ or _affrodile_ (Chs.) for daffodil is found in Cotgrave:
‘_Affrodille_, th’ Affodille or Asphodill flower.’ It is, in fact,
etymologically the correct form, from a M.Lat. _affodillus_, Lat.
_asphodilus_, and the prefixed _d_ of the standard form has yet to be
satisfactorily explained. _Disgest_ (in gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel.
and Eng.) for digest was the common form in literary English in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. _Haviour_ (Sc. Yks. Chs.) for
behaviour occurs in Spenser; ‘Her heavenly haveour, her princely
grace,’ _Shepherd’s Cal._, 1579. _Overlive_ (Lan. Der. Rut. Lei. Nhp.)
for outlive occurs in Shakespeare and in the Bible: ‘And Israel served
the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that
overlived Joshua,’ A.V. _Josh._ xxiv. 31. _Ballet_ (Cum. Yks. Lan.
Chs. Der. Nhp. War. Shr. Hrf. Brks. Ess. Ken. Sus. Wil. Som. Dev.) for
ballad is a corruption common in the literary language in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries, cp. ‘The Ballet of Ballets of Solomon,’
Bishops’ Bible, 1568; ‘I occasioned much mirth by a ballet I brought
with me made from the seamen at sea to their ladies in town,’ Pepys’
_Diary_, Jan. 2, 1665. In like manner the form _sallet_ for salad
remains in the dialects. _Brinded_ (Der. Not. Wil. Som.) for brindled
recalls the well-known line: ‘Thrice the brinded cat hath mew’d,’
_Macb._ IV. i. 1. _Darkling_ (Sc. Yks. Lin.) for in the dark is used by
Shakespeare and by Milton, cp. ‘The wakeful bird sings darkling,’ _Par.
Lost_, iii. 39. _Flannen_ (in gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. and Eng.) is
the correct form for flannel, from Welsh _gwlanen_, woollen material,
cp. ‘She found Dorus, apparelled in flanen,’ Sydney, _Arcadia_, c.
1585. _Lovier_ (e.An. Dor. Som.) for lover carries us back to Chaucer’s
‘yong Squyer’ who was: ‘A lovyere, and a lusty bacheler,’ _Prol._ l.
80. _Margent_ (Sc. Yks. e.An.) for margin, with excrescent _t_, is a
Shakespearian form. Jeremy Taylor has: ‘She was arrested with a sorrow
so great as brought her to the margent of her grave,’ _Holy Living_,
1650. _Neglection_ (Glo. Suf.) for neglect, and _robustious_ (Sc. n.Cy.
I.Ma. War.) for robust, are both to be found in Shakespeare’s Plays;
cp. also Milton:
... these redundant locks
Robustious to no purpose, clustering down.
_Sam. Agonistes_, ll. 568, 569.
_Ruinate_ for ruin is now so common that it is a colloquialism rather
than dialect. Johnson gives quotations for it from Shakespeare and other
authors, but says: ‘This word is now obsolete.’
Sometimes a dialect form which sounds like a corruption, is in reality
a different word from the standard form with which we associate it, for
example: _meese_ (Glo. Wil. Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.), moss, is not a
corruption of _moss_, but the regular descendant of O.E. _mēos_, the
literary form being probably a Scandinavian import. _Rivel_ (War. Wor.
Shr. Hrf. Glo. Dor.), to shrivel, is from M.E. _rivelen_, to wrinkle,
whilst _shrivel_ is of different origin. Shakespeare uses both words.
_Shill_ (Sc. Dur. Yks. Nhp. Dor.), shrill, is from O.E. _scill_,
sonorous, etymologically quite distinct from _shrill_. Quite distinct
too is the dialect _lew-warm_ (in gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. and Eng.),
from the standard _lukewarm_, tepid, cp. ‘Thou art lew, and nether cold,
nether hot,’ Wyclif, _Rev._ iii. 16.
