CHAPTER XVI

A FEW SIMPLE HINTS ON THE GRAMMAR OF THE FOLK-SPEECH

THE ARTICLE.

There is no variation in the usage of the indefinite article, save that it still retains its place before participles and the adjectives _few_, _many_, and _great many_.

Ex.—‘He started a calling o’ ma, an’ Ah started a genning at him, an’ then wa set ti wark a lethering yan anuther,’

Educated people do not nowadays say, ‘I sat a sipping of my tea, and a smiling at the kettle a singing on the hob,’ No, it sounds quaint. And to those who know as little of their Shakespeare as they do of their Bibles, such speech is put down to ignorance, or a lack of education, when in point of fact they are listening to an echo of that old-time speech which was in full swing long before their great grandmothers were born, and used by really quite respectable people; e.g.—

‘As he was yet _a_ coming’ (Luke ix. 42).

‘I go _a_ fishing’ (John xxi. 3).

‘While the ark was _a_ preparing’ (1 Pet. iii. 20).

‘His greatness is yet _a_ ripening’ (_Henry VIII_).

‘There is some ill _a_ brewing towards my rest’ (_Merchant of Venice_,