Highways and Byways in Sussex Part 45

_a_ before _ct_ becomes _e_; as satisfection, for satisfaction.

_e_ before _ct_ becomes _a_; and affection, effect and neglect are p.r.o.nounced affaction, effact and neglact.

Double _e_ is p.r.o.nounced as _i_ in such words as sheep, week, called s.h.i.+p and wick; and the sound of double _e_ follows the same rule in fild for field.

Having p.r.o.nounced _ee_ as _i_, the Suss.e.x people in the most impartial manner p.r.o.nounce _i_ as _ee_; and thus mice, hive, dive, become meece, heeve, and deeve.

_i_ becomes _e_ in pet for pit, spet for spit, and similar words.

_io_ and _oi_ change places respectively; and violet and violent become voilet and voilent, while boiled and spoiled are bioled and spioled.

_o_ before _n_ is expanded into _oa_ in such words as pony, dont, bone; which are p.r.o.nounced p??ny, d??nt, b??n.

_o_ before _r_ is p.r.o.nounced as _a_; as carn and marning, for corn and morning.

_o_ also becomes _a_ in such words as rad, cra.s.s, and c.r.a.p, for rod, cross, and crop.

_ou_ is elongated into _aou_ in words like hound, pound, and mound; p.r.o.nounced haound, paound, and maound.

The final _ow_, as in many other counties, is p.r.o.nounced er, as foller for fallow.

The peculiarities with regard to the p.r.o.nunciation of consonants are not so numerous as those of the vowels, but they are very decided, and seem to admit of less variation.

Double _t_ is always p.r.o.nounced as _d_; as liddle for little, &c., and the _th_ is invariably _d_; thus the becomes _de_; and these, them, theirs--dese, dem, deres.

_d_ in its turn is occasionally changed into _th_; as in fother for fodder.

The final _sp_ in such words as wasp, clasp, and hasp are reversed to wapse, clapse and hapse.

Words ending in _st_ have the addition of a syllable in the possessive case and the plural, and instead of saying that "some little birds had built their nests near the posts of Mr. West's gate," a Suss.e.x boy would say, "the birds had built their nestes near the postes of Mr. Westes'

gate."

[Sidenote: EAST AND WEST]

Roughly speaking, Suss.e.x has little or no dialect absolutely its own; for the country speech of the west is practically that also of Hamps.h.i.+re, and of the east, that of Kent. The dividing line between east and west, Mr. Cripps of Steyning tells me, is the Adur, once an estuary of the sea rather than the stream it now is, running far inland and separating the two Suss.e.xes with its estranging wave.

Mr. Parish's pages supply the following words and examples of their use, chosen almost at random:--

Adone (Have done, Leave off): I am told on good authority that when a Suss.e.x damsel says, "Oh! do adone," she means you to go on; but when she says, "Adone-do," you must leave off immediately.

Crownation (Coronation): "I was married the day the Crownation was, when there was a bullock roasted whole up at Furrel [Firle] Park. I d??n't know as ever I eat anything so purty in all my life; but I never got no further than Furrel cross-ways all night, no more didn't a good many."

Dentical (Dainty): "My Master says that this here Proos.h.i.+an (query Persian) cat what you gave me is a deal too dentical for a poor man's cat; he wants one as will catch the meece and keep herself."

Dunnamany (I do not know how many): "There was a dunnamany people come to see that gurt hog of mine when she was took bad, and they all guv it in as she was took with the information. We did all as ever we could for her. There was a bottle of stuff what I had from the doctor, time my leg was so bad, and we took and mixed it in with some milk and give it to her lew warm, but naun as we could give her didn't seem to do her any good."

Foreigner (A stranger; a person who comes from any other county but Suss.e.x): I have often heard it said of a woman in this village, who comes from Lincolns.h.i.+re, that "she has got such a good notion of work that you'd never find out but what she was an Englishwoman, without you was to hear her talk."

[Sidenote: "FRENCHYS"]

Frenchy (A foreigner of any country who cannot speak English, the nationality being added or not, as the case seems to require): thus an old fisherman, giving an account of a Swedish vessel which was wrecked on the coast a year or two ago, finished by saying that he thought the French Frenchys, take 'em all in all, were better than the Swedish Frenchys, for he could make out what they were driving at, but he was all at sea with the others.

Heart (Condition; said of ground): "I've got my garden into pretty good heart at last, and if so be as there warn't quite so many sparrs and greybirds and roberts and one thing and t'other, I dunno but what I might get a tidy lot of sa.s.s. But there! 'taint no use what ye do as long as there's so much varmint about."

Hill (The Southdown country is always spoken of as "The Hill" by the people in the Weald): "He's gone to the hill, harvesting."