[Sidenote: _Phonological Differences_]
Or again, the difference between the dialect and the standard word
may be traced back to a grammatical or phonological variation in the
O.E. period, resulting in the development of two distinct types side
by side, one of which came to be preserved in the literary language
and the other in the spoken dialects. Among such are: _ax_ (in gen.
dial. use in Sc. Irel. and Eng.), beside _ask_, O.E. _ācsian_, _āxian_,
beside the non-metathesized form _āscian_. The common dialect form
_cowslop_ for our _cowslip_ goes back to O.E. _cū-sloppe_ beside
_cū-slyppe_. _Yat_ or _yet_ is more usual in the dialects than _gate_,
and is perfectly regular. The form in O.E. was _geat_ in the singular,
whence correctly _yat_ or _yet_; and _gatu_ in the plural, whence our
_gate_ with the hard _g_. A farm I knew well near my Herefordshire
home was known as ‘The Three Hats’, apparently a corruption of ‘The
Three Yats’, so called from its situation at the junction of three
farm-roads, each shut off by a gate. _Gate_ meaning road is, as we have
already noticed (p. 75), a Norse loan-word, and not to be confused
with _gate_, an opening. _Lat_ (n.Cy. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Lei. War.
Wor. Shr.) beside _late_ is the normal descendant of the adjective
O.E. _læt_, beside the adverb O.E. _late_ which has given the standard
form. _Neist_ (Sc. Nhb. Lakel. Yks. Lan. Der. Nhp. Shr. Hmp. Wil.
Som. Dev. Cor.), nearest, nighest, beside _next_ goes back to an O.E.
contracted form _nēst_, beside the uncontracted _nēhst_, which became
_next_. _Quid_, which in many dialects is used for our _cud_, is from
O.E. _cwidu_, beside which was the by-form _cudu_, which gave _cud_.
_Rew_ (Wor. Sur. Sus. Hmp. I.W. Som. Dev.) beside our _row_ goes back
to O.E. _rǣw_ beside _rāw_, a row, a line. _Sealch_ (Sc. Irel.) for
_seal_ is from the O.E. nominative _seolh_, whereas _seal_ is from the
oblique cases where there was no _h_. _Shilder_ (Lan.) for _shoulder_
is derived from the plural form O.E. _gescyldru_, shoulders. The Scotch
and North-country _weel_ for the adverb _well_ is from an O.E. _wēl_
which existed beside the form with _e_, whence our _well_.
[Sidenote: _Grammatical Distinctions_]
Grammatical distinctions are frequently kept up in the dialects,
where they have become obliterated in the literary language, for
example: _kemb_ (Sc. Nhb. Yks. Lan. Cor.) vb. to comb, beside _comb_
subs., in O.E. _cemban_ vb., and _camb_, _comb_ subs. _Keel_ is the
common dialect verb meaning to make cool, in O.E. _cēlan_ vb. beside
_cōl_ adj. Wyclif has: ‘Sende Lazarus, that he dippe the ende of his
fyngur in watir, to kele my tunge,’ _Luke_ xvi. 24. _Snew_ (Irel. Yks.
Lan. Glo. Nrf. Dev.), to snow, to abound, beside _snow_ subs. is from
O.E. _snīwan_ vb. beside _snāw_ subs., cp. ‘It snewede in his hous of
mete and drinke,’ Chaucer, _Prol._ l. 345. _Smeeth_ (Nhb. Chs.), to
smooth, beside the adj. _smooth_ is from O.E. _smēðian_ vb. The correct
form of the adjective is found in a few North-country dialects as
_smeeth_, from O.E. _smēðe_ adj.; our _smooth_ is from the O.E. adverb
_smōðe_. A difference of pronunciation of _work_, verb and noun, is
found in nearly all dialects; in O.E. _wyrcan_ vb. and _weorc_ subs.
In _mean_ (Sc. Nhb. Lakel. Yks. Lan.), moan vb. and subs., the verbal
form O.E. _mǣnan_ has predominated, whilst in the standard language we
have formed our verb from the noun. In _kuss_ (n.Cy. Yks. Lan.) vb. and
subs., the dialects have taken the noun form, O.E. _coss_, for both
uses, whilst the standard language has retained only the verbal one,
O.E. _cyssan_, to kiss.
[Sidenote: _Retention of old Verbal Forms_]
In the conjugation of verbs, the dialects have also often retained an
old formation which has become obsolete in standard English, for
example: _afrore_ (sw. counties), frozen, O.E. _gefroren_. Our _frozen_
has taken its medial consonant from the stem of the Present. In the
form _frore_ this word has maintained a fitful existence in poetry ever
since Milton wrote: ‘the parching air Burns frore,’ _Par. Lost_, ii.
