Animal names

Yesterday, for some reason, the word "snig" came to me as I was driving to work.

I immediately emailed my Dad, who used this word when I was a child, to ask him what it referred to. I had a memory that it meant snail, but I wasn't sure. He informed me that it meant a worm, but he hadn't used it for years either.

A quick Google search didn't produce much, but the Cheshire dialect glossary, which I linked to in my last post, has an entry on page 193 for snig meaning an eel!
http://www.archive.org/stream/glossaryofwordsu00leigrich#page/192/mode/2up

This got me thinking about other animal names used in the dialect.

I have always been interested in birds. As a child I would go bird-spotting with my Dad along the Sankey - St Helens canal. A regular sight on the flooded area of land between the canal and Sankey Brook, underneath the footbridge, were Moorhens. These Moorhens (Gallinula tenebrosa) were referred to by several names:

1. Moorhen
2. Marsh hen
3. Water hen (or Waggies pronounced with the same vowel as in water) 

A quick look in the Cheshire glossary revealed that a Moorhen was referred to as a Dabchick.
http://www.archive.org/stream/glossaryofwordsu00leigrich#page/56/mode/2up

I found this surprising as I have always known Dabchick as an alternative name for a Little Grebe (Tachybaptus ruficollis) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Grebe another species that frequented the same flooded area of land between the waterways.

Another species we used to watch on the fields next to the American airbase (they all seem to be housing estates nowadays) was the Lapwing (Vanellus vanellus). The Lapwing has various names depending on which part of the country you are from (see Wakelin. M, Discovering English Dialects. 1978, page 39). To me the Lapwing was referred to as:

1. Peewit
2. Lapwing
3. Green Plover

Usually my Dad would call them Peewits and I would do the same.

Does anyone have similar memories or names for animals?

The Cheshire dialect

I found a wonderful reference work on line called The Dialect of Cheshire. You can read the entire book online here: http://www.archive.org/stream/glossaryofwordsu00leigrich#page/n5/mode/2up

The book was first published in 1877, and it contains many words that are still in use in the Warrington dialect. Warrington, of course, only became part of Cheshire in 1974, but the county bordered Warrington for centuries and therefore shares many local words and phrases.

Lancashire Dialect by Peter Wright

I have just finished reading Lancashire Dialect by Peter Wright. It was first published in 1976, and gives a wonderful insight into the Lancashire dialect(s) of that time. The style of writing is a little dated, but it was a very enjoyable read especially as it is contemporary with the dialect(s) in use around the time of my birth (1974). What struck me about the linguistic data contained in the book is how "broad" it sounds, and yet how familiar it is at the same time. Many of the words and sayings in the book I did not use growing up, and I cannot remember my parents using them, but I do remember them being in use.

One thing that struck me in particular, however, is the use of the Middle English (circa 1150- 1500) personal pronouns in use at the time. They are, indeed, still in use to a much lesser extent today, but I am sorry to say that I believe they have completely fallen out of use in the speech of the younger generation. I would love to be proved wrong!

For comparison, here are the personal pronouns in Modern English:

             Singular                                                Plural                 
Subject  Object    Possessive            Subject   Object    Possessive

I              me            mine                  we            us            our
you          you           your                  you           you          your
he/she/it   him/her/it   his/hers/its         they          them         their




and here are the personal pronouns in Middle English:




              Singular                                             Plural                     
Subject   Object     Possessive          Subject    Object    Possessive

ik/ich/I       me               my(n)             we          us              oure
thou           thee             thy(n)             ye           you            your
he/sche/hit  hit/him/hire   his/his/hire     he/they    hem/them   her/their


The personal pronouns I am referring to are the 2nd person singular subject and object forms: thou and thee.

I can distinctly remember hearing these used in ordinary everyday speech in sentences such as:

• 'Ow's thee doin'? (How are you doing?)
• Sit thee doon/down. (Sit down.)
• Ay, tha wer' reet. (tha=thou) (Yes, you were right.)

and the classic play on the Middle English 2nd person singular personal pronoun thee and the definite article the. As follows:

A person is looking for somewhere to throw a piece of rubbish, and they ask:

- Where's the bin? (lit. - Where is the bin?) (Dialect - Where has thee been?)

to which comes the reply:

- A's bin nowhere, where's you bin? (I haven't been anywhere, where have you been?)

Do you use these pronouns? Are they still common in Warringtonian speech? Or are they archaic and old fashioned?