NOTES ON ESSEX DIALECT AND FOLK-LORE. 73
in Braintree, Halstead, Gosfield, Wethersfield, and in the vicinity
of the Salings. In some parts of the county the dialect resembles
that of Kent ; in others of Suffolk. The Essex dialect is, however,
not generally so broad as either, nor is it spoken with the strong
whine of the Suffolk folk. It contains many words from the Anglo-
Saxon (this may be accounted for by the fact that in a.d. 530
Saxons landed in Essex), Friesic, Dutch, and Belgic, not usually
found in other English dialects ; such as ails, amper, bigge, boy,
bullimony, cowl, golls, housen, lugsome, mat, mawther, pillow, beer,
rumpled, stiver, stump, and snace. And words from the Norman, as
foizon, frail, chate, and coppy.
There is a tendency to transpose letters, as aers = ears. Vowels
are often lengthened, as maade for made, and maake for make. A
is liable to become O, as ollis for always. E is often changed into
A, as anough for enough, arrant for errand, and warse for worse.
I has a broad sound, foine = fine, noice = nice, smoile = smile, toime
= time, twoice = twice, etc.
O becomes U, e.g., frum = from, sput = spot, nut = not.
D is changed into T, as in arrant = errand, ballet = balled.
R is often dropped altogether, as suppased = surpassed, hul =
hurl.
There is also the usual tendency to abbreviate words, e.g., awmas,
arst, au to, boarnt, mosly, lowance, monsus, for "almost," "asked,"
"all to," "bonnet," "mostly," "allowance," "monstrous." W for
V is common, as warse for verse.
But to their credit, Essex people generally pronounce the letter
H correctly ; this was remarked at the celebrated Ardlamont Trial
recently held (see "Law Reports," Dec. 19th, 1893).
The old plural occurs in some parts, as housen, assen, shoon,
etc.
The total number of provincial words used in Essex is put down
at 589, as compared with. Suffolk 2,400, Norfolk 2,500 ; but these
figures cannot be implicitly relied upon.
As a few examples of words used in Essex, we may note the
following :
Bed-steddle—A bedstead. ("Steddle" seems to be a diminutive of the Anglo-
Saxon Stede [Danish id.], a place.)
Bellar—To bellow.
Bile—To boil.
Boa—Boy. ("Wa'a yow gowan altogether, boa ?" is common in the rural
districts of Essex.)