Ink-horn (Inkstand): "Fetch me down de inkhorn, mistus; I be g'wine to putt my harnd to dis here part.i.tion to Parliament. 'Tis agin de Romans, mistus; for if so be as de Romans gets de upper harnd an us, we shall be burnded, and bloodshedded, and have our Bibles took away from us, and dere'll be a hem set out."

Justabout (Certainly, extremely): "I justabout did enjoy myself up at the Cristial Palace on the Forresters' day, but there was a terr'ble gurt crowd; I should think there must have been two or three hundred people a-scrouging about."

Know (Used as a substantive for knowledge): "Poor fellow, he has got no know whatsumdever, but his sister's a nice knowledgeable girl."

Lamentable (Very): This word seems to admit of three degrees of comparison, which are indicated by the accentuation, thus:--

[Sidenote: POSITIVE, COMPARATIVE, SUPERLATIVE]

_Positive_--Lamentable (as usually p.r.o.nounced).

_Comparative_--Larmentable.

_Superlative_--Larment??ble.

"'Master Chucks,' he says to me says he, ''tis larmentable purty weather, Master Crockham.' 'Larment??ble!' says I."

Larder (Corruption of ladder): "Master's got a lodge down on the land yonder, and as I was going across t'other day-morning to fetch a larder we keeps there, a lawyer catched holt an me and scratched my face."

(Lawyer: A long bramble full of thorns, so called because, "When once they gets a holt on ye, ye d??nt easy get shut of 'em.")

Leetle (diminutive of little): "I never see one of these here gurt men there's s'much talk about in the pe?pers, only once, and that was up at Smiffle Show adunnamany years agoo. Prime minister, they told me he was, up at Lunnon; a leetle, lear, miserable, skinny-looking chap as ever I see [Disraeli, I imagine]. 'Why,' I says, 'we d??n't count our minister to be much, but he's a deal primer-looking than what yourn be.'"

Loanst (A loan): "Will you lend mother the loanst of a little tea?"

Master (p.r.o.nounced Ma.s.s). The distinctive t.i.tle of a married labourer. A single man will be called by his Christian name all his life long; but a married man, young or old, is "Master" even to his most intimate friend and fellow workmen, as long as he can earn his own livelihood; but as soon as he becomes past work he turns into "the old gentleman," leaving the bread-winner to rank as master of the household. "Master" is quite a distinct t.i.tle from "Mr." which is always p.r.o.nounced Mus, thus: "Mus"

Smith is the employer. "Master" Smith is the man he employs. The old custom of the wife speaking of her husband as her "master" still lingers among elderly people; but both the word and the reasonableness of its use are rapidly disappearing in the present generation. It may be mentioned here that they say in Suss.e.x that the rosemary will never blossom except where "the mistus" is master.

May be and Mayhap (Perhaps). "May be you knows Ma.s.s Pilbeam? No! d??n't ye? Well, he was a very sing'lar marn was Ma.s.s Pilbeam, a very sing'lar marn! He says to he's mistus one day, he says, 'tis a long time, says he, sence I've took a holiday--so cardenly, nex marnin' he laid abed till purty nigh seven o'clock, and then he brackfustes, and then he goos down to the shop and buys fower ounces of barca, and he sets hisself down on the maxon, and there he set, and there he smoked and smoked and smoked all the whole day long, for, says he, 'tis a long time sence I've had a holiday! Ah, he was a very sing'lar marn--a very sing'lar marn indeed."

Queer (To puzzle): "It has queered me for a long time to find out who that man is; and my mistus she's been quite in a quirk over it. He d??nt seem to be quaint with n.o.body, and he d??nt seem to have no business, and for all that he's always to and thro', to and thro', for everlastin'."

[Sidenote: "MUS REYNOLDS"]

Reynolds ("Mus Reynolds" is the name given to the fox): When I was first told that "Muss Reynolds come along last night" he was spoken of so intimately that I supposed he must be some old friend, and expressed a hope that he had been hospitably received. "He helped hisself," was the reply; and thereupon followed the explanation, ill.u.s.trated by an exhibition of mutilated poultry.

Short (Tender): A rat-catcher once told me that he knew many people who were in the habit of eating barn-fed rats, and he added, "When they're in a pudding you could not tell them from a chick, they eat so short and purty."

Shruck (Shrieked): An old woman who was accidentally locked up in a church where she was slumbering in a high pew, said, "I shruck till I could shruck no longer, but no one comed, so I up and tolled upon the bell."

Spannel (To make dirty foot-marks about a floor, as a spaniel dog does): "I goos into the kitchen and I says to my mistus, I says ('twas of a Saddaday), 'the old sow's hem ornary,' I says. 'Well,' says she, 'there ain't no call for you to come spanneling about my clean kitchen any more for that,' she says; so I goos out and didn't say naun, for you can't never make no sense of women-folks of a Saddaday."

Surelye: There are few words more frequently used by Suss.e.x people than this. It has no special meaning of its own, but it is added at the end of any sentence to which particular emphasis is required to be given.