No land in the English speaking world has more by-leids than Great Britain. If a by-leid is held as a way off speaking and writing that is a hallmark off one's folkdoom, by-leids are a shafter off selfhood for those who own them ~ if one wishes to tell everyone where they are from, one can wave a flag, wear a namemarker on their shirt or kirtle, or mere speak in their own land's or by-leidish tongue. Speech tells us who we are, for we are the words that we speak.
A by-leid tongue is also that kind which is spoken in a shire and hamel, and has its own wordstock, swinlore and stavecraft. By-leidly words are, from time to time, taken into a land’s kernel tongue as kith speech. Yorely, the intake was slow, most fremeful like in times off gouth, when folk throughout the kithdoom had to mingle and work side by side for selfsake. Nevertheless, many by-leid words and sayings have become imbedded in the everyday wordstock, and infared the mother tongue's speech, as well as its booklore, writings and scopcraft.
More full than slang or streettalk and much more full than kith speech, the words and swins off many by-leids have been written down. After the lede’s foremost tongue—the mother tongue—many by-leids in Britain, and other lands where English is spoken have been written down and given some heed. The couthness off byleid speakers with their own words and speech ways affords a ready wordpit for making the mothertongue more rich; but most "pitmen" are few. Although many byleid words and sayings have been gathered together in wordbooks; yorely this has often happened only when there were only a few speakers off the byleid left. In England, there have been scops who have written in a byleid, such as William Barnes in that off Dorset. Today with English spoken in many herns throughout the world, there is less need to seek out words from byleids, for there are so many other wells.
Often, speakers off byleids can understand each other. However, there are times when this is not so. Ask for help to find your way in Leeds and you might be told to first go along the ginnel (a narrow sideway or laneway between houses). In Cumbria, the same sideway would be a lonning or went; in Halifax, it is a snicket; in Hampshire, a drongway; and in Wiltshire, a drane. These are all British sayings, yet the unknowing can often only fathom hopeful which tongue is being spoken, let allone full understand what is being said. With all their speechy knots and gnarls, byleids can seem true like an other land's tongue.
There are also workstead byleids, such as pit workers' byleids, potters' byleids, the byleids brought by incomers from English speaking lands in the Caribbean and the folklorish London Cockney's speechways. While byleid is a lot to do with stavecraft and wordstock. Folk say-way most is about swin - everyone speaks with their own folk sayway. That means one can speak the “Good English “ or “The Queen‘s English” with an outer stead sayway. Only five to eight from a hundred off the folkhoard speak English without a shire sayway, called by sunderly names, such as “London English”, Queen’s English”, "BBC English", "Estuary English" or its latest, “Gained English”, which is held in high standing by those forseeking hard to gain good speech hoods, but often, above all, wishing to be held in a more high kithly standing or ranking.
A byleid's worth in the speech off a thede, among other things, is that it is alive with pithful words, together with thrilling ones off one swin, such as croon, and inthralling word bondings as “winter proud” for cold, “will-led” for mad, and “teethhealer” for dentist and wonderful wordstrings like ”want all the water to run in one’s own ditch“ meaning to be selfwilled or yearning to have; it has a great many words, some winsome in ways, others' wise sayings as well as witty wordstring slivers.
It is somewhat a sad tale that the "English Byleid Guild" began its work so late, and that Alexander Ellis' work "The Nowaday English Byleids" did not come out till 1889. Not so many years more late, Joseph Wright began work on "The English Byleid Wordbook" (1896–1905), among which was "The English Byleid Stavecraft"(1905) setting down almost the whole wordstock off all byleid words still spoken or known to have been spoken in the past two hundred years. Wright was well aware that the need to fulfill this selfgiven undertaking was straight tidefastly. Therefore, together with his wife, Elizabeth Mary Wright, he worked almost unyielding for many years to gather and berg the rich hoard off words and folksayings in the wicks, hamels and farmsteads off the English and Scottish landship, speechways which were steady being forgotten as the older folk's lifetimes came to an end.
Many books and wordbooks, whole dealing with byleids, and written by men who had more great learning, knowhood and understanding off the craft than Ellis had, both in speechlinglore and overall speechlore, came next. Above all they had the bent, were know-how sharp in understanding and writing down, without any shadow or twining in meaning, the byleid words and swins they heard into the Worldwide Speechlinglore Stavehoard (IPA).
