Part 45 (1/2)

_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.