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 _ichè, 'ch,_ and _ise_. To the absence originally of general literary information, and to the very recent rise of the study of grammatical analysis, are these anomalies and irregularities to be attributed.
We see, therefore, that _'ch'ud, ch'am,_ and _'ch'ill_, are simply the Anglo-Saxon _ich_, contracted and combined with the respective verbs _would, am,_ and _will_; that the _'c'_ and _'ch'_, as quoted in the lines given by Miss Ham, are contracts for the Anglo-Saxon _iche_ or _I_, and nothing else. It may be also observed, that in more than one modern work containing specimens of the dialect of Scotland and the North of England, and in, I believe, some of Sir Walter Scott's novels, the word _ise_ is employed, so that the auxiliary verb _will_ or _shall_ is designed to be included in that word; and the printing or it thus, _I'se_, indicates that it is so designed to be employed. Now, if this be a _copy_ of the _living_ dialect of Scotland (which I beg leave respectfully to doubt), it is a "barbarism" which the Somerset dialect does not possess. The _ise_ in the west is simply a pronoun and nothing else; it is, however, often accompanied by a contracted verb, as _ise'll_ for I will.