such is the disposition to pleonasm in the use of the demonstrative pronouns, that they are very often used with the adverb there. Theäze here, thick there, [thicky there, west of the Parret] theäsam here, theazamy here, them there, themmy there. The substitution of V for F, and Z (Izzard, Shard, for S, is one of the strongest words of numerous dialects.)
In words ending with p followed by s, the letters change places as:
hasp—haps; clasp—claps, wasp—waps;
In a paper by General Vallancey in the second volume of the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy, read Dec. 27, 1788, it appears that a colony of English soldiers settled in the Baronies of Forth Bargie, in the county of Wexford, in Ireland, in 1167, 1168, and 1169; and that colony preserved their customs, manners, and language to 1788. There is added in that paper a vocabulary of their language, and a song, handed down by tradition from the arrival of the colony more than 600 years since. I think there can be no question that these Irish colonists were from the West of England, from the apparent admixture of dialects in the vocabulary and song, although the language is much altered from the Anglo- Saxon of Somersetshire. [Footnote: This subject has been more fully treated in the following work: A Glossary, with some pieces of verse of the old dialect of the English colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Formerly collected by Jacob Poole, of Growton, now edited with Notes and Introduction by the Rev. W. Barnes, author of the Dorset Poems and Glossary, fcap. 8vo, 1867.] The words nouth, knoweth; zin, sin, vrast, frost; die, day; Zathardie, Saturday; Zindii, Sunday; and a few others, indicate an origin west of the Parret. There are many words which with a trifling alteration in spelling, would suit at the present time the north eastern portion of the county: as blauther, bladder: crwest, crust; smill, smell; skir, to rise in the air [see skeer]; vier, fire; vier, a weasel; zar, to serve; zatch, such, &c. From such words as ch'am, and ch'uh, the southern part of the county is clearly indicated. I think the disposition to elision and contraction is as evident here as it is at present in Somersetshire. In the song, there are marks of its having undergone change since its first introduction.
Lowthee is evidently derived from lewth [see Glossary] lewthy, will be, abounding in lewth, i. e. sheltered.
The line
"As by mizluck wus I pit t' drive in."
would in the present Somerset dialect stand thus:
"_That by misluck war a put ta dreav in."
That by mis-luck was placed to drive in.