[Spellyans] "England, Scotland, ruler, rulers

[nicholas williams]

Here are two questions of vocabulary.

ENGLAND, SCOTLAND

S.v. Anglia 'England' Lhuyd gives Pou an Zouzn. This is Pow an Sawson  
in UC and would be Pow an Sowson in KS.
I can find no example anywhere of Pow Sows/Saws apart from Nance's  
1952 dictionary. Pow Saws I take to be an invention of Nance's.

Tregear's name for England is ynglonde, englond, Englond at TH 51; cf.  
Scotland BK 1280, 3237, 3284. Alban 'Scotland' is attested only in  
Lhuyd only and looks like Lhuyd's calque on Welsh.

In his 1952 dictionary Nance also gives Bro Saws. This is clearly  
based on Breton Bro Saoz 'England', but it not attested in Cornish. In  
fact bro 'country' is, as far as I can see, attested once only in all  
surviving Cornish, i.e. yn pub tyller dris an vro PA 250b. The word  
for 'country' is pov x 35, pow x 83, pou x 14.

'England' should, I think, be Pow an Sowson and 'Scotland' should be  
Scotland in the revived language.


RULER

In his 1952 dictionary Nance gives rewler, rewloryon; rewlyas, rewlysy.

The only attested forms, as far as I am aware, are:

rag cafus dyn meryasek the voys revler BM 2717-18
Eff an grug Souereign rewler ha pen war oll an pusces in dowre TH 2
dell ew an spurissans ruler ha gouerner an Catholik egglos TH 36a
par dell ough rewlar an wlas BK 3069
ha pen rowler warnan ny CW 515

fatell yll an rewlysy an wlas executia Justis TH 24a.

Neither the plural *rewloryon nor the singular *rewlyas is attested.

Moreover borrowed agent nouns in -er/-ar form their plurals with -s,  
e.g. advltrers TH 24; archers BM 3911; aweilers, aweylers TH 33, 42 x  
2; beggars RD 1507; clappiers NBoson; el(e)ders TH 32; folyars TH 47a;  
geylers BM 3563,  gouernars TH 40; marners BM 587, 597; offenders,  
offendars TH 25a, 29a; officers TH 32, 33a; poscaders Rowe; prysners  
PC 2231, 2250, 2329, RD 660; robbers TH 19; screffars Rowe; strangers  
TH 33.
Exceptions are carpenter 'carpenter' which has the plural  
karpentorryon OM 2410, karpentoryon OM 2422 as well as carpenters OM  
2557, and soudor 'soldier' which has the plurals soudrys x 8 and  
soudoryon x 6. Later forms of Cornish, it should be noticed, use the  
plural suffix -s even with native words, e.g. poscaders, screffars and  
aweilers.

In view of the above 'ruler' in revived Cornish should probably be  
rewler, rewlers, with an alternative plural rewlysy.

Nicholas


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