“mank” as an adverb?, and variation in the earliest, Central dialect

“mank” as an adverb?, and variation in the earliest, Central dialect

I just put up a post here about the “Ave Maria” (Hail Mary) prayer as preserved in H-T Lempfrit’s notebook, and it included an odd use of mank-. Image credit: IMDB That’s the Comparative prefix that goes directly onto adjective and adverb stems, as in these examples from the Demers, Blanchet, and St Onge dictionary of similar vintage (with its data from about 1838): Mank, more. [mank-]tlush, [mank-]elip tlush, better. (more used.) This mank-, in…