8 Cotton Mather, The Way to Prosperity (Boston, 1690), 33; Samuel Eliot Morison, The Intellectual Life of Colonial New England (1936, rpt. Ithaca, 1956), 75.
9 Albert H. Marckwardt, American English (2d ed., rev., New York, 1980), chap. IV, “Colonial Lag and Leveling,” 69-90.
1 The Norfolk whine was one of a family of closely related eastern dialects. A leading authority defines this “southeastern speech region” as having extended from “Norfolk to Kent inclusive” in the period from 1500 to 1700; see E. J. Dobson, English Pronunciation, 1500-1700 (2 vols., Oxford, 1968), I, xxv.
H. T. Armfield argues that “the speech of the New Englanders is largely indebted to the county of Essex, and especially to the valley of the Colne” in “The Essex Dialect and Its Influence in the New World,” EAST 4 (1893), 245-53; see also S. F. Hoar, “The Obligations of New England to the County of Kent,” AAS Proceedings, n.s. 3 (1885), 344-71; see also Augustus M. Kelley, Suffolk Words and Phrases (1823, rpt. New York, 1970); Edward Gepp, An Essex Dialect Dictionary (London, 1923); Helge Kokeritz, “The Juto-Kentish Dialect Boundary,” AS 16 (1941), 270-77.
On the Norfolk whine, see R. Forby, The Vocabulary of East Anglia (2 vols., 1830); G. J. Chester, “Norfolk Words Not in Forby’s Vocabulary,” NA 5 (1859), 188-93; W. G. Waters, “Norfolk Words Not Found in Forby’s Vocabulary,” NA 8 (1879), 167-74; H. Orton and P. M. Tilling, Survey of English Dialects: III, The East Midland Counties and East Anglia (Leeds, 1969-71).
Also related was the dialect of east Lincolnshire. In the northern and western parts of that county, people spoke a broad midland accent, similar to that of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire and south Yorkshire. But the fen dwellers of Lincoln and Norfolk had similar speech ways in the 17th century. This east Lincoln accent included words such as argify, ax, arsy-varsy, begum, bile (for boil), blab (for talk), bust, caant (for cannot), codger, consarn, dowter (for daughter), edicated, forrard, hessle (to chasten), jabber, kid (for child), mawkin, quality (for gentry), rumpus, shaant, talk (conversation), teeny (small), uppish (proud), varmint (for vermin). See Jabez Good, A Glossary or Collection of Words, Phrases, Place Names, Superstitions, etc., Current in East Lincolnshire (n.p., n.d., copy in LINCRO); see also R.E.G. Cole, Glossary of the Words in Use in South-West Lincolnshire (Wapentake of Graffoe) (London, 1886); and J. Ellet Brogden, Provincial Words and Expressions Current in Lincolnshire (London, 1866); Edward Peacock, A Glossary of Words Used in the Wapentakes of Manley and Corringham, Lines. (London, 1889).