46: The Dorset dialect and more etymologies

Written by Linden Alexander Pentecost, published in the UK like all my publications on the 19th of October 2024. This article is not given sub sections, but essentially goes from an introduction, with features of the dialect and interesting similarities to Dutch and German, a personal story about "zeven", followed by seven etymologies explored (pre-Indo-European) (unrelated to the fact that the word "zeven" was also discussed), followed by some comments, and other comments on some other interesting words, followed by 5 place-names, followed by references. This article contains 1848 words. My other works are discussed in this article but this article like all others contains unique material.

 

The dialect of Dorset in England is one of the West Country English dialects, or dialect areas, and subsequently shares much in common with the English of Devon, Cornwall and Somerset for example. These western dialects of English are related to the Yola language that was spoken in Ireland, and in terms of our written languages, they correspond quite thoroughly to West Saxon Old English in several respects. These western dialects of English are more connected to the Saxons and their language, than to the Angles and theirs. Dorset English is also connected to and shows many similarities to the Low Saxon language in Holland and in Germany, as well as in a more general way to Dutch and to High German.
An example of this is the way in which the present tense form of ”to be” tends to use a verb root *bi-, related to those used in this way in Dutch and in German. For example, Dorset English I be, thou bist, she is, we are, High German: ich bin, du bist, sie ist, wir sind, Dutch ik ben, jij bent.

There are many more such similarities I could write about here, but the only other one I want to focus on is the way in which initial consonants are sometimes voiced. This happens to a degree in Cornish and in German and Dutch. For example, Dorset dialect zun – ”sun”, compare Dutch zon, German Sonne (pronounced with an initial z). Another example is that the number ”seven” is zeven or zebm. The form sebm is found in some other parts of England. But in terms of the initial z, also found in Devon, Cornwall, there is a clear similarity to German sieben – seven, pronounced with an initial [z], and with Dutch zeven. I was having a conversation with someone I knew from a pub in Wales, and I said that “seven” is pronounced “zeven” in Cornwall, as we were talking about Cornwall. She laughed and didn’t believe me.

Words beginning with f- are also often voiced in the Dorset dialect. For example vog (1) for “fog”, virth (1) for a “brushwood”, compare Middle English frith – a forest. Another example can be seen in the word veäry – fairy (1), which presumably originally referred to the “faerie realm” rather than to the beings who inhabit it. It also occurs for example in the noun veäry’s head, which means the fossils of echinus, i.e. sea urchins. In the unconnected book I published yesterday, titled: Tsunami mysteries, tufter, drauger, celestial wheels of light, and prehistoric cultures – a book only published in PDF format, 18/10/2024 published via BookofDunbarra, which is based in the UK, I discussed connections between "caps", Tom Bombadil's, that of people in medieval Lapland, and the Old Man of Utroest, and other topics. I did not discuss the word veäry’s head in the aforementioned PDF book.

As well as Dorset dialect and place-names having been briefly mentioned by the author in other works, I also published an article titled Afro Asiatic roots in the Dorset Dialect, viewable on page 93 of my PDF only ebook: A study of ancient languages, history and consciousness. Below are some other Dorset dialect words and etymologies not discussed in the aforementioned article but which I would like to discuss in this article (the one in front of you):

 

1). puxy – a boggy place (1), Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *baʒ- - flow, be wet (2) or Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *p/fič̣- be wet (2)

2). ope – opening in the cliffs down to the water (1), word only used in Portland, perhaps connected to Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *wup- open (2), also to Scottish Gaelic òb – a pool or saltwater lake or bay generally in a rocky landscape, Old English hóp – a valley, and other root words which I have published about elsewhere.

3). mammet – an image or a scarecrow (1), this word is strangely similar to the meaning of the word “mummy”, as in an Egyptian or Incan mummy, itself originally from Persian mumiyâ which refers to a mummy or to the embalming fluid or wax used. Could the Devon word be linked to the Persian via an ancient pre-Indo-European etymology?

4). wag – to stir or go (1), perhaps connected to Proto-Afro-Asiatic: *wug- move quickly (2) and to “wag” in the more general sense of the word in English, i.e. a wagging tail.

5). gad – a bar of metal (1), likely connected to Cornish dialect gad – a pick, and to Proto-Afro-Asiatic *gadum- “axe” (2). I previously connected the Cornish and Afro-Asiatic words and published this on page 94 of my PDF ebook A study of ancient languages, history and consciousness which is also referenced elsewhere on this page.

6). crannick – root of furze (1), perhaps in some way connected to Irish crann – tree.

