At my "Accents and Dialects" page, I wrote a new article about the evidence

for "Yorkshire English in the north of the Eastfarthing". It's near the

bottom of this page:



https://sites.google.com/site/endorenya/accents-and-dialects



Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.



Also, does anyone know if there's some obscure academic source from

Tolkien's time which suggests that the Old English month names were

different in the various dialects of OE, such as Old Northumbrian, Old

Mercian, and Old West Saxon? I'm trying to find a reason for JRRT saying

that some of the month names were different in Bree-speech and

Eastfarthing-speech.



Travis





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Hi, Travis,



Regarding the toponym Scary, Tom Shippey offers a totally different theory. He

suggests (pace Tolkien) the etymology “might be Old English scearu,

pronounced share-oo, ‘a boundary,’ which being in the north of the Shire

has undergone the common Northern English sh > sk phonetic

change (as in Skipton, Scarborough), and marks the Shire’s northern boundary,

perhaps even, punningly, the ‘Shire-share.’” (Fisher, ed., Tolkien and the

Study of His Sources: Critical Essays [McFarland, 2011], p. 11). In spite of

Tolkien's comment in the "Guide to Names", which you quoted, I think this is a

theory worth considering. Old English scearu "land separated or appointed; a

division or share of land" < Primitive Germanic *skarō, with cognates in Old

High German scara, Old Frisian skere, and Old Norse skera and probably skör.



Best,

Jason







>________________________________

> From: Travis Henry <traversetravis@...>

>To: elfling@yahoogroups.com

>Sent: Monday, March 4, 2013 10:57 AM

>Subject: [elfling] Yorkshire English in the Hills of Scary (and OE dialectical

month names)

>

>

> 

>At my "Accents and Dialects" page, I wrote a new article about the evidence

>for "Yorkshire English in the north of the Eastfarthing". It's near the

>bottom of this page:

>

>https://sites.google.com/site/endorenya/accents-and-dialects

>

>Any suggestions for improvement are welcome.

>

>Also, does anyone know if there's some obscure academic source from

>Tolkien's time which suggests that the Old English month names were

>different in the various dialects of OE, such as Old Northumbrian, Old

>Mercian, and Old West Saxon? I'm trying to find a reason for JRRT saying

>that some of the month names were different in Bree-speech and

>Eastfarthing-speech.

>

>Travis

>

>[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

>

>

>

>

>



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Thanks for this Jason.



Regardless of whether "Scary" means only what JRRT says it does, or if it's a

double entendre, Tom's implication that there is a Northern English dialect in

the north of the Shire is something that my research agrees with.



Travis