USAGE: 'thou' in modern English dialects [was Re: "two be"]

Quoting Stephen Mulraney <ataltanie@...>:

> > In Warwickshire/West Midlands English, -st seems to still be
> > hanging on, as in "tha cost" etc, although in fast speech,
> > the -t tends to be lost.
>
> I'm confused... do you mean that the -st of the old verb (e.g. didST)
> remains? Does your example 'tha cost' mean 'that cost' ('that' being
> a pronoun)? Or are you just making a comment on phonetics?
>
> I lived in Leamington for a couple of years but don't recall hearing
> any shade of 'thou' in speech... but then again I mightn't have
> noticed it without expecting it ;)
Well, did you live in an urban area, or a rural one? IIRC,
you're far more likely to hear it in rural areas.

=====================================================================
Thomas Wier <trwier@...> <http://home.uchicago.edu/~trwier>
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