There are very many of these special modes of expression. To spread a report is to set it aboot, to scold a person is to call him, to call a person is to call of him, to pour hot water on tea-leaves is to mash t’ tay, to be going to the bad is to be at a loose end, to leave off doing a thing is to give ower, and to give good promise of success is to fraame middlin.
If an East Yorkshireman wishes to make known that he saw his brother Sam, he will say Ah seed oor Sam. Of one who cannot look after himself he will say that t’ awd chap canna fend for hissen, and of one who is not getting better from an illness it will be said that he dizn’t mend onny.
Sometimes the result of the change of expression becomes ludicrous, as it was in the case of the cottager who, telling of a lodger that he prepared his own food and she did his washing for him, explained: He meeats hissen an’ ah weshes him.
The East Yorkshireman, like many other people, likes making comparisons; but he has his own idea of what forms a fit and proper comparison. Thus, in speaking of the steepness of a cliff he will tell us that it is as brant as a hoose sahd, or he will explain that his grandfather is as deeaf as a yat-stowp.[[68]] Concerning a person of whose capabilities he does not think highly, he will tell us that he is as fond as a billy-gooat, or as green as a yalla cabbish, or even as soft as a boiled tonnap.
Many other examples of the peculiarities of the East Yorkshire Folk-Speech might be given. What shall we say about them? Shall we smile at what we are pleased to consider mis-pronunciations and awkward attempts to speak the English language? When the farm-labourer, who had been beguiled into buying a ‘solid gold-plated keyless watch jewelled in seven holes’ from a cheap-jack in Beverley Market Place, was told by his companion to ax where the key was, and proceeded to bawl out Wheer’s t’ kay? was he to be laughed at for murdering the King’s English?
If we wish to laugh at those who thus speak ‘broad Yorkshire’ let us do so. But at the same time let us remember that what we are pleased to call ‘broad Yorkshire’ is often much truer English than what we ourselves customarily use.
A thousand years ago our ancestors called a key cæg (pronounced kaig), and used the verb acsian where we should use ‘ask.’ They also used the word cy (pronounced kee) for the plural of cu (pronounced koo), and the word cilder (pronounced kilder) for the plural of cild.
So really the East Yorkshire farm-labourers are speaking the language of their ancestors much more truly than we who mis-pronounce words and make them into cows and ask, and who manufacture such a double plural as the word child(e)r-en.
In numerous instances is the East Yorkshire Folk-Speech nearer to the true English than is the commonly accepted ‘English’ of to-day. The following examples might be multiplied indefinitely:—