[Spellyans] tyller and teller in the Akademi dictionary

Nicky Rowe nickyrowe688 at gmail.com
Mon Apr 5 13:39:57 BST 2021


In fairness to those who do far more work on the Akademi dictionary than I
do, many are aware that the M and L distinction is overblown in words like
lyver/lever and tyller/teller, particularly on the dictionary panel. It
does not get changed because the tags M and L aren't meant to reflect
historical usage, but rather are markers for learners to know which forms
are more commonly used in their preferred variant of the *modern* language.
Any change to this approach, which came from the need to represent usage
among different revivalist groups, would require another SWF review and
there is no appetite for one. It is fair to criticise the M/L tags as
arbitrary and divisive, as I certainly do, but I don't feel it is fair to
claim the compilers are ignorant.

Nicky

On Mon, 5 Apr 2021 at 20:19, Nicholas Williams <njawilliams at gmail.com>
wrote:

> The online dictionary of the Akademi Kernewek gives two forms of the word
> for ‘place’. The first is *tyller* which is designated with a superscript
> M to indicate that it is a Middle Cornish form. The second is cited as
> *teller* followed by a superscript L to show that it is a distinctively
> Late Cornish form. Unfortunately for the compilers their distinction is
> without justification. The attestations in traditional Cornish are as
> follows:
>
>
> *tyller* PA 18a, 33a, 65a, 176a, 250b, OM 1551, 1992, 2045, PC 86, 105,
> 980, 1103, 1837, 2597, RD 270, TH 16, 42a, 43, 45, 47 x 3, BK 149;
> *tyllar* TH 6, 18, 29a, 42, 42a, 53a; *tillar* SA 65a, 66
>
> *teller* PA 206d, OM 579, 939, 1095, 1823, 1909, 2275, 2795, PC 501, BM
> 629, 677, 1145, 2922, TH 2, 44;* pana deller* ‘where’ TH 47; *telhar*
> BF:25 x3, 29; *tellar* CW 866, 871, BF: 52.
>
> The forms with* e *as the stressed vowel are attested in* Pascon Agan
> Arluth*, *Origo Mundi*, *Passio Christi*, *Beunans Meriasek* and Tregear’
> *Homilies*. Hardly Late Cornish sources. Again the compilers appear to be
> demonstrating their ignorance of the traditional language.
>
> Nicholas Williams
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