English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day by Walter W. Skeat

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I also give a list of early words of Greek origin; some of which are
likewise in familiar use. I may instance alms, angel, bishop, butter,
capon, chest, church, clerk, copper, devil, dish, hemp, imp, martyr,
paper (ultimately of Egyptian origin), plaster, plum, priest, rose,
sack, school, silk, treacle, trout. Of course the poor old woman who
says she is "a martyr to tooth-ache" is quite unconscious that she
is talking Greek. Probably she is not without some smattering of
Persian, and knows the sense of lilac, myrtle, orange, peach, and
rice; of Sanskrit, whence pepper and sugar-candy; of Arabic, whence
coffee, cotton, jar, mattress, senna, and sofa; and she will know
enough Hebrew, partly from her Bible, to be quite familiar with a
large number of biblical names, such as Adam and Abraham and Isaac,
and very many more, not forgetting the very common John, Joseph,
Matthew, and Thomas, and the still more familiar Jack and Jockey;
and even with a few words of Hebrew origin, such as alleluia, balm,
bedlam, camel, cider, and sabbath. The discovery of the New World
has further familiarised us all with chocolate and tomato, which are
Mexican; and with potato, which is probably old Caribbean. These facts
have to be borne in mind when it is too rashly laid down that words in
English dialects are of English origin.

Foreign words of this kind are, however, not very numerous, and can
easily be allowed for. And, as has been said, our vocabulary admits
also of a certain amount of Celtic. It remains to consider what other
sources have helped to form our dialects. The two most prolific in
this respect are Scandinavian and French, which require careful
consideration.

It is notorious that the Northern dialect admits Scandinavian words
freely; and the same is true, to a lesser degree, of East Midland.
They are rare in Southern, and in the Southern part of West Midland.
The constant invasions of the Danes, and the subjection of England
under the rule of three Danish kings, Canute and his two successors,
have very materially increased our vocabulary; and it is remarkable
that they have perhaps done more for our dialects than for the
standard language. The ascendancy of Danish rule was in the eleventh
century; but (with a few exceptions) it was long before words which
must really have been introduced at that time began to appear in our
literature. They must certainly have been looked upon, at the first,
as being rustic or dialectal. I have nowhere seen it remarked, and I
therefore call attention to the fact, that a certain note of rustic
origin still clings to many words of this class; and I would instance
such as these: bawl, bloated, blunder, bungle, clog, clown, clumsy, to
cow, to craze, dowdy, dregs, dump, and many more of a like character.
I do not say that such words cannot be employed in serious literature;
but they require skillful handling.

For further information, see the chapter on "The Scandinavian Element
in English," in my _Principles of English Etymology, Series I_.

With regard to dialectal Scandinavian, see the List of English Words,
as compared with Icelandic, in my Appendix to Cleasby and Vigfusson's
_Icelandic Dictionary_. In this long list, filling 80 columns, the
dialectal words are marked with a dagger {+*}. But the list of these
is by no means exhaustive, and it will require a careful search
through the pages of the _English Dialect Dictionary_ to do justice
to the wealth of this Old Norse element. There is an excellent article
on this subject by Arnold Wall, entitled "A Contribution towards the
Study of the Scandinavian element in the English Dialects," printed
in the German periodical entitled _Anglia, Neue Folge_, Band VIII,
1897.

I now give a list, a mere selection, of some of the more remarkable
words of Scandinavian origin that are known to our dialects. For their
various uses and localities, see the _English Dialect Dictionary_; and
for their etymologies, see my Index to Cleasby and Vigfusson. Many of
these words are well approved and forcible, and may perhaps be
employed hereafter to reinforce our literary language.