594, but this is merely an archaism. _Forboden_ (Yks.), O.E. _forboden_,
is strictly correct; our _forbidden_ has been influenced by the vowel of
the Infinitive. _Getten_, the dialect past participle of _to get_, is,
in the same way, the true form grammatically, and _got_ is due to
analogy. _Raught_ (Sc. Lan. Chs. Stf. Der. War. Shr. Glo. Brks. Hmp.
I.W. Som.) is from O.E. _rǣhte_, and might have remained like _taught_,
but the standard language has selected the new preterite _reached_, made
from the Infinitive, cp. ‘He smiled me in the face, raught me his hand,’
_Hen. V_, IV. vi. 21. _Weared_ (Sc. n.Yks. Nhp. Wor. Som. Dev. Cor.) is
from O.E. _werede_. Chaucer has: ‘A whit cote and a blew hood werede
he,’ _Prol._ l. 564. We have since made a new strong preterite _wore_
on the analogy of _bore_. _Wrought_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks.
Lan. Der. Suf.), as a preterite and participle, is familiar to us in the
Bible, cp. ‘He abode with them and wrought,’ _Acts_ xviii. 3, M.E.
_wrohte_, _wroht_; but the standard language has adopted the newer form
_worked_, retaining _wrought_ only as an adjective. The common dialect
adjective _afeared_ or _feared_ for _afraid_ is originally a past
participle, O.E. _āfǣred_, cp. ‘I am afeard you make a wanton of me,’
_Ham._ V. ii. 310. To illustrate the use of the word in modern times, a
Dialect Glossary gives the following anecdote: Two ladies, alarmed at
some cows that obstructed their path, called a boy to drive them away,
when having been rewarded for his trouble, he said, Would you please to
be feared of the sheep too?
The basis of the standard language is the sound-system of what is
called the Mercian Dialect of the O.E. period, and the East Midland
Dialect of the M.E. period, but occasionally we meet with words
which have been borrowed from some district outside the East Midland
area, and incorporated into literary English with the characteristic
pronunciation of the district whence they came. For instance, our
pronunciation of _among_ is irregular; we ought to make it rhyme with
_hang_ or _long_, as it does in various dialects. Our _among_ rhyming
with _hung_ is a West Midland form, specially common in Lancashire.
Again, our _vat_, _vane_, _vixen_ with initial _v_ are south-western
dialect forms; the regular standard pronunciation should be _fat_,
&c., cp. ‘The fats shall overflow with wine and oil,’ A.V. _Joel_
ii. 24; ‘pressfat,’ A.V. _Hag._ ii. 16, from O.E. _fæt_. The forms
_brize_ (Sc. Nhb. Yks.), from O.E. _brȳsan_, and _kidgel_ (Nhb. Yks.),
from O.E. _cycgel_, have been ousted from the literary speech by the
south-western _bruise_ and _cudgel_. The common dialect pronunciation
_bile_ for _boil_ subs., from O.E. _bȳl_, would be correct in literary
English; our form _boil_ is irregular and corrupt.
[Sidenote: _Irregularities in Standard English compared with Dialect
Forms_]
The name of the irregularities in the standard speech is legion, and
it is an enticing pursuit to hunt for the regular forms in the dialects
and compare them with their literary cognates. _Bread_ (Sc. Dur. Cum.
Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Not. Lin. Shr. Pem.), breadth, is the normal
development of O.E. _brǣdu_; the form _breadth_ has taken over a final
_-th_ from other abstract nouns such as _length_. _Lin_ (Sc. Irel. and
n. and w. counties), flax, linen, is the correct representative of
the O.E. substantive _līn_, M.E. _lin_, as we have it in _linseed_;
our _linen_ is properly an adjective, meaning made of flax. _Mirk_
(Sc. and n. counties), dark, gloomy, also sb. darkness, gloom, from
M.E. _mirk(e_, may be used in modern poetry, but the ordinary form
is _mirky_, _murky_, with the addition of _-y_ from other adjectives
where it was regular. Similarly, _red(d_ (Sc. Irel.) for _ready_,
and _slipper_ (Som. Dev. Cor.) for _slippery_, cp. O.E. _ge-rǣde_,
_slipor_. _Sloum_ (Sc. Irel. and n. counties) for _slumber_ is O.E.
