I have covered some poems before, but this time, it is going to be a little different.
I picked up a PDF of a book by William Barnes. It is from 1864, and is called Poems in the Dorset Dialect. While this is not a foreign language, it may appear so at first! The thing is that you will probably have to read it aloud to get it! If you do understand - even if it's only small parts of it - it should make you smile.
Yes, this is the way that some people speak (or used to speak, anyway)...
FALSE FRIENDS-LIKE
When I wer' still a bwoy, an' mother's pride,
A bigger bwoy spoke up to me so kind-like,
"if you do like, I'll treat ye wi' a ride
In thease wheel-barrow here." Zoo I wer' blind-like
To what 'e had a-worken in his mind-like,
An mounted vor a passenger inside;
An' comen to a puddle, perty wide,
He tipp'd me in, a-grinnen back behind like.
Zoo when a man do come to me so thick-like,
An' sheake my hand, where oonce 'e pass'd me by,
An' tell me he would do me this or that,
I can't help thinken o' the big bwoy's trick-like.
An' then, vor all I can but wag my hat
An' thank 'en, I do veel a little shy.
The Kettle Bridge, Cerne Abbas, Dorset by Jim Linwood is licensed under CC BY 2.0
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