Book from Edinburgh University Press: North East Vernacular English Online

Prepositions

As Hughes et al. (2013: 33) point out, 'prepositions exhibit a large degree of variation in their usage in British dialects.' In NEE, some prepositions can perform different syntactic functions compared with SE. In addition, some prepositions have variant forms in NEE.

A. function

Agency

In SE, by is routinely used to express agency in passive constructions (e.g. England were beaten by the Aussies), but in NEE (in certain contexts where the semantic 'patient' is undergoing a violent act - literally or figuratively) off can also be used for this function (rarely, off of can be found).* Off is more likely in get-passives than be-passives.

(1) England got beat off the Aussies at Twickenham in the final (2019)

(2) we were beat off a far better team (2016)

(3) I remember playing on the pit heaps, coming home filthy and getting knacked off my parents for it (2012)

(4) saw an ald man get hit off a bus in durham (2011)

(5) I won't miss watching us get beat off of the big teams (2014)

Source and goal

In SE the source of something received by a beneficiary is typically indicated by from, as in I got a present from my mother. In NEE off can be used to perform this function (as can off of).*

(6) I got Fortnite pyjamas off me Mam (2014)

(7) just bought it off of eBay (2016)

This usage is noted by Heslop (1893: 509).

OFF, used in the sense of from. "Aa'l borrow'd off ye." Often duplicated with of as off-of. "The hat blew off-of his heed."

In addition, off can occur in a number of contexts where on would be more usual in SE. This is particularly the case where the semantic 'goal' is causing pain, injury or damage.

(8) I smashed my toe off the kitchen table (2018)

(9) the other week I fell forward and hit me head off the shower screen (2011)

EDD records off indicating source in the sense of ‘from’, ‘of’, ‘out of’, citing for Northumberland the example from Heslop above, and also a line from a 'Border Ballad' published in the 1840s: 'Or mischiefe off our kye or sheepe.' But it should be noted that this usage is recorded across the north and midlands, as well as Scotland.

Time

In SE, on or in is used in constructions which indicate the time period (i.e. the name of the day or part thereof) during which an event takes place, especially if the event is repeated or occurs regularly, as in 'I practise on a Saturday/Saturdays'; 'I practise in the evening(s)'. In NEE, of can occur in both these contexts.

(10) I'd rather just go to the boozer of a Saturday (2019)

(11) Good memories of bunking off college of an afternoon to play pool and eat hot beef dip and chips (2015)

(12) Nowt beats walking up the steps and seeing the grass under the flood lights of an evening(2019)

This usage does not appear in SED, though it is recorded with wide distribution in EDD. The phrase of an evening is on the border-line between colloquial SE and NSE.

We might also note on a(n) where SE typically prefers in the.

(13) Our lass leaves the lamp on in the kitchen all the time on an evening (2020)

(14) I've never felt hungry early on a morning and never really enjoyed breakfast (2020)

This usage is perhaps only marginally dialectal.

*Off of

This combination also has a wide distribution in EDD, from Scotland ('I wiz noor aff o' ma feet sin 'e mornin') to Devon ('The cup fell off of his handle'). Wakelin (1972: 118) claims that, 'as is well-known', off of 'is a feature which occurs throughout the country', supporting his assertion with reference to SED data.

B. form

To

The spellings <ti, te, tee> are common in RTG, representing pronunciations of to - such as [tɪ], [ti] or [ti:] - which arose as a consequence of what is sometimes called 'Northern Fronting' (see the discussion of Do in the section on lexical and primary verbs).

(1) it gans back ti wor Civil Waar (2011)

(2) Met Quinny, who said 'fair play te ye!' (2015)

(3) Am garna mak em an offer ee cannit say nar tee like (2017)

The pronunciations reflected in these spellings are common in northern varieties, and were recorded widely in SED and EDD. In addition, RTG has examples of fronted forms of to with the addition of -v.

(4) Beat yer tiv it (2015)

(5) Or 1977 if you prefer to gan tiv Abigail’s party (2019)

(6) Tony Davidson needs to get intiv it, ha ha (2018)

Where does tiv come from? It appears to be the remnant of a more extensive system where speakers could vary the form of some prepositions 'at discretion to suit the euphony of the sentence in which they occur' (Heslop 1892: xx). The following examples of variant forms of to, by, from, in and with are from Northumberland Words.

He's shrunk tiv a spelk.

A foreign sailor wiv a gully iv a sheth biv his side.

