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THE
SOMERSETSHIRE DIALECT:
ITS PRONUNCIATION.
TWO PAPERS READ BEFORE THE
ARCHAEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOMERSET
BY T. SPENCER BAYNES.
Reprinted, with Permission, from the “Taunton Courier” of Dec, 26, 1855, and Jan. 30, 1856.
LONDON, 1861.
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(delwedd C3663) (tudalen 000b)
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THE SOMERSETSHIRE DIALECT:
ITS PRONUNCIATION.
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(delwedd C3664) (tudalen 000c)
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We certify that only 250 copies of this work have been printed, of
which one is on thick paper.
STRANGEWAYS & WALDEN, (late G. Barclay,)
28 Castle Street, Leicester Square.
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(delwedd C3665) (tudalen 001)
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THE SOMEKSETSHIRE
DIALECT:
ITS PRONUNCIATION.
Certainlt
few subjects more interesting or important can be proposed to the
Archaeological Society of a county
than its dialect. For if Archaeology
be, as I presume it is, the science of
unwritten history, having for its main object the interpretation of the past — and that not
so much through doubtful and often
legendary documents, but rather by
means of material records — having for
its object in that way the interpretation of the past — it must necessarily find in language
some of the richest materials for its
purpose. This is now pretty generally
understood, and Philology is beginning to assume its true position as the
indispensable handmaid of History. Within a comparatively recent period we
have seen one of its greatest triumphs,
— the early history of a great and
famous people wholly re-written through its
instrumentality. The early history of Rome, as you well know, was actually discovered,
recon-
B
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(delwedd C3666) (tudalen 002)
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2 THE SOMERSETSHIRE
DIALECT.
structed, and rewritten by Niebuhr, through the study of its antiquities, and mainly the
archaic element of the language. The
written records of the historians who
had undertaken to preserve and
transmit the early annals of their country had to be thrown aside as little better than
legends, and their place supplied by
the eloquent, the more authentic,
minute, and complete, though unconscious, testimony of the language itself.
And what is thus true of the language
of a country in general, — the
national tongue, — is pre-eminently true of
its provincial dialects, in which the archaic element of speech is best preserved. This archaic
element, moreover, is of special value
in our own country, from the piecemeal
way in which it was originally peopled,
or rather occupied, — by successive incursions from the opposite coast, of
various tribes, each belonging,
indeed, to the same stock, but representing for the most part a different
family, with marked peculiarities of
its own. These peculiarities were naturally impressed on the spot in
which the invaders settled, and in
many cases traces of them are to be
found there still. The natural
boundaries between these settlements wct*e often slight enough- — a low range of hills, a
narrow valley, or an insignificant
stream ; but, slight though they were,
these marks were sufficient to
determine an original difference of occupation i-ecognizable by a
peculiarity of dialect even at the
present time. It will be seen at once, then, how rich in the materials of history these
provincial dialects must be; and it
is, therefore, most important that some of the care, labour, and atten-
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(delwedd C3667) (tudalen 003)
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THS 80MBBSBTSHIBE
DIALEOT. 3
don, we bestow on the material and meobanical
remains of our Anglo-Saxon ancestors should be extended to the vital, the Hying traces of
their presence yet to be found amongst
us in the habits and language of the
common people. We willingly spend
time, and money too, in visiting the ruined
architecture of a religious house, even though it may not date beyond the Decorated or Early
English period ; if there are genuine
Norman remains, our curiosity is
increased in proportion; and if a genuine
Saxon ruin existed in the county, I believe every member of the society would wish to see it,
and find out all he could about its
history. There is thus little want of
zeal in this direction. In respect to
the more interesting remains of ecclesiastical architecture, indeed, we are not content
with a mere visit ; we take their
measurements, describe them
accurately, and sketch or photograph the
ruined door-way, before time destroys the lizard's tail, the lion's head, or griffin's claws,
still visible in rude but graphic
sculpture on the mouldering stone ;
but the rustic in the adjoining field who
stops his plough in mid-furrow, and gazes on the antiquarian and artist at their work, says
to his fellow, " Thic 'ool make a
purty pictur* drafted out — thic 'ool
; " or looking over your shoulder, expresses his wonder and admiration
after his own fashion, " Daizy me
I that beats all ; if that beant the
vurry pleeace issuU — look at the zun an'
^hee'dde dro' the door-waye, and the kexes and pixy-stools in the grass, and the evet on
the white stane, I zim I zees un
him." Of him we take no account;
but in many respects he is really a far
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(delwedd C3668) (tudalen 004)
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4 THE SOMBBSBTSHIRE
DIALECT.
more curious archaeological specimen than the ruin at his side. If we could only photograph
that man's mind, his way of thinking
and feehng, his notions of things, his
accent, pronunciation, and vocabulary,
we should get at some very striking
facts, and possess ourselves of rich archsBological materials. For rude and ignorant clown as
we know him to be, he is nevertheless
an authentic document of older times,
a living epistle from our Anglo -
Saxon forefathers, a volume of ancient
history, bound, sometimes perhaps in cloth, more commonly in leather, most commonly of all
in duck and corduroy ; one, however,
that it is important we should read
without delay. It is thus urgent because
it is clear that we shall not be able to keep
the volume long. I am most anxious that every sentence, if possible every syllable, of
that living epistle should be
deciphered at once, because we cannot
help seeing that we shall soon lose it altogether. The whole tendency of
modern life, of modern improvements
and modern progress, is to obliterate
these archaic remains of other men and
older manners — these picturesque provincial peculiarities. Railways
and telegraphs, machinery and steam,
the schoolmaster and the press, will soon
sweep the last living trace of the Saxon and the Dane out of the land. The time-honoured
agricultural labourer will by-and-by become almost as great a myth as Thor, or Odin, or Wayland
Smith. From present appearances and
tendencies, indeed, it is not
improbable that he may be resolved
into a rural stoker. We plough by machinery, we sow by machinery, we reap by machinery,
we
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(delwedd C3669) (tudalen 005)
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THB SOMER8ET8HIRB
DIALECT. 5
tbresh by machinery ; and if all these machines are not yet worked by steam, it may be taken
for grapted they soon will be. Already
there are steam ploughs and steam
flails, and steam drills and
reaping-hooks will no doubt soon follow; and whether they do or no, whether the labourer
really becomes a stoker or not, it is
clear that, with such a revolution
going on, he will soon lose his present
character and habits. I am not here to deplore that inevitable change; far from it, for I
hope, that what the peasant loses as a
Saxon he will gain as a man. I simply
urge it as a motive to activity, that
we should gain all that is valuable
before the change comes ; that since the rustics in our villages and hamlets are still rich in
the materials of provincial archsBology, while at the same time every day diminishes the store, we
should secure all they have to give us
without delay.
I am glad, therefore, to have an opportunity of directing your attention to the subject,
and in doing BO shall confine myself
at present to the pronunciation of the
dialect, leaving its vocabulary for
future consideration. At the outset, however,
I may mention to you (in strict confidence) as in part explaining the course I am about to
pursue, that when the committee asked
me to take up the subject, they
intimated at the same time — also in
confidence, of course — that they wished to make these meetings more free and conversational
than heretofore, and, if possible, to
introduce an element of discussion
into them; and that to this end it
would, perhaps, be well if I could manage to say some things that might be easily
contradicted. I
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(delwedd C3670) (tudalen 006)
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6 THE SOMEB8ET8HIBB
DIALECT.
fancy they felt that the subject was rather a dry one, as it really is, and it would be all
the better if it could be flavoured
with a spice of paradox ; that as a
celebrated French monarchy was wittily
said to be an '^ absolute despotism tempered with epigrams," so the absolute dullness
natural to the subject might be tempered
with paradox and contradiction. I think the suggestion a valuable one, and being anxious to meet the views of the
com' mittee as far as possible, I
propose to undertake a defence of the
Somersetshire pronunciation. You all
know that this is commonly regarded as rough
and uncouth in the extreme. Jennings, writing on the subject thirty years ago, said, the
dialect was "generally reckoned
very harsh and inharmonious." It
is identified with everything that is rude and clumsy in rustic life, and has, in fact,
done very heavy duty as the
representative of the clownish element
in literature. If the character of a coarse
and brutal proprietor is to be drawn, the V's and Z's were called into requisition, and
Squire Western appears talking very
genuine Zoomerzet. Is a clown in a
lower walk of life wanted ? Hob senior
and Hob junior play at see-saw with zeed and zawed throughout the quaint comedy of Hob
in the Well. Even the late Professor
Wilson — the "Christopher
North" of Blackwood — when he
sketches an English rustic, makes him come from " vamous Zoomerset - Sheer ; "
and the poetical clodhopper in Punch
is manifestly from the same county. In
this way it has become identified with
everything that is coarse and clownish. In oppo^ sition to this view I propose to illustrate
— that
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(delwedd C3671) (tudalen 007)
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THE SOMERSBTSHIRB
DIALECT. 7
the pronunciatkm peculiar to Somersetshire, instead of being harsh and discordant,, is
remarkably smooth and easy, I might
almost say masical ; and that, far
from being, as it is commonly represented
to be, vulgar and corrupt, it is, on the contrary, pre-eminently pure and classical. This, I
think, is sufficiently extreme, and I
shall be very happy if I can succeed
in tempting members of the society
into a discussion of the subject.
