ESSEX COUNTY DIALECT. 169 



of New Hampshire, settled by Concord and Watertown 

 people. To spell Frothingham and Hildreth ffrodingham 

 and Hildred shows a Danish strain. (Charlestown and 

 Middlesex.) 



This county affords two interesting variations in gut- 

 tural f orms : 



1. Mighill for Michael among the Cressys and Hop- 

 kinsens of Rowley. (Gaelic, an Irish friend says.) 



2. A Scotchman, early in Lynn, was written Arzbell 

 Anderson, and the historian of Lynn says, "Arzbell is 

 right ;" but there is no such name. For the ch in Archi- 

 bald they substituted the Teutonic z, (sounded tz) ; they 

 left the i to be understood ; they flattened the a with an 

 umlaut into our short e; and dropped the d after a liquid, 

 like the Danes. 



The long Teutonic sound of oo was freely used in this 

 county. Different methods of producing our long o 

 sound: — Rhodes, Rodes, Roads, Roods; rode-line, road- 

 line, rooc?-line ; Coates, Cootes : — all equivalent. 



In 1836 and later a booby-hut was running between 

 Sprinkfield and Ludlow. Worcester assigns this word 

 to the " East of England," as he does several Essex County 

 words. This is not stränge, since two-thirds of all the 

 early settlers are estimated to have come from those parts, 

 but I fancy some of our words had been domesticated 

 there froru beyond the Channel. 



Authorities unite in three statements : — 



1 . London and the southeast counties were füll of ref u - 

 gees from the Netherlands and descendants of refugees. 1 



2. London and the southeast counties were always 

 hot-beds of non-conformity. 



3. London and the southeast counties furnished two- 

 thirds of the settlers of New England. 



l G J 



1 May not this very large contingent, with a Frenoh habit of pronunciation, be 

 responsible for the " cockney " propping of the h? 



