Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/341

Vill PRKFACE. At first I made some attempts to obtain derivations for all words where thej seemed to be required This I found to be a labour too vast for me, whose avocation connected with the school occupied so much of my time, and I soon learnt that many such derivations, which I chose to think were indisputable, were very doubtful, and some utterly at fault. Therefore I thought it better to confine myself to the pronunciation and actual use of words, fleeting as some of them are, catching them as they came, and to leave the derivation with others more conversant with the subject, especially as that part of the inquiry can be taken up at any time by persons better acquainted with it; whereas the mere compilation of the Glossary will become harder every year. What will hereafter be almost impossible, even now is extremely difficult, owing to many X)er8ons adopting the more refined sounds of customary English, ignorant or forgetful of the ancient forms ; and such persons have been inclined occasionally to dispute my positions. With regard to pronunciation, when I have endeavoured to express words phonetic- ally, I have, of course, as far as possible, followed the ordinary vowel sounds of English ; therefore no Yorkshiremen must attempt to read such ttccording to his own notion of sounds, or he will utterly fail to recognize them at alL In fact, our Yorkshire friends have ideas of their owi^ as to their peculiar vowel sounds, and will hardly admit that a South countryman, even one so thoroughly acclimatized as myself, can pronounce them at all; and I own it is difficult. I will cite one or two instances. First, the word dance^ which in the Glossary will be found spelt donee {5 in John), was objected to by an old and valued friend, to whom as an alternative I proposed the word daunce^ which had really been given me by another critic. My friend declared the true sound was between the two, a sound I confess I cannot produce on paper. In another instance, long t I vocalized as aio ; this was objected to also, and ah (in father) proposed instead. No doubt both these sounds are heard for t, but I am of opinion that aw most nearly represents the I as generally heard from the least refined talkers. As an illustration of this sound I may relate the following anecdote. On one occasion a man called on me for a portion of the Nettleton Dole, in the administration of