Now, in order to decide this question of roughness or smoothness, softness or
hardness, we must look mainly to the
characteristic consonants of the
dialect, since these rather than the vowels determine its character in
this respect. As Grimm tells us,
vowels are the fleeting, flowing element of
sound, consonants the stable. Consonants are thus the thews and sinews, bones and muscles, of
language, which give it form, definite outline, and individual character, the
vowels being little more than breath
and colour. Nevertheless they must not
be neglected, for, if they are the fleeting,
fluent element of sound, it follows tliat, where they abound, the language will tend to
become free, flowing, and musical in
its pronunciation. We see this in the
Italian, which has more vowel-sounds in proportion to the consonants — altogether
a richer vowel element, and is at the
same time more masical than any other
language. This is aptly put by old
Camden, who, speaking of the Italian,
says, — " It is sweet and pleasant, but without sinews, as a still, fleeting water;"
by which he means that it is far
richer in vowel-sounds than
consonantal ones. It is "without sinews," as
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(delwedd C3672) (tudalen 008)
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8
THE
SOMERSBTSHIBB DIALECT.
having few
consonants ; but ^^ sweet and pleasant "
from its abundant vowels. Now what is the position of the
Somersetshire dialect in this respect ?
'It will be found, on examination, that it is exceedingly rich in
vowel-sounds : that, in fact, the one
great principle of its vowel-system is the increase and multiplication of these sounds* It
constantly tends to make close vowels
open \ long vowels short; pure words
mixed; single vowels double vowels,
diphthongs, and even triphthongs.
The vowels are lengthened and opened in such
words as the following, for example — hond and vootCy for hand and foot — dorke and lorke^
for dark and lark — bade and dade^ for
bed and dead.
We have mixed and double vowels in words like
— haye, daycy mayCy zaye, for hay, dayy may, say; maaid for maid, plaaine for plain, cauld
for cold, auver for over, &c. An
immense number of words that are
monosyllables in common English are, in
the Somersetshire dialect, converted into dissyllables by this broadening and opening of the
vowel-sound. The following are a few
examples : —
Bee-ast =
beast Clee-an = clean Chee-ase = cheese Chee-ars = chairs Kee-ar = care Kee-ard = card Kee-art = cart Kee-ave =: calf Gee-ame = game Gee-ate = gate Hee-art = heart
Mee-ade =
mead (mea- Mee-ate = meat [dow) Mee-olk = milk Noo-an = none Nee-ad = need Shee-ape = sheep Zee-ade = seed Zee-ape = sap Vroo-ast = frost Vi-er = fire Boo-ath = both, &c.
/
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(delwedd C3673) (tudalen 009)
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i THE 80HBRSETSHIBE
DIALECT. 9
-tThis change in the vowels may be illustrated by Ik verse firom Jennings' ^^Good buys ta
thee, Cot:^* —
** Good buye ta thee, cot ! whaur tha dayze o* my cheuldhood Glaw'd bright as tha zun in a mornin' o'
fnaye ; When the dum'ledores hammin;
ereaped out o' tha cob-wall. And sheakin*
ther whings, tha vleeade vooath and awaye" An extract from a recent number of Punchy
thoagh not very correct Somerset, will
also illustrate this: —
" Now tell me, John Trottbr, wha'st laughin' about ? Ever since thee'st come whoame, thee'st kep
bustin' oat : What is't thee hast
yeer'd, mun, or what hast thee zeeun ;
John, tell lis what keeapes thee so broad on the grin ?
Well there, then, old ooman, the truth I 'ool speeake, I'll tell thee what 'tis meeaks ray zides
for to sheeake, The rummest thing ever
you yeearde in your life, As any man
truly med zaye to his wife.
Steppun into the Bull as I keeame by just now, I zee Simon Tannsb., and he zede as
how, Up in Lunnun there was for to be
sich a go ! I zaye, lass, what'st
tiiink of a Prize Baby Show ?
Vor sheeame, John, to talk zo ! — a Baby Show 1 ~where ? Among the wild beeasties at Bartlemy Vair
? I yeearde that was done for, and
Smichfield likewise ; I doubt, John,
thee tell'st me a passle o' lies.
Well, then, John, I zaye 'tis a zin and a sheeame.
And sitch mothers as they be beeant worthy the neeame."
Not only, however, does the dialect abound in
long vowels and diphthongs, it has a number of genuine triphthongs also. The English
language has very few of these, even
to the eye, that is in spelling (like
beauty, for instance) ; and not more
than one or two, if any, to the ear, that is in pronunciation. But
they are by no means rare in the
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(delwedd C3674) (tudalen 010)
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10 THE SOMERSETSHIRE
DIALECT. I
Somersetshire dialect Take the following shorf
dialogue, for example : — " Whur
bist guaine ? " " Whoamey to
vetch vayther's qtwatJ^ ^<Make
heeaste, there's a good buot/» Zee if
the keetle bt^oils, and tak keear of the quoat"
Guaine — uai. Here there are at
least four triphthongs — "
Quoat —
uoa.
Buoy — Moy.
Buoile — uoi.
The
combination twy only exists in one word in
English — buot/y a float ; and there it is not sounded; but boy, a child, is always sounded in
Somersetshire just as btu>t/y a float, is spelt.
This is not all, however. There is a class of
English words beginning with a couple of vowels, where the two are made to do duty for one,
and thus represent only a single
vowel-sound. But in Somersetshire both
are fully sounded by prefixing or
giving to the first the semi-vowel sound of Y. Take the word eat, for instance. Here ea
represents the single vowel-sound of long E, eat — eet, or ete. But the Somersetshire man is not
content to lose his vowels in this way
; he is far too fond of them, and
determines therefore to retain both, which he
does by prefixing, or rather giving, to the first the semi-vowel sound of Y, and eat accordingly
becomes ^eat. This may be illustrated
by an extract from two short dialogues
lately published, which, though by no
means uniformly happy in representing the
dialect, seize a few words well enough, amongst others the one in question : —
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(delwedd C3675) (tudalen 011)
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THE SOMERSETSHIRE DIALECT.
1 1
Fcarmer without^ driving the ducktjrom the garden.
Former, Shew !— shew ! — geet out! — .geet out ! I wiab xomebody would Z8teal thic old woman's
dukes ! She neyer gives them nothing
to yeat^ and then they comes routing
about in the garden, and geating up all hevore *em.
Wi/e. Drat those dukes ! they be zuch zilly cratures ! They can't come in the garden and zstuff
thursulls quietly, but tiiey must
begin quack, quack, quacking ! And then old
man hears 'em, and turns 'em out; zo thic*s all they geet by tfadrtslking.
Farmer {as he cornea in), Thic pigs must be turned out o' the orchard. The wind ha*e blown the apples
down, and they be geating away as
never was.
Vititor, Without having asked your permission.
Fanner. O eze ; they never does do that. Thic pig at the back o' the bouze won't touch 'em
tho'.
Visitor. Are they all of the same family ?
Farmer. Eze, he be their mother.
Visitor. What an immense size, farmer, that pig is ! She is nearly as large as a donkey, and seems
quite choking with fet.
Farmer. He vat I why he beant haif a pig. I wou'dn't gi'e a penny vor zuch a pig as he. We'd
geat he up in vive weeks if he was
made in bacon.
The following are other examples of the same
process: —
Yee-ast = east I Yee-ath = earth
Yee-am = earn | Yee-arly = early
The same takes place in words with the aspirate prefixed, the aspirate giving place to the
semi* vowel Y — e,g, : Yee-ate = heat (" can you catch yeeat
to-day ? **) Yee-ard = heard Yee-ade = head. This last word may be illustrated by the
story of^OldBarnzo:"
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(delwedd C3676) (tudalen 012)
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12 THE SOMERSETSHIRE
D^LF^. ^^^
" Everybody knows old Barnzo^ as weears his yee-ade a one zide. One night a waz a'
comin* whoame from market, and veil
off 's boss into the road, a wuz zo
drunk. Zome chaps coming by, picked
'um up, and zeein' his yee-ade wuz all a'
one zide, they thought 'twas out o' jint, and began to pull'n into 's plee-ace again, when the
auld huoy roared out — * Barn zo [bom
so] I tell 'e ! ' Zo a woz alius
called old Barnzo ever aterwards.**
The same tendency is seen in many words
having only one vowel, but that a long one — e*g. :
Yee-ale = ale.
Yee-arm =
arm. Yee-abel= Abel. Yee-aels = ells.
arm = earm
= yee-arm.
A similar
process takes place in regard to other
initial vowels, but enough has already been said to illustrate this part of the subject.
You will thus see how the whole characteristic tendency of the dialect is, in this way, to
broaden and multiply the vowel-sounds
; and thus to make the pronunciation
more smooth and fluent.
