The Origins of the Gower and Mumbles Dialect

Mumbles was and is even today, a series of small areas such as Outalong – Southend; Inalong - The Dunns; Backalong – Thistleboon; Upalong – Upper Newton Road and Newton, and Down Backside – the Langland area, each one with its own distinct 'flavour'. 

Norman retainers in Gower (and others of Flanders descent) were believed to have come from Somerset, via Devon, where Saxons and Danes ‘had already been joined in one common nation and language’ but once here, according to Horatio Tucker, in Gower III, 1950, ‘separation from the parent speech,   resulted in characteristics peculiar to the locality’ with the Mumbles dialect subtly differing from that further along into Gower.

Parts of Mumbles even had their own distinct dialect names—those living in Southend were Outalong, those at Oystermouth were Inalong; those at Castleton were Upalong and those at Langland lived Down backside.  The word, Slæd, meaning a valley or boundary was common in the area, often preceded by words such as  ‘Broad’, ‘Lime’ or ‘Rother’; Lake meant a stream rather than a pond and Pill was a stream. The words Thee and thou were much in evidence, admirably illustrated in the Lifeboatmen’s maxim Drown thee may, but go thee must and phrases such as Whist been, Boy?; I oost if I cast, but I cassen’t;  Whess from, Boy? and How art, little maid? would have been be heard around the village.  There were also dialect names for Gower dishes such as dowset and white pot, (milked meats), which had originated as far back as the fourteenth century; pumpkin pie and tin meats, which were peculiar to Gower and others given local names such as Flathins, Gerthbra, Washbra and Bonny Clobby.

The division of predominantly English-speaking south Gowerians and Welsh-speakers to the north remained largely unchanged until the 19th century. Indeed, it was said that one could tell a native of south Gower from one to the north by his / her appearance, a phenomenon  noticed by George Borrow during his visit to the southernmost parts of Swansea in the 1850s—Whether I was in Wales or not, I was no longer amongst Welsh. They were taller and bulkier than the Cambrians and were speaking a dissonant English jargon. The women had much the appearance of Dutch fisherwomen . . . ‘Why don’t you speak Welsh?’ said I. ‘Because we never learnt it. We are not Welsh.’ ‘Who are you then?’ ‘English; some call us Flamings’.  

  Then, with the passage of time, the influx of people from other areas, the advent of universal and compulsory English-speaking education in the schools and the union of Parishes, the communities began to blend.  

Some dialect words -

Back  an iron plate forming part of a dredge

Beader   a person appointed to invite guests to a wedding

Bellamine   unglazed brown earthenware pitcher

Bett   prepared turf used for hedging

Blonkers  sparks

Bossey  a young calf allowed to run with its mother

Bubback   scarecrow or a dull person

Bumbagus  the bittern

Butt  a small cart

Caffle   tangle

Carthen  a winnowing sheet

Casn’t cannot

Cassaddle part of the harness of a draught horse

Cavey   humble

Charnel  a box-like space above the fireplace for hanging bacon

Clever  fine

Clavvy / Clevvy place large oak beam supporting the inner wall of the chimney

Cliffage   a tithe on quarried limestone paid to the Lord of the manor

Cloam earthenware

Cornel   corner

Culm  small coal used for lime-burning

Cust  could

Cuzzening   coaxing

Dab  a large boulder used in the game of duckstone

Dobbin  a large mug

Drashel  a flail

Dreppance   threepence

Dree  three

Drangway   a narrow lane or alleyway

Drow   throw

Dumbledarey   cockchafer

Frawst / froist   a dainty meal frightened  astonished

Glister  buttermilk in the churn

Gurgins  coarse flour

Gwan   going

Hambrack  a straw horse-collar

Herring-gutted  lean

Holmes  holly

Inklemaker  a busy person

Ipson  the amount of anything held in both hands cupped together

Ite  yet

Jorum  a large quantity or helping of tea or beer

Keelage  a payment demanded by the lord of the manor from every ship that berthed on the foreshore

Keek   to peep

Keeve a large barrel or vat

Kerning  ripening or to turn sour

Kersey  a cloth woven from fine wool

Kittlebegs  gaiters

Lake  a small stream or brook

Lancher  the green strip separating the holdings in a common field

Leery  empty

Lello  a card or a carefree lad

Mawn a large wicker basket for handling animal provender

Makth   makes

Melted  broken up or disintegrated

Mort  pig’s fat or lard

Mucka  a rickyard

Nestletrip   the smallest pig in the litter

Nice  fastidious

Nipparty / Noppit perky

Nummit  a light meal sent to harvesters in the field  (noon meat)

Oakey  greased

Oakwib  cockchafer

Owlers   wool smugglers

Pilmy  dusty

Raal   real

Rach   the last sheaf of corn of the harvest

Resiant   resident

Riff  a short wooden stick used for sharpening a scythe

Rining   mooching or scrounging

Rying  fishing

Scrabble  to gather up objects hastily

Shoat  a small wheaten loaf

Spleet    knitting needle / a quarryman’s bar

Tacker  a youngster

Starved  perished with cold

Tite  to overturn

Uddent  wouldn’t

Umman  woman

Vather  father

Vella fellow

Vitte   clever or smart

Vorrit   forehead

Vurriner  foreigner

V’rall for all

Whitpot  Gower dish made from flour

Wimbling  winnowing Witches   moths

Yau   ewe

Zive  scythe

Zongals  ears of corn gleaned after harvest

Zz’snow  do you know