ESSEX COUNTY DIALECT. 



BY HELEN MANSFIELD. 



The object of this paper is to awaken interest in the di- 

 alect of Essex County, to comment a little on some mate- 

 rial found there, and to speak of the method of collecting 

 material for the use of the American Dialect Society. 



So much has been done in Salem to preserve all that is 

 old, the restof the county should bow down ingratitude : 

 and no doubt there is much dialect-matter scattered about 

 in your collections awaiting a patient gleaner. That will 

 keep however, since it is already recorded ; while a more 

 urgent matter is the dialect and pronunciation fast vanish- 

 ing from current speech, and it is very important that at- 

 tention to the matter should be roused in the county as 

 soon as possible, and that people should be put on the 

 alert to notice and record what comes in their way. 



Words come out when no one is thinking of the matter , 

 which could not be extracted from people by asking them 

 if they know any queer words, and then we want one of 

 our watchmen at hand to snap up the prize. The older 

 members of the Community can teil us of words which 

 were already passing out of use when they were young, 

 and some quite recent usages seem almost incredible. 



Fifty years ago Sayward was Soward in Gloucester : 

 (always written ay, always pronounced ow, as Judge 

 Mitchell says Hayward was in Bridge water) . Goldthwaite 

 was Goothright; Greenleafwas Gründluf, (a true umlaut, 



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