II. Accidence.

Anomalisms in the Conjugation of the Verbs.

The effect of analogy is obvious in the following examples.

I suggests(T. T. T. 159).
I answers(» 170).
They sits(» 125).
I comes(» 126).
You comes(» 125).
I says(» 133).
I asks(» 143).
I likes(Sketches 194).
I thinks(» 201).
I does(Sketches 194).
She don’t(» 194).
’E don’t(» 199).
Things as gets lost(T. T. T. 195).
They wasn’t(» 136).
There’s no wages(» 228).
It don’t(» 251).
One don’t(» 218).
It aren’t(Novel Notes 163).

Past.

I see = I saw(T. T. T. 197).
» »(Three Men In A Boat 81).

(The common anomalous form I seed is not to be found in Jerome.)

I give = I gave(Sketches 201).
I gived = »(Novel Notes 155).
I win = I won(Tommy And Co. 99).
I comed = I came(Woodb. Farm 56).

Perfect Participle.

Took = taken(T. T. T. 197 + 201 + 140).
writ = written(» 158).

Present Participle.

The Present Participles preceded by a pleonastic -a are very numerous.

a-coming (T. T. T. 133).
a-pecking (» 141).
a-siffing (» »).
a-going (Sketches 196).
a-collecting (» 200).
a-blowing (Three Men On The Bummel 18).
Etc., etc.

To Be.

It wur instead of it was is dialectic or vulgar. The samples I have found in Jerome (Three Men in a Boat 221, Woodb. Farm 8 + 10 + 56) are obviously all dialectic.

The uncommon form warn’t instead of wasn’t occurs in Woodb. Farm (p. 8, 1), but is evidently also dialectic.

Of the common anomalous form they’s instead of they are there is no example in Jerome.

To Have.

Have not and has not are regularly transformed into ain’t.

I ain’t got a bloomin’ sixpence on me. (Sketches 128. 12.)

’E ain’t never been his old self since then. (Sketches 201. 3.) Etc.

(Ain’t = am not, are not, is not, is colloquial.)

Pronouns.

The abbreviated form ’em (for them, Middle-Engl. hem) is very common in Jerome, as in ordinary easy conversation among all classes.

The ordinary confusion of I and me appears in a few instances.

Just as you or me would swear at the missus. (T. T. T. 128. 17.)

In another twenty minutes me and young M. were in the carriage. (T. T. T. 195. 7.)

Me instead of myself is archaic, but occurs in vulgar language also.

It is no use fixing me down to any quiet calling. (T. T. T. 172. 12.)

Uncultivated young man.

You is very often corrupted into yer or ye.

I do the tips, yer know. (T. T. T. 131. 20.)

Any man could look at ye and hate ye. (P. Kelver 32. 11.) Etc.

Them is sometimes confused with those:

She fetched ’im round to one of them revivalist chaps. (Sketches 201. 2.)

A waiter.

I wouldn’t ’ave ’em know as ’ow I was one o’ them college blokes. (Novel Notes 203. 90.)

Uncultivated young man.

With them little hands. (Woodb. Farm 19. 20.)

A farmer.

Enclitic here (always written ’ere: this ’ere, that ’ere, etc.) is very common. Of enclitic there I have found no example in Jerome.

The assimilation of m in himself (hisself) is regular.

Nouns.

The vulgar tongue has a strong liking for diminutive forms ending in -y, -ey. I have found in Jerome the following instances.

matey(dim. of mate): term of address.
cockey(» » cock) » » »
sonny(» » son) » » »
baccy(dim. of tobacco > bacco).
ninny(» » nincompoop); non compos mentis = simpleton.

Cf. milky = milkman; dusty = dustman; bricky = bricklayer; posty = postman (Baumann).

Sometimes, the tendency to form words ending in -y seems to extend also to the Participle.

humpy (humped?)= dull, miserable (T. T. T. 156. 20).
dotty (dotted?)= dizzy, idiotic (Tommy And Co. 61. 28).

(Cf. dreaming > dreamy; chatting > chatty, etc.)

An instance of double-possessive appears in Sketches p. 201. 8.

They told him as ’ow it was folks’s own fault that they were poor.

(Cf. Swed. »hanses rock», etc.)