This volume surveys regional English dialects, gathering words, phrases, superstitions, and popular customs from across the country. The author argues that dialect speech is not a distorted or vulgar perversion of standard English, but a natural development governed by consistent sound-laws and historical grammar. Many words dismissed as corruptions are shown to be legitimate old forms preserved from earlier stages of the language.
The work explores a rich and expressive vocabulary, demonstrating how dialects preserve terms for everyday objects and experiences with remarkable force and clarity. Chapters are dedicated to archaic literary words surviving in rural speech, tracing terms from Middle English poetry, the Authorized Version of the Bible, and Shakespeare's plays directly to the lips of modern peasants and artisans.
Further analysis reveals how common standard English words retain older, authentic meanings in the dialects that standard usage has discarded. The text examines historical forms and phonological developments, comparing irregular standard forms with their regular dialect counterparts. Separate sections address foreign loan-words from French, Scandinavian, Celtic, and Latin sources.
Subsequent chapters catalogue traditional folk-lore, supernatural beings, superstitions, medical charms, divination, and birth, marriage, and death customs. The book also covers calendar customs, games, weather lore, farming terms, and plant and animal names.
The volume concludes with detailed indices of dialect words and a select list of source works, providing scholars and philologists with an invaluable treasury of living speech.
