Page:Studies in Lowland Scots - Colville - 1909.djvu/195

Rh exploiting of an almost unworked section of the linguistic field. The Cumberland dialect has been moulded by both Anglo-Saxon and Norse influences. To the latter, carried across the Yorkshire fells, is due the favourite abbreviated article t' for the in all positions—e.g. t'teable, t'floor, t'cow horn. Of course the t here is not the initial in the original "that"—still heard in Scotland, as "give me that cleek"—but the final. The first step of the change is seen in "the tane and the tither" for that ain and that ither. The Dutchman keeps it as het, while with the Highlander it is a feeble breath, 'he. The dalesman, though he spells water with a double dental, goes farther even than the Glasgow man in eliminating this letter, witness his favourite laal for little, while he will only say Hoo! for the "Kailyard" Hoo-t-ootts! If this be due to laziness, he takes the extra trouble of saying b for v as eben for even, whereas the Scot gets rid of v between two vowels as often as he can. The dalesman is lazy enough to say reesht and reet for the Scotsman's richt, just as in German dialects nicht drops to nisht and nit. The Cumbrian's enclitic negative is n't; thus he says divn't and disn't where the Scot chooses the better part, dinna and dizna. For the Scot's "u'll no gang" he says "ah willn't gang." In common with the Southron, the presence of r affects him. On the North-east he cherishes the burr, but introduces, where he can, a peculiar after-sound of w, as in cworn for corn, to the fwore for to the fore.

There is a wide field for comparison among the vocables. Many are haimit enough, such as crine (shrink), dorting (ill-humour), dub, fouthie, lum, reek, tine (lose), threep (argue), pree (taste), shade (part hair), snod (tidy). Others differ from Scots in meaning. Kittle is active, never difficult as in Scots; unco is strange, never intensive, as it is in "unco guid;" ploy is employment, not a feast in humble life; oot-weel is wale oot or select; threve is a great number, not a stock or set of corn sheaves. A bole or recess in a wall is so obscure in Cumberland as to require to be called a "booly hole." The Cumb. "This shoe isn't a marras (match) te that," would be in Scots, "...isna the marra o' that," or in the plural, "Thae shuen are no marras." More useful is it to study those obscure words on which Cumberland practice throws light, since there must now be but a