ESSEX COUNTY DIALECT. 171 



argument for French answers very well for Flemish, for 

 many of them had the two languages, and the Walloon 

 language would seem to be a Compound of the two : 

 " French, with Teutonic elements." 



I wanted to approach the subject of dialect with you 

 to-day as I approached it myself . About three years ago 

 I became tired of purring my eyes out over German text, 

 and took to Dutch, because it was printed in Koman text. 

 Eighteen months later I took to genealogy ; and looking 

 over old records and lists of freemen, I found names 

 changing under my eyes according to certain laws which 

 presupposed a Dutch element in the population. Changes, 

 very perceptible to the eye, were no changes at all to the 

 ear of a person who knew ever so little of the sound of 

 Dutch diphthongs, the odd habit of not pronouncing a 

 final syllable in n, and of introducing a vowel-sound be- 

 tween consonants where no vowel is written. 



Here, I consider, is the cause of the "absurd perversion 

 of proper names which has taken place in this country." 2 

 An Englishman, taking down names given him by a Dutch. 

 man, would certainly write a vowel where the Dutchman 

 speaks but does not write it, 3 and would not write the syl- 

 lables which the Dutchman writes but does not speak. 

 The Dutch scribe naturally would, and actually did make 

 equal havoc with English names, and he had his oppor- 

 tunity too — (" Clark Vargoose," 4 Boston 1679, and doubt- 

 less others earlier. ) The English rapidly assimilate f oreign 

 names to their own, and I infer that many Flemish names 

 were anglicized before reaching this country, and the 

 Flemings then went on distorting these names according 



iBarante. " HIstoire des Ducs de Bourgogne." Vol. n, p. 130. 

 *N. E. Hist.Geneal. Register. 



3 A Dutchman says Beiluft and mel-luck, for Delft and milk. 



4 Sewall's Diary, vol. i, pp. 53, 108. " Vergoose, Vertigoose, Goose/^properly 

 Vergoes. Dutch oe=English oo.) "Nurse Goose had another son, Peter, in Nor- 

 wich, England, and the family was probably not of English origin." 