_slūma_, without the later additions of the frequentative suffix, and
intrusive _b_. _Peel_ (Glo. Wil. Som. Dev. Cor.) for _pillow_ is from
the O.E. nominative _pylu_, whereas from the oblique cases came M.E.
_pilwe_, whence our _pillow_. _Graff_ (Sc. Yks. Hrf.) for _graft_,
and _hoise_ (Sc. Irel. Cum. Yks. Lan.) for _hoist_, are both correct
forms without the additional _t_, which is probably due to confusion
with verbal forms in the Past tense, cp. ‘We’ll quickly hoise Duke
Humphrey from his seat,’ _2 Hen. VI_, I. i. 169. _Hose_ (Rut. Som.
Dev.) and _haiss_ (Sc.) for _hoarse_ from O.E. _hās_ are correctly
without the intrusive _r_. _Hollin_ (n. and n. midl. counties) for
_holly_, and _miln_ (Sc. Yks. Lan. Der. Not. Lin.) for _mill_ have not
acquired a final _n_, but they retain one which has been lost in the
standard forms. The O.E. originals were _hole(g)n_ and _myln_. The
latter remains intact in the surnames Milne and Milner. _Ridless_ (Wor.
Shr.) for _riddle_, a conundrum, from O.E. _rǣdels_, preserves the
final _s_ which has been discarded from the literary form, or rather,
the _s_ being taken as the sign of the plural, a new singular has been
formed without it. The same process has given us our _pea_, _burial_,
_Sherry_, and Bret Harte’s _Chinee_. With these literary examples
before us we cannot find fault with the dialect form _shimmy_ (in gen.
dial. use in Sc. and Eng.), the supposed singular of _chemise_; or with
_apse_ (Som. Dev. Cor.), from a plural-sounding _abscess_.
Nearly all the dialects have _lat_ for _lath_, regularly developed
from O.E. _lætt_, and _latta_, the _th_ in our _lath_ being the
irregular element. _Lynse-pin_ (War. Sus. Wil. Som. Cor.), from M.E.
_linse_, an axle, is correct, and our _linch-pin_ is corrupt. _Popple_
(Wor. Pem. Hmp. I.W. Wil. Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.) represents O.E. _papol_,
and leaves our _pebble_ to be explained. _Penny-winkle_ (Nhb. Yks.
Der. War. Brks. Suf. Dev.), the mollusc, from O.E. _pinewincla_ is
the correct form beside our corrupt _periwinkle_. The common dialect
pronunciation _kindom_ regularly represents O.E. _cynedōm_, M.E.
_kinedom_, whereas in our _kingdom_ popular etymology has substituted
the well-known word _king_ for the forgotten _cyne_, royal.
[Sidenote: _Standard English Words compared with Dialect Equivalents_]
Amongst these dialect words which differ in form and pronunciation
from their equivalents in the standard language are many French words,
borrowed several centuries ago either from Old French, or through
the medium of Anglo-Norman French. Meanwhile, we of the standard
speech have perhaps re-borrowed the word in a more modern shape, or
re-modelled it after the pattern of its Latin cognate, or, where in
older times the standard vocabulary included two forms side by side, we
have since discarded one of them, and left it to drop into obscurity.
Regarded thus, the dialect form can take its legitimate place as the
second half of a doublet, with as good a title to name and fame as the
half that remained in the ranks of the literary vocabulary. There are
quantities of doublets of this nature still in everyday standard use,
but because we are familiar with each half of the pair, we are not
tempted to regard one of them as vulgar or corrupt because it differs
from the other. Examples of these literary doublets are: caitiff and
captive; mayor and major; parson and person; royal and regal; &c., &c.
In all these cases a divergence of meaning has taken place, so that
each member of the pair maintains a separate existence, but in the
following examples from the dialects, I have for the most part selected
those words where the meaning is the same as that of the literary form:
_Aunter_ (Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan.), an adventure, a story of adventure,
an unlikely story, was the common form in M.E. for _adventure_,
cp. M.E. _antur_, _aunter_, from Anglo-French _aventure_. The form
_aunters_ (Nhb. Cum. Wm. Yks.), with the addition of an adverbial
_s_, means perhaps, lest, in case that, cp. ‘Aunters, peradventure,’
Coles, 1677. _Callenge_ (Glo. I.W. Dor. Som.) for _challenge_ is from
A.Fr. _calenge_. _Causey_ (in gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. and Eng.)
is from A.Fr. _caucè_, the standard form _causeway_ is a compound
of _causey_ and _way_. _Chat_ (Dor. Dev. Cor.), a kitten, is not a
dialect pronunciation of _cat_, but from Fr. _chat_. _Chieve_ (Nhb.
