Eliot uses representations of Northern English speech to give her rural characters life on the page and to distinguish the dialogue of wealthy citizens from that of their less affluent neighbors. In Chapter 6, when Mr Macey is speaking to his counterparts about the Lammeters, Eliot actually presents the word "pronounced" in a nonstandard English, Northern way. Macey says:
Ay, ay; I know, I know; but I let other folks talk. I’ve laid by now, and gev up to the young uns. Ask them as have been to school at Tarley: they’ve learnt pernouncing; that’s come up since my day.
This use of dialect—"gev" for "gave," "pernouncing" for "pronouncing"— provides local color and context, embedding the reader in the soundscapes of Lantern Yard and Raveloe. Multiple moments of wordplay and humor with Northern English appear like this in the novel. Eliot's narrator's self-awareness and its tendency to expand on what characters have said after "reporting" it usually places Northern English speech in very close proximity to Eliot's highly academic standard English.
Several idioms are also used and reused as Eliot represents Northern speech. For example, Marner himself is called "mushed" twice in the book, a word meaning "tired" or "worn out." As with many things in Silas Marner, it has another double meaning. This word is used in situations where someone is being kind and friendly toward the still-stiff Marner. A "mush" in several regions of Northern England, particularly Yorkshire, is a colloquialism that means "a friend." In noting his physical state, Silas's companions are also implicitly offering friendship.
