Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore

by Elizabeth Mary Wright

The following nouns, though remaining singular in form, take the plural form of the verb and pronoun and are used after few, &c., as: brōz, a kind of porridge, Sc.; broþ, broth, Sc. n.Ir. n.Cy. Midl. e.An. sw.Cy.; brouis, a kind of gruel, s.Chs. Shr.; grǖəl, gruel, e.An.; poridȝ, porridge, n.Cy., n.Midl.; sūp, soup, w.Yks. Shr.

The sign of the genitive, both singular and plural, is generally omitted when one noun qualifies another in all the n.Cy. dialects, and occasionally in the n.Midlands, as: the Queen cousin; my father boots; the lad father stick. A Lancashire magistrate is reported to have asked a witness, ‘Was it your brother dog?’ This characteristic of n.Cy. dialects is found already in the M.E. period. The M.E. practice of placing the genitival s at the end of an attributive clause survives in most dialects of Sc. and Eng., as: I’ve just seen Jim Dutton him as went to America’s wife; that’s the woman what was left behind’s child. There is a general tendency in all dialects of Sc. Irel. and Eng. to express the genitive plural by means of an additional syllable suffixed to the nominative plural, as: the farmerses cows. This is especially the case with the word folk, nom. pl. fōks, gen. pl. fōksəz.

The gender of nouns grammatically speaking can only be ascertained by means of the pronouns referring to them. There is a general tendency in all dialects of Sc. Irel. and Eng. to personify inanimate objects. In Sc. Irel. and the dialects of the northern counties the feminine pronoun is used, while in the Midlands, the e. s. and sw. counties, the use is variable. In the sw. dialects inanimate objects are divided into two classes. The first or personal class consists of formed, individual objects, as: a tool, a tree; for these masculine or feminine pronouns are employed. The neuter pronoun is used when referring to nouns contained in the second or impersonal class of unformed objects, as: water, dust.

Adjectives

Accidence: Adjectives and Numerals

In the dialects the practice of forming adjectives denoting material from the substantive by means of the suffix -en is carried out to a much greater extent than in the literary language, as: tinnen pots, glassen bottles, hornen spoons. This is especially the case in the southern and south-western dialects. The comparison of adjectives is formed in the dialects by adding the comparative suffix -er and the superlative -est to practically all adjectives, polysyllabic as well as monosyllabic. More and most are as a rule only used to supplement or intensify the regular comparison, as: more beautifuller, most worst. The following adjectives, irregular in the lit. language, are compared regularly in some dialects: badder, baddest, n.Cy. Midl.; farer, farest, Sc. n.Cy. and the Midlands; gooder, goodest, Cum. m.Yks. Dev.; iller, w.Yks. e.An., illest, Fif. n.Cy.; liker, Sc. Irel. n.Cy. sw.Cy.; littler, littlest, in general use in n. and ne.Sc. and Eng. The old comparative near, treated as a positive in the literary language, retains its force in n.Yks. and nw.Der.; similarly, far, further, is retained in Yks. Lan. and the Midlands. Mae, the M.E. comparative of many, is used in Sc. Nhb. e.Yks. Stf. Double comparatives occur in betterer, Cum. Yks. Dev. Cor.; morer, Shr.; worser, in general use in Sc. and Eng. A triple form, worserer, is heard in e.An. Double superlatives occur in bestest, sw.Cy.; leastest, Lan. e.An. sw.Cy.; mostest, Shr. Ken. Som. Cor.

Numerals

In the dialects of the western and south-western counties it is usual to place the lower digit before the higher, as: five and fifty. In Shr. this rule is invariable when speaking of sums of money under £2, as: six and thirty shillings for a pig. In the dialects, especially of Sc. Irel. n.Cy. Lei. Wor. Shr., the ordinals after third take the suffix t instead of literary English th. The old ordinal erst, first in order, survives in Sc. and n.Yks.

Pronouns

Accidence: Pronouns