[English Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day by Walter W. Skeat]@TWC D-Link bookEnglish Dialects From the Eighth Century to the Present Day CHAPTER VII 7/14
Zuo by hyt [_so be it_]. A few remarks may well be made here on some of the peculiarities of Southern English that appear here.
The use of _v_ for _f_ (as in _vader_, _vram_, _vlesshe_), and of _z_ for _s_ (as in _zone_, _zit_, _zennes_) are common to this day, especially in Somersetshire.
The spelling _lhord_ reminds us that many Anglo-Saxon words began with _hl_, one of them being _hl{-a}fweard_, later _hl{-a}ford_, a lord; and this _hl_ is a symbol denoting the so-called "whispered _l_," sounded much as if an aspirate were prefixed to the _l_, and still common in Welsh, where it is denoted by _ll_, as in _llyn_, a lake. In every case, modern English substitutes for it the ordinary _l_, though _lh_ (= _hl_) was in use in 1340 in Southern.
The prefix _y-_, representing the extremely common A.S.
(Anglo-Saxon) prefix _ge-_, was kept up in Southern much longer than in the other dialects, but has now disappeared; the form _y-clept_ being archaic.
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