7). fob - foam on the beach as washed in by the sea, used in Portland (1), likely related to English "foam" but it is difficult to make further connections; the word could I think be ancient.

 

Many of the etymological suggestions above are I think very curious, particularly gad and mammet, but they are all interesting. Why would the Persian root word for our word for "mummy" be connected to a word from Dorset? Even though I think a link to Afro-Asiatic is likely, it is curious how the possible relationship between these words may imply a connection between the ideas of an "image" and "mummy". Very curious stuff.

There are plenty of other words in the Dorset dialect which I cannot think of any helpful etymologies for. For example duck – which confusingly means “twilight” in the Dorset dialect (the word for “duck” as in the bird, is homhle, in Dorset dialect, also discussed on page 93 of A study of ancient languages, history and consciousness. The word hele – “to pour out liquid” (1), looks as though it might be related to Cornish heyl – an estuary. The word clock (1) for a dung beetle is also very interesting. The word clock more generally in English has a confusing and I think metaphyical meaning, as I have briefly written on elsewhere, but why it is applied to a beetle in Dorset, is also curious. The word eve - to become damp (1), i.e. from water vapour, is also interesting. Note that yesterday I published a book in which I discussed a likely unrelated root word "Eva" from the Oera Linda book. The book I published yesterday (the day before writing the article in front of you) is titled: Tsunami mysteries, tufter, drauger, celestial wheels of light, and prehistoric cultures – a book only published in PDF format, 18/10/2024 published via BookofDunbarra, which is based in the UK. Note that the aforementioned ebook is not a reworking of nor does it contain any of the same material as is in an ebook not published on this website, first published as a Kindle book: Sacred spirituality of language on the north-eastern Atlantic seaboard and then with several editions after this, one printed and some PDF ebooks with different names

I would also briefly like to discuss a few place-names in Dorset which I found interesting. I have already discussed and published about a few in other publications, but will discuss 5 more below:

 

1). "The Puckstone" - an impressive erratic south of Poole Harbour, this stone takes its name from the ancient folk religion figure of puck, a word that describes an ancestral being of a sort, the word likely being related to the words pixie, pisky and pecht in Scotland, in my opinion. I wrote briefly on the connection between pecht and piksy in a seperate article on Doric to be published soon in Silly Linguistics. This ancient word puck is also the name of an important character in the play A Midsummer Night's Dream, by Shakespeare, apparently, that is, assuming that Shakespeare was a real person and not a kind of pseudonym or attributed-name.

2). "Ulwell Barrow" - an ancient long barrow, perhaps connected to the ancient deity name common in Northern England, called Ull, connected to Old Icelandic Ullr. There is an implication in the naming that Ull may have been a deity or ancestor of the ancient people who built this barrow.

Note -I discuss Ullr with regard to a Dartmoor place-name in my PDF only ebook: Prehistoric Dartmoor language, North Sámi and Gaelic, and other topics (only available in PDF format) 27/02/2024, No. 12 (the last for now) in a series of new books published by bookofdunbarra (all the author’s books are published in the UK), which is also completely seperate from Tsunami mysteries, tufter, drauger, celestial wheels of light, and prehistoric cultures – a book only published in PDF format, 18/10/2024 published via BookofDunbarra, which is based in the UK, and from Sacred spirituality of language on the north-eastern Atlantic seaboard (contains some adult content) (and the later versions of that last book)

3). "Littlesea" - a part of the Fleet Lagoon. This place-name possibly indicates a usage of the word "sea" more in common with how See is used in German and zee in Dutch.

4). "The Boiling Rock" - a curious place-name to the north of Weymouth, likely indicating an underground spring of some kind, although perhaps with mythological connotations related to fire, warmth or healing, but the original meaning is not known.

5). "Holcombe Bottom" - the element "combe" is I think a pre-Celtic word, as I have discussed elsewhere, related to Welsh cwm, the *hol- element in this place-name might mean a hollow or opening, perhaps also a pre-Celtic root is involved.

 

References:

This article is from my own research, except for the following references:

(1) - all words with (1) after them and/or the word description are sourced from the book A GRAMMAR & GLOSSARY OF THE DORSET DIALECT BY THE REV. WILLIAM BARNES . The way in which I define the meaning of the words in this article however is in my own words at times and not exact to that as described in the book, but this is just because I am trying to explain the relevant parts for what I am writing. Other words in bold but with no (1) behind them are words I already knew.

(2) - Proto-Afro-Asiatic words are reconstructed by Alexander Militarev, and Olga Stolbova, which was sourced from starlingdb.org, database by S. Starostin

-the author's own works are also referenced in several places in this and in other articles.