INTRODUCTION not so common as in Lth. — e.g. cat, hat, back, black, lamb instead of cawt, hawt, etc., of Lothian (see § 85). The influence of Rxb. speech can be traced (1) in the use of oi [o&sci;] for the general Sc. [&schwa;i], as in boil, toil, voice; oil [&schwa;il] is an exception; (2) in the weakness of the ch sound and its disappearance in some words where it is replaced by ow, as bowt and sowt for bought and sought, although boacht [boxt] and soacht [soxt] may also be heard alongside of the s.Sc. [&openo;uxt] and [s&openo;uxt]. Water is pronounced waiter [′wet&schwa;r] as in Rxb. The burred r as a sign of dialect is not found in Bwksh. although known in Berwick town. In Chirnside, initial ch [t&sh.] was pronounced sh [&sh.] and the following sentence was quoted in derision of the inhabitants: “There's as guid sheeze (cheese) in Shirset (Chirnside) as was ever showed (chewed) by shafts (jaws).” See Black Isle, Cai. and Sh. dialects for the same peculiarity. It is also found at Chillingham and Chatton in Nhb.: “The Sheese o' Shatton is nae mair like the sheese o' Shillingham nor shaak's like sheese.” In Older Sc. it is not unknown — e.g. schansit, scheker, schapel, scheeks, schyld. About thirty words have been absorbed into Bwk. dialect from the gipsy speech of the inhabitants of Yetholm (Rxb.).

[man]	A “Gadgie” when he is a “Chor”	[thief]
	A “Jugal” always fears,	[dog]
	For “Jugals” as a rule are kept
	By “Gadgies ” with big “keirs”.	[houdes]
	This means a man who goes to steal,
	A watchdog may expect,
	‘Tis mystifying all the same,
	This Berwick Dialect.
(Thomas Grey, Tweedmouth, in Berwickshire Advertiser, 4 Nov. 1910.)

§ 92.1. The dialect of Berwick town is a mixture of Sc., Northern Eng. and St.Eng. It has lost the ch sound in laugh, enough, daughter,1 etc., and in words like night, etc., which it pronounces with a diphthong [nεit] and not neet [nit] as in other parts of Nhb. and in Dur. and Yks. It uses a species of the r burr, and treats this r as in St.Eng. of the southern type — i.e. drops it before another consonant and at the end of words, but often restores it when the next word begins with a vowel. See E.E.P., V., p. 647. It retains wh [&turnw;] as in Sc. and h as in Sc. and St.Eng. It retains the Northern Eng. and Sc. oo [u] as in hoose, moose, with some exceptions, and unrounds ŭ [ŭ or u] as in Sc., St.Eng. and Southern Eng. dialects — i.e. some and come2 are pronounced nearly as in St.Eng. and not soom and coom.3 O.E. ō and Fr. u have not become [y or ø] as in Sc. O.E. ā and a in open position are not diphthongised as in the greater part of Northern Eng. and in s.Sc., but have some kind of [e] vowel — i.e. stane and not stian.4 Final [u:] and [i:] are not diphthongised, as in s.Sc. — i.e. there are no yow and mey for you and me. See E.E.P., V., pp. 645-651. The dialect of the town of Berwick shows, with the county, a number of gipsy words derived from the gipsy colony of Yetholm. West Mid Scots. § 93. In this sub-dialect the aw vowel [&oh.] is prevalent instead of ā [a:], but not so widespread as in Lth. § 93.1. The words in the first four classes of O.E. ō words and in the last class are all unrounded. Thus we find for mune, guid, do, shoe, muir, puir, teuch, eneuch: min, gid, dae, shae, mair, pair, tyuch, inyuch.5 See §§ 35.1-35.4, 36, 37. In Burns’ time the rounded vowel was already being superseded by ay [e] and i [&sci;], as his rhymes sometimes suggest: I sell'd them a' ane by ane— Guid ale keeps the heart aboon! (Burns O' Guid Ale Comes.) O' merry hae I been teethin a heckle, An' merry hae I been shapin a spoon! O' merry hae I been cloutin a kettle, An' kissin my Katie when a' was done! (Burns O' Merry Hae I Been.) The rhymes are perfect if we take Burns' own pronunciation yin and abin and spin and din. Elderly people in Avrsh. say that they remember quite well the difference between their pronunciation f words like guid and muir and that of their grandparents. In Vol. V., pp. 732-737, 1 laf, &sci;′n&turnv;f, ′daut&schwa;r. 2 s&turnv;m, k&turnv;m. 3 sum, kum. 4 st&sci;&schwa;n. 5 m&sci;n, g&sci;d, de:, &sh.e:, me:r, pe:r, tj&turnv;x, &sci;′nj&turnv;x.