Rustic Speech and Folk-Lore

by Elizabeth Mary Wright

Accidence: Verbs

Preterites. In the conjugation of verbs in the dialects many old forms have been preserved which have been lost in the literary language. Very often where, in the lit. language, the old plural form of the preterite or the past participle has been carried through the whole preterite, in the dialects the old singular form has been levelled out. Or again, an old strong verb has in lit. Eng. become weak, whilst in the dialects the strong forms have remained. On the whole, it is the northern dialects which have preserved these old strong preterite forms. It may be said to be characteristic of the southern dialects to form new weak preterites to originally strong verbs. Examples of verbs which have preserved old strong preterites are: bind, ban(d (O.E. band), Sc. n.Cy. Shr.; break, brak (O.E. bræc), Sc. n.Cy.; climb, klam, klom (O.E. clamb, clomb), Sc. n.Cy. n.Midl. Hrf. Hmp. Dor.; find, fan(d (O.E. fand), Sc. Cum. Yks.; grind, gran(d (O.E. grand), Sc. Dur. Yks. Shr.; knead, nad, nēd (M.E. knad, late plur. knāden), Yks. Shr.; speak, spak, spēk (M.E. spak, late plur. spāken), Sc. Dwn. n.Cy. Ess. Dev.; swing, swaŋ (O.E. swang), Sc. Lakel. Yks.; tread, trad, trēd (M.E. trad, late plur. trāden), Sc. Yks.; win, wan (O.E. wan(n), Sc. Cum. Yks.

Examples of old strong verbs which have acquired new weak preterites are: bear, beared, Bch. Abd. Yks. s.Chs. s. and sw.Cy.; begin, beginned, w.Som. Dev.; burst, bursted, Sc. Midl. sw.Cy.; come, comed, Yks. Lan. n.Midl. e.An. sw.Cy.; draw, drawed, Midl. Hmp. sw.Cy.; grow, growed, n.Midl. I.W. Dor. w.Som.; know, knowed, n.Ir. n.Cy. Midl. Ess. Ken. Sur. I.W. sw.Cy.; see, seed, Sc. n.Cy. Yks. Lan. s.Chs. Midl. e.An. s. and sw.Cy.; steal, stealed, Sc. n.Lin. Brks. e.An. Dev.; throw, throwed, thrawed, Nhb. w.Yks. Midl. s. and sw.Cy.; weave, weaved, n. and e.Yks. w.Som.; &c., &c. These verbs have likewise a weak past participle, as: beared, corned, drawed, &c.

A few old weak verbs have become strong in lit. Eng. but retain their original weak forms in certain dialects, such are: dig, digged, w.Som., cp. ‘He made a pit and digged it,’ A.V. Ps. vii. 15, ‘Wells digged,’ Neh. ix. 25; strive, strived (M.E. strivede beside strōf), Peb. ne.Nrf. w.Som. Cor.; wear, weared (M.E. wered(e), Sc. n.Yks. Nhp. Wor. sw.Cy. Old forms of a weak preterite survive in reach, raught (M.E. raughte), Sc. Midl. s. and sw.Cy., cp. pp. ‘The hand of death hath raught him,’ Ant. & Cleop. IV. ix. 30; work, wrought (M.E. wroughte), Sc. Irel. n.Cy. Lan. Der. Stf. This is the ordinary preterite form used in the Authorized Version of the Bible, but in modern lit. Eng. only the past participle remains as an adjective, as in wrought iron. On the model of this kind of preterite we have in lit. Eng. catch, caught, but the regular form catched (M.E. cacched beside caughte) is common in nearly all the dialects of Sc. Irel. and England.

