PATTEKSON ON NEWFOUNDLAND DIALECT. lix 



" He was about seventy five fathoms long," &c. Other objects are 

 spoken of as " she," not only boats and vessels, but a locomotive. Of 

 this old usage we have a remnant in the universal use of the feminine 

 for ships. 



Another old form still common is the use of the singular thee and 

 thou, where now the plural you is commonly employed. With this is 

 joined what is still common in parts of England, the use of the nomina- 

 tive for the objective, and to some extent the reverse. 



Some peculiarities may be noticed also in the formation of the past 

 tense of verbs. Thus the present save becomes in the past sove, and 

 dive in like manner dove. But the very general usage is to follow the 

 old English practice of adding " ed." Thus they say runned for ran, sid 

 for saw, hurted for hurt, failed for fell, coined for came, even sen'd for 

 sent, and goed for went. This last however is true English, retained in 

 Scotland in gaed, while went does not belong to the verb at all, but is 

 the past of another verb to wend. More curious still is the use of doned 

 for did or done. Perhaps however this is not common. 



The use of the letter " a " as a prefix to participles or participial nouns 

 to express on action still going on, is still retained, as a-walking, a-hunt- 

 ing, etc. 



Again in some places there is retained in some words the sound of 

 e at the end where it is now omitted in English. Thus "hand" and 

 ' hands" are pronounced as if written " hande" and " handes." This 

 is old English. We find it in Coverdale's. version of the Bible, 

 Tyndale's New Testament, which however sometimes has " honde " and 

 " hondes," and Cranmers. 



A number of words written with ay and with most English speaking 

 having the long sound of a, are in Newfoundland sounded as if written 

 with a g. Thus they say w'y, aw'y, pr'y, pr'yer, b'y, for away, pray, 

 prayer, bay. So n'yebors for neighbors. This pronunciation is still 

 retained in Scotland, and R. Lowell refers to it as in Chaucer, and 

 quotes it as an example of the lastingness of linguistic peculiarities. 



In their names of objects of natural history we find the retention of 

 a number of old English words. Thus whortleberries or blueberries are 

 called hurts, nearly the same as the old English whurts or whorts. 

 marked in the dictionaries as obsolete. Then they call a flea a lop, the 

 Anglo-Saxon loppe from lope to leap, and wasps they call waps, which is 

 the same with the Anglo-Saxon waps and the low German wepsk. A 



