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lile

Dialect
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

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The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

“Lile” is a Northern English Dialect form of “little,” often used affectionately to describe a small child or something dear.

Detailed Definition
In Dialect poetry, “lile” represents a regional pronunciation of “little,” especially associated with Yorkshire and other Northern English speech traditions. It can indicate physical smallness, but it often carries tenderness, intimacy, or pity. Poets may use “lile” to preserve a speaker’s local voice and make the poem’s emotional setting feel more immediate and authentic.
Example
Example in poetry:
In Frederic William Moorman’s “Lile Doad,” the grieving speaker repeatedly calls his dead infant “lile Doad”: “O dowly, dowly was that neet He stole lile Doad away!” Here, “lile” means “little,” but its Dialect form also makes the phrase sound like a parent’s affectionate, private name for a beloved child. The word deepens the poem’s sorrow by emphasizing the baby’s vulnerability and the speaker’s love.
Additional Notes
“Lile” is a Dialect word rather than a separate poetic form or figure of speech. Its literary effect comes from its use in Dialect poetry. It is a phonetic or Dialect spelling: the poet writes the word in a way that suggests how the speaker says “little.” In “Lile Doad,” the word appears with other Northern Dialect forms, such as “barn” for “child,” “neet” for “night,” “wark” for “work,” and “cowd” for “cold.” “Lile” may be especially affectionate when used before a name, as in “lile Doad,” much like “little” in “little David” or “my little one.”
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