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?

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

--And.

> {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

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