Monday, October 31, 2011

Survey results and food for thought!



Well, a disappointing response to the survey, but thank you to the people who answered, I appreciate your interest in the topic :-)


Despite the very low number of responses, the conclusions that can be drawn are as I had expected: Warringtonians pronounce "Nothing" as Neiwt.


This is important because it clearly distinguishes the Warrington dialect from the Lancashire dialect. Warrington was, of course, part of Lancashire up to 1974, when it then became part of Cheshire. A shift in county borders does not mean a shift in dialect, so the difference in pronunciation is interesting.


The Lancashire dialect has been studied in some detail, and one of its features is the owt - nowt pronunciation of anything - nothing, respectively. Although the Warrington dialect has many similarities and indeed shares many features with the Lancashire dialect, in this instance it differs distinctly. 


Naught, Neiwt and Nowt seem to be almost certainly related. Naught meaning the decimal "0" and equally "nothing". Naught seems to have developed from the much older Old English word "nawiht" or "nōwiht", which in turn is a contraction of "ne-ō-wiht", which means "not a thing". It is easy to see the connection between "neiwt", "nowt" and "nawiht". This often happens in dialects; a word becomes popular for an arbitrary reason and then sticks despite concurrent developments in the standard language.


It seems "nawiht" and its various pronunciations has been around since the Old English period (400 - 1100AD). So we can assume that both neiwt and nowt are between 1500 - 1000 years old.


The premise that both pronunciations have been around so long, and that "nowt" has not superseded "neiwt" is testament to the Warrington dialect. Warrington was part of the County Palatine Lancashire for hundreds of years, and yet it still maintained its own unique features.


So the next time you say "neiwt", you are not saying nothing, you really are saying something!!!

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