Yks. Lan. Lin. Nhp.) is an aphetic form of _achieve_ common in M.E.
writings. _Corrosy_ (Dev. Cor.), an annoyance, a grudge, is a popular
form of the learned _corrosive_, something that corrodes or causes
annoyance. It occurs as far back as Tusser, cp. ‘So lose ye your
cost, to your corosie and smart,’ _Husb._, 1580. _Descrive_ (Sc.) is
from O.Fr. _descrivre_, whilst our _describe_ is from the Latin form.
_Gilliver_ (Sc. Cum. Yks. Lan. Chs. Stf. Der. Not. Lin. Lei. War.)
for _gillyflower_ represents M.E. _gilofre_, for O.Fr. _girofre_,
_girofle_, cp. ‘Then make your garden rich in gillyvors,’ _Wint. Tale_,
IV. iv. 98. The form _gillyflower_ is due to a confusion with _flower_.
_Hamel_ (n.Cy. Nhb. Lan. Chs. Sus.) for _hamlet_ is from O.Fr.
_hamel_, whilst the standard form goes back to the double diminutive
O.Fr. _hamelet_. _Inobedient_ (Sc. n.Cy. Som.) beside _disobedient_
is from O.Fr. _inobedient_, cp. ‘Adam inobedyent,’ _Cleanness_, l.
237, _c._ 1360. _Kiver_ (in gen. dial. use in Sc. Irel. and Eng.) for
_cover_ is from the stressed stem-form _cuev-_ of O.Fr. _covrir_, cp.
‘If oure gospel is kyuerid, in these that perischen it is kyuerid,’
Wyclif, _2 Cor._ iv. 3. _Liver_ (Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Der.
Lin.) for _deliver_ is from Fr. _livrer_ beside _délivrer_, cp.:
Ful fast on god bigan þai call,
To liuere þe folk of þat onfall.
_Curs. Mun._ ll. 5942, 5943.
_Marriable_ (Yks. Lan.) for _marriageable_ is from O.Fr. _mariable_.
_Noy_ (Sc. n.Cy. Yks.) for _annoy_ is an aphetic form common in M.E.
literature. _Paise_ (Sc. n. and sw. counties), to weigh, is from O.Fr.
Norman dialect _peiser_ beside O.Fr. _poiser_, M.E. _peisen_ and
_poisen_. The common dialect forms _perfit_, _parfit_ are from O.Fr.
_parfit_, through M.E. _perfit_, _parfit_, whilst our _perfect_ has been
remodelled to conform with Lat. _perfectus_. _Parsil_ (Sc. n.Cy. Wm.
Yks. Lan.) beside _parsley_ is from Fr. _persil_, M.E. _percel_, beside
_perceli_, which owes its ending to O.E. _petersilie_. _Pearch_ (Cum.
Yks. Lan. Lin.) for _pierce_ is from O.Fr. Norman dialect _percher_
beside O.Fr. _percer_. _Perceivance_ (Yks. e.An.) for _perception_ is
used by Milton, cp. ‘The senses and common perceivance might carry this
message to the soul within,’ _Church Government_, 1641, cp. O.Fr.
_percevance_. _Planch_ (Gmg. Suf. Dor. Som. Dev. Cor.) is from Fr.
_planche_, whilst our _plank_ is from O.N.Fr. _planke_. _Plat_ (Shet.
and Ork. I. n.Cy. also sw. counties) for _flat_ is from O.Fr. _plat_,
whilst our word is of Scandinavian origin. _Portmantle_ (in gen. dial.
use in Sc. and Eng.), compounded from O.Fr. _mantel_, is the old form
common from the sixteenth to the eighteenth century; our _portmanteau_
is a later borrowing, when the French form was _manteau_. _Provand_ (Sc.
Yks. Lan. Chs.) for _provender_ is from O.Fr. _provende_ beside
_provendre_, cp. ‘Than camels in the war, who have their provand Only
for bearing burdens,’ _Coriol._ II. i. 267, 268. _Queer_ (Sc. n.Cy.
