Another source of foreign supply to the vocabulary of the dialects is
French; a circumstance which seems hitherto to have been almost
entirely ignored. The opinion has, I think, been expressed more than
once, that dialects are almost, if not altogether, free from French
influence. Some, however, have called attention, perhaps too much
attention, to the French words found in Lowland Scotch; and it is
common to adduce always the same set of examples, such as _ashet_,
a dish (F. _assiette_, a trencher, plate: Cotgrave), _gigot_, a leg
of mutton, and _petticoat-tails_, certain cakes baked with butter
(ingeniously altered from _petits gastels_, old form of _petits
gateaux_), by way of illustration. Indeed, a whole book has been
written on this subject; see _A Critical Enquiry into the Scottish
Language_, by Francisque-Michel, 4to, Edinburgh, 1882. But the
importance of the borrowings, chiefly in Scotland, from Parisian
French, has been much exaggerated, as in the work just mentioned;
and a far more important source has been ignored, viz. Anglo-French,
which I here propose to consider.
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