The Geoffrey Bullough Collection - Temporary Home Page ...

But the Lord ‗a mercy upon us, Mrs. Cloam, you‘ve a-been married like my poor self;
and you knows what we be, and we knows what you be. Looks ain‘t much to do with
it, after the first week or two. It‘s the cooking and the natur‘, and the not going
contrairy. B‘lieve Miss Dolly would go contrairy to a hangel, if her was j‘ined to him
three days. (p. 23)
―He knows to which side his bread will be buttered,‖ Mr. Swipes had remarked, as a
keen observer. ―If ‗a can only get Miss Faith, his bread ‗ll be buttered to both sides for
life—his self to one side, and her to do the tother. The same as I told Mother Cloam—
a man that knoweth his duty to head gardeners, as his noble lordship doth, the same
know the differ atwixt Miss Faith—as fine a young ‗ooman as ever looked into a
pink—and that blow-away froth of a thing, Miss Dolly.‖ (p. 271)
5b.1 Orthography
Elision „a for have; „ooman for woman; j‟ined
Eye dialect natur‟; contrairy
Non standard aspirant hangel (note also concomitant change to article a hangel)
5b.2 Grammar
Non standard conjugation you knows what we be
Non standard pronoun if her was; a for he; his self
5b.3 Vocabulary
archaism a-been; atwixt; doth; knoweth
the tother (especially marked since t would usually represent the determiner)
Idiom blow-away froth of a thing
dialect Lexis the differ
5c. Dialect area(s) represented
South coast (Devon?)
5d. Density of dialect representation
Heavily marked
5e. Location of dialect
Dialect entirely in dialogue
5f. Characteristics of dialect speakers
Male, domestic staff/manual worker, peripheral character
5g. Consistency of representation
No evidence of code-switching
6. Narrative comments on dialects and varieties
Narrative commentary on quality of language. Probably ironic, given often sardonic
tone of text, but two lengthy passages on pp. 16 & 17 describe the appearance in
Church of a local dignitary; the first – in the narrative voice – is marked by high
register, poetic diction, and extravagant adjectives, while the second is the Direct
Speech of the local village shopkeeper, and is marked by dialect vocabulary, Non
standard gammar and archaism. An obtrusive authorial voice interjects between
these two passages with the following commentary:
Mrs. Cheeseman, the wife of Mr. Cheeseman, who kept the main shop in the
village, put this conclusion into better English, when Mrs. Shanks (Harry‘s
mother) came in Monday to buy a rasher and compare opinions. (p. 17)
[emphasis added].
7. Other points of interest
Comment made by Carne (spy / villain / traitor) when plotting in France suggests
varieties not identifiable beyond national boundaries:
http://librarysupport.shef.ac.uk /bullough.pdf
Copyright © 2007, The University of Sheffield
9