Dialect in British Fiction: 1800-1836Funded by The Arts and Humanities Research CouncilSupported by The University of Sheffield
Search for Novels and Characters
Show / Hide Search Form
You searched for Metalanguage: on
Keyword:
Characters
Character Name:
Character Gender:
Story Role:
Social Category:
Social Role:
Place of Origin:
County of Origin:
Nation of Origin:
Extracts
Discourse Marker:
Metalanguage:
Codeswitch:
Idiom:
Vocabulary:
Grammar:
Orthographical Contraction:
Orthographical Respelling:
Searches will combine ALL the search terms that you provide. If your search returns no or few results, you may want to broaden your search by removing some of your search terms. Clicking the Browse All button will display all available records in the system, irrespective of your search criteria. Further information on searching can be found here.
Currently displaying 21 - 30 of 410 records    |    Previous 10 records    |    Next 10 records    |    Order results by: Publication Year ~ Novel Title
21
Meeke, Mary (1800)
Biography; Courtship; Inheritance / Identity; Manners / Society; English country houses;
Dialect Speakers
Speakers: All , Rioters
"oh how sweet that dear little brogue sounds in my Irish ears," cried one of the party; "we are most of us your Lordship's countrymen, and would all have been murdered, do you see, before your grandson should have come to any harm. To be sure, it was an Irish lad gave him those ugly thumps upon his face; but we have done for the spalpeen ; he won't be after kidnapping another great man in a hurry! The devil burn me if he ought not to have been roasted by the fire we made of his goods."
(Vol. 2,p. 242)
22
Lister, Thomas Henry (1832)
Biography; Courtship; Crime; Inheritance / Identity; Manners / Society; Political; London; Northern Estate; Lake District;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
Speakers: All , Jem, interlocutor
The traveller was obliged to her for the hint, and, conducted by Jem, he proceeded on his pedestrian pilgrimage to what was emphatically called "the Hall." On his way thither he was curious to extract from his conductor some information respecting Lord Arlington, and the light in which he was regarded in that neighbourhood. "Is Lord Arlington popular hereabouts?" he asked.
"Sir?" was the exclamation of the uncomprehending Jem, a short, bandy-legged, ostlerlike looking youth of about twenty.
"I mean," said the traveller, altering his phraseology , " is he liked in this neighbourhood? "
"Oh -- ay -- yes , he's liked very well, for he's a very good gentleman, and spends a sight of money here. There's lots of hands as he employs one way or tother , and nobody hereabouts needs be out of work as wants to have it ; only, you see, it would be better for the inn if he didn't live so quiet like, but had gentlefolks come and see him, just as other gentlefolks do; howsumever , that's partly his own consarn , for the inn is my Lord's, and master says he can't pay him hardly no rent if he don't do nothing for it. "
"People would be sorry, I suppose, if Lord Arlington were to go away from here?"
" Ay , surely. It has been a rare thing for the parish him coming and living down here."
"Is he charitable?" inquired the traveller; " does he give away much money ?"
"He gives some sometimes to them as can't work , but he generally gives work to them as can ."
"Is he often seen?"
"Oh -- ay -- you 'll see him most days riding or walking somewhere abouts, but he don't go much off his own ground -- but then that reaches a long way; why it is all my Lord's as far as you can see, and a mile or two afore you came to the village."
"Does he dislike being met or spoken to?"
"Eh! no -- not at all -- at least by them as live about here . He talks a deal to 'em , and knows them well nigh all, I reckon; there an't a gentleman in the land as is freer and pleasantspokener than my Lord, and he isn't stiff and high a bit, and not as they say lords is elsewhere."
"Do any gentlemen of the neighbourhood ever call upon his Lordship?"
"No, Sir, none as I knows of; but there is no gentleman very nigh ; Squire Grufferton is the nighest , and he is about twelve miles off."
"Then Lord Arlington lives quite alone, doesn't he?"
"No, Sir."
"No! and who lives with him?"
"Oh, there's Master Bennet the steward, and there's the butler, and -- "
"Ah! his establishment, his servants; but is there anybody else?"
"No, Sir, nobody as I knows of ."
(Vol. 3,p. 69-72)
23
Lister, Thomas Henry (1832)
Biography; Courtship; Crime; Inheritance / Identity; Manners / Society; Political; London; Northern Estate; Lake District;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
Dialect Features:Metalanguage

Extract #1 dialect features: Metalanguage
"Let me ask, by whom studied? by the poor themselves, or by us?"
