Re: YAEDT? Syntax in dialects of English (was: Of accents & dialects

-----Original Message-----
From: And Rosta
Sent: Monday, October 27, 2008 4:05 PM
To: CONLANG@listserv.brown.edu
Subject: Re: YAEDT? Syntax in dialects of English (was: Of accents &
dialects

Daniel Prohaska, On 26/10/2008 14:03:
> Hi Eliott,
>
> I’d say, rather than a generally British thing the “I was sat in the pub”
> construction is predominantly northern.
>
> Here are some constructions from Lancashire:
"Where did you get this data from? How long ago was it collected? How old
were the speakers? Where were they from?"

Graham Shorrocks, The Dialect of the Bolton Area (published ca. 1990s; can't
check right now, but will do...)

"(The "older people may still be heard" makes it sound like you have
collected this data recently, but without that, I'd have guessed it came
from speakers from SE Lancs born before the first world war."

Not necessarily, but for my personal corroboration my familiy members who
used these kinds of constructions were born before WWI, i.e. between 1895
and 1910. But I know a few people a generation younger, who still spoke like
this, especially from Oldham. Don't know many from the Bolton area.
Middleton where my family is mainly based now is very much Manchester city
in dialect, though people between 60 and 80 (now) sound more Lanky. But
again, it also seems to be a family think. Some families sound more Lanky
whereas others go very Manchester city. It doesn't even seem to be a class
thing. Just by observations...

"And weirdly, it looks like the phonetic transcription was done by a
linguist and the orthographic by a nonlinguist.)
--And."

I'll try not to take offence, since I did the orthographic transcriptions
;-). It was spur of the moment and improvised and I spent about 5 minutes on
it all, so I'm not surprised a few mistakes or misinterpretations slipped
in.
Dan

> {a three or four week sin’} ‘three or four weeks since’
>
> {that were a six hours a did} ‘I did six hours of work’, or ‘I worked a
six
> hour shift’
>
>
>
> {thou had thy dinner} [D& ad DI “dIn8`] ‘you had dinner’ (general
statement)
>
> {I’ve broken my head off my hammer} [av “bOkN mI jEd O:f mI “Om8`] “I’ve
> broken the head off my hammer”
>
>
>
> {them their days} [DEm DI8` de:z] “in those days”
>
> {these here haulmen} [Di:z I8` “O8lmEn] “these hauliers here”
>
> {are for to take this here coal} [8 f8`? tEk DIs I8`ko:l] “are to take
this
> coal here”
>
> {in yon stable} [I jOn “ste:b8l] “into that stable”
>
>
>
> {our Bill’s sun his wife} “Bill’s sun’s wife”, “the wife of Bill’s sun”
>
> {our lad here who’s courting with the wench there} “our son who is going
out
> with that girl”
>
>
>
> Older people may still be heard saying “five-and twenty” for “twenty
five”,
> but anyone under 70 is unlikely to say that.
>
>
>
> Contractions with “thou”
>
> /d{ kOn/                               “thou can”
>
> /”kOntt8/, /kOnt/              “can thou?”
>
> /”kOtnt/                               “can thou not?”
>
> /”kUtnt/                               “could thou not?”
>
> /D{:`t/                                    “thou art”
>
> /”{:`tnt/                                 “art thou not?”
>
> /”wUtnt/                             “would thou not?”
>
> /dUst/                                   “does thou?”
>
> /”dUsnt/                              “does thou not?”
>
> /wIlt/                                    “will thou?”
>
>
>
> {and her’s three year older than thee isn’t her} “and she’s three years
> older than you, isn’t she” [an 8:`z Tri: j8:r 3Yd8` D8n Di: In 8:`]
>
>
>
> {he couldn’t give him it} [i: “kUdnt gI Im I?] “he couldn’t give it to
him”
>
> {I tan it her back} [a tan It 8:` bak] “I took it back to her”
>
>
>
> {so it come} [so: i? kUm] “as it happened”
>
> {it were often come off as} [Iß w8` “O:fn kUm Of 8z] “it had often come
> about that”
>
> {them as weren’t} “those who weren’t”
>
>
>
> Just a few examples….
>
> Dan