Chapter 9

and the "Credo" or Apostles' Creed, all in the same dialect; and I here give the last of these, as being not difficult to follow:

Ich leve ine God, Vader almighti, makere of hevene and of erthe. And ine Iesu Crist, His zone onlepi [_only son_], oure lhord, thet y-kend [_conceived_] is of the Holy Gost, y-bore of Marie mayde, y-pyned [_was crucified_, lit. _made to suffer_] onder Pouns Pilate, y-nayled a rode [_on a cross_], dyad, and be-bered; yede [_went_] doun to helle; thane thridde day aros vram the dyade; steay [_rose, ascended_] to hevenes; zit [_sitteth_] athe [_on the_] right half of God the Vader almighti; thannes to comene He is, to deme the quike and the dyade. Ich y-leve ine the Holy Gost; holy cherche generalliche; Mennesse of halyen [_communion of holy-ones_]; Lesnesse of zennes [_remission of sins_]; of vlesse [_flesh, body_] arizinge; and lyf evrelestinde. Zuo by hyt [_so be it_].

A few remarks may well be made here on some of the peculiarities of Southern English that appear here. The use of _v_ for _f_ (as in _vader_, _vram_, _vlesshe_), and of _z_ for _s_ (as in _zone_, _zit_, _zennes_) are common to this day, especially in Somersetshire. The spelling _lhord_ reminds us that many Anglo-Saxon words began with _hl_, one of them being _hl{-a}fweard_, later _hl{-a}ford_, a lord; and this _hl_ is a symbol denoting the so-called "whispered _l_," sounded much as if an aspirate were prefixed to the _l_, and still common in Welsh, where it is denoted by _ll_, as in _llyn_, a lake. In every case, modern English substitutes for it the ordinary _l_, though _lh_ (= _hl_) was in use in 1340 in Southern. The prefix _y-_, representing the extremely common A.S. (Anglo-Saxon) prefix _ge-_, was kept up in Southern much longer than in the other dialects, but has now disappeared; the form _y-clept_ being archaic. The plural suffix _-en_, as in _haly-en_, holy ones, saints, is due to the fact that Southern admitted the use of that suffix very freely, as in _cherch-en_, churches, _sterr-en_, stars, etc.; whilst Northern only admitted five such plurals, viz. _egh-en_, _ey-en_, eyes (Shakespeare's _eyne_), _hos-en_, stockings, _ox-en_, _shoo-n_, shoes, and _f{-a}-n_, foes; _ox-en_ being the sole survivor, since _shoon_ (as in _Hamlet_, IV iv 26) is archaic. The modern _child-r-en_, _breth-r-en_, are really double plurals; Northern employed the more original forms _childer_ and _brether_, both of which, and especially the former, are still in dialectal use. _Evrelest-inde_ exhibits the Southern _-inde_ for present participles.

But the word _zennes_, sins, exhibits a peculiarity that is almost solely Kentish, and seldom found elsewhere, viz. the use of _e_ for _i_. The explanation of this rests on an elementary lesson in Old English phonology, which it will do the reader no harm to acquire. The modern symbol _i_ (when denoting the _short_ sound, as in _pit_) really does double duty. It sometimes represents the A.S. short _i_, as in _it_ (A.S. _hit_), _sit_ (A.S. _sittan_), _bitten_ (A.S. _b{)i}ten_), etc.; and sometimes the A.S. short _y_, as in _pyt_, a pit. The sound of the A.S. short _i_ was much the same as in modern English; but that of the short _y_ was different, as it denoted the "mutated" form of short _u_ for which German has a special symbol, viz. _ü_, the sound intended being that of the German _ü_ in _schützen_, to protect. In the latter case, Kentish usually has the vowel _e_, as in the modern Kentish _pet_, a pit, and in the surname _Petman_ (at Margate), which means _pitman_; and as the A.S. for "sin" was _synn_ (dat. _synne_), the Kentish form was _zenne_, since Middle English substantives often represent the A.S. dative case. The Kentish plural had the double form, _zennes_ and _zennen_, both of which occur in the _Ayenbite_, as might have been expected.

The poet Gower, who completed what may be called the first edition of his poem named the _Confessio Amantis_ (or Confession of a Lover) in 1390, was a Kentish man, and well acquainted with the Kentish dialect. He took advantage of this to introduce, occasionally, Kentish forms into his verse; apparently for the sake of securing a rime more easily. See this discussed at p. ci of vol. II of Macaulay's edition of Gower. I may illustrate this by noting that in _Conf. Amant._ i 1908, we find _pitt_ riming with _witt_, whereas in the same, v 4945, _pet_ rimes with _let_.

We know that, in 1386, the poet Chaucer was elected a knight of the shire for Kent, and in 1392-3 he was residing at Greenwich. He evidently knew something of the Kentish dialect; and he took advantage of the circumstance, precisely as Gower did, for varying his rimes. The earliest example of this is in his _Book of the Duchess_, l. 438, where he uses the Kentish _ken_ instead of _kin_ (A.S. _cynn_) in order to secure a rime for _ten_. In the _Canterbury Tales_, E 1057, he has _kesse_, to kiss (A.S. _cyssan_), to rime with _stedfastnesse_. In the same, A 1318, he has _fulfille_, to fulfil (cf. A.S. _fyllan_, to fill), to rime with _wille_; but in Troilus, iii 510, he changes it to _fulfelle_, to rime with _telle_; with several other instances of a like kind.

It is further remarkable that some Kentish forms seem to have established themselves in standard English, as when we use _dent_ with the sense of _dint_ (A.S. _dynt_). When we speak of _the left hand_, the form _left_ is really Kentish, and occurs in the _Ayenbite of Inwyt_; the Midland form is properly _lift_, which is common enough in Middle English; see the _New English Dictionary_, s.v. _Left_, adj. _Hemlock_ is certainly a Kentish form; cf. A.S. _hymlice_, and see the _New English Dictionary_. So also is _kernel_ (A.S. _cyrnel_); _knell_ (A.S. _cnyllan_, verb); _merry_ (A.S. _myrge_, _myrige_); and perhaps _stern_, adj. (A.S. _styrne_).

There are some excellent remarks upon the vocalism of the Kentish dialect in Middle English by W. Heuser, in the German periodical entitled _Anglia_, vol XVII pp. 73-90.