"By us! but why do you ask?"
"Because it makes a material difference. No man can study the feelings and character of another class so well as those of his own. The educated rich cannot read the innermost thoughts of the uneducated poor; nor will the poor be better able to fathom the characters of the rich. Every man is to those of another class as a foreigner among them; and the utmost knowledge he can acquire will, as compared with what he can gather in his own, be like a foreigner's information respecting other countries, compared with that which he may obtain at home. Mix with the poor as much as you will, you are not, and cannot be as one of themselves. You will be as a spy among them; and there will be much in the recesses of their minds, which, owing to your position, you will never know. Much will be presented to you under a distorted aspect -- partly because your associations are not as theirs, and you view things through a different medium -- partly because you are treated as a stranger, and often purposely misled. Writers will sometimes profess to exhibit the feelings, habits, and language of the poor, upon the strength of a few cruises of mere curiosity. Of the intrinsic character, they know little, but they catch the phraseology, which is easy enough, and take note of a few externals; and this is sufficient for them, and perhaps for certain of their readers, who think they have found a fine ' bit of nature,' when they have got nothing but a mouthful of slang."
(Vol. 3,p. 239)
24
Lister, Thomas Henry (1832)
Biography; Courtship; Crime; Inheritance / Identity; Manners / Society; Political; London; Northern Estate; Lake District;
Dialect Speakers
1. 1832:57:narrator
Dialect Features:Metalanguage

Extract #1 dialect features: Metalanguage
Speakers: All , 1832:57:narrator
Lady Bolsover was a pretty, silly, and very frivolous woman, so successfully Frenchified by education, that she even spoke English with a foreign accent.
25
Dallas, Robert C. (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Travel; London; Cambridge; Warwickshire; Portugal (Oporto) ;
Dialect Speakers
"Why! to be sure," answered Mr. Prim, who seemed to be the orator of the group, " you speak like a gentleman, Mr. Aubrey ; and you can't wonder that, in these times, men in business should look about them: but, as I said before, a fortnight's no time; so, for my part, seeing you promise so fairly, I will manage to make up my money some other way." --"I have no objections," said Mr Pruin the grocer, "to following Mr. Prim's example; for I knows Mr. Prim to be a prudent man: but I must say that, though I thinks Mr. Aubrey is one of the most well-spoken gentlemen I know , it is going too far to our faces to tell us, that if he should not pay us, he would be the most injured and unhappy person."
(Vol. 2,p. 6)
26
Dallas, Robert C. (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Travel; London; Cambridge; Warwickshire; Portugal (Oporto) ;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
Mr. Gosling assured her, that the company regretted the loss, and the conversation then turned, among those who understood any thing of it, upon the sweetness of the Italian pronunciation, and those who did not understand it, were informed, that every word ended with a vowel.
"Then," said Mrs. Spicer, "the certainty of the pronunciation, so much superior in that respect to our tongue. By the way, Mr. Aubrey, I wonder to find you in the pulpit pronouncing the word know ledge, nollege . Why do you not adopt the clerical mode of speaking it? " --
"One reason, Madam," replied Aubrey, "is, because it is clerical. I know no right that the clergy have to depart from the established rules of pronunciation. It is an innovation of a few years standing, arising from an affected nicety of correction, and I am sorry that it is more general among the clergy than among any other body of men; for, not only the genius of the English language requires it to be simplified in its sound like other words of the same nature, but the clerical mode of pronouncing it is pedantic and coarse on the ear; nothing but the aptitude of running into imitation, could have led such numbers to follow an example in a sound so unmelodious. Accordingly, you find it adopted, only where a show of learning is aimed at; but, among the higher classes of extempore speakers, and among the lower classes of society who are led by their ear, the word takes its natural sound."--
" Nae , Maister Aubrey," said a Scotch gentleman, "I canna agree wi ye , for we awwaise caw it know ledge i' the North; and in gude troth , it daes na soond sae very unmusical to my ear."-- "I did not say, it was not Scotch," replied Aubrey, "but that it is not English; and habit, whose influence is universal, may render harsh founds pleasing."--
"But, Sir, hoo is't you can mak oot to change know into nol ?"--
"As we make out," said Aubrey, "to change fore into for , ho into hol , and many more. The Scotch say, fore head, and hol iday, as well as know ledge; but, as the clergy do not seem to have any inclination to adopt these sounds from the North, I hope they will gradually desist from that which they have adopted." - -
