  The following notes may perhaps serve to give some slight indication as to pronunciation, &c., but without the aid of Glossic it is impossible accurately to reproduce the actual sounds. A is usually lengthened out or broadened in some way or other. Thus in hazon and haslet it would be pronounced somewhat as in baa, this being no doubt what the Monthly Magazine means by saying that 'a is always pronounced as r.' When a is immediately followed by r, as in ha'sh, harsh, and paa'son, parson, the result is that the r appears to be altogether dropped out of the word. Aw final always becomes aa, as laa, law, draa, draw, thaa, thaw. In saace, sauce, au becomes aa. A is also broadened into eÄ. Thus garden, gate, and name become geÄrden, geÄt, and neÄme. These examples may, however, be also pronounced in other ways, even in the same sentence, as garne, yat, and naayme, or often ne-um. A is often softened in various ways. Thus, thrash becomes draish, and wash, waish or weish. It is often changed to o, as zot, sat, ronk, rank. Also to e, as piller, pillar, refter, rafter, pert, part. In vur, far, the sound is u rather than e. The North Wilts version of the Song of Solomon gives frequent examples of oi for ai, as choir, chair, foir, fair, moyden, maiden; but this is probably an imported letter-change, chayer or chai-yer, for instance, being nearer the true sound. E is often broadened into aa or aay. Thus they gives us thaay, and break, braayke. In marchant, merchant, and zartin, certain, the sound given is as in tar. Ei takes the sound of a in fate, as desave, deceive. Left, smell, and kettle become lift, smill, and kiddle. In South Wilts e in such words as egg or leg becomes a or ai, giving us aig and laig or lag. Thus a Heytesbury Rosalind would render— 'O Jupiter, how weary are my legs!' by 'O-my-poor-vit'n-laigs!' uttered all in one gasp. In N. Wilts the e in these words is not perceptibly so altered. The e in such words as linnet usually takes the u sound, giving us linnut. In yes it is lengthened out into eece in S. Wilts, and in N. Wilts into cez. Long e or ee is shortened into i, as ship, sheep, kippur, keeper, wick, week, fit, vit, feet, the latter word sometimes being also pronounced as ve-ut. Heat becomes het, and heater (a flat-iron), hetter; while hear is usually hire in N. Wilts. I short becomes e, as breng, bring, drenk, drink, zet, sit, pegs, pigs. Occasionally it is lengthened into ee, as leetle, little. In hit (pret.) and if it usually takes the sound of u, as hut and uf or uv; but hit in the present tense is het, and if is often sounded as ef in N. Wilts. At the beginning of a word, im, in, and un usually become on, as onpossible, ondacent, oncommon. In present participles the sound given varies between un', en', and in', the g almost invariably being dropped. O very commonly becomes a, as archet, orchard, tharn, thorn, vant, font, vram, from, carn, corn. Quite as commonly it takes the au or aw sound, as hawp, hope, aupen, open, cawls, coals, hawle, hole, smawk, smoke. In such words as cold and four, the sound is ow rather than aw, thus giving us cowld and vower. Moss in S. Wilts sometimes takes the long e, becoming mesh, while in N. Wilts it would merely be mawss. Know becomes either knaw or kneow. O is often sounded oo, as goold, gold, cwoort, court, mwoor'n or moor'n, more than, poorch, porch. Oo is sometimes shortened into u, as shut, shoot, sut, soot, tuk, took. Very commonly the sound given to o is wo or woÄ. Thus we get twoad, toad (sometimes twoad), pwoast, post, bwoy, boy, rwoÄs, a rose, bwoÄn, bone, spwoke (but more usually spawk in N. Wilts), spoke. Oa at the beginning of a word becomes wu, as wuts, oats. Oi in noise and rejoice is sounded as ai. In ointment and spoil it becomes i or wi, giving intment and spile or spwile. Ow takes the sound of er or y, in some form or other, as vollur and volly, to follow, winder and windy, a window. U in such words as fusty and dust becomes ow, as fowsty, dowst. D when preceded by a liquid is often dropped, as veel', field, vine, to find, dreshol, threshold, groun', ground. Conversely, it is added to such words as miller, gown, swoon, which become millard, gownd, and zownd. In orchard and Richard the d becomes t, giving us archet D is dropped when it follows n, in such cases as Swinnun, Swindon, Lunnon, London. Su sometimes becomes Shu, as Shusan, Susan, shoot, suit, shewut, suet, shower, sure, Shukey, Sukey. Y is used as an aspirate in yacker, acre, yarm, arm, yeppern, apron, yerriwig, earwig. It takes the place of h in yeÄd, head, yeldin, a hilding; and of g in yeat or yat, a gate. Consonants are often substituted, chimney becoming chimbley or chimley, parsnip, pasmet, and