_Addle_, to earn; _and_ (in Barbour, _aynd_) sb., breath; _arder_,
a ploughing; _arr_, a scar; _arval_, a funeral repast; _aund_, fated,
destined; _bain_, ready, convenient; _bairns' lakings_, children's
playthings; _beck_, a stream; _big_, to build; _bigg_, barley; _bing_,
a heap; _birr_, impetus; _blaeberry_, a bilberry; _blather_,
_blether_, empty noisy talk; _bouk_, the trunk of the body; _boun_,
ready; _braid_, to resemble, to take after; _brandreth_, an iron
framework over a fire; _brant_, steep; _bro_, a foot-bridge with a
single rail; _bule_, _bool_, the curved handle of a bucket; _busk_,
to prepare oneself, dress; _caller_, fresh, said of fish, etc.;
_carle_, a rustic, peasant; _carr_, moist ground; _cleck_, to hatch
(as chickens); _cleg_, a horse-fly; _coup_, to exchange, to barter;
_dag_, dew; _daggle_, to trail in the wet; _dowf_, dull, heavy,
stupid; _dump_, a deep pool.

_Elding_, _eliding_, fuel; _ettle_, to intend, aim at; _feal_, to
hide; _fell_, a hill; _fey_, doomed, fated to die; _flake_, a hurdle;
_force_, a water-fall; _gab_, idle talk; _gain_, adj., convenient,
suitable; _gait_, a hog; _gar_, to cause, to make; _garn_, yarn;
_garth_, a field, a yard; _gate_, a way, street; _ged_, a pike;
_gilder_, a snare, a fishing-line; _gilt_, a young sow; _gimmer_,
a young ewe; _gloppen_, to scare, terrify; _glare_, to stare, to glow;
_goam_, _gaum_, to stare idly, to gape, whence _gomeril_, a blockhead;
_gowk_, a cuckoo, a clown; _gowlan_, _gollan_, a marigold; _gowpen_,
a double handful; _gradely_, respectable; _graithe_, to prepare;
_grice_, a young pig; _haaf_, the open sea; _haver_, oats; _how_,
a hillock, mound; _immer-goose_, _ember-goose_, the great Northern
diver; _ing_, a lowlying meadow; _intake_, a newly enclosed or
reclaimed portion of land; _keld_, a spring of water; _kenning_,
knowledge, experience; _kilp_, _kelp_, the iron hook in a chimney on
which pots are hung; _kip_, to catch fish in a particular way;
_kittle_, to tickle; _lain_, _lane_, to conceal; _lair_, a muddy
place, a quick-sand; _lait_, to seek; _lake_, to play; _lathe_,
a barn; _lax_, a salmon; _lea_, a scythe; _leister_, a fish-spear
with prongs and barbs; _lift_, the air, sky; _lig_, to lie down;
_lispund_, a variable weight; _lit_, to dye; _loon_, the Northern
diver; _lowe_, a flame, a blaze.

_Mense_, respect, reverence, decency, sense; _mickle_, great; _mirk_,
dark; _morkin_, a dead sheep; _muck_, dirt; _mug_, fog, mist, whence
_muggy_, misty, close, dull; _neif_, _neive_, the fist; _ouse_,
_ouze_, to empty out liquid, to bale out a boat; _paddock_, a frog,
a toad; _quey_, a young heifer; _rae_, a sailyard; _rag_, hoarfrost,
rime; _raise_, a cairn, a tumulus; _ram_, _rammish_, rank, rancid;
_rip_, a basket; _risp_, to scratch; _rit_, to scratch slightly, to
score; _rawk_, _roke_, a mist; _roo_, to pluck off the wool of sheep
instead of shearing them; _roose_, to praise; _roost_, _roust_,
a strong sea-current, a race.

_Sark_, a shirt; _scarf_, a cormorant; _scopperil_, a teetotum;
_score_, a gangway down to the sea-shore; _screes_, rough stones on a
steep mountain-side, really for _screethes_ (the _th_ being omitted
as in _clothes_), from Old Norse _skri{dh}a_, a land-slip on a hill-side;
_scut_, a rabbit's tail; _seave_, a rush; _sike_, a small rill,
gutter; _sile_, a young herring; _skeel_, a wooden pail; _skep_,
a basket, a measure; _skift_, to shift, remove, flit; _skrike_, to
shriek; _slocken_, to slake, quench; _slop_, a loose outer garment;
_snag_, a projecting end, a stump of a tree; _soa_, a large round tub;
_spae_, to foretell, to prophesy; _spean_, a teat, (as a verb) to
wean; _spelk_, a splinter, thin piece of wood; _steg_, a gander;
_storken_, to congeal; _swale_, a shady place; _tang_, the prong of a
fork, a tongue of land; _tarn_, a mountain pool; _tath_, manure,
_tathe_, to manure; _ted_, to spread hay; _theak_, to thatch; _thoft_,
a cross-bench in a boat; _thrave_, twenty-four sheaves, or a certain
measure of corn; _tit_, a wren; _titling_, a sparrow; _toft_, a
homestead, an old enclosure, low hill; _udal_, a particular tenure of
land; _ug_, to loathe; _wadmel_, a species of coarse cloth; _wake_,
a portion of open water in a frozen lake or stream; _wale_, to choose;
_wase_, a wisp or small bundle of hay or straw; _whauve_, to cover
over, especially with a dish turned upside down; _wick_, a creek, bay;
_wick_, a corner, angle.