I will now turn to the consonants, where, if
this tendency really exists, it must become still more apparent. You will remember that
consonantal sounds are divided into various kinds, according to the different
organs of speech chiefly active in
their production, such as lip-and-teeth sounds — tongue "and -palate sounds, &c.,
and that each kind of sound is
represented by two consonants, one
hard, the other soft, e,g., the lip-and-teeth
sounds V and F — V being the soft sound of F,
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(delwedd C3677) (tudalen 013)
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/
T^^B pMEBSBTSHIBB DIALECT. 13
F the hard v-Cund of V ; so with the tongue-and-palate sounds, D, T, &c.
We are, thus furnished with an
accurate and sufficient test bj which to
determine the hardness or softness, roughness or smoothness, of a given tongue. Now, how
does the Somersetshire dialect stand
affected by this test ? I will venture
to say, that all that is peculiarly
characteristic in its system of consonants may be explained on the one principle, of choosing
a smooth consonant rather than a rough
one^ a soft rather than a hard one. In
illustration of this I will take four
classes of consonants, beginning with those in which this tendency is least seen, and going on to those where it is
most strikingly manifested.
First of all take G and K. These are throat-sounds, K being hard, G soft ;
but there is this to be said about
them, that, being throat-sounds, and
thus less agreeable than most others, there is a natural tendency to soften and suppress
both. G is softened at the beginning of
such words as the following: guaine —
going; gee-ame — ^game; gee^ ate —
gate. Here the broadening of the vowel-sound tends to soften the initial
consonant, so that it becomes quite a
weak breathing. At the end of words,
as a general rule, but especially of words
ending in NG, the G goes out altogether — e,g, :
Courtin =
courting Weddin = wedding Varden = farthing
Doomplin =
dumpling Puddun = pudding Marnin = morning.
You may
have instances innumerable of this any
Saturday on going early to market, in the greetings
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(delwedd C3678) (tudalen 014)
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14 THS S0MEBSET8HIBK
DIALECT.
fljdng about from one bustling market-woman to another — " Mamin s'marnin, — Vine
mamin s'mar-*> nin, — How be
s'mamin ? " K is softened in the
same way as G — by increasing the vowel-sound — at the beginning of such words as these : —
Quoat for
coat Quoin — coin
Quine for
comer Quoit — coit.
In cuckoo^
and a few other words, it is softened to
G, cuckoo being universally pronounced gookoo. There are not many cases of its being
softened or excluded at the end of a
word. Pulman, however, in his " Rustic Sketches," says that the
word pickaxe is always pronounced
" pickass," in which case
the K has gone out altogether.
I will pass on to a more characteristic pair of consonants — the tongue^and-palate sounds D
and T — D, of course, being soft, T
hard. There is a strong tendency in
the dialect to soften T to D — e,g, :
Bedder for
better Budder — butter Beeadle — beetle Boddum — bottom
Liddle for
little Nodis — notice Maddick — mattock Cuddy — cutty (wren). Pulman, in some verses on "
Summer," says : —
**Th' Tlowers all bright an' gay Wi*
zwit pervume da seeynt th' air, An'
th' wopse and buddervly da share
Their zwitness dru th' day."
Not only, however, is the hard T thus softened to D, the still harder TH is often changed to
D also. TH is a tongue-and-teeth
sound, and there is, as you know
(though unrepresented by any difference
of letter) a hard and a soft sound of TH. The great
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(delwedd C3679) (tudalen 015)
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THS SOMBSSXT8HIBK
DIALSOT. 15
majority of English words beginning with these liters have the hard sound; but this is
ahnoat unknown in Somersetshire.
Indeed I doubt whether it exists at
all, for I think it will be found that the
genuine natives always tend to give to such words as thanky think, thing, the soft sound
instead of the hard. This is, indeed,
to be expected, for the greater
indndes the less, and I am now about to show that there is a strong tendency to soften the
hard TH not only into the soft TH, but
into the still softer
Droo =
through Dree = three Dirsh = thrush Dreaten = threaten Drow = throw
Drash =
thrash Drashel = threshold Drooate = throat Varden = farthing.
Squire
Western says, when the fair Sophia rebels
against the husband of his choice — the precious Blifil, yon will remember — "I won't
gee her a happney, not the twentieth
part of a brass var<Ien" This
word varden is rather a curious one. Out of
the six original consonants only two remain, and the changes thus effected represent three
characteristic tendencies of the dialect — the softening of F to V, of TH to D, and the rejection of
the final a.
A still more characteristic pair of consonants comes now to be considered, — the
lip-and'teeth sounds V and F. The
substitution of V for F is one of the
two notorious marks of the Somersetshire dialect, by which it is known and
recognised all the world over, the
other being the change of S
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(delwedd C3680) (tudalen 016)
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16 THE SOMEBSBTSHIBE
PIALEOT.
to Z. I may here notice a rather strange remark which Jennings makes of these changes.
Opposing the general notion that the
dialect is inharmonious, he says, —
" Except in its frequent and unpleasant
use of Z for S, and V for i", I do not think it will be found so deficient in agreeable sounds
as has been commonly supposed," —
which, as these are almost the only
consonantal peculiarities he notices,
is really very like saying, " except in its chief
characteristics,'* &c.— rather a serious, in fact, utterly suicidal exception to make, when the object
in view is to establish something
about the very dialect thus
characterised. If V and Z really were more
harsh and disagreeable sounds than F and 'S, it would be difficult, indeed, to prove that
the dialect was characteristically
smooth and easy. The reverse, however, is, of course, the fact, V and Z being the softened sound of F and S
respectively.
The softening of F into V at the beginning o'f a word is all but universal in the dialect.
The following short dialogue may be taken in illustration : —
" Guaine to t?y-er ?"
"Eze."
" Oh, brave ! vine daye t?or the volks at the t?y-er. Guaine a-voote ? "
" Aye, vooased too. Bill humed a voorke into the old mare's ret-lock, and her's
a-t?alled leeame."
In these few sentences are nine words in which the change takes place. Here are other
examples: —
Vro-ast =
frost Yorrud = forward Virkin = firkin Vinger = finger.
Vee-aste =
feast Vlock = flock Vayther == father Vier = fire.
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(delwedd C3681) (tudalen 017)
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THE 801IBBSBT8HIBE
DIALVOT. 17
The words vy^er, fair, and rt-er, fire, are pronoanced very much alike; and
the following extract will illustrate the confusion this sometimes produces :—
Hannah. Beant there many vyers in Lunnun, Mist ?
Visitor. Yes, unfortunately, too many.
Wife. What do a think, Miss, o' thic xilly lass, Hannah ? her and yather walked sixteen miles to zee
a vyer.
Vmtor, Were there many houses humt ?
Hannah, Houses burnt— -noa, Miss ! There beant nothing at all burnt at vyers.
Visitor. Not anything burnt at fires ?
Hannah. Noa, Miss, it wasn't a vier, but a vyer.
Visitor. Well, what do you call a fire ?
V Hannah. Why, a vyer be where they sell gingerbread, and cloth, and ribbon : and show wild beeastes—
Oh, moi heart ! I wouldn't go to zee
they ! I shou'd be zo Trightened ! And
there be monkey-banks there, what jumps dro' hoops, and eats Tier. And girt big wax-dolls in a
cart. Moi heart ! such a size ! One,
they zaid, was Boney, and one the Princess
Charlotte. Oh, she did look zo purty! And there was zinging, and dandng, and zuch vine Yun there. I do
like vyers zo much!
At the end of words, too, where F has the
sharp sound in English, it is in the Somerset dialect changed into V — e. g. :
Turve =
turf Hooave = hoof LooiiTe « loaf
Leeave =
leaf Keeave = calf Wiave = wife.
The next
pair of consonants, Z and S, the most
celebrated in the dialect, are conveniently represented in the very
name of the county itself — "
Zoomerzetzheere." These are tongue-and-palate
c
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(delwedd C3682) (tudalen 018)
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18 THE 60MEftSETSHIR£
DIALECT.
sounds, S hard, Z soft; and it is the hard sound of S which gives to our language that
sibilant^ hissing character so much
complained of by foreigners, and
sometimes by natives also. Lord Bjron,
comparing Italian with English, describes
the latter as —
" Our harsh northern whistling^ gruntmg, guttural, Which we are obliged to hiss, and spity and
tplutter all."