"You will allow," said Mrs. Spicer, "that it is grander to the ear." -- "No, indeed, Madam," replied he, "I cannot; unless it be that kind of grandeur which is out of nature." Here Mrs. Spicer exchanged emphatic looks with the dear Gosling.-- "Your calling this error clerical," proceeded Aubrey, "brings to my mind, that I not long since heard a man, and he was a teacher of languages too, talk of the London pronunciation , and Oxford pronunciation as contradistinguished, and he instanced it in the word nasal . 'Oxford,' said he, 'has it nasal , with the hissing found of s , whereas, London says nazal .' He was angry that I doubted of the error being general at Oxford, and from stating the fact, he patronized the fault, on which I contented myself with assuring him, that the Cantabs were better orthoepists."--
"Hoot," said the Scotch gentleman, "orthoepy is the very lowest of aw the sciences, and beneath the attention of men of learning aw together: it's a mere buznis of soons , a mere maiter of moonshine . What signifees what a shell is, guin the kairnal be good." -- "Indeed," replied Aubrey, "I am no such verbal stickler as to break squares with any man for his pronunciation: but, I certainly do not think it unworthy the attention of the most learned; and you cannot but know, Sir, that at all times the most learned have been solicitous to pronounce well, and to establish a standard for their language. The prosody of the Greeks and Romans, was invariably fixed on rules which have descended to us, and are in the hands of every school-boy; and though we are ignorant of their accent, we cannot doubt that it was regular and uniform. The Italians and French have shown their attention to the stability of their pronunciation and no polite nation feels itself above this care but the English: our words are constantly changing both their sound and sense. As for the word knowledge , I really believe it will recover itself, in spite of the Episcopal authorities, which at present maintain it in the pulpit I but I fear the word oblige *, will not be so easily retrieved. There is no such found in the English language as eige with the long i , and the sound of obleige **, is very grating to the ear. It is one of the companions in a class of words, where nature has directed our tongue to the preservation of the original accent, the ear being repugnant to a change, and till lately, it was always pronounced obleege by polite speakers--
Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged , And so obliging that he ne'er oblig'd.
Nor would Pope, licentious as he was in rhyming, ever have thought of rhyming eige , with eege ."-- "But," said Mr Gosling, "what do you say to Lord Chesterfield, Mr. Aubrey? Was he not a polite speaker?" "Certainly," replied Aubrey, "and I have not a doubt that he always pronounced the word obleege ."-- "What will you lay of that?" retorting Gosling. "Who is to decide the bet?" said Aubrey, "he that is competent to decide the bet, can decide the question without the bet" -- "My Lord himself," replied Gosling.-- "I see, Sir," said Aubrey, "that you have embraced the mistake that has arisen on the form adopted by Lord Chesterfield, in his Advice to his Son, to avoid the vulgar manner of pronouncing this word amongst others; a mistake which is the more likely to prove fatal, as it has been adopted and confirmed by one of our latest and best ortheopists, a man of talents, erudition, and indefatigable industry, to whose labours the public are greatly indebted.*** But in spite of the enthusiasm produced by authority, I am not for erring with Plato; in my opinion, Lord Chesterfield, in the letter alluded to, meant to stamp vulgarity on the pronunciation of the i long. 'Even his pronunciation of 'proper words,' says his Lordship, speaking of a man deficient in good breeding, 'carries the mark of the beast along with it. He calls the earth, yearth ; he is obleiged , not obliged to you.' "The letters appear to me to mark the vulgar long i ; for no other diphthong so unequivocally expresses it. Lord Chesterfield was not writing with the precision of later orthoepists, and naturally took a diphthong which was susceptible of the sound, as in height , though its general sound be a , as in vein . Had he meant the reverse, would he have passed over ee , and ie to pitch upon ei ? impossible. But a still stronger argument is, that though the letters to his son were written at least twenty years before they were published, the alteration of the word did not begin to take place, till a considerable time after his Lordship's death: so that his Lordship's example, if he gave such an example, had no influence on polite language, though he was universally esteemed one of the most refined and most eloquent speakers of the age: and notwithstanding the concurrent authority of the best poet of that period, the alteration of the proper and original pronunciation of the word has been lately begun, on a supposed discovery, that to mark the found of long e , such a man as Lord Chesterfield would use the dipthong ei rather than ee or ie . As the best speakers in parliament, and the majority of accomplished persons in the first circles still persevere in the original sound, the word has perhaps some chance yet, notwithstanding the pronunciation against which Lord Chesterfield I am confident intended to protest, has been so widely diffused, and though it is even fostered on the stage."-- "There is muckle sense in what you noo say, Maister Aubrey," said the Scotch gentleman "for aw the warld maun say obleege , unless they go entire beside ilka rule of polite pronunciation-- to be sure , aw the warld maun say obleege ." This national support drew a smile from Aubrey, and created a general laugh, in the middle of which Colonel Spicer in his riding cloaths, made his appearance at the bottom of the room.
