In the summer of 1847 I mentioned to my friend Professor Retzius at
Stockholm, certain Scandinavian words in use at Whitby, with which he was
much pleased, they not being akin to the German. I have since been mostly
in the South of Europe, but have not lost sight of these words; and last
spring I wrote out in Switzerland upwards of five hundred Swedish words,
which greatly resemble the English, Lowland Scots, &c., but I doubt many of
them have the same root with the German correspondents. I now beg you
kindly to offer to the notice of our Anglo-Saxon and Icelandic scholars, as
well as the estimable Northern _savans_ at Copenhagen and elsewhere, the
following words in use at Whitby, and I believe throughout Cleveland and
Cumberland, where the local accent and manner of speaking is the same.
"_Agg orm_, Swedish (viper), _agg worm_, Whitby (pron.
w[=o]rrum).--_Bloa bær_ (bilbery), blue berry.--_By_ (village), as a
termination to names of towns, occurs, perhaps, more frequently in this
district than in others; there are some places in Cleveland called Lund
and Upsal.--_Bæck_ (brook), beck.--_Djevul_ (devil), pronounced exactly
in the Swedish manner at Whitby.--_Doalig_ (poorly), dowly.--_Eldon_
(tinder-box), applied to faggots.--_Fors_ (waterfall), spelt force and
foss in Yorkshire books.--_Ful_ (ugly), pron. fool, usually associated
with bigness in Cleveland.--_Foane_ (silly), pron. fond at
Whitby.--_Giller_ (snare), guilder.--_Gæpen_ (handful), gowpen.--_Harr_
(grayling), carrling in Ryedale.--_Kætt_ (flesh), kett, applied to
coarse meat.--_Lek_ (play), at Whitby, to lake.--_Leta_ (to seek), to
late at Whitby.--_Lie_ (scythe), pron. lye.--_Lingon_ (red bilberry),
called a ling berry.--_Ljung_ (ling).--_Lopp_ (a flea).--_Næbb_ (beak),
neb.--_Skaft_ (handle), skaft.--_Skær_ (rock), Whitby skar.--_Smitta_
(to infect), to smit.--_Strandgata_ (creek), at Whitby ghaut.--_Stæd_
(anvil), steady.--_Sæf_ (a rush), siv.--_Tjarn_ (pool), tarn.--_Oenska_
(to wish for), we say to set one an onska, _i.e._ longing or wishing."
Will any one inform me which of the above are Anglo-Saxon words? I may add
that there are many French words in the Swedish for aught I know, some of
them Norman. As we find German words in the Italian, we may expect to find
Scandinavian in the French.