THE VERNACULAR IN YORKSHIRE.
[To THE EDITOR OP THE " SPECTATOR."1 SIR, —I am interested in all matters connected with the common speech of Durham and North Yorkshire, having spent my youth in the former county.
In reading your notice in the Spectator of May 9th, I find a most interesting notice of a recently published book on " Cleveland and the Dale-Folk." You speak of the thankful- ness due to Mr. Atkinson for preserving certain words,— amongst others, such as "pebble," well-to-do. I am sorry that such an uncouth word should be perpetuated. " Yebble " is simply the local pronunciation for the word " able," just as " tyebble " is the pronunciation of " table."
In Northamptonshire, near Peterborough, an independent person is said to live " upright."—I am, Sir, &o.,
GEO. FREEMANTLE. Brasenose Club, Manchester, May 13th.
[So he is in Suffolk, and, we believe, in other counties. It is a most characteristic perversion of meaning, the possession of an independence being in England considered a positive virtue. —ED. Spectator.]
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