in Ireland, us is sounded huz, which might seem a Cockney vulgarism, but I think it is not. In Roscommon and in the Munster counties a thong is called a fong.
Chaw for chew, oncet [wonst] for once, twiced for twice, and heighth, sighth, for height, sight, which are common in Ireland, are all old English survivals. Thus in the 'Faerie Queene' (Bk. I., Canto IV., XXX.):—
- 'And next to him malicious Envy rode
- Upon a ravenous wolfe and still did chaw
- Between his cankred teeth a venomous tode.'
Chaw is also much used in America. 'Onst for once, is in the Chester Plays' (Lowell); and highth for height is found all through 'Paradise Lost.' So also we have drooth for drought:—
- 'Like other historians I'll stick to the truth
- While I sing of the monarch who died of the drooth.'
- (Sam Lover.)
Joist is sounded joice in Limerick; and catch is everywhere pronounced ketch.
The word hither is pronounced in Ireland hether, which is the correct old English usage, but long since abandoned in England. Thus in a State Paper of 1598, we read that two captains returned hether: and in Spenser's 'View,' he mentions a 'colony [sent] hether out of Spaine.'
- 'An errant knight or any other wight
- That hether turns his steps.' ('Faerie Queene.')
Hence we have coined the word comether, for come-hether, to denote a sort of spell brought about
H
