Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore

by Elizabeth Mary Wright

The Articles

Accidence: The Articles

A. The Indefinite Article. Very few dialects follow the rule of the literary language according to which an is used before a vowel or h mute. ə is used before vowels and consonants, as ə apl, an apple. When n is used it is generally attached to the noun, as ə napl. In all the dialects of Sc. Irel. and Eng. the indefinite article is used redundantly before numerals and nouns of multitude and quantity, as: more than a twenty of them; a many; a plenty; cp. lit. Eng. a few. This construction occurs in our older literature, cp. ‘A many fools,’ Mer. of Venice, III. v. 73.

B. The Definite Article. The dialect forms of the definite article have been given above under the consonant þ. In those dialects where the form is t, should the following word begin with a dental, the only trace of the article is the suspension of the dental. A clear distinction is made between teəbl, table, and t’eəbl, the table, dlium, gloom, and d’lium, the gloom. These same dialects, owing to liturgical influence, use the full form ðə before loəd, Lord, when applied to the Deity, save in off-hand speech and in the phrase loəd nǭz, the Lord knows, where the article is omitted altogether. The ending of the O.E. neuter form of the definite article survives in tōn, the one (O.E. ðæt ān), and tuðə(r, tɒðə(r, the other (O.E. ðæt ōðer). These words are in general use in the dialects of Sc. Irel. and Eng.; their origin being forgotten, the ordinary form of the definite article is often used redundantly before them.

The definite article is used in many dialects in cases where it would be omitted in the lit. language:

(a) In the dialects of Sc. Irel. and Eng. before the names of all diseases, as: he has got the fever, the rheumatics.

(b) In the Sc. Midl. and sw.Cy. dialects before the names of trades and occupations, generally with a frequentative force implying the practising or learning of the trade, e.g. We’ve a-boun un purntice to the shoemakerin’ (Som.), Apprentices and improvers wanted to the Dressmaking.

(c) In Sc. before the names of sciences and commodities, as: he studies the botany; the sugar is cheap.

(d) In the Sc. and Midl. dialects before the names of days, months, seasons, especially when speaking of any particular circumstance connected therewith, as: he died in the Christmas.

(e) In the dialects of Sc. and n.Cy. before certain words, as church, school, bed, when these are used absolutely or indefinitely, as: it’s wearisome lying in the bed.