The Dialect of the West of England; Particularly Somersetshire

⺬The Dialect of the West of England; Particularly Somersetshire

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Title: The Dialect of the West of England Particularly Somersetshire
Author: James Jennings
Release Date: February, 2005 [EBook #7453] [Yes, we are more than one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on May 3, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-Latin-1
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"Goo little Reed! Aforn tha vawk, an vor me plead: Thy wild nawtes, m?￠-be, th?￠ ool hire Zooner than z?￠ter vrom a l?￠re. Z?￠ that thy Maester's pleas'd ta blaw 'em, An haups in time th?￠'ll come ta knaw 'em An nif za be th?￠'ll please ta hear, A'll gee zum moor another year."--_The Farewell._
THE Dialect of the West of England
PARTICULARLY SOMERSETSHIRE;
WITH A GLOSSARY OF WORDS NOW IN USE THERE; ALSO WITH POEMS AND OTHER PIECES EXEMPLIFYING THE DIALECT.
BY JAMES JENNINGS,
HONORARY SECRETARY OF THE METROPOLITAN LITERARY INSTITUTION, LONDON.
BASED ON THE _SECOND EDITION,_
THE WHOLE REVISED, CORRECTED, AND ENLARGED, WITH TWO DISSERTATIONS ON THE ANGLO-SAXON PRONOUNS, AND OTHER PIECES,
BY JAMES KNIGHT JENNINGS, M.A.,
Late Scholar and Librarian, Queens' College, Cambridge; Vicar of Hagbourn, Berkshire; and Minister of Calcott Donative, Somersetshire.

TO THA DWELLERS O' THA WEST,
Tha Fruit o' longvul labour, years, In the?¤ze veo leaves at last appears. Ta you, tha dwellers o' tha West, I'm pleas'd that th?￠ shood be addresst: Vor thaw I now in Lunnan dwell, I mine ye still--I love ye well; And niver, niver sholl vorget I vust dr?￠w'd breath in _Zummerzet_; Amangst ye liv'd, and left ye zorry, As you'll knaw when you hire my storry. The?¤ze little book than take o' me; 'Tis ?￠ll I h?￠ just now ta gee An when you rade o' Tommy Gool, Or Tommy Came, or Pal at school, Or _Mr. Guy_, or Fanny Fear,-- I thenk you'll shod vor her a tear) Tha Rookery, or _Mary's Crutch_, Tha cap o' which I love ta touch, You'll vine that I do not vorget My naatal swile--dear Zummerzet.
JAS. JENNINGS.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In preparing this second edition of my relative's work, I have incorporated the results of observations made by me during several years' residence in Somersetshire, in the centre of the district. I have also availed myself by kind permission, of hints and suggestions in two papers, entitled "Somersetshire Dialect," read by T. S. Baynes in 1856, and reprinted from the Taunton Courier, in London, in 1861.
During the forty years which have elapsed since the first edition, very much light has been thrown on the subject of Provincial Dialects, and after all much remains to be discovered. I consider with Mr. Baynes that there is more of the pure Anglo-Saxon in the west of England dialect, as this district was the seat of classical Anglo-Saxon, which first rose here to a national tongue, and lasted longer in a great measure owing to its distance from the Metropolis, from which cause also it was less subject to modern modification.
I shall be happy to receive any suggestions from Philological scholars, which may increase the light thrown on the subject, and by which a third edition may be improved.
_Hagbourn Vicarage, August,_ 1869.

PREFACE.
The usefulness of works like the present is too generally admitted to need any apology for their publication. There is, notwithstanding, in their very nature a dryness, which requires relief: the author trusts, therefore, that, in blending something imaginative with the details of philological precision, his work will afford amusement to the reader.
The Glossary contains the fruit of years of unwearied attention to the subject; and it is hoped that the book will be of some use in elucidating our old writers, in affording occasional help to the etymology of the Anglo-Saxon portion of our language, and in exhibiting a view of the present state of an important dialect of the western provinces of England.
A late excursion through the West