The hissing, spitting sound here referred to is that of the letter in question. Of course, we
may naturally expect to find this
softened in the Somersetshire dialect,
and we find it is so universally. At the beginning of a word S is always changed to Z. This is so well known that a
single illustration will suffice. Take
the following, the first verse of the
parable of the sower, translated into
the dialect: ^^ Yee-arken, behold a Zower went vo<MLth to Zbw, an as a Zooed Zome ZeeM
veil by the waye Zide, an the vowels
o' the ayre did yeat it up.**
At. the end of a syllable, S is softened in such words as hauze — house ; mouze -r-monse^
&c. It is also softened by
transposition, and that in rather a
noteworthy manner. * In a word like hasp, for
instance, the S cannot be softened so long as it retains its place — the sharp lip-sound P
sharpens also the preceding consonant
— shuts down sharply upon it, and
prevents it dying away into Z. In the
Somersetshire dialect the letters are transposed, the S softened, in turn sometimes alsa
softening the P, so that hasp hecomea
haps, or habs. The following are other
examples of this change :—
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(delwedd C3683) (tudalen 019)
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THE SOMBRSETSHIBS
DIALECT. 19
Claps ss:
olasp Crips sa crisp
Apse s=
aspen
Only one
other consonant remains to be considered—Me letter R, and I am the more
anxious to saj something about this
letter, because its treatment in the
dialect, though in many respects very curious,
has rarely been noticed even in
isolated words, and never referred to as a general ebaracteris^c at all. The letter R stands
alone — h is rough by nature a^d in
its own right. Like 8y it is a
tongue-and-palate sound, and, with it, is
distinguished for strength rather than for euphony, the one being pre-eminently the hissing,
the other the harsh, vibrating sound
of the language. R has indeed — like
Ireland to successive Governments —
always been the ^' great difficulty" with the leaders of fashion, the rulers of refined speech.
The problem, of course, generally is to soften and subdue it as much as possible. In the modern
London pronunciation, the R in the
middle or towards the end of a
syllable tend? to go out, so that words like
wark^ wordy worldy become wawk^ waudy waulde* In the Cockney, or corrupted London
pronunciation, indeed, there is a system
of compensation at work, by which the
Rs that have been unceremoniously
thrown out from the middle of words to which they belong, are charitably taken in again
at the end of words where they have no
business ; and young ladies and
gentlemen who would think it "
baHbawous " and a " baw " to sound the R in its proper place, speak nevertheless of Par and
Mar,
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(delwedd C3684) (tudalen 020)
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20 THE SOMEBSBT8HIK£
BIALECT.
Mariar and Sophiar, the Crimear^ and the Almar^ without having the least idea that there is
any inconsistencj in so doing. This
is, of course, a mere vulgarism. But
in the best pronunciation — the
pronunciation of the best, the most refined and cultivated people, there is a growing
tendency to soften the B as much as
possible. This may be seen even in its
exaggeration in the language of the *'
fast " men of the day. The swell or exquisite of any period generally represents to the
extreme the fashionable tendencies of
the time. No doubt he exaggerates
them, but still he represents them, and
is therefore useful and valuable to u^, even in his absurdity. Now in modem novels, dramas,
and satirical poetry in general, it
will be found that the exquisite of
the period, —
** The fine, young English Gentleman, one of the modem time,"
is represented as speaking a peculiar dialect, the main feature of which consists in the
exclusion of the letter B. You must be
quite familiar with this in the pages
of Punchy for the swell often appears
there. I will give a specimen, not one of
the most recent or the best, but one that happens to be at hand. It was written at the time
of the Uncle Tom Mania, and is
entitled, — "A Swell's Homage to
Mrs. Stowe:" —
A must wead Uncle Tom — a wawk Which,
A'm afv^aid's eztwemely slow,
People one meets begin to talk Of Mrs.
Hawietbeechastowe.
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(delwedd C3685) (tudalen 021)
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THE 80MEB8BT8HIBE
DIALECT. 21
Tis not as if A saw ha name
To walls and windas stiU confined ;
All that is meawly vnlga fiime :
A don't wespect the public mind.
But Staffa'd House has made haw quite
Anotha land a pawson look, A CoDutess
would pasist, last night,
In asking me about haw book.
She wished to know if I admiawd
Eva, which quite confounded me : And
then haw Ladyship inqwaw'd
Whethaw A didn't hate Legwee ?
Bai Jore ! A was completely flaw'd ;
A wish'd myself, or haw, at Fwance : .
And thaf s the way a fella's baw'd
By er'wy gal he asks to dance.
A felt myself a gweata fool
Than A had evaw felt befaw ; A'U study
at some Wagged School
The tale of that old Blackamaw !
Now the one feature of these verses is the total exclusion of the letter B, its place being
supplied by A or W, one or both. I am
not going to decide whether that
dialect is polished and refined, — I
simply saj, that whatever polish and refinement it possesses, I really must claim on behalf of
the rustics of Somersetshire, who
display as great a horror of the
letter B, and are as anxious to
suppress it where they can, and soften it in all possible ways where they cannot, as the
greatest exquisite that lounges in St.
James's, or airs himself in Botten Bow.
Let US see how this is accomplished. In the
first place, there is a great number of words in
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(delwedd C3686) (tudalen 022)
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22
THJB
30HEBSET8HIRE DIALECT.
which the B
is altogether exdiided.' The following
are a few of these? —
Aa'th =
earth Coase = coarse. Guth = girth He'ath = hearth Ha'sh = harsh Hoace = hoarse Oss =5 horse Maacy = mercy PasoQ = parson Pasnips = parsnips Pas'le = parcel Puze = purse
Scace =3
scarce Veace ^ flerce Yooased = forced Vooath s=s forth Vast = first Vuss = verse Vuze = furze Thusty = thirsty Wuss = worse Wusser = worst Wuth =s worth.
In the next
place, it is often softened by transposition, and this in two cases
particularly. I. At the beginning of a
word. All who have discussed the
subject agree, that however B may be softened or suppressed at the end of a word or
syllable, it must be sounded, and
strongly sounded, when it begins a word. Now there are a number of words in the Somersetshire dialect, in which this
necessity is •to a certain extent
evaded, and the initial B softened by
transposition. As a general rule the B changes places with the vowel, and the aspirate is
added. The following are illustrations
: —
Hurn =
run Hird = rid Hurd = red
Hirch = rich
Hirchet s=
Bichard Hirsle = rustle Hirsh = rush Hirddick s rnddick (Buddock).
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(delwedd C3687) (tudalen 023)
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THB 80MEBSET8HIRS
DIALECT. 23
With regard to this last word I may mention, that it was hj being a^are of the rule touching
the transposed R, that I was enabled
to recognise it. I knew that Ruddock
(literally "little red one")
was a common name with the older poets for the Redbreast, and being anxious to know
whether it was used in this county,
went to a man working in a field, and
asked him whether they ever called the
Robin the Rudduck. " Noa, zir," said the man, ''we dwoant call 'un that, we calls 'un the
Bobbin Hirddickf^* which I, of course,
at once recognised as the.
Somersetshire form of the word.
2. When it follows another consonant. A
similar transposition takes place after another consonant in such
words as the following : —
Birge s=
bridge Birsh =£: brush Dirsh = thrush Dird = thread Curmson = crimson Curse = cress Kirsmas = Christmas
Kirsning ==
christening Girt = great Gim s= grin
Gurdled = griddled Begurge s=s
begrudge Apum = apron, &c.
The sixth
word in the list — curscy cress — gives
us the true and simple explanation of a common phrase, which sounds at first hearing
desperate and profane in the extreme,
and, probably, when now used, often
really is so ; but which is nevertheless, in its original use and meaning,
innocent enough. The phrase in
question is, — " I don't care a
curse for it," which is only another form of a phrase still more common, being strictly
synonymous with " I don't care a straw^ or a rush,^ And
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(delwedd C3688) (tudalen 024)
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24 THE S0MESSET8HIRB
DIALECT.
the meaning in either case, of course, is, — '* I don't care a straw — a rush — a cress," —
anything so common, so worthless as a rush or a cress, which is to be found in any ditch by the road-side—
"I don't care even that about the
matter."
This closes the review of the consonants. We
have seen the principle laid down at the outset working throughout the entire examination —
that soft sounds are preferred to
hard, smooth consonants to rough ; that this system of softening reaches its climax — -becomes most
elaborate and minute — in relation to
the two consonants ^hat are harshest
and roughest in the language — B and S
; and it is difficult, therefore, to resist the conclusion, that a dialect in
which these are the peculiarities is
in its pronouncing characteristically smooth and easy.
I had proposed to show that it is also ^* pure and classical " — by which I mean that
its leading features are not
provincial corruptions of modem
English^ but genuine remains of classic Anglo-Saxon; but I have
already sufficiently occupied your
time, and this part of the subject must be
left for a future occasion.
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(delwedd C3689) (tudalen 025)
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THE 80MEB8BTSHIRB
DIALBGT. 26
SBCoin>
Pafeb.
You will remember that in taking np this snb*
ject on a former occasion, I proposed to confine myself to the pranuneiaHony leaving
altogether for the present the
voeabtdary of the dialect, as far too
important to be made a mere supplement to the consideration of the vocal sounds, which is
at best only an introductory branch of
the subject. Tou will remember also
that I proposed to look at the
pronunciaticm under two aspects, the pAonelic— what the characteristic sounds of the
dialect actually are; and the historical — their antiquity, source, and authority. Under the former head I
endeavoured to rebut a conmionly received opinion, that the sounds of the dialect are peculiarly
hard and discordant, and to the
authorities then quoted in support of this
view, I may now add that of the
earliest writer on English dialects — Alexander Gill, Master of St. Paul's School, and for
some years Milton's tutor, who,
writing on this subject in 1619,
speaks as follows : '* But of all our dialects none equal the Western in barbarism,
especially if you hear it spoken by
the country people of Somerset ; for
one might well doubt whether they spoke
English or some foreign idiom." In opposition to this view I endeavoured
to show, that so far from being rough
and unmusical, the pronunciation is remarkably soft and easy, abounding to a
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(delwedd C3690) (tudalen 026)
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26 THE
fiOMEBSBTSHI&S DIALECT.
characteristic extent in open vowels and smooth consonants.
