Excerpt from The Dialect of Cumberland: With a Chapter on Its Place-Names The importance of our local dialects as a collateral aid in the study of the English tongue needs not now to be asserted. Without reference to those various forms of speech, out of which one has by dint of circumstances become crystalized in the standard tongue, the language can no more be clearly illustrated than it could be were we to omit to compare it with the cognate languages of Europe. The folk-speech of Cumberland has - thanks to the patriotic interest which her sons take in all that belongs to her - had a more ample share of recognition than generally falls to the lot of provincial dialects. Its humour and its pathos, its "canniness" - quaintness with a touch of cynicism - have been ably illustrated in prose, and its rhythmical qualities attested in verse, by the writers whose names appear on the subjoined list. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.