Did ye get it fre Tom, or frev Anty?

Heslop suggests that -v forms occur before vowels, an observation which would suggest that they arose as a hiatus breaker. In some languages, including English, it is phonologically undesirable for two separate vowels to occur adjacently (both within words and across word boundaries). When such a 'hiatus' occurs, a number of strategies can be deployed to resolve it, including the insertion of an epenthetic consonant. The most well-known example of this is the /n/ which typically occurs between the indefinite article and a word beginning with a vowel (compare 'a banana' with 'an apple' or 'a young man' with 'an old man'). Other strategies used in non-rhotic accents such as RP and NEE include the insertion of 'historic' /r/ in words such as near, star, far, fur when the following word begins with a vowel, as in 'near Ashington' and 'far away'. Additional hiatus resolution mechanisms include epenthetic [j], as in RP 'I always' → [ʌɪjɔːlweɪz] (famously illustrated in Popeye's catchphrase 'I yam what I yam'); and [w], as in RP 'to a' → [tu:wə].

This process is relevant for tiv. Rowe (2007) suggests that the [v] here represents a fortition of the hiatus breaker [w] to [v]. In addition, it seems that tiv has become lexicalized. Evidence for this lies with the fact that it can also appear before consonants.

(7) It’s not a club foot, man, he’s just intiv glam rock (2019)

(8) Mair tiv that byuk than meets the eye (2020)

This lexicalization goes back to at least the mid-nineteenth century, as these EDD examples show.

We'll get penny loaves, an' drink tiv wor beak, Old Sng., Collier's Rant.

Tiv sike time is the day daws, an' the cloods is a' flown, ROBSON Sng. Sol.(1859) ii. 17

A thoosan' bucklors ... a' belangin' tiv boordly, clivor men, ROBSON Sng. Sol. (1860) iv. 4

Then away on the dowie road tiv Shields, HALDANE Geordy (1878)

EDD evidence also points to a historically wider distribution across the north of England, with numerous examples given from all three Ridings of Yorkshire.

The spellings <te> and <ter> can also be found, presumably suggesting unstressed [tə], found widely in colloquial speech.

(9) I was picturing the boxer garn toe ter toe with the gull (2020)

Between, before, beside, behind

These prepositions have variants with an a- prefix: atween, aside, afore, ahint. They are recorded with quite a wide distribution in SED, but with a northern focus. Afore and (a)tween are more common than aside and ahint in RTG.

(10) that was atween the three of us (2018)

(11) good bit banter there tween me n thee (2011)

(12) Where did you find it? What Trees was it near?

Aside a big pile of mowed grass cuttings at the corner of the Bowling green (2018)

(13) I'll look forward to a few pints over the town, afore the game (2019)

(14) away for a knee trembler ahint the trees (2016)

According to the OED, the a- prefix here represents a development of the on-prefix (with loss of [n] in unstressed positions) combined with a as a preposition used to express position, motion, time (captured in words such as abed and ashore).

It should be noted that prepositions of place and time such as these can also be used adverbially.

(15) Afore I forget, what's the crack with Jives the neet? (2018)

Other prepositions

Atop (as an alternative to on top of (the) or above) is also found in RTG.

(16) He's just had his 30th can of Red Bull and is atop the Post Office tower, shirtless, roaring at passing aircraft like King Kong (2012)

(17) That new footy ground atop the pit (2015)

This preposition is not recorded in the SED, but EDD notes a wide distribution amongst the dialects.

Over is commonly spelled <ower> or <owa> in RTG to capture a widespread northern pronunciation which was recorded in SED and typically transcribed as [aʊə] or [ ɔʊə], with the <w> representing the offglide of [ʊ]. Pronunciations where the fricative in over is elided have a long history, and were recorded in ME.

(18) Leaning ower the counter to nick a sausage when she went out back (2020)

(19) I'd gan owa his heed & ask ter speak ter the branch manager (2020)

For adverbial uses of over, see this section.

References

"a-, prefix3." OED Online, Oxford University Press, June 2020, www.oed.com/view/Entry/270754. Accessed 24 June 2020.

Heslop, Richard Oliver. 1892/93. Northumberland Words: A Glossary of Words Used in the County of Northumberland and on the Tyneside, Vols I and II. London: English Dialect Society.

Hughes, Arthur, Peter Trudgill and Dominic Watt. 2013. English Accents and Dialects. Abingdon: Routledge.

Wakelin, Martin. 1972. English Dialects. London: The Athlone Press.

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