ooden pail; _skep_,
a basket, a measure; _skift_, to shift, remove, flit; _skrike_, to
shriek; _slocken_, to slake, quench; _slop_, a loose outer garment;
_snag_, a projecting end, a stump of a tree; _soa_, a large round tub;
_spae_, to foretell, to prophesy; _spean_, a teat, (as a verb) to
wean; _spelk_, a splinter, thin piece of wood; _steg_, a gander;
_storken_, to congeal; _swale_, a shady place; _tang_, the prong of a
fork, a tongue of land; _tarn_, a mountain pool; _tath_, manure,
_tathe_, to manure; _ted_, to spread hay; _theak_, to thatch; _thoft_,
a cross-bench in a boat; _thrave_, twenty-four sheaves, or a certain
measure of corn; _tit_, a wren; _titling_, a sparrow; _toft_, a
homestead, an old enclosure, low hill; _udal_, a particular tenure of
land; _ug_, to loathe; _wadmel_, a species of coarse cloth; _wake_,
a portion of open water in a frozen lake or stream; _wale_, to choose;
_wase_, a wisp or small bundle of hay or straw; _whauve_, to cover
over, especially with a dish turned upside down; _wick_, a creek, bay;
_wick_, a corner, angle.

Another source of foreign supply to the vocabulary of the dialects is
French; a circumstance which seems hitherto to have been almost
entirely ignored. The opinion has, I think, been expressed more than
once, that dialects are almost, if not altogether, free from French
influence. Some, however, have called attention, perhaps too much
attention, to the French words found in Lowland Scotch; and it is
common to adduce always the same set of examples, such as _ashet_,
a dish (F. _assiette_, a trencher, plate: Cotgrave), _gigot_, a leg
of mutton, and _petticoat-tails_, certain cakes baked with butter
(ingeniously altered from _petits gastels_, old form of _petits
gateaux_), by way of illustration. Indeed, a whole book has been
written on this subject; see _A Critical Enquiry into the Scottish
Language_, by Francisque-Michel, 4to, Edinburgh, 1882. But the
importance of the borrowings, chiefly in Scotland, from Parisian
French, has been much exaggerated, as in the work just mentioned;
and a far more important source has been ignored, viz. Anglo-French,
which I here propose to consider.

By Anglo-French is meant the highly important form of French which is
largely peculiar to England, and is of the highest value to the
philologist. The earliest forms of it were Norman, but it was
afterwards supplemented by words borrowed from other French dialects,
such as those of Anjou and