'ee

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ee"

English

Alternative forms

• 'e

Pronoun

'ee

1. (Cornwall, archaic, colloquial) Pronunciation spelling of ye (second person pronoun). used like an enclitic, after a consonant
   • 1789, Richard Brinsley Sheridan, St. Patrick's Day, or, The Scheming Lieutenant, act 1, scene 1:

     Oh, all that's fair; but hark'ee, lads, I must have no grumbling on St. Patrick's Day; so here, take this, and divide it amongst you.

   • 1861, Charles Dickens, chapter 40, in Great Expectations:

     "Look'ee here, Pip," said he, laying his hand on my arm in a suddenly altered and subdued manner; "first of all, look'ee here. I forgot myself half a minute ago. What I said was low; that's what it was; low. […]

   • 1905, Mark Guy Pearse, “Terrible Expensive”, in The Quiver, page 1068:

     "Will 'ee have some?" said Martha Ann presently, holding out her apron filled with rosy quarrendens.

   • 1948 November and December, “By Broad Gauge to Cornwall”, in Railway Magazine, page 361:

     If a sun-bonneted market woman got in with us, mother could never resist talking to her, and answering the invariable Cornish question: "Wheer be 'ee goin'?" Then would follow the astonished "From Lunnon are 'ee? Aw, my deer!"

Derived terms

• 'ark at 'ee
• harkee
• lookee

References

• Hans Lindquist, Christian Mair (eds.), Corpus Approaches to Grammaticalization in English.