Many verbs which in the literary language have lost the final n of the strong past participle, retain it in certain dialects. These old past participles are found in Sc. n.Cy. and n.Midl. dialects, but very rarely further south than Shropshire. Examples are: bake, baken, Sc.; bereave, beriven, m.Yks.; bind, bunden, binden, Yks. Nhb.; climb, clomben, Nhb. Shr.; come, cumen, comen, Sc. n.Cy. Chs. Shr.; creep, cropen, crupen, Sc. n.Cy. Chs. Shr.; fight, foughten, Sc. n.Cy. Lei. Shr.; fling, flungen, e.Yks. s.Chs. Der.; grind, grounden, Nhb. n. and e.Yks. Shr.; help, holpen, s.Chs. Rut. Shr.; knead, nedn, m.Yks., noden, n.Cy. w.Yks. Nhp.; shoot, shotten, shutten, Sc. n.Irel. Lakel. n.Cy. Lei. Wor. Shr. Ken.; sit, sitten, Sc. n.Cy. Chs. nw.Der. Shr.; slit, slitten, Sc. Nhb. Yks. nw.Lin.; spring, sprungen, e.Yks. s.Chs.; wash, washen, Sc., weshen, w.Yks.; writhe, writhen, Sc. m.Yks. s.Chs.

In some dialects the verbal endings differ considerably from those of the standard language, and the use of these endings is governed by exact grammatical rules. To begin with the present tense: In Sc. Irel. n.Cy. and most of the n.Midl. dialects, all persons, singular and plural, take s, z, or əz when not immediately preceded or followed by their proper pronoun; that is when the subject is a noun, an interrogative or relative pronoun, or when the verb and subject are separated by a clause. When the verb is immediately preceded or followed by its proper pronoun, the first person sing. and the whole of the plural generally have no special endings in the above dialects, except occasionally in parts of Yks. Lan. and Lin. It follows from this that grammatically ‘Scots wha hae’ is incorrect; strictly the line should run: ‘Scots at haes wi’ Wallace bled.’ In the other parts of England the first person sing. has no special ending except in some of the southern and south-western dialects, which have the ending s, z, or əz. Most of the s.Midl. e. s. and sw. dialects have s, z, or əz for all persons of the plural. The plural generally ends in n, ən in se. em. and s.Lan. Chs. Flt. Dnb. Stf., nearly all Der., Shr., and also often in Nhp. War. Wor. Hrf.; this is especially the case with have. In Som. and Dev. the plural often ends in ð among the older generation of dialect speakers. In e. and s.Hrt. Ken. Sur. Hmp. I.W. w. and s.Som. Dev. Cor. ’m, am, is generally used for are after the pronouns we, ye, they, as: wəm, we are. In Nhb. Dur. Cum. Wm. Yks. Lan. n.Lin. is is often used for am. The periphrastic form I do love, &c., for I love, &c., is in general use in the sw. dialects.

The preterite plural sometimes ends in n, ən in some n.Midl. dialects, but beyond this the preterite endings generally agree with those of the literary language.

In the dialects of England the present participle ends in in except in parts of n.Nhb. and n.Cum. where the ending is ən. This ən probably goes back to the Northern M.E. ending and. In the dialects of s.Sc. and also in a few other Sc. dialects the present participle ends in ən, from older and, and the verbal noun ends in in from older ing. In the imperfect and perfect continuous tenses, as: I am striking, I have been striking, the present participle takes the prefix ə (ɒ) in the Midland, e.Cy. and sw.Cy. dialects, as: I am a-goin. This is an interesting point when we realize that it proves the origin of our present participle ending ing, which cannot be developed from the O.E. ende. The form with the prefix ə represents the verbal noun (O.E. -ung, -ing) preceded by the preposition on. The preposition dwindled through lack of stress into a mere prefix, and was ultimately lost in lit. Eng. These dialects thus preserve the intermediate stage.

In the s.Midl. and sw.Cy. dialects the past participle has the prefix ə (ɒ) from the O.E. prefix ge-.

The infinitive generally has no special ending just as in the literary language. But in the sw.Cy. dialects, especially in Dor. Som. Dev., intransitive verbs generally have the ending i, written y, from the O.E. ending -ian of weak verbs such as lufian, to love; lōcian, to look.