Non-standard distribution of articles and possessives

The morphology of articles is discussed here. This section deals with syntactical distributions.

SED records a widespread ‘double’ definite article: the tother (one), which is attested for Nb. Also, SED finds evidence for the appearing before the names of common ailments in Nb and Du (e.g. ‘the headache’, ‘the toothache’), as it does before ‘wife’ (to mean the equivalent of ‘my wife’). Furthermore, SED records the night (‘tonight’), the morrow (‘tomorrow’), the morn (‘tomorrow’), and the day (‘today’) for North East locations. All of these are attested in the EDD entry for the, as is the both, which Wright describes as general in Ireland 'and most parts' of England (Wright 1905: 260). 

Such distributions can be found in RTG. 

(1)    Can’t remember the t’other (2015) 

(2)    But he never got the measles (2017) 

(3)    Staring blankly at some bread, a tin of beans and a toaster, trying to work out how to survive without the wife (2019) 

(4)    Cheers, I’ll sleep the neet (2019) 

(5)    Big game the morrow chill out have a beer pet (2018) 

(6)    Hope the lads do her proud the morn (2016)

(7)    I think the both of them look like they could form a brilliant partnership (2016) 

There is also some variation recorded for the indefinite article. For example, in SED a appearing before a following vowel was observed in Nb and Du, and was also widespread across England. In addition, SED notes that the indefinite article is sometimes absent in Nb and Du where it would be present in Standard English; it also records the pronominal form a one (Upton et al. 1994: 479-480). Evidence for all these distributions can be found in RTG. 

(8)    Our lass is a apple fan boy (2017)

(9)    What a interesting programme (2019)

(10)   Fax machine - still have a one in the office that still works (2019) 

(11)   The religious can celebrate, the rest of us get holiday when we want (2018)

Etymologically, the articles a and an are reduced forms of one (OE aan). As the use of one as an article develops in ME, the 'variant a is used before words beginning with a consonant, the variant an before words beginning with a vowel, but not yet with the same regularity as in MnE' (MED). This results in sentences such as this one from 1450: 'I besett to Richard Clarell a apparell for a auter.' The survival of such phrases in the dialects is noted by Wright (1905: 223). 

'In the dialects of Eng. the n in an has gen. disappeared before a following vowel, as ə apl.'

Its wide distribution is recorded in EDD. 

Top ov a awd rain watter tub (North Riding of Yorkshire) 

a idle, ill-tempered gossip (West Riding of Yorkshire) 

Half a hour agoo (Surrey) 

Gie I a apple (Wiltshire) 

He's same's a old hen avore day (West Somerset)

For an overview of this phenomenon, see Kjellmer 2001.

References

Kjellmer, Göran. 2001. "IT'S A INTERESTING BOOK": On the Use of the Indefinite Article a before a Vowel in English. Neuphilologische Mitteilungen 102 (3): 307-315.

Upton, Clive, David Parry and J.D.A. Widdowson. 1994. Survey of English Dialects: The Dictionary and Grammar. London: Routledge. 

Wright, Joseph. 1905. The English Dialect Grammar. Oxford: Henry Frowde.