turnip, turmut. Transpositions are very common, many of them of course representing the older form of a word. For examples we may take ax, to ask, apern, apron, girt, great, wopse, wasp, aps, the aspen, claps, to clasp, cruds, curds, childern, children. F almost invariably becomes v, as vlower, flower, vox, fox, vur, far, vall, fall, vlick, flick, vant, font. In such words as afterclaps and afternoon it is not sounded at all. L is not sounded in such words as amwoast, almost, and a'mighty, almighty. N final is occasionally dropped, as lime-kill, lime-kiln. P, F, V, and B are frequently interchanged, brevet and privet being forms of the same word, while to bag peas becomes fag or vag when applied to wheat. R is slurred over in many cases, as e'ath, earth, foc'd, forced, ma'sh, marsh, vwo'th, forth. It often assumes an excrescent d or t, as cavaltry, horsemen, crockerty, crockery, scholard, scholar. H has the sound of wh in whoam, home. This word, however, as Mr. Slow points out in the Preface to his Glossary—
is variously pronounced as wom, wimm, and whoam, even in the same village. As stated at page 72, the cockney misuse of h is essentially foreign to our dialect. It was virtually unknown sixty or seventy years ago, and even so late as thirty years back was still unusual in our villages. Hunked for unked is almost the only instance to be found in Akerman, for instance. But the plague is already fast spreading, and we fear that the Catullus of the next generation will have to liken the Hodge of his day to the Arrius (the Roman 'Arry) of old:— Chommoda dicebat, si quando commoda vellet Dicere, et hinsidias Arrius insidias ... Ionios fluctus, postquam illuc Arrius isset, Iam non Ionios esse, sed Hionios. Touching this point the Rev. G. Hill writes us from Harnham Vicarage as follows:—'I should like to bear out what you say with regard to the use of the letter h in South-West Wilts. When I lived in these parts twenty years ago, its omission was not I think frequent. The putting it where it ought not to be did not I think exist. I find now that the h is invariably dropped, and occasionally added, the latter habit being that of the better educated.' H becomes y in yeÄd, head. K is often converted into t, as ast, to ask, mast, a mask, bleat, bleak. T is conversely often replaced by k, as masking, acorn-gathering, from 'mast,' while sleet becomes sleek, and pant, pank. S usually takes the sound of z, as zee, to see, zaa, a saw, zowl, soul, zaat or zate, soft, zider, cider, zound, to swoon. Thr usually becomes dr, as dree, three, droo, through, draish, to thrash. In afurst, athirst, and fust, thirst, we still retain a very ancient characteristic of Southern English. T is always dropped in such words as kept and slept, which become kep' and slep'. Liquids sometimes drop the next letter, as kill, kiln; but more usually take an excrescent t or d, as varmint, vermin, steart, a steer, gownd, gown. W as an initial is generally dropped in N. Wilts in such cases as 'oont, a want or mole, 'ooman, woman, 'ood, wood. Occasionally in S. Wilts it takes the aspirate, 'ood being then hood. Final g is always dropped in the present participle, as singin', livin', living; also in nouns of more than one syllable which end in ing. It is, however, retained in monosyllabic nouns and verbs, such as ring and sing. Pre becomes pur, as purtend, pretend, purserve, preserve. Sometimes a monosyllabic word will be pronounced as a dissyllable, as we have already mentioned, ne-um, ve-ut, ve-us, and ke-up being used concurrently with naayme, vit or fit, veÄce, and kip or keep. The prefix a is always used with the present participle, as a-gwain', going, a-zettin' up, sitting up. The article an is never used, a doing duty on all occasions, as 'Gie I a apple, veyther.' Plurals will be found to be dealt with in the Glossary itself, under En and Plurals. Pronouns will also be found grouped together under Pronouns. As is used for who, which, and that. Active verbs govern the nominative case. Verbs do not agree with their nominative, either in number or person. The periphrastic tenses are often used in S. Wilts, as 'I do mind un,' but in N. Wilts the rule is to employ the simple tenses instead, merely altering the person, as 'I minds un.' In S. Wilts you might also say 'It be a vine night,' whereas in N. Wilts ''Tes a vine night' would be more correct. In conclusion we would mention that we hope in the course of the next year or two to be able to deal with the grammatical and phonological sides of our Dialect in a somewhat more adequate manner than it has been possible to do on the present occasion. |
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