Yola, more commonly and historically the Forth and Bargy dialect, is an extinct dialect of the Middle English language once spoken in the baronies of Forth and Bargy in County Wexford, Ireland. As such, it was probably similar to the Fingallian dialect of the Fingal area. Both became functionally extinct in the 19th century when they were replaced by modern Hiberno-English. The word means in the dialect. In modern times, there have been efforts to revive the dialect.
History
Origins
The dialect was spoken in County Wexford, particularly in the baronies of Forth and Bargy. This was the first area English speakers came to in the Norman invasion of Ireland, supporting the theory that it evolved from the Middle English introduced in that period. As such it is thought to have been similar to Fingallian, which was spoken in the Fingal region north of Dublin. Middle English, the mother tongue of the "Old English" community, was widespread throughout southeastern Ireland until the 14th century; as the Old English were increasingly assimilated into Irish culture, their original language was gradually displaced through Gaelicisation. After this point, Yola and Fingallian were the only attested relicts of this original form of English.
Modern English was widely introduced by British colonists during and after the 17th century, forming the basis for the modern Hiberno-English of Ireland. The new varieties were notably distinct from the surviving relict dialects. As English continued to spread, both Yola and Fingallian died out in the 19th century, though Yola continued to be used as a liturgical language by the churches of Wexford well into the 20th century. To this day the Kilmore Choir sings what were once Yola tunes, now adapted to Standard English.
The speech of Forth and Bargy was the only kind in Ireland included in Alexander John Ellis's work On Early English Pronunciation Volume V, which was the earliest survey of dialects of English. The phonetics of the dialect were taken from a local reverend.
Use after the mid-19th century Though the Forth and Bargy dialect ceased to be used as a means of daily communication after the mid-19th century, it continued to see significant usage as a liturgical language, and some personal usage within the linguist community of Ireland, such as Kathleen Browne's letter to Ireland dated to 10 April 1893. Browne was a fluent Yola speaker and wrote a number of articles including "The Ancient Dialect of the Baronies of Forth and Bargy" in 1927.Browne, Brendan (2016). Kathleen A. Browne. The Past: The Organ of the Uí Cinsealaigh Historical Society. No. 32 (2016), pp. 108-115 In 1952 N.A. Hudlestone observed that inhabitants of the area still used some of Yola vocabulary and phrases.
County Wexford native Paddy Berry is noted for his condensed performances of the piece "A Yola Zong", which he has performed for various recordings, the latest of which was in 2017. Various Yola rhymes, passed down from generation to generation, can be heard spoken by a Wexford woman in a documentary recorded in 1969 on the present usage and rememberers of Yola in the former baronies of Forth and Bargy.
Yola Farmstead, a community-operated reenactment of a Forth and Bargy village as it would have been during the 18th century, delivered a speech and performance of a song in Yola at their opening ceremony, featured Yola phrases in their advertisements, and hosted events where participants could learn some of the dialect from linguists and other experts on it. The Yola Farmstead also hosted a memorial event dedicated to Jack Devereux of the Kilmore Choir, which once used Yola extensively in their Christmas services. Devereux was a preservationist of, and well-versed in, Yola; locals considered him to be an expert on the dialect, and a rendition of the Lord's Prayer translated into Yola was read at his memorial.
The Yola Farm has since closed down but since 2021 there have been efforts to reopen it. Wikitongues also has a section dedicated to Yola on its website which hosts language documentation and revitalization resources.
Phonology As in the Dutch language, in southwestern varieties of English and (to a lesser extent) in German, most voiceless fricatives in Yola became voiced. The Middle English vowels are well-preserved, having only partially and sporadically undergone the changes associated with the Great Vowel Shift.Hickey, R. (1988). A lost Middle English dialect. Historical Dialectology: Regional and Social, 37, 235.
One striking characteristic of Yola was that stress shifted to the second syllable of words in many instances: "morsel", "hatchet", "dinner", "reader", "wedding", etc. Reprinted 1972 by the Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, .
Orthography An exact spelling system for Yola has never been codified, beyond general trends listed in Jacob Poole's writings. Most of the spellings are meant as comparisons to standard English ones of his day and the pronunciations are largely reconstructed. The following are listed here:
+Yola orthographyYola spellingPhoneme (IPA)ExampleNotesa, (unstressed) "angered", "below"aa "any"ai, aai, ay, aay "barrel"au, aau, aw, aaw "care"b "brain"c, (before ) "comfort", "lace"soft c used mainly in analogies to English wordsch "chough"also used for d "dead"dh "thunder"e, (unstressed) "ass, donkey", "else"silent at the end of a word, but not in unstressed syllablesea "eel"ee "iron"ei, eei, ey, eey "just now"eou, eow "cow"eu, ew "few"f, (word-initial) "fleece"g, (before ) "grace", "bridge"soft g used mainly in analogies to English wordsgh, (word-initial) "faith", "pranks"never silent possibly also h "horn"silent in consonant clusters not listed herei "in"ie, (word-final) "eyes", "where"j "judge"k "cover"kh "to teach"also used for l "lace"m "meadow"n "next"o "of"rarely used aloneoa, o...e "one"oee "joy"oo "our"ou, oou "gun"ow "hoe (gardening tool)"p "pray"ph "when"used mainly as an analogy to English words spelt with or qu "quern"used mainly as an analogy to English words spelt with r "rouse"s, (word-initial) "scald"sh "she"t "tape"th "trust"also used for u "understand"ui, uy "boy"v "fear"w "waste"x "fox"used mainly as an analogy to English words spelt with y, (consonant) "idler", "gate"y...e, -ye "grain"z "sister"zh "sheep" Note that the spellings can be somewhat inconsistent, due to many words attempting to draw comparison to English cognates and variation within the dialect. Not too much of the above, particularly regarding the vowels, is exactly certain.