Another source of foreign supply to the vocabulary of the dialects is
French; a circumstance which seems hitherto to have been almost
entirely ignored. The opinion has, I think, been expressed more than
once, that dialects are almost, if not altogether, free from French
influence. Some, however, have called attention, perhaps too much
attention, to the French words found in Lowland Scotch; and it is
common to adduce always the same set of examples, such as _ashet_,
a dish (F. _assiette_, a trencher, plate: Cotgrave), _gigot_, a leg
of mutton, and _petticoat-tails_, certain cakes baked with butter
(ingeniously altered from _petits gastels_, old form of _petits
gateaux_), by way of illustration. Indeed, a whole book has been
written on this subject; see _A Critical Enquiry into the Scottish
Language_, by Francisque-Michel, 4to, Edinburgh, 1882. But the
importance of the borrowings, chiefly in Scotland, from Parisian
French, has been much exaggerated, as in the work just mentioned;
and a far more important source has been ignored, viz. Anglo-French,
which I here propose to consider.

By Anglo-French is meant the highly important form of French which is
largely peculiar to England, and is of the highest value to the
philologist. The earliest forms of it were Norman, but it was
afterwards supplemented by words borrowed from other French dialects,
such as those of Anjou and Poitou, as well as from the Central French
of Paris. It was thus developed in a way of its own, and must always
be considered, in preference to Old Continental French, when English
etymologies are in question. It is true that it came to an end about
1400, when it ceased to be spoken; but at an earlier date it was alive
and vigorous, and coined its own peculiar forms. A very simple example
is our word _duty_, which certainly was not borrowed from the Old
French _devoir_, but from the Anglo-French _duetee_, a word familiar
in Old London, but absolutely unknown to every form of continental
French.

The point which I have here to insist upon is that not only does our
literary language abound with Anglo-French words, but that they are
also common enough in our dialects; a point which, as far as I know,
is almost invariably overlooked. Neither have our dialects escaped the
influence of the Central French of Paris, and it would have been
strange if they had; for the number of French words in English is
really very large. It is not always possible to discriminate between
the Old French of France and of England, and I shall here consider
both sources together, though the Old Norman words can often be easily
discerned by any one who is familiar with the Norman peculiarities.
Of such peculiarities I will instance three, by way of example. Thus
Anglo-French often employs _ei_ or _ey_ where Old French (i.e. of
the continent) has _oi_ or _oy_; and English has retained the old
pronunciations of _ch_ and _j_. Hence, whilst _convoy_ is borrowed
from French, _convey_ is Anglo-French. _Machine_ is French, because
the _ch_ is pronounced as _sh_; but _chine_, the backbone, is
Anglo-French. _Rouge_ is French, because of the peculiar pronunciation
of the final _ge_; but _rage_ is Anglo-French; and _jaundice_ is
Anglo-French, as it has the old _j_. See Chapters III-VI of my
_Principles of English Etymology, Second Series_.