Under the second head I have now to illustrate historically, that the pronunciation of the
dialect, instead of being, as it is
also commonly considered to be, vulgar
luid corrupt, was, on the contrary,
pure and legitimate — I might almost say classical. But in speaking of comparative parity, soma standard vmust of course be assumed, and
this is naturally found in
Anglo-Saxon, the root-element and
mother-tongue of modem English. I need
scarcely, remind you that at least two-thirds of all the words in ^e language are of Saxon
origin ; that these words include the
terms expressive of all natural
relations, times and seasons, objects,
a£fections, and activities ; and that the Saxon element of English is thus the well-spring
of its tenderness and strength, the
source of its sparkling life and
kindly merriment, its healthful bloom fmd
manly vigour. Anglo-Saxon, therefore, as the parent of each, is the standard by which
the purity of both literary and
provincial English must alike be
tested. It used to be thought, indeed, and the opinion may still be held by those who have
not considered the subject, that the
provincial dialects were only
indirectly connected with the root-element
of the language — are at best^nly grandchildren of the mother-tongue, correct English being
the direct offspring. The very
reverse, however, would be much nearer
the truth, literary English being in
fact wrought out of the dialects, instead of the dialects being degraded forms of the more
refined speech. This is now fully
understood; and we
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(delwedd C3691) (tudalen 027)
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THE 80XEBSET8HIBE
DIALECT. 27
mskj saj with confidence that the dialect is not onlj the direct offspring of the parent stock,
but the elder son, who, having
remiuned alwajs at home in his
father's house, culdvatiBg the land of his
sires, has retained much of their habits, language, and wa^ of life. Current English, on the
other hand^ ifr rather the younger but
more active, enterprising son, who, having early left home to see the world, has, in various expeditions^ miUtary
or commercial, visited many hmds, conversed with men of different manners, fmd gathered: in
knowledge and experience from every
quarter ; and who accordingly returns changed not only in appearance, but in speech and manner also, the ruddy.
Saxoi^ bloom pi lus cheek tanned to
manly brown, his once fair hair of a
deeper ccdour, and all traces 'of a
rustic origin well-nigh lost in his more easy, polished bearing, more rich and copious
vocabulary, more free, cultivated, and
various life« So changed, indeed; as
scarcely to be recognised by the elder,
to whoih the Upse 6f time has brought no change, except the inevitable vieissitudes of the
seasons; and who, having continued
from year to year ploughing the lands
his forefathers ploughed, eating the
beef it was their pride to raise,, and drinking the good October in which their souls
delighted, naturally stigmatises the
refinements of the younger, whether of
speech or manner, as "new-fangled
contraptions," " outlandish dixnary talk," "
vurrin Vrenchivied, slack-twisted
ways."
Such, in general, is the relation between current and provincial English. The dialects
faithfully reflect the character of
those who preserve them,
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(delwedd C3692) (tudalen 028)
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■■■Mi 28 THE SOMERSETSHIRE
DIALECT.
and are eminently conservative. The genuine
native, the true son of the soil, is slow-going and self-contained to a proverb. He looks with
distrust and suspicion, if not with
aversion and downright hatred, on
everjthing to which he is unaccustomed,
resisting every innovation, every novelty, with the whole vis inertits of his nature, which is
immense. This characteristic is
roughly, but neverthelesd truly
enough, represented in the following verses,
which appeared a few years ago in a local paper, and which I will read as an illustration of the
dialect: —
THE WOLD ZUMMERZET VARMER.
I be a Zmnmerzet Yarmer, one o' the wolden school ;
I hiate theaze modem wize ons, who tiake me rar a too! ;
The wordle's gwam to rain, ets end I plainly zee,
Var er'ry theing's tamed upzide down, vrom what et used ta be.
I uzed ta goo ta plow en mam, an do a good day's work, An arderwards walk ta markit, aU drae the
mnd an dert ; But youngsters now be
got za proud, that they won't work at mU»
They ride ta markit in vine gigs, but pride ool have a yall.
When tha Landlarda uzed to tell us that the Pariiment roke
were wrong, We vollowed 'em ; whata'er
thay cried, we joained 'em in the
zong; But Yarmers now theink var
theimselyes, and be sich lamed
men. That thay want ta leaid the
Landlards, 'stead o' tha Ijandlards
leaiding theam.
Mazheenery now ez aU the goo,-ya caint doo anytheing
But what thay'll zay you doo et wrong, you must uze some
mazheene ; I wesh thay'd tax tha
cursed theings, I haite thaer rary zight,
Thay tiake the Labrer's work away, and that I'm sure baint
right. ...
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(delwedd C3693) (tudalen 029)
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THE SOMEBSETSHIRB
DIALECT. 29
TioLj talk about thear cheamastry, an tha dose knowt whot
bezides, Tes a zign we're gwain ta
ruin whan Vannera get za wize ; Much
Isuming ezent wanted in managing a varm,
£f tha know tha woay to reaid an rite, muore only doz em hairm.
I years 'em talk ov Yarmers' Clubi, and az 'em what they
meain. Thay tell me o' discussions
'bout mazheenery dray by steam ; Thay
meet ta talk, and reaid, et zeems, Hake other lamed men, But out a Tield a plowen groan ez a better
plaice for theam.
I be a Zummerzet Tarmer, one o' the wolden school ;
I hiate thei^e modern wize ans, who tiake me var a vool ;
The wordle's gwain ta ruin, ets end I plainly zee,
Var er'ry theing's tamed apzide down yrom what et ozed ta be,
I see that this was written ten years ago, and it is, therefore, to be hoped that the worthy
who complains with such indignant
pathos has gone to his rest 4t)efore
the recent aggressive operations of
the ''Bath and West of England Agricultural Society" were set on foot. For their
lectures on Clay Soils, in the very
market-place where (as he would
consider) only the produce of such soils
ought to be exhibited and discussed — their agricultural implement
show-yards opened at his very door in
the district sacred to manual labour, with
farmers, old and young, crowding to watch the experimental working of steam-ploughs and
flails — would have been quite too
much for him. Had he survived so long,
this last unmanly outrage on his
feelings would certainly have broken his heart; his death would have made a paragraph for
the newspapers, headed, '' Fatal
Accident from a Steam-Engine ;" and any enlightened jury of his country-
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(delwedd C3694) (tudalen 030)
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30 THE SOMEBSET&HHIE
DIALECT.
men would have been strictly justified in laying a deodand on boiler and piston as the
clearly-ascertained cause and instrument of death.
Prom this conservatiye character of the dialects we may naturally expect to find in them,
and especially in those furthest removed from the centre of national life and activity, more genuine
Anglo-Saxon than in literary English, which is exposed to so many strong modifjing infiaences. This
is, in reality, the fact. I believe
there is not a jingle dialect in the country
which does not preserve important
relics of- Anglo- Saxon in accent, idioniy
or vocabulary, commonly in all, which are lost in the current tongue. And while this is to
some extent true of all dialects, it
is likely to be pre-eminently true of the Somerset. Why ? Because the Somersetshire dialect occupies the very
seat of classical Anglo-Saxon. It was
in the kingdom of Wessex that
Anglo-Saxon was originally studied,
elaborated, and brought to high literary perfection. Now the kingdom of Wessex, as we know,
included Hampshire, Berkshire, Wilts,
Dorset, Somerset, and part of Devon ;
so that, for practical purposes, part
of Wilts, Dorset, and Somerset, may be taken
as about the centre of its infiuence. Here Anglo-Saxon was diligently
studied, and successfully used as an
instrument of great precision, compass, and
power. Nearly all the remains left us of that once extensive and still noble literature are in
the Saxon of Weibsex. In poetry, the
sacred and profane epics of Gaednron
and Beowulf, the metrical lives of the
Exeter Book, and the Vercelli Codex, with not a few sacred and national lyrics ; in
history, the
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(delwedd C3695) (tudalen 031)
|
THE SOMEB8ET8HIBB
DIALECT. 31
Chronicle, and Alfred's translation of Bede and Oro&ins; in philosophy, Boethius; in
Theology, the versions of the Gospels,
Psalms, and Pentateuch; the voluminous Homilies of ^l£iic, and others, all in the same dialect — the national
tongue of Wessex. Here, indeed,
Anglo-Saxon first rose to the dignity
of k national tongue ; and here, too,
it lasted longer, breaking up more slowly and gradually than elsewhere. As we might
naturally expect, tl^erefore, the
Somersetshire dialect is particularly rich in Anglo-Saxon remains, both in
its pronunciation and vocabulary.
I will now proceed to illustrate this in relation to the former— the pronunciation — and in
doing 80 will follow the plan of the
last paper, dealing first with the
vowels and then with the consonants.
