Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    From $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    South Pembrokeshire, Dialect and Place-Names
    South Pembrokeshire, Dialect and Place-Names
    South Pembrokeshire, Dialect and Place-Names
    Ebook92 pages1 hour

    South Pembrokeshire, Dialect and Place-Names

    By P. Valentine Harris

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce and increasingly expensive. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRead Books Ltd.
    Release dateSep 6, 2016
    ISBN9781473356375
    South Pembrokeshire, Dialect and Place-Names

    Related to South Pembrokeshire, Dialect and Place-Names

    Related ebooks

    European History For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • UNLIMITED

      In a WORD

      Nov 3, 2023

      In a WORD
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Reading Old Handwriting

      Jan 11, 2022

      Reading Old Handwriting
      7 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      My View...

      Jul 21, 2022

      My View...
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      SPOKEN Like A LOCAL

      Mar 1, 2024

      The Yorkshire Dialect Society was formed in 1897, out of the ashes of the Yorkshire committee of the English Dialect Society. The latter had decided to wind up after the culmination of work for the English Dialect Dictionary, which was edited by York

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      I Am Taught By Towels

      Sep 19, 2018

      It’s impressive how educational hand-drying the dishes can be. Almost without knowing it, one may absorb a range of more or less useful information as the cutlery gets drier and the dishcloth damper. I am thinking in particular of two literary dish t

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Donnybrook At Dunlaoghaire

      Feb 5, 2024

      A Donnybrook At Dunlaoghaire
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      A Doric Column From Scotland

      Jul 27, 2022

      Gaelic seems to be flourishing. More than 1.1 million people have been learning Gaelic on a website called Duolingo since the start of the pandemic. I am not among them. There’s certainly something romantic about Gaelic – a language with all its lett

      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Derbyshire Surnames

      May 5, 2020

      BEARDSLEY Just over half of all of the Beardsleys recorded in the 1891 census were living in Derbyshire. BONSALL This habitational name comes from a Derbyshire parish recorded in the Domesday Book as ‘Bunteshale’. BRAILSFORD This habitational name is

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Our Green And Pleasant Land

      Jul 17, 2024

      Our Green And Pleasant Land
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Food’s Greedy Appetite For Foreign Words

      Feb 9, 2022

      In the aviary of languages, English is a jackdaw or a magpie, a bird that steals widely and insouciantly. Grammarians call this readiness to pinch foreign words ‘borrowing’, but it’s not the kind encouraged by your bank. True, the purloining of words

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Big Chill

      Nov 22, 2023

      The Big Chill
      5 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      DÁL RIATA Rise And Fall?

      Nov 27, 2024

      DÁL RIATA Rise And Fall?
      14 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Never Say Wolf

      Feb 13, 2020

      Listen to them, the children of the night. What music they make!” So says Count Dracula to the hapless Jonathan Harker in Bram Stoker’s novel. Dracula is talking about the wolves howling in the valley below his castle in the Carpathian mountains. Thi

      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Seen And Misheard

      Aug 23, 2022

      Seen And Misheard
      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Speak Like A Georgian

      Nov 1, 2023

      Speak Like A Georgian
      3 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Joy Of Coupling

      Mar 9, 2022

      It was the dog that got me thinking. Watching her streak across a field, I realised that ‘running’ was an inadequate description. Every few yards, she would take to the air with all four legs off the ground. Her exuberant flights were better expresse

      2 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Derbyshire Surnames

      May 21, 2024

      In 1881 there were 329 namesakes recorded in the Ilkeston census district alone. Brentnall is a locative name associated with both Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. This locative name comes from the village of Doxey in Seighford, across the border in S

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Welcome!

      Sep 10, 2021

      Welcome!
      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Alliteration’s Apt and Artful Aim

      Jan 31, 2019

      Every language has a certain aural spirit to it, an auditory fingerprint related to those sounds which constitute the melody and rhythm of any tongue. The post Alliteration’s Apt and Artful Aim appeared first on The Millions.

      14 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Staffordshire Surnames

      Feb 11, 2020

      BEARDMORE This habitational name originated in Staffordshire. BLOOR This Blore variant is common throughout the Midlands, particularly in the county of Staffordshire. CADDICK The surname derives from an Anglicised form of the Welsh name Cadog/Cadfael

      1 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      The Devil Is In The Detail

      Nov 22, 2023

      The Devil Is In The Detail
      6 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Reading the Runes

      Aug 29, 2024

      Reading the Runes
      9 min read

    • UNLIMITED

      Reading the Runes

      Aug 29, 2024

      Reading the Runes
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for South Pembrokeshire, Dialect and Place-Names

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      South Pembrokeshire, Dialect and Place-Names - P. Valentine Harris

      Yorkshire

      THE DIALECT

      In many ways the dialect of South Pembrokeshire is the most fascinating in Britain and, owing to the county’s remoteness, perhaps the least adulterated in recent years. Many of the words are pre-Chaucerian which have fallen into disuse elsewhere and some of the more familiar words still have the earlier pronunciation.

      If the history of the district were wrapped in obscurity the philologist would still be able to distinguish the various elements which go to make the people. In fact a truer history might be derived from language than from some other unaided methods.

