[Spellyans] Fw: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place NameQueryForCraig

[ewan wilson]

Thanks, Craig, for the explanation. Now I see it in Nance! 
I suspect it's probably in your book on Late Cornish but for the life of me I cannot lay my hands on this- and it's bulging with notes I've made so I sincerely hope it turns up soon. It's driving me nuts, now I know it's not where I usually keep it!

Ewan.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Craig Weatherhill 
  To: Standard Cornish discussion list 
  Sent: Friday, September 07, 2012 12:18 AM
  Subject: Re: [Spellyans] Fw: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place NameQueryForCraig


  It's the Late Cornish form of <gwel>, "open field", usually just translated as "field".  The <ea> in Late Cornish represents the long E, roughly "ai".


  Craig




  On 7 Gwn 2012, at 00:21, ewan wilson wrote:


    Again, Thanks!
    What's the etymology of 'gweal' in any case, now I come to think of it, in these componds? My Nance dictionary doesn't seem to list anything.
    Ewan.
      ----- Original Message -----
      From: Craig Weatherhill
      To: Standard Cornish discussion list
      Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 11:36 PM
      Subject: Re: [Spellyans] Fw: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place Name QueryForCraig


      No, on the edge of St Ives, between there and Carbis Bay.


      The other place I mentioned, Gwealcarn, was totally obliterated by the Giew Mine at Cripple's Ease (just N of the Engine Inn).  Field-names apart, I can't think of any settlement name with <gweal> west of those two.



      Craig








      On 6 Gwn 2012, at 21:31, ewan wilson wrote:


        Thanks, Craig, for the prompt reply.
        I'd never heard of her before, either, but came across three of her books in a charity shop and as this one was set in Cornwall I thought it the next best thing to visiting it which I can't do this year.
        It's a wee bit 'slow' for a thriller, to be honest, but all the Penwith references make it fascinating. And she does seem to have done her homework on Cornish culture.
        I wonder if she was just taking some 'poetic licence' with the topography, especially as St Edzell is obviously fictitious, but from the decriptions can only be either St Ives or Penzance.  But the way she mentions the 'direct route' from there to Minack makes it sound as if you hit St Buryan first. Chy an Gweal...is that on the outskirts of Penzance?

        Ewan. 

          ----- Original Message -----
          From: Craig Weatherhill
          To: Standard Cornish discussion list
          Sent: Thursday, September 06, 2012 7:04 PM
          Subject: Re: [Spellyans] Fw: Cornish in a Thriller! & Place Name Query ForCraig


          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
            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.


              
            _______________________________________________
            Spellyans mailing list
            Spellyans at kernowek.net
            http://kernowek.net/mailman/listinfo/spellyans_kernowek.net






----------------------------------------------------------------------



          _______________________________________________
          Spellyans mailing list
          Spellyans at kernowek.net
          http://kernowek.net/mailman/listinfo/spellyans_kernowek.net

        _______________________________________________
        Spellyans mailing list
        Spellyans at kernowek.net
        http://kernowek.net/mailman/listinfo/spellyans_kernowek.net






--------------------------------------------------------------------------



      _______________________________________________
      Spellyans mailing list
      Spellyans at kernowek.net
      http://kernowek.net/mailman/listinfo/spellyans_kernowek.net

    _______________________________________________
    Spellyans mailing list
    Spellyans at kernowek.net
    http://kernowek.net/mailman/listinfo/spellyans_kernowek.net





------------------------------------------------------------------------------


  _______________________________________________
  Spellyans mailing list
  Spellyans at kernowek.net
  http://kernowek.net/mailman/listinfo/spellyans_kernowek.net
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://kernowek.net/pipermail/spellyans_kernowek.net/attachments/20120907/966dffdc/attachment.htm>