Their works filled the breach between the Wright’s “English Byleid Wordbook" and the “Ingathering off English Byleids” undertaken by Harold Orton and Eugene Dieth. Whereas Wright had gleaned words and knowhood almost whole from the many small books and deeds put out by the English Byleid Guild, and from the feedback from folk in their thousands who sent words to them from throughout the land, Orton and Dieth and their fieldworkers, all well taught reardorers, got their input by meeting speakers and marking down swin and speech.
Although there are no sharp byleid metes in England and byleids do not have the same landlines or metes as shires, over threehundred steads were chosen in such a way as to take in an even spread throughout England's forty shires. The input came from folk main living in outlying hamels and tillermen in towns, unlearned and born there, who had not fared far from their birthstead. Orton and his team off fieldworkers worked earnest to write down everyday words and sayings for almost everything, even cooking and eating tools. The work took from 1948 till 1961. Dieth died in 1956, but the work went forth without a breach with the outcome “The Speechlore Steadbook off England” in 1962.
It has already been said, that it is sad that a drawing off minds toward an understanding off the makeup off byleids was not started till the sheen and the more inthralling things about them had already fordwined. Today, many folk still speak in a marked byleid way, though many old and hardy words are dying out.
One off the first things that lead to the byleids' fading away was the growth off great towns. To these forblowing towns, naves with sunderly waremaking businesses, came folk in great droves from outlying steads seeking work. Wishing to find a better life through hard work, they had little time to stop and give worth to their byleid's richness.
More so the tale off today's mainstream English is tied near to the tale off London English. By far, the thing that stands out most in the rise off mainstream English and the dwindling off byleids was London's standing, as England's headtown. It was the stead off the lawmoot, off the highest law bodies, the heart off the folkwield and off learning off the Land. To it were drawn, in an ever steady stream, those whose business took them beyond the bounds off their outlying shire homes.
It was also somewhat widespread among speakers off mainstream English to look down upon byleid speakers as unlearned and uncouth in their ways. This upwardness further helped hasten the dwindling away off byleids and often saw harsh minded belittling off those who spoke a byleid. Hence, many saw that speaking the “right kind“ off English was a sound pathway to a better life for themselves and their bairns.
Films, weblogs, hit songs, bairdcraft shows, wireless broadcasting, warespieling hardly ever get made in byleids spoken by only tens off thousand off folk. It is then left to the elderly to keep alive their byleids, but as they were no longer, sagas, folktales, songs, and byspels are lost for ever along with an other unlike insight off the world. And everywhere American English is in daily bairdcasts, and often all we get from it is a few short, hueloose stock sayings, such as “Get over it!”, and “Well, hello!” The coming off American bairdcasting could have eked more to English worldwide making it more rich in shade and hue. But instead, it has taken over what we had and held back fresh, lively and meaningful speech ways.
Nowadays, although most English folk live in great towns, there are no overwhelming grounds for towndwellers to turn a deaf ear to byleids and miss the wisehood alive in so many old byspels. "Eat leeks in Lide (March) and ramsons (garlic) in May" and all the year after the healers may pay. He that lippens (put faith in) to lent ploughs, his land will lie ley (unploughed, fallow) The last 30 years or more has seen writing dealing with byleids' steady growing. Speechlorers in many English speaking lands around the world, have looked, among other deeds, at the rich sunderliness off English byleids' speechways, sounds, stavecraft, wordstock and spelling from Anglo-Saxon times to now day. They tell a tale, a tale 1500 years or more, an English yorelore: the tale off a tongue, many tongues, that are always wending, that makes them so mindworthy and is, by hap, an onlet why English has become the world’s foremost byleid,
Latterly, the BBC through its “Voices “ or "Stevens" has undertaken to gather and have a thorough look at English byleids, hoping to gain overlook off the way folk speak throughout the BK. An undertaking off this kind has not happened before, and will be a benchmark for further undertakings off this kind. It leaves one with a feeling off looking back with some sadness that such an undertaking was not started forty years ago - or more early. The “Voices” webstead asks folks throughout the land and the world to tell them about their English byleid, its words, but more so its sounds and speechways and how the byleid they speak or spoke has shaped their life.
Byleids with their earthliness are somewhat more lively than mainstream English, and from time to time news about them is on the wireloose, bairdbox and in the newsheets. Today, there is a growing feeling off pride among many folk for their byleid, and byleid guilds can be found in many towns. However, in the end, one is left asking whether ettenish “World English” will hasten the death off not only many more small tongues spoken throughout the world, but also its own byleids?
See Short List of English By-leid Words with matches in English and Anglish.