      But though some of the history is obscure we know that after the coming of the Goidels and the Brythons, Pembrokeshire was invaded by the Deisi from Ireland and in the tenth century was settled by the Danes, as all Vikings were once called. They were followed by the Normans and their English henchmen. Several settlements of Flemings were planted and later there were Irish invasions. There was also a close contact through coastal trade with the West Country of England. All these elements have made their mark as, of course, have the neighbouring Welsh.

      The vast majority of Pembrokeshire words can also be found in the Danelagh, that area of England settled by the Danes which comprised East Anglia, much of Mercia and most of Northumbria; but as Joseph Wright noted in his English Dialect Grammar, there are several resemblances between the dialect of Pembrokeshire and those of Gloucester, Hereford and Hertfordshire, e.g. ‘f’ and ‘s’ became ‘v’ and ‘z’ as they still do in the West Country of England.

      Several Pembrokeshire words are found elsewhere only in Wexford, the county where some of the invaders from ‘Little England’ settled. Dr. William Barnes, who edited Jacob Poole’s Glossary of the Old Dialect of . . . Forth and Bargy in 1867, affected to believe that it showed more traces of the West Country than of Pembrokeshire; but he appeared to be unacquainted with the families of Pembrokeshire. He says: ‘Carew is a very old Cornish name, Carw, a stag,’ which may be correct, but completely ignores the Fitzgerald family which adopted the name of the place. Of Stacpole he says it ‘rings very clearly of some Pol in Cornwall’! He does not comment on the names of Barry or Roche.

      The pronunciation of many words of the old Wexford dialect have affinities with that of Pembrokeshire: again (agyne), amain (amyne), brain (bryne), grain (gryne), pail (pyle), etc. And the Flemish element may be discerned in words like poor (boor), plenty (blenty), ten (dhen), thunder (dhunder), thirteen (dhurteen), thread (dread), neighbour (nipore) and so on.

      Some other Pembrokeshire words are found elsewhere, strangely enough, only in Caithness, the most northerly county of Scotland, an almost certain sign of their Norse origin.

      I have not seen it remarked on before, but I have found a distinct feeling for alliteration in everyday phrases as ‘He’ll fall flat on his face.’ (He’ll be very much surprised or put out), ‘She’ll have forty-five fits’ and others not so polite.

      Comparatively few words of Welsh origin have infiltrated. The chief influence from that source appears to be in the intonation and the construction of the sentences—‘There’s mad she was,’ and in making ‘trousers,’ ‘scissors’ and so on singular instead of plural.

      ‘A’ is often pronounced almost as in Cockney dialect—‘h’y’ for ‘hay,’ but in ‘grass,’ ‘pass,’ ‘flame,’ ‘stranger’ and ‘dangerous’ it is short, and ‘was’ is pronounced ‘waz’ instead of the Standard English ‘woz.’

      ‘Ee’ is pronounced as ‘i’ in ‘sheep,’ etc.

      ‘O’ in some words is ‘oo’—‘stoon’ for ‘stone.’

      ‘Oo’ in ‘goose’ is pronounced as in ‘look.’

      ‘Ow’ in ‘bow’ (a stitch in knitting) is pronounced almost as in ‘cow,’ which has led one correspondent to spell it ‘bough,’ but in ‘glow’ it resembles ‘oo,’ which has led another one astray. He spells it ‘glue’ (short for ‘glowworm’).

      ‘U’ in words like ‘butter’ is pronounced as in ‘bull.’

      I have omitted many words previously collected by others in the field for various reasons: they are mispronunciations (e.g. ‘cavaltry’ for ‘cavalry’); purely Welsh and therefore not dialect; or words which have become standard, such as ‘creel.’

      Many of the words are, alas, obsolete or obsolescent owing to the disappearance of the horse or for other reasons, but there is still a rich store of dialect which ought not to be allowed to vanish. Who, with any feeling for words would say ‘icicles’ rather than ‘frost candles,’ ‘fell headlong’ instead of ‘went ploughing,’ or prefer ‘in an uproar’ to ‘in an echo’?

      I must pay tribute to the English Dialect Dictionary, (1898-1905), its editor and contributors and to all those who have lovingly collected dialect words. Without their groundwork this dictionary could not have been compiled in its present form.

      The compiler would welcome correspondence on errors or omissions.

      An asterisk denotes that the word has not previously been recorded. A word in square brackets after the entry-word shows the phonetic spelling where necessary. Initials in round brackets denote the collector or correspondent. Then follows the abbreviated names of countries, counties or districts where the word is also used, if any. Finally the derivation and use in literature when relevant.

      A. He. ‘A’s coming tereckly, a’s shoor to kum.’ (E.D.D.) w.Yks., Nhp., Wor., Shr., Brks., I.W., Wil., Hmp., Som., Dev. [A fair knygt a was to see, Sir Ferumbras (1380) 250. Now might I doe it, but now a is praying. Hamlet, III. iii. 74.]

      ABROAD. Boiled, cooked, or squeezed to pieces, to a mash, or liquid condition. w.Cy.

      ACLUSH. All to pieces, to a mess, a mix-up; gen. in phr. all aclush or all to clush.

      ADAM AND EVE. The early purple orchis (orchis mascula).

      ADDLEY PULK. A putrid or stagnant pool. Scot. Addle, addle-dub. Nhb. Eddie. Dev. Addle-gutter. s. and w.Cy. Addle-pool.

      AFEARED. Afraid, frightened, struck with

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1