*Obleege.
** ei , that is, i long-- ai will not express i long without explanation, on account of the variety of the sounds of a .
*** Mr. Walker, author of a Critical Pronouncing Dictionary.
(Vol. 3,p. 204-15)
27
Dallas, Robert C. (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Travel; London; Cambridge; Warwickshire; Portugal (Oporto) ;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
Mr. Gosling assured her, that the company regretted the loss, and the conversation then turned, among those who understood any thing of it, upon the sweetness of the Italian pronunciation, and those who did not understand it, were informed, that every word ended with a vowel.
"Then," said Mrs. Spicer, "the certainty of the pronunciation, so much superior in that respect to our tongue. By the way, Mr. Aubrey, I wonder to find you in the pulpit pronouncing the word know ledge, nollege . Why do you not adopt the clerical mode of speaking it? " --
"One reason, Madam," replied Aubrey, "is, because it is clerical. I know no right that the clergy have to depart from the established rules of pronunciation. It is an innovation of a few years standing, arising from an affected nicety of correction, and I am sorry that it is more general among the clergy than among any other body of men; for, not only the genius of the English language requires it to be simplified in its sound like other words of the same nature, but the clerical mode of pronouncing it is pedantic and coarse on the ear; nothing but the aptitude of running into imitation, could have led such numbers to follow an example in a sound so unmelodious. Accordingly, you find it adopted, only where a show of learning is aimed at; but, among the higher classes of extempore speakers, and among the lower classes of society who are led by their ear, the word takes its natural sound."--
" Nae , Maister Aubrey," said a Scotch gentleman, "I canna agree wi ye , for we awwaise caw it know ledge i' the North; and in gude troth , it daes na soond sae very unmusical to my ear."-- "I did not say, it was not Scotch," replied Aubrey, "but that it is not English; and habit, whose influence is universal, may render harsh founds pleasing."--
"But, Sir, hoo is't you can mak oot to change know into nol ?"--
"As we make out," said Aubrey, "to change fore into for , ho into hol , and many more. The Scotch say, fore head, and hol iday, as well as know ledge; but, as the clergy do not seem to have any inclination to adopt these sounds from the North, I hope they will gradually desist from that which they have adopted." - -
"You will allow," said Mrs. Spicer, "that it is grander to the ear." -- "No, indeed, Madam," replied he, "I cannot; unless it be that kind of grandeur which is out of nature." Here Mrs. Spicer exchanged emphatic looks with the dear Gosling.-- "Your calling this error clerical," proceeded Aubrey, "brings to my mind, that I not long since heard a man, and he was a teacher of languages too, talk of the London pronunciation , and Oxford pronunciation as contradistinguished, and he instanced it in the word nasal . 'Oxford,' said he, 'has it nasal , with the hissing found of s , whereas, London says nazal .' He was angry that I doubted of the error being general at Oxford, and from stating the fact, he patronized the fault, on which I contented myself with assuring him, that the Cantabs were better orthoepists."--
"Hoot," said the Scotch gentleman, "orthoepy is the very lowest of aw the sciences, and beneath the attention of men of learning aw together: it's a mere buznis of soons , a mere maiter of moonshine . What signifees what a shell is, guin the kairnal be good." -- "Indeed," replied Aubrey, "I am no such verbal stickler as to break squares with any man for his pronunciation: but, I certainly do not think it unworthy the attention of the most learned; and you cannot but know, Sir, that at all times the most learned have been solicitous to pronounce well, and to establish a standard for their language. The prosody of the Greeks and Romans, was invariably fixed on rules which have descended to us, and are in the hands of every school-boy; and though we are ignorant of their accent, we cannot doubt that it was regular and uniform. The Italians and French have shown their attention to the stability of their pronunciation and no polite nation feels itself above this care but the English: our words are constantly changing both their sound and sense. As for the word knowledge , I really believe it will recover itself, in spite of the Episcopal authorities, which at present maintain it in the pulpit I but I fear the word oblige *, will not be so easily retrieved. There is no such found in the English language as eige with the long i , and the sound of obleige **, is very grating to the ear. It is one of the companions in a class of words, where nature has directed our tongue to the preservation of the original accent, the ear being repugnant to a change, and till lately, it was always pronounced obleege by polite speakers--
Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged , And so obliging that he ne'er oblig'd.