A good example of a dialect word is _gantry_ or _gauntree_, a wooden
stand for barrels, known in varying forms in many dialects. It is
rightly derived, in the _E.D.D._, from _gantier_, which must have been
an A.F. (Anglo-French) form, though now only preserved in the Rouchi
dialect, spoken on the borders of France and Belgium, and nearly
allied to Norman; in fact, M. Hecart, the author of the _Dictionnaire_
_Rouchi-Fran{c,}ais_, says he had heard the word in Normandy, and he
gives a quotation for it from Olivier Basselin, a poet who lived
in Normandy at the beginning of the fifteenth century. The Parisian
form is _chantier_, which Cotgrave explains as "a Gauntrey... for
hogs-heads to stand on." Here is a clear example of a word which is of
Norman, or A.F., origin; and there must be many more such of which the
A.F. form is lost. There is no greater literary disgrace to England
than the fact that there is no reasonable Dictionary in existence of
Anglo-French, though it contains hundreds of highly important legal
terms. It ought, in fact, to have been compiled before either the
_English Dialect Dictionary_ or the _New English Dictionary_, both
of which have suffered from the lack of it.

It would indeed be tedious to enumerate the vast number of French
words in our dialects. Many are literary words used in a peculiar
sense, often in one that has otherwise been long obsolete; such as
_able_, rich; _access_, an ague-fit; _according_, comparatively;
_to act_, to show off, be ridiculous; _afraid_, conj., for fear
that; _agreeable_, willing; _aim_, to intend; _aisle_, a central
thoroughfare in a shop, etc.; _alley_, the aisle of a church; _allow_,
to suppose; _anatomy_, a skeleton; _ancient_, an ensign, flag;
_anguish_, inflammation; _annoyance_, damage; _anointed_, notoriously
vicious; _apron_, the diaphragm of an animal; _apt_, sure;
_arbitrary_, impatient of restraint; _archangel_, dead nettle;
_argue_, to signify; _arrant_, downright; _auction_, an untidy place,
a crowd; _avise_ (for _advise_), to inform. It is needless to go
through the rest of the alphabet.

Moreover, dialect-speakers are quite capable of devising new forms
for themselves. It is sufficient to instance _abundation_, abundance;
_ablins_, possibly (made from _able_); _argle_, _argie-bargie_,
_argle-bargle_, _argufy_, all varieties of the verb _to argue_; and
so on.

The most interesting words are those that have survived from Middle
English or from Tudor English times. Examples are _aigre_, sour, tart,
which is Shakespeare's _eagre_, _Hamlet_, I, v 69; _ambry_, _aumbry_,
cupboard, spelt _almarie_ in _Piers the Plowman_, B XIV 246; _arain_,
a spider, spelt _yreyn_ in Wyclif's translation of Psalm XC 10, which,
after all, is less correct; _arles_, money paid on striking a bargain,
a highly interesting word, spelt _erles_ in the former half of the
thirteenth century; _arris_, the angular edge of a cut block of stone,
etc., from the O.F. _areste_, L. _arista_, which has been revived by
our Swiss mountain-climbers in the form _arete_; _a-sew_, dry, said
of cows that give no milk (cf. F. _essuyer_, to dry); _assoilyie_,
to absolve, acquit, and _assith_, to compensate, both used by Sir
W. Scott; _astre_, _aistre_, a hearth, a Norman word found in 1292;
_aunsel_, a steelyard, of which the etymology is given in the
_E.D.D._; _aunter_, an adventure, from the A.F. _aventure_; _aver_,
a beast of burden, horse, used by Burns, from the A.F. _aveir_,
property, cattle; _averous_, A.F. _averous_, avaricious, in Wyclif's
translation of 1 Cor. vi 10.

Here is ample proof of the survival of Anglo-French in our dialects.
Indeed, their chief philological use consists in the great antiquity
of many of the terms, which often preserve Old English and Anglo-French
forms with much fidelity. The charge often brought against dialect
speakers of using "corrupt" forms is only occasionally and
exceptionally true. Much worse "corruptions" have been made by
antiquaries, in order to suit their false etymologies.

