Steele, in the Spectator (No. 344), has, ‘I have wrote to you three or four times.’ And he is generally acknowledged to have been a fairly good scholar, but then his writings go back a hundred years, and they spoke differently then. Our people speak very much like it now.
The formation of the perfect and of the participle vary considerably from that of ordinary grammar. As a rule the past participle is formed by the addition of en. There are other striking peculiarities in the vowel changes. A list of some of the leading ones is here given.
| Present. | Perfect. | Participles. |
| Build | Belt | Belt |
| Beeat (beat) | Bet | Betten |
| Bid | Bad | Bidden, bodden |
| Binnd (bind) | Bun or bund | Bun, bund, or bunden |
| Bleead (bleed) | Bled, blaad | Bledden |
| Break, breek (break) | Brak | Brokken |
| Brust (burst) | Brast | Brussen, brossen |
| Cast | Kest | Kessen |
| Cheease (choose) | Choaze | Chozzen |
| Coss (curse) | Coss’d | Coss’d, cossen |
| Cost | Cost | Cossen |
| Creeap (creep) | Crep or crop | Croppen |
| Cum (come) | Cam, com | Cum’d |
| Cut (cut) | Cut | Cutten |
| Darr (dare) | Dast | Darrd |
| Drahve (drive) | Drave | Drovven or druvven |
| Felt (hide) | Felt | Felted |
| Feyght (fight) | Fowt | Fowten |
| Finnd (find) | Fan | Fun |
| Flig (fly) | Fligg’d | Fligg’d |
| Fling (fling) | Flang | Flung |
| Flit (to change one’s abode) | Flitted | Flitten |
| Freeze (freeze) | Fraze | Frozzen |
| Gi’e (give) | Gav or ga | Geen[106] |
| Git (get) | Gat | Gitten, getten, or gotten |
| Greeap or group (grope) | Grape | Groupen or groppen |
| Grund, grahnd (grind) | Grund | Grun or grunded |
| Ho’d (hold) | Ho’ded | Ho’dden |
| Ho’t (hurt) | Ho’t | Ho’tten |
| Kep (catch) | Kept | Kept, keppen |
| Lap (wrap) | Lapt, lapp’d | Lappen or lappen’d |
| Let (let) | Let | Letten |
| Lig (lay) | Lig’d, lihd | Lihn |
| Lig (lie) | Lig’d | Liggen or lig’d |
| Leet (light) | Let | Letten |
| Loose (loose) | Lowse | Lowsen |
| Loss (lose) | Lost | Lossen |
| Preeave (prove) | Preeav’d | Provven or pruvven |
| Put (put) | Put | Putten |
| Rahd (ride) | Rade | Ridden or rodden |
| Rahse (rise) | Roase | Risen or rosen |
| Rahve (tear) | Rave | Rovven |
| Set | Set | Setten |
| Shak (shake) | Shak’t | Shak’t or shakken |
| Shed (shed) | Shed | Shedden |
| Shoe (shoe) | Shod | Shodden |
| Shut (shut) or shoot | Shut | Shutten |
| Sit (sit) | Sat | Setten |
| Slet (slit) | Slet | Slitten |
| Smit (infect) | Smitted | Smittel’d |
| Snaw (snow) | Snew | Snawn or snaw’d |
| Speeak (speak) | Spak | Spokken |
| Splet (split) | Splet | Spletten |
| Spreead (spread) | Sprade | Sprodden |
| Stan (stand) | Steead | Stooden |
| Stick (stick) | Stack | Stucken |
| Straad (stride) | Stroade, straad, or strahd | Strodden |
| Strahve (strive) | Strahve or stroave | Struvven or strovven |
| Strike (strike) | Strake, strak | Strukken |
| Tak (take) | Teeak, teuk | Ta’en, takken, or tuckken |
| Tell | Tell’d, tell’t | Tell’d, tell’t |
| Thrahve (thrive) | Throv, thrahve | Throvven |
| Thrust (thrust) | Thrast, throst | Throssen or thrussen |
| Treead (tread) | Trade, tred | Trodden |
| Wet (wet) | Wet | Wetten |
| Win (win) | Wan | Won |
| Worrk (work) | Wrowt, wark’d | Wrowt or wrowten |
| Wreyte (write) | Wrate | Written |
Conjunctions.
Some of those generally in use will be found contained in the following request:—
‘Tommy’s cum’d, an’ Jimmy an’ all. Noo, if so be as hoo ’at wa caan’t finnd hoos-room for baith on[107] ’em, could thoo, wivoot putting thisen aboot, mannish ti tak Jimmy in? Bud, hooivver, thoo knaws if in case ’at thoo caan’t mannish ti deea ’t foor all t’ tahm tha’re here, can ta whahl t’ daay efter ti morn? Tha’ve cum’d for ti see Mary. Nowther on ’em’s clapt ees on her sen sha went ti pleeace, an’ seeaner ’an tha s’u’dn’t ’a’e seen her, Ah wad ’a’e geean ti my aunt Martha; bud Ah’d better stop at yam ez gan theer, if so be ’at thoo can mannish ’t onny road. Besides, thoo knaws thi larl Lizzie could cum an’ lig wiv oor Freddy, bidoot thoo ligs her on t’ sōfy. Ah think ’at that wad be t’ better waay; noo, what diz ta saay?’
Key.
‘Tommy has come, and Jimmy as well. Now, if we cannot find room for both on them, could you, without inconveniencing yourself, manage to take Jimmy in? Still, if you cannot manage to do so for all the time they are here, can you until the day after to-morrow. They have come to see Mary, neither of them having seen her since she went to place—i.e. situation. And rather than they should have missed seeing her, I would have gone to my aunt Martha; but I had better stay at home than go there, if you can manage it anyway. Besides, your little Lizzie could come and sleep with our Freddy, unless you lay her on the sofa. I think that would be the best; now, what do you say?’
In reading the key over, it will be found, in several instances, that a single word does duty for several. This tendency towards redundancy is very common, e.g. ‘If so be as how ’at wa cannot,’ simply means ‘If we cannot’; and ‘Besides, thoo knaws,’ is ’besides.’ Instead of the last word, ‘besides,’ the usage of ‘An’ moreover ’an that’ is very common.
The rule that prepositions govern the objective case, expressed or understood, the conjunction never, holds good in the folk-speech.