In looking into the vowel-system of the Somer* setshire dialect, we have seen that its
characteristic tendency is to
lengthen^ open^ and multiply the
vowel' sounds. Now this is essentially an Anglo-Saxon peculiarity — a
peculiarity of Wessex Anglo-Saxon. This language abounded to a carious extent
in mixed and double vowel-sounds ; this being, in fact, the great characteristic (so far
as the vowels were concerned), by
which the southern or Saxon branch is
distinguished from the northern or Angle
branch of the common tongue, as well as from other dialects on the Continent, with which it is
closely allied.^ Anglo-Saxon, as you
are aware, belongs to what is termed
the Low-German division of the
Teutonic tongues, the dialects of which are distinguished from those
of the High-German by a more or less
manifest preference for softer sounds.
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(delwedd C3696) (tudalen 032)
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32 THE SOKEBSETSHIBE
DIALECT.
I may remind you, too, in passing, that these
epithets, high and lowy as applied to the countries in which the Germanic tongues are spoken,
refer not to their position north and
south of each other, but to their
comparative height above the level of
the sea, High-German being, in fact, for the most part spoken much further south than
Low-Grerman. Low and high in this
connexion, therefore, simply mean
plain and mountainous ; and the reason why
these natural features are made the basis of a phi* lological division is the
clearly-ascertained fact, that the
geographical difference of surface universally tends to produce a marked
difference of pronunciation. The dwellers in high or mountainous lands are found to affect dear decisive
vowels, and rough guttural conscmants,
while the inhabitants of level or
gendy undulating lowlands, of rich pastoral
valleys, delight in soft vowels, and smooth consonantal sounds. While,
however, all the Low-Germanic tongues possess these general
characteristics, l^e Anglo-Saxon has
more curious combinations of vowel-sounds
than any other ; and in these the
Somersetshire dialect will be found to be its faithful representative. I, indeed, believe that the
careful observation of the
Somersetshire vowel-sounds might
materially help in fixing the value of some Anglo-Saxon vowels, about
the exact force of which there is
still a good deal of uncertainty. I will illustrate this relation of the
vowels in two positions— as initial
and mediaL
Take, first, the medial vowels, or those occurring in the middle of a word. The special
combinations of vowels in this
position peculiar to Anglo-Saxon
J
^v
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(delwedd C3697) (tudalen 033)
|
Tf« 80MEB8BTSHISS
DliXBCT.
83
are ^ose of
ed and eo, representing a and t of other
dialects. The sounds expressive of these combinations, which are so
characteristic in Anglo-Saxon, whilQ
altogether lost in common EngHsh, are retained in all their integrity in the Somersetshire
dialect. Take, for instance, a word
Kke beam; here the spelling, both in
Anglo-Saxon and English, is the same,
but the pronunciation very different. In the
former, each vowel did duty, and the word was ^ sounded beam; but in the latter the two
are changed to one — long e — and the
word is beem or beme. The spelling
belongs to the old language, the pronunciation to the new: — the word is
Anglo-Saxon to the eye, but English to
the ear. The Somersetshire man, however, is faithful to the spelling,
and to this day sounds the word as his
Saxon forefathers did before him, beam
or be-ame. The following are other
instances in which the Saxon spelling is
kept, but the pronunciation lost: —
Anglo-Saxon,
English.
Pronunciatii
Beofer
beaver
beever.
Cleafe
cleave
cleeve.
Dead
dead
ded.
Deaf
deaf
def.
Leaf
leaf
leef.
Heafod
head
hed.
Heafor
heifer
heffer.
I In other
cases, again, the word h^ utidergcme a
change, and the spelling is omformed to the pro
I nuneiation. The following are illustrations of tlus: —
D
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(delwedd C3698) (tudalen 034)
|
34
THE
80MEB8ETSH1RE VIAlSS'^'
Saxon.
JSnglish.
Saxon.
Engitst}^^
Hread
Reed.
Steap
Steep.
Nead
Need.
Steor
Steer.
Sceap
Sheep.
Treow
Tree.
It need
scarcely be said that the Somersetshire man,
in such cases, remains faithful to the older form, * pronouncing the words ree-ade^ shee-ape^
stee-ape, &c. The following list,
illustrating, in parallel columns, the
relation of the mother-tongue, the
dialect, and the current speech, will bring out this more fully: —
Saxon.
English.
Somerset.
Cealf
calf
kee-ave.
Ceare
care
kee-ar.
Geap
gape
gee-ape.
Ge'at
gate
gee-ate.
Gearden
garden
gee-arden.
Healf
half
hee-ave.
Hearm
harm
jee-arme.
Meado
meadow
mee-ade.
Meolc
milk
mee-olk.
Sceame
shame
shee-ame.
Sceade
shade
shee-ade.
Screape
scrape
scree-ape.
Swearm
swarm
^ swee-arme,
It would be
out of place to illustrate what has
now been said by any long extracts from Anglo-Saxon authors, but I
will just quote a few lines before
leaving this part of the subject. A page of
any Anglo-Saxon book opened at random would supply ample illustrations of the sounds
under
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(delwedd C3699) (tudalen 035)
|
THE S0MEBSBT8HIBE
DIALECT* 35
review. The following are from Caedmon, the inspired Monk of Whitby, who, a
thousand years before Milton, sang of
Paradise Lost in a sacred epic worthy
of the subject and the name, though,
of course, as mere isolated lines, these extracts can give us no idea whatever of his poetic
style : —
« Under beom-sc^ade : Bloede
bercflfod." (Under
tree-shadow Of joy bereaved.)
** Geseah deorc-sceado Sweart
swithrian." (He saw dark
-shadow Swart prevail.)
** Egor-streomas : Sw«arte*8wogan
: Sse's up stigon : Ofer stseth-weallas :"
(Ocean-billows, Black they
boomed, Seas uprose O'er the strand-walls.)
You will notice in these extracts the constant occurrence o£ ea; the following lines from
Beowulf illustrate both ea, and eo :
—
" Noefre ic maran geseah : Eorl
ofer Eorthan : Thonne is eower sum
: Secg on searwum."
(Never saw I a nobler Earl upon
earth, Than one among you, — A hero in harness.)
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(delwedd C3700) (tudalen 036)
|
36 THE SOMEBSETSHIBK
DIALECT.
** Het tha in-beran ^ £ofer-h«afod
segn ; Heatho-steopne helm : Guth-sweord gcatolic."
(Bade them m bear, The boar-headed
banner, — The tower-steep helm, And shinmg war-sword.)
It will be seen that in this large and most characteristic class of medial
Towels, the living dialect is the
faithful reflex of the older language.
I will now look at the initial vowels ; not tliat there is anything specifically different in
these, the same vowels being often, of
course, both medial and initial, only
the position of the latter occasions a
slight difference of treatment, which makes it convenient to notice
them apart. You will remember that, at
the last meeting, I stated there were a number of words beginning with two
vowels, which had only a single, and
that often a short vowel-sound in
common English; and that the Somersetshire
dialect retained the full sound of both, by prefixing to the first the semi-vowel sound of Y. The
following are illustrations of this : — •
Yee-am :=
earn. Yee-w:ly = early. Yee-ate = eat Yee-ath = earth.
Yee-ade
=:head. Yee-ard = heard. Yee-ate = heat . Yee-ale = ale.
I said, at
the same time, that a similar process
took place with regard to other initial vowel-sounds and combinations. The combinations referred
to are those of oa and ot. To words
beginning with
mm
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(delwedd C3701) (tudalen 037)
|
THE SOMEB8BT8HIBB
DIALECT. 87
these vowels the Somersetshire dialect prefixes the semi-consonant W, in order to bring out the
full sound of each ; W thus securing
in one set of cases exactly the same
end that Y did in the other. The following
are examples : —
Wo-ake =
oak. Wo-ath = oath* Wo-ats = oats. Who-are = hoar (frost).
Who-ard =
hoard. Who-ame = home. Wo-ald = old. Wo-ther = other, &c.
This may be
illustrated by an extract from the
fireside reflections of Willum Little, sometime shepherd on the downs of Wessex: —
" It's oondervul to me how things do move about whenever a body 's got a drap o' zummut in
's yedd. Last harrest, a'ter zupper,
at th' houze yander, I walked whoam by
myzelf, and zeed the moon and the
zeven stars dancin' away like vengeance. Then
they there girt elmen-trees in the close was a dancin' away like Bill lies and his mates at a
morris. ' My zarvice to 'e,' zays I ;
' I haups you won't tread on my
twoes;^ zo I went drough a sheard in th' hedge, instead o' gwoin drough th* geat. Well,
when I got whoam, I managed to vind
the kay-hole o' th* dwooer ; but 'twas
a lang time afore I could get un to
bide still enough, and got up stayers. Massy
upon us ! the leetle table (I zeed un very plain by the light o' th' moon) was runnin' round
the room like mad, and there was th'
two wold chayers runnin' a'ter he ;
and by and by, round comes the bed
a'ter they two. ^ Ha ! ha ! * zays I, * that's very vine; but how be I to lay down while you cuts
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(delwedd C3702) (tudalen 038)
|
38 THE SOMEBSBTSHIBE
DIALECT.
zich capers?' Well, the bed corned round dree
times, and the vowerth time I drowd myzelf flump atop ov un ; but in th' marnin' I vound
myzelf laying on the vloor, wi' ael me
duds on ! I never could make out how
thic was."
