Chapter I: Preface

Under the heading of ‘The Varieties of English Speech’ an article of mine appeared in _The Quarterly Review_ of July, 1907. The favourable reception accorded to it at the time prompted me to embark forthwith on a larger work dealing with the same subject.

Many books both scientific and popular have been written concerning dialect speech and lore, but nearly all of them are special investigations of some particular dialect. I have taken a bolder flight than this. I have not given a detailed account of any one dialect, but I have surveyed them all, and have gathered words, phrases, names, superstitions, and popular customs, here and there, wherever I found something that appealed to me, and that I felt would appeal to others as well as myself. It was impossible to make any one category exhaustive, for such was the mass of material open to me for selection, I might say I was ‘fairly betwattled and baffounded’. The only thing to be done was to make my selections fairly representative of the whole.

My aim in dealing with the linguistic side of my subject has been to show that rules for pronunciation and syntax are not the monopoly of educated people who have been taught to preach as well as practise them. Dialect-speaking people obey sound-laws and grammatical rules even more faithfully than we do, because theirs is a natural and unconscious obedience. Some writers of literary English seem to enjoy flinging jibes at dialect on the assumption that any deviation from the standard speech must be due to ignorance, if not to vulgarity besides. Since I wrote the last chapter of this book, I read in a criticism of Stanley Houghton’s Play _Trust the People_, this sentence describing the Lancashire ‘father an old mill-hand and the homely mother to match’: ‘They are both drawn, you feel, to the life, and talk with ease, not to say gusto, that curious lingo which seems to an outsider mainly distinguished by its contemptuous neglect of the definite article’, _The Times_, Friday, Feb. 7, 1913. Now the definite article in north-west Lancashire is _t_, in the south-west and south _t_, or _th_, and in mid and south-east Lancashire _th_. When this _t_ stands before a consonant, and more especially before a dental such as _t_, _d_, it is not by any means easy for the uninitiated to detect the difference in sound between the simple word and the same word preceded by the article, between, for example, _table_ and _t table_, or _dog_ and _t dog_. But this is not ‘contemptuous neglect’ on the part of the Lancastrian! It would be nearer the mark to say that the Lancashire dialect is characterized by its retention of a form of the definite article very difficult to pronounce in certain combinations.

Further, I have endeavoured to show by means of numerous illustrations, how full the dialects are of words and phrases remarkable not only for their force and clearness, but often also for their subtle beauty, that satisfying beauty of the thing exactly fitted to its purpose.

I have also drawn up lists showing the numbers of old words and phrases once common in English literature, still existing in the dialects. Occasionally writers of modern verse seek to restore some of the words of this type to their former position in literary English, thereby causing the reviewer to stumble dreadfully, though he thinketh he standeth. I quote the following from a literary periodical dated May 2, 1913: ‘He [the poet] debates if he shall make “a nest within a reedy brake”, or, failing this delectable situation, offers himself a quaint alternative,

Or I shall see with quiet eye,
The dappled paddock loping by.

We had always supposed in our ignorance that “paddock” was a term applied to green fields or pastures. How Mr. ... could have seen a paddock “lope” we do not know, and perhaps it would not be kind to ask him to explain.’ The majority of educated people are familiar with the word _paddock_, a toad, or a frog, from its occurrence in the opening lines of _Macbeth_, and in Herrick’s _Child’s Grace_, but it will probably never again take its former place in the standard speech, though it may remain very common in the dialects.

In the chapters devoted to folk-lore I have not attempted to do more than chronicle certain superstitions and popular beliefs, leaving to my readers the fascinating pursuit of tracing superstitions to their sources, and of bringing to light hidden grains of truth in apparently silly beliefs. There is here plenty of scope both for scholarship and imagination. I once happened to mention at a dinner-party the superstition that it is a sure presage of a parting for an engaged couple to stand as fellow sponsors at a baptism. My neighbour, who was a clergyman, immediately explained the reason for this idea by telling me that in pre-Reformation days godparents were not allowed to marry each other. The Church recognized a sort of spiritual affinity between such persons, which precluded lawful marriage. It is strange to think that while joining in a Protestant service to-day, members of the Church of England are still swayed by an old law they never heard of except as it exists in the word ‘unlucky’.

In dealing with popular customs I have selected those that are less well known, and others concerning which I have myself collected information, and have omitted many which are readily accessible in works such as Hone’s _Year Book_ and Chambers’s _Book of Days_.

I may mention that in collecting my material from very many miscellaneous sources, printed and oral, I have not felt justified in normalizing the orthography of the dialect quotations, especially where these have been taken from glossaries. This accounts for a certain amount of inconsistency in the orthography.

At the end of the table of contents will be found a select list of the works which I have found most useful in writing this book.

ELIZABETH MARY WRIGHT.

OXFORD,
_July, 1913_.

