(2) He finds it too much of an effort to sound the whole word ‘the,’ and therefore clips it into t’; so that with him ‘the cow is in the close’ becomes t’ coo is i’ t’ clooase. If he is a Holderness man even that effort will probably be too great for him, and what he will say is coo is i’ clooase.
(3) In the same way he finds it much easier to drop the final G of words ending in ING and to drop an initial H. To make up for the latter, however, he may very possibly put in an occasional H somewhere where it would not be expected. Thus he may tell us, speaking of his companions, that hivvry yan on em is gannin t’ ’Ool t’ morn.
(4) He has a very simple method of dealing with the inflections of the verb. I am, thou art, he is; and I do, thou dost, he does, are levelled into:—
| Ah is | Ah diz |
| Thoo is | Thoo diz |
| He is | He diz |
—while, in speaking of his sheep, he may even tell us that Them’s good uns.
(5) The plural words cows, eyes, children, are not at all to his liking. He much prefers to speak of such things as ky, een, and childer. Nor does he take kindly to the ‘apostrophe s’ as a sign of the possessive case; but will tell his boy to stan bi t’ hoss heead.
(6) He is very fond of doubling his negatives, and occasionally he is not even satisfied with the doubling process. It is said of an East Yorkshireman whose apple trees were the aim of many a schoolboy’s stone, that his lamentation took the form of neeabody’s neea bisniss ti thraw nowt inti neeabody’s gardin.
(7) He is also very fond of ‘strong’ past tenses and of past participles ending in EN. The past tenses beat, crept, snowed, are with him bet, crop, and snew; while the past participles burst, fought, got, held, let, put, become brussen, fowten, gotten, ho’dden, letten, and putten. So firmly fixed in popular favour are these forms in EN that it is told of a small boy who had been receiving a lesson on their incorrectness, that in a state of momentary excitement he informed his mistress: Pleease, miss, Billy Jooanes ha’ putten ‘putten’ wheer he owt ti ha’ putten ‘put.’
(8) The East Yorkshireman has a host of words that are all his own. Thus he will tell us that theer war nobbut yah coo i’ t’ helm at t’ far-end o’ t’ pastur; and that he doots t’ awd meer’s boon ti dee, but happen she mud live whahl Moon da.[[67]]
(9) He has likewise his own way of expressing his thoughts, and no other will serve his purpose so well. ‘Well, my boy, who are you?’ a country parson freshly arrived from the South is said to have asked a village boy. Ah’s weel, hoo’s yersen? was the unexpected reply that the parson received. But, of course, he should have known that in East Yorkshire the correct way of asking his question is ‘What do they call you?’