When I last addressed you, I did not illustrate this peculiarity; but the process ia
altogether so curious, so
characteristic of the dialect, and so
complete, that it certainly deserves, and, I think, will repay, a little examination. At first
sight, indeed, such forms as ye at and
wodts may seem very clownish, and the
prefixing of y or tr in either case
quite accidental and capricious ; but in reality this is by no means the case. The whole procedure
is most systematic and consistent, and
the reasons of it lie deep in the
philosophy of language and of sound. A
little illustration will soon make this
clear. The process altogether depends on the use of y and tr, and we may, therefore,
naturally expect to find in the
special character of these letters the
key of its explanation. What are they, and
how produced? They are, then, as we know, what are called semi-vowels: they stand
midway between the vowels and
consonants, sharing, to some extent,
the nature, and at times performing
the office, of both. They are half-vowels and half-consonants ; and if
we look at the manner of their
production, we see at once how it is they possess this character. The natural order of the
vowels is — iy e, o, o, w, or i being
equal to double e, and u to double o —
ee, e, a, o, oo. This is the natural
order, because it is that determined by the passage of the breath in uttering the vowel-sounds
— this
f
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(delwedd C3703) (tudalen 039)
|
THE SOHEBSRTSBIRE
1>IALRCT. 39
passage gradually widening from the first (ee% where it is closest, to the last (oo)y
where it is most open. On slowly
sounding each letter of the series,
you will find that the space through which
the breath passes is very much that from a straight or slightly curved line to a
circle — the aperture in ee being a
double line or loop slightly opened,
and the loop widening with each succeeding
vowel till it becomes an ellipse in o, and a complete circle in oo. The vowels ee and oo being
thus the most distant, do not easily
coalesce, and any attempt to pass
quickly from the one to the other produces
a sharp breathing, which has in it something essentially consonantal.
The utterance is no longer a pure
breath-sound, but one modified by the rapid
change in position of the organs of speech. And this modification will obviously be
twofold, as we begin at the bottom or
the top. If we commence with the first
vowel, ee, and pass rapidly to the last,
oo, the modified sound produced is y, eeoo — you ; while the process reversed gives ir, ooee —
toe; ■ the former being
illustrated by the pronoun yoUy which
in Anglo-Saxon is eaw^ and the latter by the
French affirmative oui^ sounded, as we know, we. Thus at cither end of th^ vowel series a
half- vowel is evolved ; and y and w
are neither more nor less than the
extreme vowel-sounds sharpened into semi-
consonants by being pronounced rapidly together.
You will now be able to see the principle and
understand the philosophy of the Somersetshire pronunciation in the feature under review.
In words beginning with such a
combination as ea — where the passage
is from the higher to the lower.
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(delwedd C3704) (tudalen 040)
|
40 THE 80MEB8ET8HIRE
DIALECT.
from the closer to the more open vowel — if both are fully pronounced, there is a natural
tendency to evolve the sound of y ;
for example, eat — ei'Oie, or t/edt On
the other hand, in words beginning
wit^ a vowel lower down in the series, and passing up — as in such combinations as oo, ot, for
instance — the tendency will
necessarily be to produce the sound of
w. Bearing in mind the characteristic
tendency of the dialect to lengthen and open the vowel-sounds, the process will be something
like the following: —
Oats := ooats := woats. Oath = ooath =
woath. Oak =ooak =woak.
There is no tendency towards any such pronunciation in current English,
simply because, as I have said, np
attempt is made to sound both vowels,
the two being crushed or commuted into
one^ — ea and oa into e and o respectively. The initials y and to are prefixed in order to
prevent this crushing of two vowels
into one, which ife contrary to the
whole spirit of the Somersetshire
pronunciation ; and you will thus see how systematic the whole process
is^ and how completely it accomplishes
its end.
It is, moreover, thoroughly Anglo-Saxon. Looking first at "the initial
y, it is a universal law of
Anglo-Saxon pronunciation that the initial e before a or o is sounded as y. From what has just
been said, you will now understand the
reason of this, and see how it must be
so, as we see in the fe'w English
words where both vowels are still sounded^
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(delwedd C3705) (tudalen 041)
|
THS SOMBRSST8HIRE
DIALECT. 41
as ia €W€y a sbeep, pronounced yoo» and ewer^ a water-vessel, t^ooevy both of
Saxon origin. And in cases where there
is an apparent inconsistency, the dia*
lect will be fonnd faithful to the older tongue. In the class of words already referred to,
beginning with a singly, where the a
is treated as mt, the Somersetshire
pronunciation represents the older form
of the word — e, g., ale and arm^ sounded in
Somersetshire t/eiile and yedmij are in Anglo-Saxon eale and earm.
The initial w^ too, dates back to tiie older
tongue. The Anglo-Saxon, indeed, prefixed w and aspirated w to many words where it is now
altogether lost in English, and sounded it in others where it remains only to the eye, being
silent, or all but silent, to the ear.
In the words whoUi wholesome^
wholesale^ for instance, the w is not
sounded at all, and in whoy whose, whom, it is only indirectly heard in the modification of the
vowel* sound it determines. The
initial w is, indeed, quite archaic,
the universal tendency of languages being
to shorten, condense, and cut oif both initial and final vowels as much as possible ; and this
full oo sound of the Somersetshire
pronunciation dates back not only to
Anglo-Saxon, but, in all likeli hood,
through it to the old Gothic, of which it is a characteristic feature. The word hoop, for
instance, in hooping-cough, appears in Gothic as hoo-opan; in Anglo-Saxon as hwdpan, or (the accented o being equal to oo) hwoopan ; in
English as hoop; for though whoop does
still exist in spells ing and
pronunciation, it is rarely used, hoop being
the common form both to the eye and the ear.
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(delwedd C3706) (tudalen 042)
|
42 THE SOHERSETSHIBE
DIALECT.
As there is a class of words in« which the initial a is treated as ea, so there is another in
which the initial o is dealt with as
oa; but the vowel in these cases
generally stands for the Anglo-Saxon
accented a, which had a broad diphthongal sound, represented in English pronunciation by o
(as bdn^ bone; stdfi, stone, &c.);
often, however, in spelling by oa
(a&fdm, foam; dr, oar, &c.) ; sometimes by oe (tisfd, foe ; wd, woe, &c.) ; but
which in Somersetshire is really pronounced oa, as in home (A.S. ham) — whodme; oak (sounded oke in
current English, the a being silent),
(A.S. dk\ wodk, &c. Thus, even in
its apparent irregularities, the dia*
lect, as compared with the literary language, is still the more faithful and consistent
representative of Anglo-Saxon
sounds.
Only one other point remains to be glanced at
in relati9n to t/ and w, and that relates to another ^parent inconsistency. While, on the one
hand, the dialect prefixes t/ and w to
b, number of' words where no such
letters exist in current English, on
the other, it throws them away in many cases where they really do. In the mouth of a
Somersetshire man, for example, j/es and yesterday become eeze and eezeterday
— will and would become ^ool and ^ood,
so that really a spirit of contradiction
seems to be at work. A little examination, however, will show that
this is not so. It must be observed
that in these cases there are not two
initial vowels, only one, so that the semi-consonants are not prefixed in order to bring out a
double vowel-sound. On the contrary,
they are produced by crushing an
original long vowel into a short
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(delwedd C3707) (tudalen 043)
|
THE SOMERSETSHIRE
DIALECT. 43
one, and thus represent the result of that condensaticm. The Somersetshire
man, however, delighting in vowels, will not endorse any such process. He accordingly resolves the semi-consonant
and short vowel into the original long
vowel, and yen accordingly becomes
eeze; will, *ool, &c. "Vowels,
vowels," is his cry — "the more and longer the * better:" accordingly, as he prefixes
the semi-consonant in order to make one vowel two, so he ^iirows it away in order to make a short
vowel long. The same principle is at
work in both cases.
What has already been said about the letter w
will fully explain the triphthongs to which I referred at the last
meeting, and which are so marked a
feature of the dialect. These occur in words
having ^the vowel combinations o«, oa, or oe; and, as you will now understand, in order to
bring out fully the sound of both, it
was necessary to prefix the sound of w
or tr to the first. The following are
examples : —
Bwoile =
boil Bwoy = boy Guaine ^ going Mwoile = moil
Pwoint =
point Qwoit s= coit Qwoin = coin Spwoile = spoil.
Bwoards =
boards I Qwoast = coast Qwoat s= coat
| Twoad = toad.
This, too, is thoroughly Anglo-Saxon, as such forms as sweordy a sword, and cweorne, a mill,
would sufficiently prove. Anglo-Saxon is, indeed, most probably the only
language in which such combinations ever existed, as the Somersetshire is the
only
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(delwedd C3708) (tudalen 044)
|
44 THE 80MEBSSTSHIBE
DIALECT.
living dialect in which thej are fuUj and famiHarlj pronoanced.