Nor would Pope, licentious as he was in rhyming, ever have thought of rhyming eige , with eege ."-- "But," said Mr Gosling, "what do you say to Lord Chesterfield, Mr. Aubrey? Was he not a polite speaker?" "Certainly," replied Aubrey, "and I have not a doubt that he always pronounced the word obleege ."-- "What will you lay of that?" retorting Gosling. "Who is to decide the bet?" said Aubrey, "he that is competent to decide the bet, can decide the question without the bet" -- "My Lord himself," replied Gosling.-- "I see, Sir," said Aubrey, "that you have embraced the mistake that has arisen on the form adopted by Lord Chesterfield, in his Advice to his Son, to avoid the vulgar manner of pronouncing this word amongst others; a mistake which is the more likely to prove fatal, as it has been adopted and confirmed by one of our latest and best ortheopists, a man of talents, erudition, and indefatigable industry, to whose labours the public are greatly indebted.*** But in spite of the enthusiasm produced by authority, I am not for erring with Plato; in my opinion, Lord Chesterfield, in the letter alluded to, meant to stamp vulgarity on the pronunciation of the i long. 'Even his pronunciation of 'proper words,' says his Lordship, speaking of a man deficient in good breeding, 'carries the mark of the beast along with it. He calls the earth, yearth ; he is obleiged , not obliged to you.' "The letters appear to me to mark the vulgar long i ; for no other diphthong so unequivocally expresses it. Lord Chesterfield was not writing with the precision of later orthoepists, and naturally took a diphthong which was susceptible of the sound, as in height , though its general sound be a , as in vein . Had he meant the reverse, would he have passed over ee , and ie to pitch upon ei ? impossible. But a still stronger argument is, that though the letters to his son were written at least twenty years before they were published, the alteration of the word did not begin to take place, till a considerable time after his Lordship's death: so that his Lordship's example, if he gave such an example, had no influence on polite language, though he was universally esteemed one of the most refined and most eloquent speakers of the age: and notwithstanding the concurrent authority of the best poet of that period, the alteration of the proper and original pronunciation of the word has been lately begun, on a supposed discovery, that to mark the found of long e , such a man as Lord Chesterfield would use the dipthong ei rather than ee or ie . As the best speakers in parliament, and the majority of accomplished persons in the first circles still persevere in the original sound, the word has perhaps some chance yet, notwithstanding the pronunciation against which Lord Chesterfield I am confident intended to protest, has been so widely diffused, and though it is even fostered on the stage."-- "There is muckle sense in what you noo say, Maister Aubrey," said the Scotch gentleman "for aw the warld maun say obleege , unless they go entire beside ilka rule of polite pronunciation-- to be sure , aw the warld maun say obleege ." This national support drew a smile from Aubrey, and created a general laugh, in the middle of which Colonel Spicer in his riding cloaths, made his appearance at the bottom of the room.
*Obleege.
** ei , that is, i long-- ai will not express i long without explanation, on account of the variety of the sounds of a .
*** Mr. Walker, author of a Critical Pronouncing Dictionary.
(Vol. 3,p. 204-15)
28
Dallas, Robert C. (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Travel; London; Cambridge; Warwickshire; Portugal (Oporto) ;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
Mr. Gosling assured her, that the company regretted the loss, and the conversation then turned, among those who understood any thing of it, upon the sweetness of the Italian pronunciation, and those who did not understand it, were informed, that every word ended with a vowel.
