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Read Ebook: Lakeland Words A Collection of Dialect Words and Phrases as Used in Cumberland and Westmorland with Illustrative Sentences in the North Westmorland Dialect by Kirkby Bryham Wright Joseph Author Of Introduction Etc
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Ebook has 3626 lines and 64637 words, and 73 pages
Contributor: Joseph Wright
Transcriber's Notes
Obvious typographical errors in the plain English of this text have been silently corrected. In the main the dialect sections they remain as printed including the variation in the use of apostrophe and hyphen. In particular no attempt has been made to resolve how many of the many yan and yah are typos for each other.
The words are only in approximate alphabetical order, this has not been changed.
Italics are represented thus,
The following changes have been made.
AH-WOOA-GE-HEDDER-COME-UP--A nag 'at doesn't understand its orders is apt ta git t' whup. We yance watched a chap plewin, an' he said, "Ah-wooa-ge-hedder-come-up" till he was stalled, then he let flee wi a clot, coad t' nag a fiual, an' telt it ta liuk an see what seck wark it was makkin.
BLODDER--To cry in an effusive way--blodder an' rooar. What's ta blodderin aboot?
BREAS--Beck edge. Where t' fish dark anunder. Whitehead says: Howks grubs an' worms fra under t' breas, To feed t' lal hungry troot.
WIASTRY--Waistfulness. Seck wiastry as yan niver dud see barn; it's fair shocken.
The following have not been corrected due to ambiguity.
BOTTOM--To get to the origin or foundation. Ah'll boddum that drain oot first. Boddum that teeal.
KIRMAS-GIFT--Summat fer t' barns. Varra oft a paper o' pins ta laik wi'.
KIRSMAS-GLASS--This is fer up-grown 'uns they tak't warm, wi' a bit o' sugar tull 't.
LAKELAND WORDS.
"The native phrase fresh gathered from the fells."
LAKELAND WORDS.
A COLLECTION OF
Dialect Words and Phrases,
AS USED IN
CUMBERLAND AND WESTMORLAND,
WITH
ILLUSTRATIVE SENTENCES IN THE NORTH WESTMORLAND DIALECT.
BY B. KIRKBY.
WITH PREFACE BY PROFESSOR JOSEPH WRIGHT, M.A., Ph.D. OXFORD.
KENDAL: PRINTED BY T. WILSON, HIGHGATE. 1898. PRICE 2/6.
"Be it a weakness, it deserves some praise, We love the play-place of our early days; The scene is touching, and the heart is stone That feels not at that sight, and feels at none;
"In the power of saying rude truths, sometimes in the lion's mouth, no men surpass them."
PREFACE
It is not necessary to speak many words in praise of such an excellent book as "Lakeland Words," it speaks for itself, and must appeal to any and every Englishman who loves his country and his native mother tongue.
In these days when the Board Schools teach the children "Standard English," and when locomotion is so easy that people readily migrate from one part of the country to another, dialects are rapidly decaying and losing their individuality, and it will soon be impossible to compile local glossaries. It is, therefore, not too much to say that Mr. Kirkby deserves the hearty commendation and thanks of every lover of English, for thus handing down to posterity such a faithful portrait of the language of the Lakeland district, in all its native freshness and richness.
JOSEPH WRIGHT.
OXFORD, JANUARY, 1899.
EXPLANATORY.
The following pages claim to do no more than to set forth some of our best known dialect words, and to somewhat explain or illustrate their use by a sentence in which the word is introduced. So may not only the word be preserved, but something also of unity of expression be maintained at the same time.
In the present work no attempt is made to explain or account for anything of a peculiar character in the dialect. If language grows out of life, we are justified in regarding ours as a type, and those who are most familiar with the life out of which it has grown, will be most likely those to regard it most leniently. They will know something of the social habits which the fair and market, the smithy hearth, the shoemaker's shop are dominating factors in forming. They will understand what it is to be concerned with cattle, and the elements, as others are with more mighty affairs. Out of the exigencies of ploughing, sowing, reaping, and gathering; of boon days and sale days; of shiftings and settlings; of hiring and term times they know what to expect and will not be annoyed by grossness, or deterred by affectations or their absence.
In these circumstances the word collector in Lakeland will find a favourable condition for his operations if he know how to go about it. Nor need he expect because so much of life is taken up with the "struggle for existence" that the gentler and humaner phase of it will not afford him specimens, "tender and true," as in the most refined circles.
An explanation is due to Cumbrians, who will find in this collection words they did not expect, and will find omitted those they had anticipated seeing. In many matters the two counties are indeed what they are often termed--sisters. The words have largely been collected in North Westmorland, but it must be borne in mind that Penrith, to many, is to all intents as much as if it were in Westmorland, and to have given one county only in the title would have been misleading and far from accurate. This observation will apply to "Kendal side" of Westmorland too.
Doctor Milner Fothergill says, "that up to Orton in Westmorland, the speech is that of Lancashire; beyond its scar it is that of Cumberland." The genial, hearty doctor was too generous, and Cumberland as well as Lancashire would disclaim his kindness. Likeness there is no doubt towards the north, or towards the south, as the case may be, and the fells mark a cleavage more distinct than some imaginary boundary of counties, yet Westmorland men will never be prepared to be so quietly effaced until a much greater extinction of dialect speech takes place than has yet been effected, much as latter-day influences have done towards modifying its most prominent features.
To Mr. Wilson, of Kendal, I am under the special obligation of the adventurer who has help just when and where it is most wanted. From him it has ever been an easy and pleasant task to obtain advice and counsel without stint of pains or sympathy. With his aid and discrimination, many otherwise insurmountable obstacles have been overcome. Without his aid nothing of the present form could have been as much as attempted.
It is earnestly hoped that the rough and ready treatment of the subject herein attempted will not in any way interfere with any of the more thorough works dealing with the same subject now in course of preparation by those capable of treating it from all standpoints as specialists. Ours is the effort to present an inside view of the dialect, marred no doubt by the leanings of prejudice, and for its worst defects the only indulgence that is asked is that it may be judged with that consideration kept in mind. It is a lover's account, and as such must be excused.
B. KIRKBY.
Batley, 1898.
LAKELAND WORDS AND SAYINGS.
AARON'S ROD--It grows e' t' garden.
ABACK--Behind; in the absence of; over some land-mark or another. Thus, a cap hangs up aback o' t' door; a tale may be told about some one aback of his back; and another comes frae aback o' t' fells.
ABACK-O-BEYONT--The place from which comes nothing but mystery and terror for barns; neea body's bin an' come back to say whar it ligs.
ABIDE--Put up wi'; ah can't abide mucky fooak.
ABREED--Level, equal, broadcast. They war walken o' abreed.
ACOCK--Hay that is cocked up in "fiut cocks," or, "gurt cocks"; something that is set finely, and evenly balanced; ready and eager for a fratch; a hat put on sideways; put out of temper; glib.
ACOCKINECKS--Where most youthful jockeys make their first attempt at riding, namely, across the father's neck; and later on in life as a schoolboy's game. To ride acockinecks is regarded as fine enough for anyone.
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