English Dialects From The Eighth Century To The Present Day Part 10

The following colloquy is quoted in the _Glossary of Isle of Wight Words_, E.D.S., 1881, at p. 50.

I recollect perfectly the late Mr James Phillips of Merston relating a dialogue that occurred between two of his labourers relative to the word _straddle-bob_, a beetle.... At the time of luncheon, one of them, on taking his _bren-cheese_ (bread and cheese) out of a little bag, saw something that had found its way there; which led to the following discourse.

_Jan._ What's got there, you?

_Will._ A straddlebob craalun about in the nammut-bag.

_J._ Straddlebob? Where ded'st leyarn to caal 'n by that neyam?

_W._ Why, what shoud e caal 'n? 'Tes the right neyam, esn ut?

_J._ Right neyam? No! Why, ye gurt zote vool, casn't zee 'tes a dumbledore?

_W._ I know 'tes; but vur aal that, straddlebob's zo right a neyam vor 'n as dumbledore ez.

_J._ Come, I'll be blamed if I doant laay thee a quart o' that.

_W._ Done! and I'll ax Meyastur to-night when I goos whoam, bee't how't wool.

Accordingly, Meyastur was applied to by Will, who made his decision known to Jan the next morning.

_W._ I zay, Jan! I axed Meyastur about that are last night.

_J._ Well, what ded ur zay?

_W._ Why, a zed one neyam ez jest zo vittun vor'n as tother; and he lowz a ben caal'd straddlebob ever zunce the Island was vust meyad.

_J._ Well, if that's the keeas, I spooas I lost the quart.

_W._ That thee hast, lucky; and we'll goo down to Arreton to the Rid Lion and drink un ater we done work.

Notes.--Observe _z_ for _s_, and _v_ for _f_ initially. _What's_, What hast thou; _nammut_ (lit. noon-meat), luncheon, usually eaten at 9 A.M. (_n{-o}na h{-o}ra_); _leyarn_, learn; _esn_, is not; _gurt_, great; _zote_, soft, silly; _casn't_, canst not; _laay_, lay, wager; _how't wool_, how it will; _that are_, that there; _lowz_ (lit. allows), opines; _zunce_, since; _vust meyad_, first made; _keeas_, case; _lucky_, look ye!

SOUTHERN (Group 7): EAST SUSs.e.x.

The following quotations are from the _Dictionary of the Suss.e.x Dialect_, by the Rev. W.D. Parish, Vicar of Selmeston; E.D.S. 1875.

The Glossary refers rather to E. than to W. Suss.e.x, Selmeston being between Lewes and Eastbourne.

_Call over_, to abuse. "He come along here a-cadging, and fancy he just did call me over, because I told him as I hadn't got naun to give him." (_Naun_, nothing.)

_Clocksmith_, a watchmaker. "I be quite lost about time, I be; for I've been forced to send my watch to the clocksmith. I couldn't make no sense of mending it myself; for I'd iled it and I'd biled it, and then I couldn't do more with it."

_c.o.c.ker-up_, to spoil; to gloss over with an air of truth. "You see this here chap of hers, he's c.o.c.kered-up some story about having to goo away somewheres up into the sheeres; and I tell her she's no call to be so cluck over it; and for my part I dunno but what I be very glad an't, for he was a chap as was always a-c.o.keing about the cupboards, and cogging her out of a Sunday." (_The sheeres_, any s.h.i.+re of England except Kent and Suss.e.x; _call_, reason; _cluck_, out of spirits; _c.o.ke_, to peep; _cog_, to entice.)

_Joy_, a jay. "Poor old Master Crockham, he's in terrible order, surel! The meece have taken his peas, and the joys have got at his beans, and the snags have spilt all his lettuce." (_Order_, bad temper; _meece_, mice; _snags_, snails; _spilt_, spoilt.)

_Kiddle_, to tickle. "Those thunder-bugs did kiddle me so that I couldn't keep still no hows." (_Thunder-bug_, a midge.)

_Lawyer_, a long bramble full of thorns, so called because, "when once they gets a holt an ye, ye doant easy get shut of 'em."

_Leetle_, a diminutive of little. "I never see one of these here gurt men there's s'much talk about in the peapers, only once, and that was up at Smiffle Show adunnamany years agoo. Prime minister, they told me he was, up at London; a leetle, lear, miserable, skinny-looking chap as ever I see. 'Why,' I says, 'we doant count our minister to be much, but he's a deal primer-looking than what yourn be.'" (_Gurt_, great; _Smiffle_, Smithfield; _adunnamany_, I don't know how many; _lear_, thin, hungry; _see_, saw.)

_Sarment_, a sermon. "I likes a good long sarment, I doos; so as when you wakes up it ain't all over."

_Tempory_ (temporary), slight, badly finished. "Who be I? Why, I be John Carbury, that's who I be! And who be you? Why, you ain't a man at all, you ain't! You be naun but a poor tempory creetur run up by contract, that's what you be!"

_Tot_, a bush; a tuft of gra.s.s. "There warn't any gra.s.s at all when we fust come here; naun but a pa.s.sel o' gurt old tots and tussicks.

You see there was one of these here new-fas.h.i.+oned men had had the farm, and he'd properly starved the land and the labourers, and the cattle and everything, without it was hisself." (_Pa.s.sel_, parcel; _tussicks_, tufts of rank gra.s.s.)

_Twort_ (for _thwart_), pert and saucy. "She's terrible twort--she wants a good setting down, she do; and she'll get it too. Wait till my master comes in!"

_Winterpicks_, blackthorn berries.

_Winter-proud_, cold. "When you sees so many of these here winterpicks about, you may be pretty sure 'twill be middlin'

winter-proud."

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ancren Riwle; ed. Jas. Morton. Camden Soc., 1873. (About 1230.)

Anglo-Saxon and Early English Psalter. Surtees Society. London, 1843-7.

2 vols. (See p. 25.)

Beda.--Venerabilis Bedae Historiae Ecclesiasticae Gentis Anglorum Libri III, IV; ed. J.E.B. Mayor, M.A. and J.R. Lumby, B.D. Cambridge, 1878.

---- The Venerable Bede's Ecclesiastical History; also the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (both in English). Ed. J.A. Giles, D.C.L. London, 1859. (In Bohn's Library.)

Dictionaries containing dialect words. (See p. 100.)

Durham Ritual.--Rituale Ecclesiae Dunelmensis. Surtees Society. London, 1840.

Earle, Rev. J.; Anglo-Saxon Literature. London, S.P.C.K., 1884.

E.D.D.--English Dialect Dictionary (to which is appended the English Dialect Grammar); ed. Dr Joseph Wright. Oxford, 1898-1905.

E.D.S.--English Dialect Society, publications of the. London, 1873-96.

E.E.T.S.--Early English Text Society, publications of the. London, 1864-1910. (Contains Alliterative Poems, Ayenbite of Inwyt, Barbour's Bruce, Sir Gawayne and the Grene Knight, St Juliana, Kentish Sermons, Lyndesay's Works, etc.)

Jackson, Miss.--Shrops.h.i.+re Wordbook, by Georgina F. Jackson. London, 1879.

Jamieson's Scottish Dictionary. A new edition, ed. J. Longmuir and D. Donaldson. Paisley, 1879-87. 4to. 4 vols. and Supplement.

Layamon's Brut; ed. Sir F. Madden. London, 1847. 3 vols.