CHAPTER X

LATER HISTORY OF THE DIALECTS

With the ascendancy of East Midland, and its acceptance as the chief
literary language, the other dialects practically ceased to be
recorded, with the exception (noted above) of the Scottish
Northumbrian. Of English Northumbrian, the sixteenth century tells us
nothing beyond what we can glean from belated copies of Northern
ballads or such traces of a Northern (apparently a Lancashire) dialect
as appear in Spenser's _Shepherd's Calendar_. Fitzherbert's _Boke
of Husbandry_ (1534) was reprinted for the E.D.S. in 1882. It was
written, not by Sir Anthony Fitzherbert, as I erroneously said in
the Preface, but by his brother, John Fitzherbert, as has been
subsequently shown. It contains a considerable number of dialectal
words. Thomas Tusser (1525-1580), born in Essex, wrote _A Hundreth
Good Pointes of Husbandrie_ (1557), and _Fiue Hundred Pointes of Good
Husbandrie_ (1573); see the edition by Payne and Herrtage, E.D.S.,
1878. He employs many country words, presumably Essex. The dialect
assumed by Edgar in Shakespeare's _King Lear_ is not to be taken as
being very accurate; he talks somewhat like a Somersetshire peasant,
but I suppose his speech to be in a conventional stage dialect, such
as we find also in _The London Prodigall_, Act II, Sc. 4, where
Olyver, "a Devonshire Clothier," uses similar expressions, viz.
_chill_ for _Ich will_, I will; and _chy vor thee_, I warn thee.

Towards the end of the seventeenth century, the value of dialectal
words as helping to explain our English vocabulary began to be
recognised. Particular mention may be made of the _Etymologicon
Lingu{ae} Anglican{ae}_, by Stephen Skinner, London, 1671; and it should
be noted that this is the Dictionary upon which Dr Johnson relied for
the etymology of native English words. At the same time, we must not
forget to note two Dictionaries of a much earlier date, which are of
high value. The former of these is the _Promptorium Parvulorum_,
completed in 1440, published by the Camden Society in 1865; which
contains a rather large proportion of East Anglian words. The second
is the _Catholicon Anglicum_, dated 1483, ed. S.J. Herrtage, E.E.T.S.,
1881, which is distinctly Northern (possibly of Yorkshire origin).

We find in Skinner occasional mention of Lincolnshire words, with
which he was evidently familiar. Examples are: _boggle-boe_,
a spectre; _bratt_, an apron; _buffet-stool_, a hassock; _bulkar_,
explained by Peacock as "a wooden hutch in a workshop or a ship."

The study of modern English Dialects began with the year 1674, when
the celebrated John Ray, Fellow of the Royal Society, botanist,
zoologist, and collector of local words and proverbs, issued his
_Collection of English Words not generally used_; of which a second
edition appeared in 1691. See my reprint of these; E.D.S., 1874. This
was the first general collection, and one of the best; and after this
date (1674) many dialect words appeared in English Dictionaries, such
as those of Elisha Coles (1676, and four subsequent editions); John
Kersey (1708, etc.); Nathaniel Bailey (1721, etc.); N. Bailey's
_Dictionary_, Part II, a distinct work (1727, etc.). The celebrated
_Dictionary_ by Dr Johnson, 2 vols., folio, London, 1755, owed much
to Bailey. Later, we may notice the _Dictionary_ by John Ash, London,
1775; and Todd's edition of Johnson, London, 1818. It is needless to
mention later works; see the Complete List of Dictionaries, by H.B.
Wheatley, reprinted in the E.D.S. Bibliographical List (1877), pp.
3-11; and the long List of Works which more particularly relate to
English Dialects in the same, pp. 11-17. Among the latter may be
mentioned _A Provincial Glossary_, by F. Grose, London, 1787, second
edition 1790; _Supplement to the same_, by the late S. Pegge, F.S.A.,
London, 1814; and _Glossary of Archaic and Provincial_ _Words_, by the
late Rev. J. Boucher, ed. Hunter and Stevenson, 1832-3. The last of
these was attempted on a large scale, but never got beyond the word
_Blade_; so that it was practically a failure. The time for producing
a real Dialect Dictionary had not yet come; but the valuable
_Etymological Dictionary of the Scottish Language_, by J. Jamieson,
published at Edinburgh in 4 vols., 4to, in 1808-25, made an excellent
beginning.