CONTENTS

PAGES

INTRODUCTION xix

CHAPTER I
DIALECT SPEAKERS

Decay of pure Dialect 1
Stories concerning Yorkshire people, &c. 2-5

CHAPTER II
RICH AND EXPRESSIVE VOCABULARY

Variety of terms for expressing one and the same idea; names
for a fool, the smallest pig of a litter, the woodpecker,
the foxglove, a stream of water, a girl 6-9
Forceful and descriptive dialect words difficult to translate
into standard English 10-18
Appropriate compound words 18-19
Fine shades of meaning expressed by slightly different words 19-20

CHAPTER III
SPECIMENS OF DIALECT

Specimens of dialect sentences 21-24
Misunderstandings between dialect speakers and speakers of
standard English 25
An old Dame’s School 26-27

CHAPTER IV
CORRUPTIONS AND POPULAR ETYMOLOGIES

Some apparent corruptions shown to be old forms 28
Corruptions of Latin and French phrases such as: _nolens
volens_, _Pater noster_, _rendezvous_, &c. 29-30
Standard English words used in the wrong places, e.g.
sentiment for sediment, profligate for prolific, &c. 30-31
Misplaced suffixes 32
Popular etymologies 33-35
Corruptions of standard English words 35

CHAPTER V
ARCHAIC LITERARY WORDS IN THE DIALECTS

Old words from early literature surviving in the dialects 36-37
Substantives 37-43
Adjectives 43-46
Verbs 47-53
Archaic words from the Authorized Version of the Bible 53-54
Archaic words from Shakespeare 54-61
Dialect words in Johnson’s Dictionary 61-67
Dialect words supply meanings to difficult forms in Old and
Middle English literature 67-71
Old words and forms preserved in surnames 72-76

CHAPTER VI
ARCHAIC MEANINGS AND FORMS IN THE DIALECTS

Old meanings of standard English words surviving in the
dialects 77-84
Historical forms surviving in the dialects 84-86
Old grammatical distinctions preserved in the dialects 87-89
Regular forms in the dialects compared with irregularities
in standard English 90-91
Doublets, such as: challenge beside the dialect form
_callenge_, &c. 92-94
Variants due to Scandinavian borrowings 94-95

CHAPTER VII
FOREIGN LOAN-WORDS

French loan-words 96-102
Scandinavian loan-words 103-104
Celtic loan-words 105-106
Latin, and Dutch loan-words 107-108
Poetical and learned words in the dialects 108-109

CHAPTER VIII
LITERARY WORDS WITH DIALECT MEANINGS

Quotations illustrating the meanings given in the dialects
to literary words 110-118
Dialect words alike in form to existing literary words,
but different in meaning and origin, e.g. _damsel_,
a damson, &c. 118-120

CHAPTER IX
ALLITERATIVE AND RHYMING PHRASES AND COMPOUNDS

Alliterative compounds 121-122
Phrases containing two synonymous verbs 122-123
Rhyming compounds and phrases 124-125

CHAPTER X
PHONOLOGY AND GRAMMAR

The classification of dialects 126-127
Characteristics of the various dialect groups 127-128
Phonology of the dialects compared with standard English 129
Vowels 130-132
Consonants 132-140
The Articles 140-141
Nouns 141-144
Adjectives and numerals 145-146
Pronouns 146-152
Verbs 153-156
Negation 156-157

CHAPTER XI
POPULAR PHRASES AND SAYINGS

Humorous similes 158-160
Metaphorical and figurative phrases and sayings 160-170
Proverbial sayings 171-174
Phrases referring to death 175-176
Answers to inquisitive questioners 176
Dialect forms of greeting 176-177
Contemptuous and derisive expressions 178
Local similes 178-179
Local nicknames and rhymes 180
Local sayings and jibes 181-182
Historical allusions 183-189
Ethnological evidence afforded by the dialects 190

CHAPTER XII
SUPERNATURAL BEINGS

Belief in ghosts 191-192
Boggarts 192-195
The Gabriel Ratchets 195
The Devil and his Dandy-dogs; Tregeagle 196
The Seven Whistlers 197
Imaginary monsters referred to in threats to children 198-199
Mine-goblins 199-200
Will o’ the wisp 200-201
Hob 201-202
The Devil in dialect lore 203-206
Fairies and pixies 207-210
Witches, and white witches 211-213

CHAPTER XIII
SUPERSTITIONS

Death-portents 214-217
Superstitions concerning magpies, cats, robins, &c. 217-219
‘Unlucky’ things 220-223
Signs foretelling gifts and guests 223-224
‘Lucky’ things 224-226
Miscellaneous legends and popular beliefs 227-229

CHAPTER XIV
CHARMS AND MEDICAL LORE
Devices for warding off witches 230-235
Superstitious remedies 236
Dialect phrases describing states of health 237-238
Medicines for general debility 239
Remedies for various diseases and other afflictions 240-254
The seventh son, and the water-caster 254-255
Charms against cattle-diseases 255-256

CHAPTER XV
DIVINATION

Love-divination by means of plants, apple-pips, &c. 257-260
The hempseed charm 261
The dumb-cake charm 262
Wedding-cake under the pillow 263
St. Mark’s Eve customs, and divination by Bible and key 264