"Then," said Mrs. Spicer, "the certainty of the pronunciation, so much superior in that respect to our tongue. By the way, Mr. Aubrey, I wonder to find you in the pulpit pronouncing the word know ledge, nollege . Why do you not adopt the clerical mode of speaking it? " --
"One reason, Madam," replied Aubrey, "is, because it is clerical. I know no right that the clergy have to depart from the established rules of pronunciation. It is an innovation of a few years standing, arising from an affected nicety of correction, and I am sorry that it is more general among the clergy than among any other body of men; for, not only the genius of the English language requires it to be simplified in its sound like other words of the same nature, but the clerical mode of pronouncing it is pedantic and coarse on the ear; nothing but the aptitude of running into imitation, could have led such numbers to follow an example in a sound so unmelodious. Accordingly, you find it adopted, only where a show of learning is aimed at; but, among the higher classes of extempore speakers, and among the lower classes of society who are led by their ear, the word takes its natural sound."--
" Nae , Maister Aubrey," said a Scotch gentleman, "I canna agree wi ye , for we awwaise caw it know ledge i' the North; and in gude troth , it daes na soond sae very unmusical to my ear."-- "I did not say, it was not Scotch," replied Aubrey, "but that it is not English; and habit, whose influence is universal, may render harsh founds pleasing."--
"But, Sir, hoo is't you can mak oot to change know into nol ?"--
"As we make out," said Aubrey, "to change fore into for , ho into hol , and many more. The Scotch say, fore head, and hol iday, as well as know ledge; but, as the clergy do not seem to have any inclination to adopt these sounds from the North, I hope they will gradually desist from that which they have adopted." - -
"You will allow," said Mrs. Spicer, "that it is grander to the ear." -- "No, indeed, Madam," replied he, "I cannot; unless it be that kind of grandeur which is out of nature." Here Mrs. Spicer exchanged emphatic looks with the dear Gosling.-- "Your calling this error clerical," proceeded Aubrey, "brings to my mind, that I not long since heard a man, and he was a teacher of languages too, talk of the London pronunciation , and Oxford pronunciation as contradistinguished, and he instanced it in the word nasal . 'Oxford,' said he, 'has it nasal , with the hissing found of s , whereas, London says nazal .' He was angry that I doubted of the error being general at Oxford, and from stating the fact, he patronized the fault, on which I contented myself with assuring him, that the Cantabs were better orthoepists."--
"Hoot," said the Scotch gentleman, "orthoepy is the very lowest of aw the sciences, and beneath the attention of men of learning aw together: it's a mere buznis of soons , a mere maiter of moonshine . What signifees what a shell is, guin the kairnal be good." -- "Indeed," replied Aubrey, "I am no such verbal stickler as to break squares with any man for his pronunciation: but, I certainly do not think it unworthy the attention of the most learned; and you cannot but know, Sir, that at all times the most learned have been solicitous to pronounce well, and to establish a standard for their language. The prosody of the Greeks and Romans, was invariably fixed on rules which have descended to us, and are in the hands of every school-boy; and though we are ignorant of their accent, we cannot doubt that it was regular and uniform. The Italians and French have shown their attention to the stability of their pronunciation and no polite nation feels itself above this care but the English: our words are constantly changing both their sound and sense. As for the word knowledge , I really believe it will recover itself, in spite of the Episcopal authorities, which at present maintain it in the pulpit I but I fear the word oblige *, will not be so easily retrieved. There is no such found in the English language as eige with the long i , and the sound of obleige **, is very grating to the ear. It is one of the companions in a class of words, where nature has directed our tongue to the preservation of the original accent, the ear being repugnant to a change, and till lately, it was always pronounced obleege by polite speakers--
Dreading e'en fools, by flatterers besieged , And so obliging that he ne'er oblig'd.