Dur. Yks. Chs. Lin.) for _choir_ represents the M.E. _quer_, _quere_,
from O.Fr. _cuer_. The standard form should be spelt _quire_, as it is
pronounced, but the orthography has been influenced by the word
_chorus_. _Ratten_ (Sc. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Shr.) is
from O.Fr. _raton_, cp. ‘Wiþ þat ran þere a route of ratones at ones,’
_Piers Plow._ B, _Prol._ l. 146. Our _rat_ is probably from the O.E.
_ræt_. _Remeid_ (Sc. n.Cy. Nhb.) for _remedy_ is from O.Fr. _remede_,
M.E. _remede_, beside _remedie_ from Anglo-Fr. _remedie_. _Scry_ (Sc.
Nhb. Cum. Yks. Lan. Cor.), to cry, proclaim, is from O.Fr. _escrier_
beside _crier_. _Skelet_ (Lin. Cor.) for _skeleton_ is from Fr.
_scelete_ (Cotgrave), our form is from the Greek word. _Vage_ (Sc. Nhb.
Dur. Yks. Lin. w.Cy.) for _voyage_ is from O.Fr. _veiage_, M.E. _viage_,
_veage_, cp. ‘For he was late ycome from his viage,’ Chaucer, _Prol._ l.
77.
[Sidenote: _Apparent Irregularities due to Scandinavian Influence_]
Further, there are the dialect words in which the apparent
irregularity is due to their Scandinavian origin. For example: _boun_
(Sc. Irel. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Chs. Der. Lin.), e.g. Awm beawn
to Stopport, I am bound for Stockport, is from O.N. _būinn_, prepared,
the past part, of _būa_, to get ready, M.E. _boun_. Our _bound_ has
acquired an excrescent _d_, in common with _sound_ sb., and other
words. _Dead_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Not. Lin. e.An.) for
_death_ is from the Norwegian dialect form _død_; the standard English
_death_ is native, O.E. _dēað_. _Drucken_ (Sc. Nhb. Cum. Wm. Yks.
Lan.) for _drunken_ is from the O.N. adjective and past participle
_drukkin_, drunk. _Garn_ (Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Lan. Stf.) beside _yarn_
is again the O.N. form beside the English. _Gavel_ (Sc. Irel. Nhb.
Dur. Cum. Yks.) for _gable_ is from O.N. _gafl_, Norwegian dialect
_gavl_. _Ice-shackle_, _ice-shockle_ (Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. Chs. Nhp.) for
_icicle_ represent O.N. _jökull_, Norw. dialect _isjøkul_, whilst our
word is from the O.E. compound _īs-gicel_. The simple word remains in
the dialect _ickle_ (n. and midl. counties), e.g. It’s bin a snirpin’
fros’ sence it lef’ off rainin’, theer’s iccles at the aisins [eaves] a
yard lung. _Loup_, _lope_ (n.Cy. n.midl. and e.An.) for _leap_ is from
O.N. _hlaupa_, Norw. dialect _laupa_ and _lope_, to run, cognate with
O.E. _hlēapan_, whence our form _leap_. Similarly the Sc. and northern
forms _rin_ and _ren_, both common in M.E., are Norse words, whilst
our _run_ is of native extraction. _Sniggle_ (Lei. Nhp.) for _snail_
is from O.N. _snigill_, beside the native _snail_ from O.E. _snægl_.
_Stam_ (Rut. Nhp. Wor. Glo. Oxf. Bdf. s.Cy. Sur. Sus. Hmp.) for _stem_,
stalk, is from Danish _stamme_. _Stang_ (Sc. Nhb. Cum. Yks. Lan. Lin.),
to sting, is from O.N. _stanga_, to prick. _Starn_ (Sc. n.Cy. Nhb.)
beside _star_ is from O.N. _stjarna_, beside O.E. _steorra_, whence our
_star_. _Teind_ (Sc. n.Cy. Cum. Yks.), a tithe, a tenth part, is from
O.N. _tīund_. _War_ (Sc. Irel. n. and n. midl. counties) for _worse_
is from O.N. _verr_ adv., _verri_ adj., worse; our form is native
English. Nearly all these words, and numbers more of the same type,
can be traced in early literary works written in those districts where
the Norse influence was strong; and on the other hand, if evidence is
wanted for localizing such writings, it is supplied by the existence of
these old forms in the spoken dialects of to-day.