Grammar
Personal pronouns Yola pronouns were similar to Middle English pronouns.William Barnes, Jacob Poole: A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the Old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland. Formerly collected By Jacob Poole: And now edited, with some Introductory Observations, Additions from various sources, and Notes, By William Barnes. London, 1867 ich is mentioned on p. 133 ich, wough, ouse, hea, shoo, thye, aam; oor, yer (= your, but singular or plural?), aar (= there/their); meezil, theezil, himzil are in the glossary mee (possessive), thee (personal and possessive), ouse, oor & oore & our (possessive), he, shoo, it (objective), hi, aar (possessive), theezil (reflexive), aamzil (reflexive) occur in A Yola Zong (p. 84-92), mee (possessive), wough, ye (pl. nom.), our (possessive), hea, his (possessive), aar (possessive) in The Wedden o Ballymore (p. 93-98), ich, her in The Bride's Portion (p. 102f.), ich, mee (personal and possessive), ye (pl. nom.), hea & he, his (possessive), thye, aar (possessive) in Casteale Cudde's Lamentations (p. 102-105), hea, him, his (possessive), shoo, aam, aar (possessive) in a song recited by Tobias Butler (p. 108f.), wee, oure (possessive), ye (pl. for sg. obj.), yer (possessive, pl. for sg.), ourzels (reflexive), yersel (reflexive, pl. for sg.) in To's Excellencie Constantine Harrie Phipps (p. 114-117)
+ Yola personal pronouns 1st Person 2nd Person 3rd Person Singular Plural Singular Informal Plural/ Singular Formal Singular PluralFeminineMasculineInanimate Nominative Oblique Genitive Reflexive
Articles The definite article was at first or , which was later replaced by .
Verbs Yola verbs had some conservative characteristics. The second and third person plural endings were sometimes or as in Chaucerian English. The past participle retained the Middle English "y" prefix as .Poole 1867, p.133.
Nouns Some nouns retained the plural of ME children, such as 'bees' and 'trees'.
Vocabulary The glossary compiled by Jacob Poole provides most of what is known about the Forth and Bargy vocabulary. Poole was a farmer and member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) from Growtown in the Parish of Taghmon on the border between the baronies of Bargy and Shelmalier.Jacob Poole of Growtown. He collected words and phrases from his tenants and farm labourers between 1800 and his death in 1827.
Although most of its vocabulary is Old English in origin, Yola contains many borrowings from Irish and French.
All the Yola etymons are Middle English unless stated otherwise. Yola words derived from a non-standard Middle English form list the variant first, followed by the variant in parentheses.
Interrogative words +Yola interrogative words English YolaYola etymon West Riding Yorkshire Scots West Frisian Low Saxonhowwouhowhaa (Doric Scots)whatwhad (what)what (Doric Scots)whenwhannewhen (Doric Scots)wherewhiderwheerwhichwhilch whichwhohwā (Old English)who/whoa (Doric Scots)whywherto (why)why (Doric Scots)
Prepositions +Yola prepositions English YolaYola etymon Yorkshire West Riding Scots West Frisian Low Saxonaboutaboutenabaataboveabuvenaboonagainstayensagean/agenamongamang amangaroundaroundaraandated (at)atbeforeavore (afore)afoor, befoorbelow/beneath/underalowbelow/beneeath/under besidebesidebeside/asidebetween/betwixtbetwixbetween/atween/betwixt/atwixtbybyby/biforvor (for)forfromvram (fram)fra/thra/throonext, next tonextnextininin/ioutoutaatoveroverovver/ower/o'erthroughthrughthrough/thrugh uponuponupon/upo'withwithwi
Determiners +Yola determiners English YolaYola etymon West Riding Yorkshire Scots West Frisian Low Saxonallallallanyanyaughtonyeach, everyevericheeach, ivveryfewfewfew, a two-or-thry neithernóhwæþer (Old English)nawthernone, nothingnaught, nothingnoan, nowtotheranotherothersomesumsomethatthatthisthis
Other words +other Yola words English YolaYola etymon Yorkshire West Riding Scots West Frisian Low Saxon Irish day day day fear fǽr (Old English)feerd fear friend frind (frend) friend land lond (land) land old eold (Old English ) owd sun synne (sunne) sun thing thing thing go goan go/goa (go), (go away), (go along) Wexford (Old Norse) Wexford
Cardinal numbers +Yola cardinal numbers # Yola Yola etymon West Frisian 1 oane 2 tweyne 3 thre 4 vour (four) 5 vyve (five) 6 siex (Old English six) 7 seven 8 eahta (Old English) 9 nine 10 ten 20 twonty (twenty) 30 thirty 100 hundred
Modern South Wexford English Diarmaid Ó Muirithe travelled to South Wexford in 1978 to study the English spoken there. His informants ranged in age between 40 and 90. Among the long list of words still known or in use at that time are the following: : 'going on amain' = getting on well : an unfriendly person : a little : threadbare : confusion, in a fash : to peep : to sunbathe, to relax in front of the fire : very, extremely : seaweed Amain is a Norman word which means 'of easy use'.
Examples
A Yola song The following is a song in Yola with a rough translation into English.
Address to Lord Lieutenant in 1836 Congratulatory address in the dialect of Forth and Bargy, presented to the Earl of Mulgrave, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, on his visit to Wexford in 1836. Taken from the Wexford Independent newspaper of 15 February 1860. The paper's editor Edmund Hore wrote:
"The maiden of Rosslare"