The first part of the inquiry closes here, and I think, as the result of it, that the
Somersetshire pronunciation — in many
features of its vowel sys^ tern, at
all events — may fairly claim to be a tolerably good representative of classic
Anglo-Saxon.
I will now look for a little at the consonants; but the evidence in this case being much
less minute and conclusive than in
that of the vowels, they can be dealt
with in a more summary manner. I will
follow the arrangement already laid down^
and take up the four classes of consonants in order. The first to be considered are D, T, and
TH. There was a tendency in Anglo-Saxon
to change T and TH into D — or rather
this substitution was certainly in
many cases made, though, at the same
time, it must be confessed, not in the regular, characteristic way
which marks the process in the
Somersetshire dialect. That the substitution existed, and was even not
uncommon, is shown by such examples as
these: —
Eard = earth
Feeder =s father
Gadrian = to gather
In the first canto of Beowulf y it is said of hia sire : —
** Fseder ellor hwearf AldoT of
Earde.'* (The father had passed
away,— The Prince from his native
land.) j
Moder :=
mother Waeder = wither Weder = weather Wedmore = wetmore.
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(delwedd C3709) (tudalen 045)
|
IHE ^ S^EBSBTSHIRB DIAL£OT. 45
And Csedmf ^ y^ says :
^And thee Frea mihtig, ' Frostat and
snowas, Winter-biter wedert And folcen-fani, Lufige on lyfte." (Thee, mighty Lord, Frost and snows, , r ^ Winter-bitter weather, t^ And the welkin-course ' j / Praise in the lift.)
A~^irallel passage in the "Story of Hananiah," from 4iie Exeter Book, begins as follows :
—
** Feder frost and snow,
Folca waldend,
Winter-biter veder," 6mj. (Father
! ruler of nations ! Thee frost and
snow. Bitter- winter weather Praise.)
In semi- Saxon, the tendency became more manifest; Robert of Gloucester using
Artuvy and Laza< mon, Ardur for
Arthur.*
The next consonants are V and F. The
Anglo-Saxon alphabet did not contain the letter V, but we are not, therefore, to conclude
that the spoken language had not the
sound ; for many, nay most, languages
have sounds for which they possess no
separate sign, and one sign often does duty for anoth^. The Swedish F, for instance, always
has
* In frirther illustration of this point, two hymns to the Virgin Mary belonging to the end of the
13th and the beginning of the 14th
century- respectiyely, were here read by the
speaks.
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(delwedd C3710) (tudalen 046)
|
V 46 THB SOHEBSETSHIBE Dl^jliXECT.
the sound of V ; in German, W ; L, ji modern Greek and Russian, B ; so that, while we \ i^rite
and speak the word Sevastopol, the
Russiar^^s and Greeks always sound it
Sevastopol. And igj^e know, as a fact,
that the sound of Y not onlj exL^^ted, but was even common in Anglo-Saxon. It is^ ii^
ideed, one of the laws of its pronunciation,
that Jf by^tween two vowels, or at the
end of a word, is alwa!|^;^ sounded v:
and we retain one word — the preposition of —
in which the final / is still sounded as t?]k of — or. The following are instances of f between
two vowels having the sound of v: — y
Beofer =
beaver Efel = evil Efen = evening Fefer = fever
Onfil =
anvil Ofen := oven Weafer = weaver Weafung = weaving.
In the
following words the final /= v: —
Glofa = glove I Cofa = cove
Cleafa = clavel | Leof = love.
This explains what has sometimes puzzled
grammarians, — the plural form of such words as calfy half, leaf loaf life, wife. According
to the law, ending in a sharp mute,
they ought to form their plural by the
addition of the sharp sibilant s
"—calfsy halfs, leafs, &c. ; but they do not. On the contrary, the final mute is softened,
and the plural formed in the soft
sibilant sound of z, calves^ loaves,
&c. Dr. Latham, in discussing the difilculty, suggests it as highly
probable, that the original singulars
ended in v, calv, &c. ; but this
probability might, perhaps, have been changed to
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(delwedd C3711) (tudalen 047)
|
THB SOMERSETSHIBE
DIALECT. 47
certainty, had he known that, in the Western dialect, the singtilar forms,
ftc, actually end in v at the present
time. By the law of Anglo-Saxon pronunciation, they must have done so
originally, and hy the practice of the
dialect they do so still.
It is doubtful whether the initial / was ever
sounded as t?, in genuine Anglo - Saxon words^ though such forms as vox and vixen go
back very far; but if the initial v
was unknown in classical Anglo-Saxon,
it must have made its appearance immediately on the breaking up of the literary language, as its presence is a
striking feature in some of the
earliest and best specimens of semi-
Saxon we possess. Amotig these certainly
must be included the ^^Ancren Riwle," a kind of manual for the guidance and encouragement
of nuns in entering on a cloistered
religious life. The time of its
production must be within a few years
of Lazamon^ not later probably than 1220; and its author — long thought to be Simon of
Ghent — ? was in all likelihood Bishop
Foore, who held the see of Salisbury
about this date. But whoever was its
author, the work is of great value and
interest, especially to us, having been produced, if not actually in the county, at least on the
borders, originally designed for the
use of ladies living near Blandford,
and written in the provincial semi-Saxon of the West. Apart, however, from
its philological and local value, it
is of interest on its own account,
being written in a lively, vigor*^ ous
style, abounding with proverbial phrases and
homely illustrations, the writer showing through-
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(delwedd C3712) (tudalen 048)
|
48 THE 80MEBSXT8HIBB
DIALECT.
onl^ apart from the peculiar views of a religious life incident to his age and position,
great freshness of mind, devoutness of heart, sound sense, and wise, shrewd, at times almost humorous,
reflectiyeness. The book abounds with Somersetshire fonns, and especially with the initial V. You
cannot open a page without finding a
number of instances, — such words as
vle$h, veondy vlinty vaundy vaUethy
vollowethy vliethy &c. Take a single sentenoe, ^^ Little dropen thurleth the vlinty that
oft valleth tliereon." <'
Little drops pierce the flint whereon
they often faU."
The next consonants are Z and Sy and they
may be dismissed in a few words. The letter Z does not exist in the Saxon alphabet any
more than V; but we are far less
entitled to infer the absence of the
sound from the nonexistence of the sign in this case than even in that of Y ; for, as Ben
Jonson says, ^^ Z is a letter often
heard amongst us, but sddom s^n."
And certainly, in common English
words, for any single Z that is seen, there are at least a dozen or a score heard. The S of
the plural, in a vast number of words,
such as trees^ days, hillsy stags,
&c., is really Z.
This notwithstanding, however, it is still questionable whether the sound of
Z did exist in Anglo-Saxon at all. The initial Z, we may say with certainty, did not, except in foreign words
; and it is generally thought that it
was never sounded in any position. I
am disposed, however, to believe, on
philological grounds, which it would not be
suitable now to detail, that it did exist, and is still
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(delwedd C3713) (tudalen 049)
|
THE 80MERSSTSHIBE
DIALECT. 49
recognisable, at the end of some few words. However this may be, it soon made
its appearance in semi-Saxon and early
English.
The only remaining letter is R^ and about it
there is really very little to be said. Both cases of sofitening by transposition, which I
adverted to at the last meeting, were
of Anglo-Saxon origin. The softening
of the initial B is seen in such verbs as
hirsle, to rusde^ hiwnen^ umeuy to run ; um being a common form in Saxon and
semi-Saxon, sometimes with the
aspirate, more commonly without it. The transposition afler one or more
consonants is also thoroughly Saxon: — an instance occurred in a sentence just given, thurl
for thrill ; and hurgCy cerse^ forsty
goers, cirps, &c. (bridge, cress,
grass, crisp, &c.), were common Anglo-Saxon forms.
This closes the inquiry ; and I think we have
found, as the result of it, that the vowel system of the Somersetsliire pronunciation is not
only generally, but in its main features, minutely, Anglo-Saxon ; that the
system of consonants is partially so,
the points of difference arising from the predilection of the dialect for
softer sounds ; and that these softer
sounds, though not traceable to classic
Anglo-Saxon, appeared immediately on its breaking up, in the semi-Saxon that followed. I
believe — and there is a curious mass
of evidence in support of the belief —
that the breaking up of the literary
Saxon, although this was the time at which these softer sounds first appeared, was neither
the true cause nor era of their
productioUy only the occasion of their
manifestation; that they existed contem-
E
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(delwedd
C3714) (tudalen 050)
|
50 THK SOMERSETSHIBB
DIALEOT.
poraneonsly with the classic tongue, constituting a Somersetshire dialect of Anglo-Saxon, as
they do of modem English : in short,
that thej are' as old as anything in
the county, except its natural features, and a few of the names they bear,
and date back to the Continental seats
whence Somerset was originally
peopled. Of course, it would be out of
place to do more than to allude to such an argument at present. Enough
if I have succeeded to any extent in
establishing the proposition with
which I started, and have been able to bring forward any facts to show
that the characteristic sounds of the
Somersetshire dialect are neither
unmusical nor without authority.
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