Having discovered that _utchy_ was the Anglo-Saxon
_iche_, there was no difficulty in appropriating _'che,
'c',_ and _ch'_ to the same root; hence, as far as
concerned _iche_ in its literal sounds, a good deal seemed
unravelled; but how could we account for _ise_, and
_ees_, used so commonly for I in the western parts of
_Somersetshire_, as well as in _Devonshire?_ In the
first folio edition of tlie works of Shakspeare the _ch_ is
printed, in one instance, with a mark of elision before it thus,
_'ch_, a proof that the _I_ in _iche_ was sometimes
dropped in a common and rapid pronunciation; and a proof too,
that, we, the descendants of the Anglo-Saxons, have chosen the
initial letter only of that pronoun, which initial letter the
Anglo-Saxons had in very many instances discarded!
It is singular enough that Shakspeare has the _'ch_ for
_iche, I,_ and _ise_, for I, within the distance of a
few lines, in _King Lear_, Act IV. scene 6. But perhaps not
more singular than that, in Somersetshire at the present time, may
be heard for the pronoun I, _utchy_ or _ichA", 'ch,_ and
_ise_.
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