The nineteenth century not only accumulated for our use a rather large
number of general works on Dialects, but also a considerable quantity
of works illustrating them separately. I may instance those on the
dialect of Bedfordshire, by T. Batchelor, 1809; of Berkshire, by Job
Lousley, 1852; Cheshire, by R. Wilbraham, 1820, 1826; East Anglia, by
R. Forby, 1830, and by Nall, 1866; Teesdale, co. Durham, by F.T.
Dinsdale, 1849; Herefordshire, by G.C. Lewis, 1839; Lincolnshire, by
J.E. Brogden, 1866; Northamptonshire, by Miss A.E. Baker, 2 vols.,
1854; the North Country, by J.T. Brockett, 1825, 1846; Somersetshire,
by J. Jennings, 1825, 1869; Suffolk, by E. Moor, 1823; Sussex, by W.D.
Cooper, 1836, 1853; Wiltshire, by J.Y. Akerman, 1842; the Cleveland
dialect (Yorks.), by J.C. Atkinson, 1868; the Craven dialect, by W.
Carr, 1824; and many more of the older type that are still of value.
We have also two fairly good general dictionaries of dialect words;
that by T. Wright, 1857, 1869; and that by J.O. Halliwell, 2 vols.,
1847, 11th ed., 1889. See the exhaustive Bibliographical List of all
works connected with our dialects in the _E.D.D._, pp. 1-59, at the
end of vol. VI.

In 1869 appeared Part I of Dr A.J. Ellis's great work on _Early
English Pronunciation_, with especial reference to Shakespeare and
Chaucer; followed by Part II of the same, on the Pronunciation of the
thirteenth and previous centuries, of Anglo-Saxon, Icelandic, Old
Norse, and Gothic. In 1871 appeared Part III of the same, on the
Pronunciation of the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries. Part IV was
then planned to include the Pronunciation of the seventeenth,
eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries, including the Phonology of the
Dialects; and for this purpose it was necessary to gain particulars
such as could hardly be accomplished without special research. It was
partly with this in view, and partly in order to collect material for
a really comprehensive dictionary, that, in 1873, I founded the
English Dialect Society, undertaking the duties of Secretary and
Director. The Society was brought to an end in 1896, after producing
80 publications and collecting much material. Mr Nodal, of Manchester,
was Secretary from 1876 to 1893; and from 1893 to 1896 the
headquarters of the Society were in Oxford. Besides this, I raised a
fund in 1886 for collecting additional material in manuscript, and
thus obtained a considerable quantity, which the Rev. A. Smythe
Palmer, D.D., in the course of two years and a half, arranged in fair
order. But even in 1889 more was required, and the work was then
taken in hand by Dr Joseph Wright, who gives the whole account of
the means by which, in 1898, he was enabled to issue Vol. I of the
_English Dialect Dictionary_. The sixth and concluding volume of
this most valuable work was issued in 1905.

To this I refer the reader for all further information, which is
there given in a very complete form. At the beginning is a Preface
explaining the history of the book; followed by lists of voluntary
readers, of unprinted MS. collections, and of correspondents
consulted; whilst Vol. VI, besides a Supplement of 179 pages, gives a
Bibliography of Books and MSS. quoted, with a full Index; to which is
added the _English Dialect Grammar_.

This _English Dialect Grammar_ was also published, in 1905, as a
separate work, and contains a full account of the phonology of all the
chief dialects, the very variable pronunciation of a large number of
leading words being accurately indicated by the use of a special set
of symbols; the Table of Vowel-sounds is given at p. 13. The Phonology
is followed by an Accidence, which discusses the peculiarities of
dialect grammar. Next follows a rather large collection of important
words, that are differently pronounced in different counties; for
example, more than thirty variations are recorded of the pronunciation
of the word _house_. The fulness of the Vocabulary in the Dictionary,
and the minuteness of the account of the phonology and accidence in
the Grammar, leave nothing to desire. Certainly no other country can
give so good an account of its Dialects.

CHAPTER XI

THE MODERN DIALECTS

It has been shown that, in the earliest period, we can distinguish
three well-marked dialects besides the Kentish, viz. Northumbrian,
Mercian, and Anglo-Saxon; and these, in the Middle English period, are
known as Northern, Midland, and Southern. The modern dialects are very
numerous, but can be arranged under five divisions, two of which may
be called Northern and Southern, as before; whilst the other three
arise from a division of the widely spread Midland into subdivisions.
These may be called, respectively, West Midland, Mid Midland (or
simply Midland), and East Midland; and it has been shown that similar
subdivisions appear even in the Middle English period.

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