Chapter 9

I have certainly great pleasure in complying with your request, although I fear that any communication it is in my power to make, will be of little use to you in your curious work on the West Country dialect. The lines you desire are these:

Bread and cheese 'e' have a had, That 'e' had 'e' have a eat, More 'ch wou'd 'e' had it.

Sounds which, from association no doubt, carry with them to my ear the idea of great vulgarity: but which might have a very different effect on that of an unprejudiced hearer, when dignified by an Anglo-Saxon pedigree. The Scotch dialect, now become _quite classical_ with us, might, perhaps, labour under the same disadvantage amongst those who hear it spoken by the vulgar only.

Although I am a native of Somersetshire, I have resided very little in that county since my childhood, and, in my occasional visits since, have had little intercourse with the _aborigines_. I recollect, however, two or three words, which you might not, perhaps, have met with. One of them of which I have traditionary knowledge, being, I believe, now quite obsolete. _Pitisanquint_ was used in reply to an inquiry after the health of a person, and was, I understand, equivalent to _pretty well_, or _so so_. The word _Lamiger_, which signifies an invalid, I have no doubt you have met with. When any one forbodes bad weather, or any disaster, it is very common to say _Don't ye housenee_. Here you have the verbal termination, which you remarked was so common in the West, and which I cannot help thinking might have been originally vised as a sort of diminutive, and that _to milkee_, signified to milk _a little_.

As my knowledge of these few words is merely oral, I cannot answer for the orthography; I have endeavoured to go as near the sound as possible, and I only wish it were in my power to make some communication more worth your attention. As it is, I have only my best wishes to offer for the success of your truly original work.

I am, Sir, your most obedient,

Elizabeth Ham.

I have only one or two remarks to add to those of Miss Ham in the preceding letter.

It will be seen, by reference to the exemplifications of the dialect, that occasional _pleonasm_ will be found in it, as well as, very often, extraordinary _contraction_. _I have adone_, _I have a had_, are examples of the first; and _'tword'n_, _gup_, _g'under_, _banehond_, &c. [see Banehond in the _Glossary_] are examples of the last. _Pitisanquint_ appears to me to be simply a contracted and corrupted mode of expressing _Piteous_ and _quaint_, [See Pitis in the _Glossary_.]

_Don't ye houseenee_ is _Do not stay in your houses_. But the implied meaning is, _be active_; do your best to provide for the bad weather which portends. In Somersetshire, most of the colloquial and idiomatic expressions have more or less relation to agriculture, agricultural occupations, or to the most common concerns of life, hence such expressions have, in process of time, become _figurative._ Thus, _don't ye housenee,_ would be readily applied to rouse a person to activity, in order that he may prevent or obviate any approaching or portending evil.

I am still of opinion; indeed I may say, I am quite sure, that the verbal terminations, _sewy, Tcnitty, &c.,_ have no relation to _diminution_ in the district East of the Parret.

Upon the whole, it is evident that considerable care and circumspection are necessary in committing to paper the signs of the sounds of a language, of which we have no accredited examples, nor established criterion. In making collections of this work, I have not failed to bear this constantly in mind.