Highways and Byways in Sussex - online book

An illustrated appreciation, of the most interesting districts in Sussex.

Home | Order | Support | About | Contact | Search



Share page  



Previous Contents Next


XLI
THE SUSSEX RULES
407
a before ct becomes e ; as satisfection, for satisfaction.
e before ct becomes a ; and affection, effect and neglect are pronounced affaction, effact and neglact.
Double e is pronounced as i in such words as sheep, week, called ship and wick; and the sound of double e follows the same rule in fild for field.
Having pronounced ee as /, the Sussex people in the most impartial manner pronounce i as ee; and thus mice, hive, dive, become meece, heeve, and deeve.
i becomes e in pet for pit, spet for spit, and similar words.
to and oi change places respectively; and violet and violent become voilet and voilent, while boiled and spoiled are bioled and spioled.
o before n is expanded into oa in such words as pony, dont, bone ; which are pronounced poany, doant, boan.
0 before r is pronounced as a; as earn and marning, for corn and morning.
0 also becomes a in such words as rad, crass, and crap, for rod, cross, and crop.
ou is elongated into aon in words like hound, pound, and mound; pronounced haound, paound, and maound.
The final ow, as in many other counties, is pronounced er, as foller for fallow.
The peculiarities with regard to the pronunciation of con­sonants are not so numerous as those of the vowels, but they are very decided, and seem to admit of less variation.
Double / is always pronounced as d; as liddle for little. &c, and the th is invariably d; thus the becomes de; and these, them, theirs—dese, dem, deres.
d in its turn is occasionally changed into th; as in fother for fodder.
The final ps in such words as wasp, clasp, and hasp are reversed to wapse, elapse and hapse.
Words ending in st have the addition of a syllable in the possessive case and the plural, and instead of saying that
Previous Contents Next