Page:Glossary of words in use in Cornwall.djvu/92

INTEODUCTION. 71 of CaiadoiL These immigrants bTought with them and have left an infusion of their language, especially its teehnical portion^ but I lemember when it was a great mimetic feat, and, pToductiye of much mirth amongst ns, to be able to imitate the talk of Cousin Jacky £rom Redruth or Si Just This intermixture of tribes, increased still later by facilities of travel, traffic, telegraphy, &c., has rendered it almost impossible to draw any but a yery broad and blurred line between the dialects. . The comparison can only be made by such glossaries as that furnished by Miss Courtney from the extreme west^ and mine fh>m the easternmost parts of the shire. If asked to define roughly a boundary, I know none better than the Parlia> mentary line from Crantock Bay, on St Geoiige's Channel, to Yeryan Bay, on the English Channel, which bisects the county. The late John T. Tregellas, who more than any other had the faculty of seizing and vocally representing with minute accuracy the subtlest distinctions of word and tone, even between neighbouring parishes, thought he could plainly trace the limits of the two dialects. The opinion of so well-known an expert may be here given : — " To any one who may be disposed to jeer at the idea as falla- cious or ridiculous, I should be desirous of placing such a one at Mousehole or any village in the neighbourhood of Penzance, and for an hour to enter into easy conversation with its rustic inhabitantsy and having well rivetted their sing-song (chant) on his ear, to pels ceive the lessening and altering of the intonation of the inhabitants as he proceeds eastward, through Towednack, St. Ives, Hayle, and Camborne. Eastward of Camborne, even at Bedruth, the natural chant has died away ; nor is it again heard from the more guttural speakers of Bedruth, Gwennap, and St. Agnes. But be it known to the curious in these matters, the miner of Perranzabuloe expresses himself uniformly in a full note higher than his adjoining parish- ioners of St. Agnes, and no sooner have you passed Crantock and Cuhert and entered the St Columb's, than you find the people's con- versation partake, in a very small on to a very large degree, of the peculiar •^ zalt" for salt, **yeffer" for heifer, &c., of St Gennys and the whole neighbourhood of Camelford and Boscastle, until you hear in its fullest form the ' I zim' for I think, ' spewn ' for spoon, &c., of