This, however, is not to be taken as an assertion that all the old characteristic words and phrases have died out, or that the accent is altogether a thing of the past. The Somerset speech is really part and parcel of that delightful West of England trick of the tongue which still grows gradually more noticeable to the stranger as he progresses westward. You will not notice this in any measure until you have passed an imaginary line, which may be drawn from Oxford in the north, to Southampton in the south, passing on the way such places as Wantage, Newbury, Andover, and Winchester. Westward of this frontier-line, the West of England, linguistically, commences. Somerset, by some unexplained accident, was notoriously the home of the broadest speech; but recent years have witnessed the singular phenomena (singular when taken in conjunction) of Somerset folk-speech losing much of its old-time character, and that of Devon, which had also largely fallen into disuse, returning in almost its olden strength.
Much of this old manner of talking has been preserved in the publications of the English Dialect Society, in which we find embedded, among more stolid phrases, amusing scraps of rustic dialogues, illustrating the local shibboleths. Here we have, for example, a rural domestic quarrel, rendered in broad “Zummerzet.” It has not been thought desirable to reproduce the somewhat pedantic inflection-marks given in the Society’s publications, tending as they do towards the unnecessary mystification of those who do not happen to be philologists. The spelling has also been altered here and there, to bring it more into line with the enunciation usually heard by the ordinary person.
The woman in this first specimen says, “Uneebaudee mud su waul bee u tooüd uundur u aaruz bee u foauz tu leave saeumz aay bee, laung u dhee. Tuz skandluz un sheemfeal aew aay bee zaard.”[[3]]
[3]. “Anybody might so well be a toad under a harrow as be forced to live same as I be, long of thee. ’Tis scandalous and shameful how I be served.”
To this pitiful complaint the husband answers, “U uumunz auvees zaard wuul neef uur udn aat ubeawt, un dhee aart nuvvur aat ubeawt.”[[4]]
[4]. “A woman’s always served well if her isn’t hit about; and thee art never hit about.”
Here is another example from the collection already quoted from:
“Taumee, haut bee yue aiteen on? Spaat ut aewt turaaklee!”
Perhaps the reader may be left to translate this. But how about the following, spoken by a waggoner on a hot day? “Mudn maek zu boalz t’ax vur koop u zaydur, aay spoüz? Aay zuuree aay bee dhaat druy, aay küdn spaat zik-spuns.”[[5]]
[5]. “Mustn’t make so bold as to ask for a cup of cider, I suppose? I assure you I be that dry, I couldn’t spit sixpence.”