"De mæd ... hen kea so kleany bonnets g'hat di nix sin for hitz odder kelt; es wara rechtshaffene bonnets, das mer aw sea hut kenne ohna de brill uf du."—Nsp. Dii meed hen kee˛ soo klee˛ni 'bannǝts' katt dii niks sin f'r hits ǝd'r kelt; ǝs waarǝ rechtschaffǝnǝ 'bannǝts,' dass m'r aa seeǝ hǝt kennǝ, oone dii brill uf [tsu] duu˛. The girls (haben gehabt) had no such small 'bonnets' (die) which are nothing for heat or (kälte) cold; there were honest 'bonnets' that (mir) one (auch) also could see without putting the spectacles on.
| "De mæd ... hen kea so kleany bonnets g'hat di nix sin for hitz odder kelt; es wara rechtshaffene bonnets, das mer aw sea hut kenne ohna de brill uf du."—Nsp. | Dii meed hen kee˛ soo klee˛ni 'bannǝts' katt dii niks sin f'r hits ǝd'r kelt; ǝs waarǝ rechtschaffǝnǝ 'bannǝts,' dass m'r aa seeǝ hǝt kennǝ, oone dii brill uf [tsu] duu˛. |
PG. Sometimes distinguishes between the present tense and the aorist, as in Swiss—"er thuot choh" (he does come)—
Sellǝr hund knarrt. That dog growls (has a habit of growling).
Sellǝr hund tuut (G. thut) knarrǝ. That dog is now growling.
D'r mann tuut essa—ær iss am essǝ. The man is eating—he is at eating.
PG. does not use equivalents to neither and nor.
G. Er ist weder reich noch arm. He is neither rich nor poor. PG. ær iss net reich un net aarm.
E. He is either sick or lazy. PG. ær iss krank ǝdǝr faul. (Or, adopting either and its idiom) ǝr iss 'iitǝr' krank ǝdǝr faul.
In a case like the last, no matter how well the speaker knows English, he must not pronounce a word like 'either' in the English mode, because it would be an offense against the natural rhetoric of the dialect.
FOOTNOTES:
[36] ... "Von der Schweiz an zu beiden seiten des Rheines hinab bis an Hollands gränzen, giebt es kaum einige Gegenden, wo man den Koch vom Kellner, den Herrn vom Knechte, den Hammer vom Amboſze, d.i. den Werfall (Nominativ) vom Wenfalle (Accusativ) und dem Wemfalle (Dativ) richtig zu unterscheiden vermöchte. Bald hört man nehmlich: "ich trinke rother Wein" bald: "ich habe der Esel gesehen" bald: "ich sitze auf der Baum." s.f."—Dr. Joh. Gottl. Radlof, Mustersaal aller teutschen Mundarten, ... Bonn, 1822; 2, 90.
Stalder (Schweiz. Idiotikon, 1812) gives the accusatives of der and ein as agreeing with the nominative, and under ein (1, 37) he has—Acc. wie der Nom., welches überhaupt zu bemerken ist.