Besides these advantages, it cannot be improper to
observe that occasional visits to the _well-heads_ of our
language, (and many of these will be found in the West of England)
will add to the perfection of our polished idiom itself. _The
West may be considered the last strong hold of the Anglo-Saxon in
this country._
I observed, in very early life, that some of my father's servants,
who were natives of the _Southern_ parts of the county of
Somerset, almost invariably employed the word _utchy_ for I.
Subsequent reflection convinced me that this word, _utchy_,
was the Anglo-Saxon _iche_, used as a dissyllable
_ichA"_, as the Westphalians, (descendants of the Anglo-
Saxons,) down to this day in their Low German (Westphalian)
dialect say, "_Ikke_" for "_ich_." How or when this
change in the pronunciation of the word, from one to two
syllables, took place in in this country it is difficult to
determine; but on reference to the works of _Chaucer_, there
is, I think, reason to conclude that _iche_ is used sometimes
in that poet's works as a dissyllable.
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