[Spellyans] Fw: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place Name Query For Craig

[Ken MacKinnon]

A gowetha,

 

The Methodist Church at Chy-an-Gweal (St Ives) mysteriously inserts an "h"
after the "w".  I wonder whether there is any justification (whether by
grace, faith or works) for that intrusive "h"?

 

-        An ken Ken

 

From: spellyans-bounces at kernowek.net [mailto:spellyans-bounces at kernowek.net]
On Behalf Of Craig Weatherhill
Sent: 06 September 2012 19:04
To: Standard Cornish discussion list
Subject: Re: [Spellyans] Fw: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place Name Query For
Craig

 

Well, there are places with Gweal in their name:  Gwealcarn, Towednack;  Chy
an Gweal, St Ives, to name just two, but there's no place called Gweal (as a
simplex element), apart from Gweal, Scilly, which is a contraction of
*gwydh-yel, "tree-grown" (it's far from being that now, but probably was in
antiquity).

 

I must admit, I've never heard of the book or its author.

 

Craig

 

 

 

On 6 Gwn 2012, at 18:46, ewan wilson wrote:





Think this went the wrong way and should have come here!

Ewan.

----- Original Message -----

From: ewan wilson <mailto:butlerdunnit at ntlworld.com> 

To: spellyans-bounces at kernowek.net

Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 6:43 PM

Subject: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place Name Query For Craig

 

One does come across Cornish in the most peculiar places!

I have been reading Wheel Fortune, a 'suspense thriller' written by a Karen
Campbell and published by Wm. Collins&Sons back in 1973. The title's a play
on the word 'Wheal', as it refers to a presumably fictitious Cornish tin
mine somewhere on the Penwith Peninsula.

Anyway, Miss Campbell obviously knew her UC as she has one old Cornish woman
welcome back her young friend with the greeting:

' Da yu genef agas gweles.'  

This young woman, having been raised in Cornwall, recalls at a later stage
in the story some Cornish she knew:

'Byth dorn rever dhe'n tavas re hyr.'

 

At a crucial point in the action she is lured to the Minack Theatre and she
writes:

' The direct route from Sr Edzell's to Minack is via St Buryan and Gweal-
but I took the roundabout devious way on the unmade roads over the moor.'

Now, I think St Edzell's is supposed to be either St Ives or Penzance but I
cannot work out if there actually is a 'Gweal' around the Penwith Peninsula.
If not, i'm baffled why she should mention an actual spot like St Buryan yet
ficionalise a 'Gweal'! Craig- any ideas?

I know next to nothing about this author, save that she penned a few
'suspense' novels in the early 70s and dedicated one to a 'Catherine
Campbell McNeill of Kilchoman', presumably a relative and obviously Scottish
as the name had hinted.

I am left fascinated about how she came to know at least a working
smattering of UC!!!

Sorry this is a bit off topic but I thought Craig'd be worth while
consulting and you'd all like to know the unlikely reach of Cornish!

 

Ewan.

 

 

  

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