Nor would Pope, licentious as he was in rhyming, ever have thought of rhyming eige , with eege ."-- "But," said Mr Gosling, "what do you say to Lord Chesterfield, Mr. Aubrey? Was he not a polite speaker?" "Certainly," replied Aubrey, "and I have not a doubt that he always pronounced the word obleege ."-- "What will you lay of that?" retorting Gosling. "Who is to decide the bet?" said Aubrey, "he that is competent to decide the bet, can decide the question without the bet" -- "My Lord himself," replied Gosling.-- "I see, Sir," said Aubrey, "that you have embraced the mistake that has arisen on the form adopted by Lord Chesterfield, in his Advice to his Son, to avoid the vulgar manner of pronouncing this word amongst others; a mistake which is the more likely to prove fatal, as it has been adopted and confirmed by one of our latest and best ortheopists, a man of talents, erudition, and indefatigable industry, to whose labours the public are greatly indebted.*** But in spite of the enthusiasm produced by authority, I am not for erring with Plato; in my opinion, Lord Chesterfield, in the letter alluded to, meant to stamp vulgarity on the pronunciation of the i long. 'Even his pronunciation of 'proper words,' says his Lordship, speaking of a man deficient in good breeding, 'carries the mark of the beast along with it. He calls the earth, yearth ; he is obleiged , not obliged to you.' "The letters appear to me to mark the vulgar long i ; for no other diphthong so unequivocally expresses it. Lord Chesterfield was not writing with the precision of later orthoepists, and naturally took a diphthong which was susceptible of the sound, as in height , though its general sound be a , as in vein . Had he meant the reverse, would he have passed over ee , and ie to pitch upon ei ? impossible. But a still stronger argument is, that though the letters to his son were written at least twenty years before they were published, the alteration of the word did not begin to take place, till a considerable time after his Lordship's death: so that his Lordship's example, if he gave such an example, had no influence on polite language, though he was universally esteemed one of the most refined and most eloquent speakers of the age: and notwithstanding the concurrent authority of the best poet of that period, the alteration of the proper and original pronunciation of the word has been lately begun, on a supposed discovery, that to mark the found of long e , such a man as Lord Chesterfield would use the dipthong ei rather than ee or ie . As the best speakers in parliament, and the majority of accomplished persons in the first circles still persevere in the original sound, the word has perhaps some chance yet, notwithstanding the pronunciation against which Lord Chesterfield I am confident intended to protest, has been so widely diffused, and though it is even fostered on the stage."-- "There is muckle sense in what you noo say, Maister Aubrey," said the Scotch gentleman "for aw the warld maun say obleege , unless they go entire beside ilka rule of polite pronunciation-- to be sure , aw the warld maun say obleege ." This national support drew a smile from Aubrey, and created a general laugh, in the middle of which Colonel Spicer in his riding cloaths, made his appearance at the bottom of the room.
*Obleege.
** ei , that is, i long-- ai will not express i long without explanation, on account of the variety of the sounds of a .
*** Mr. Walker, author of a Critical Pronouncing Dictionary.
(Vol. 3,p. 204-15)
29
Dallas, Robert C. (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Travel; London; Cambridge; Warwickshire; Portugal (Oporto) ;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
"I really do not understand you," said Aubrey.-- "And that's surprising now," said McKnucle, " for I never spoke plainer in all my life, in a genteel way; for I would not go to tell you plump dash , in an open manner, that my uncle and me arrested your friend yesterday morning in his bed." -- "Oh ! I understand you now ," said Aubrey; "Mr. Elton is in jail then."-- "And indaid he is not," replied McKnucle; " so that whether I spake jonteelly , or candidly, it's all one with your understanding. I tell you once more that Mr. Eelton , your friend, is in Carey-street, at my uncle's: every body knows Mr. James McKnucle's.-- "A spunging-house, perhaps?" said Aubrey.-- " Fait ! " said McKnucle, grinning, "and that sure enough is the name given to my uncle's castle by some people: but that's an English-Irish bull; for , don't spungers go to an open house? When did you ever hear of spunging at a lock-up house?"
(Vol. 3,p. 155-6)
30
Dallas, Robert C. (1804)
Courtship; Didactic / Moralising; Travel; London; Cambridge; Warwickshire; Portugal (Oporto) ;
Dialect Speakers
2. interlocutor
"I really do not understand you," said Aubrey.-- "And that's surprising now," said McKnucle, " for I never spoke plainer in all my life, in a genteel way; for I would not go to tell you plump dash , in an open manner, that my uncle and me arrested your friend yesterday morning in his bed." -- "Oh ! I understand you now ," said Aubrey; "Mr. Elton is in jail then."-- "And indaid he is not," replied McKnucle; " so that whether I spake jonteelly , or candidly, it's all one with your understanding. I tell you once more that Mr. Eelton , your friend, is in Carey-street, at my uncle's: every body knows Mr. James McKnucle's.-- "A spunging-house, perhaps?" said Aubrey.-- " Fait ! " said McKnucle, grinning, "and that sure enough is the name given to my uncle's castle by some people: but that's an English-Irish bull; for , don't spungers go to an open house? When did you ever hear of spunging at a lock-up house?"
(Vol. 3,p. 155-6)
Currently displaying 21 - 30 of 410 records    |    Previous 10 records    |    Next 10 records    |    Order results by: Publication Year ~ Novel Title
Version 1.1 (December 2015)Background image reproduced from the Database of Mid Victorian Illustration (DMVI)