Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore

by Elizabeth Mary Wright

In all the dialects of Sc. and Eng. there is a tendency to introduce a redundant personal pronoun after a noun when emphasis is required; this is especially frequent after a proper name, as: Mr. Smith, he came to my house. In Sc. and the northern dialects a pronoun is often used to introduce a statement, the specific subject being added later, as: it runs very well, does that horse. In all the dialects of Sc. and Eng. the objective form of the personal pronoun is used for the nominative: (1) After the substantive verb, as: it was her that did it. (2) When standing alone, as: Who did that? Her. (3) When the verb refers to different persons, as: him and me did it; Jack and us went together. (4) When antecedent to a relative pronoun, and therefore separated from its verb by a subordinate sentence, as: him that did that ought to be hanged. The objective forms are often used for the nominative when the pronouns are unemphatic, especially in the south-midland, eastern, southern, and south-western counties. Conversely in all the dialects of these same counties the nominative of the personal pronoun is used as the emphatic form of the objective case, as: her did it; her saw she. In Irel. the impersonal phrase it is often occurs redundantly at the beginning of a sentence, as: it’s sorry you will be; it’s sleepy I am.

The various dialect forms of the personal pronouns are of special interest to the philologist in that they supply living examples to prove the truth of the theory necessary to explain the original forms of the pronouns in the separate branches of the Indo-Germanic family of languages. Most of the pronouns, especially the personal and demonstrative, must have had accented and unaccented forms existing side by side in the parent language itself, and then one or other of the forms became generalized already in the prehistoric period of the individual branches of the parent language. At a later period, but still in prehistoric times, there arose new accented and unaccented forms side by side in the individual branches, as e.g. in prim. Germanic ek, mek beside ik, mik. The separate Germanic languages generalized one or other of these forms before the beginning of the oldest literary monuments, and then new accented beside unaccented forms came into existence again. And similarly during the historic periods of the different languages. Thus, e.g., the O.E. for I is ic; this became in M.E. ich accented form beside i unaccented form; ich then disappeared in standard M.E. (but it is still preserved in one of the modern dialects of Somersetshire), and i came to be used as the accented and unaccented form. At a later period it became ī when accented and remained i when unaccented. The former has become lit. Eng. I, and the latter has disappeared from the lit. language, but it is still preserved in many northern Eng. dialects as i. In these dialects i is regularly used in interrogative and subordinate sentences; the M.E. accented form ī has become ai and is only used in the dialects to express special emphasis, and from it a new unaccented form a has been developed, which can only be used in making direct assertions. Thus in one and the same dialect (Windhill, Yks.) we arrive at three forms: ai, a, i, which are never mixed up syntactically by genuine native dialect speakers. Something similar to what has happened and is still happening in the modern dialects must also have taken place in the prehistoric and historic periods of all the Indo-Germanic languages.

I. (a) The nominative of the first person singular. The stressed form is generally the same as the normal development of old ī ([v. p. 132]), but in some of the n.Midl. dialects ǭ is used. The unstressed forms are generally a or ə, but in the n.Midl. dialects o is the general form. The forms itʃ (ich), ɒtʃ (utch), ɒtʃi (utchy), and the contracted form tʃ (ch), as: tʃam = I am, were formerly used in Wxf. Dor. Som. and Dev. These forms are still used by old people in a small district of Som. close to Yeovil on the border of Dorset, cp. ‘Chill pick your teeth, zir,’ Lear, IV. vi. 250. (b) The objective case. The stressed form is generally mī, rarely mei. The unstressed form is mə.

II. (a) The nominative of the second person singular. The stressed form generally contains the normal development of old ū ([p. 132]), but in the n. and n.Midl. counties the ð has generally become t in interrogative and subordinate sentences. (b) The objective case. The stressed form is generally ðī, rarely ðei. The unstressed form is ðə. The pronoun of the second person singular is in use in almost all the dialects of Eng. to express familiarity or contempt, and also in times of strong emotion; it cannot be used to a superior without conveying the idea of impertinence. In s.Sc. this pronoun has entirely disappeared from the spoken language, and is only very occasionally heard in other parts of Sc. In Glo., owing probably to Quaker influence, it can be used without rudeness to a superior. In Nrf. it is only used in a few stereotyped salutations, as: fare-thee-well. In e.Dor. it is only used to children or in recriminatory language.

III. (a) The nominative of the third person singular masc. The stressed form is generally h)ī, rarely h)ei. The unstressed form is generally i or ə. In the n. and some n.Midl. dialects the i is used in affirmative sentences and the ə in interrogative and subordinate sentences. The unstressed form ə, written a, occurs often in Shakespeare’s Plays, cp. ‘Hostess. Nay, that a did not. Boy. Yes, that a did,’ Hen. V, II. iv. 32, 33. (b) The objective case. The stressed form is h)im and the unstressed form im, but in the s.Midl. s. and sw.Cy. dialects ən, generally written en, un (O.E. hine), is the regular unstressed form for im. It is also used of inanimate objects and in w.Som. of feminine animals, though never of a woman.

IV. (a) The nominative of the third person singular fem. The stressed form is generally ʃī, rarely ʃei, but in some of the n.Midl. dialects it is ʃū. The unstressed form is generally ʃə, but ʃu is also used in those dialects which have ʃū as the stressed form. O.E. hēo, she, survives as ū, u generally written hoo, in parts of w.Yks. Lan. Chs. Flt. Dnb. Stf. Der. Not. Wor. (b) The objective case is generally h)ē(r, h)ə(r.

V. The nominative of the third person singular neut. The stressed form is generally it, but in Sc. and Nhb. hit. The unstressed form is generally it or ət. In Oxf. Dor. and Som. it is frequently used instead of the plural pronoun when animals or objects are referred to collectively.

VI. (a) The nominative of the first person plural. The stressed form is wī, rarely wei. The unstressed forms are wi, wə. In many n.Cy. and n.Midl. dialects wi is used in affirmative sentences and wə in interrogative and subordinate sentences. (b) The objective case. The stressed form is generally ɒs, but in some of the n.Cy. and n.Midl. dialects it is uz, in Sc., parts of Irel. and Nhb. hɒz. The unstressed forms are əs, əz.

VII. The second person plural. Few dialects discriminate between you and ye; on the whole the use of ye for the nom. and obj. cases singular and plural is the more general. In s.Chs. you is always singular in meaning though it takes the verb in the plural, as: you thinken; ye is always plural. In Irel. and Nrf. the curious form yous, in Irel. also yees, is used when more than one person is addressed.

VIII. (a) The nominative of the third person plural. The stressed form of the nominative is generally ðē or ðeə, but in some midl. and s. dialects it is ðai or ðei, and in Sh. and Or.I. n.Ken. Sus. dē, rarely dei. The unstressed form is generally ðe or ðə, rarely ði. In Lin. War. Shr. ə (O.E. hīe) is used for the unstressed form of they. (b) The objective case. The stressed form is ðem, rarely ðēm. In all the dialects of Irel. and Eng. the unstressed form is əm (O.E. heom), generally written em, or ’em. In Sc. the unstressed form is ðem or ðəm.