names on the Welsh coast must have arisen some time before the earliest Danish inroads.
The probable Anglo-Saxon occupation of parts of the coast of South Wales before the period of settlements by the Northmen is confirmed by the prevailing dialect. Ellis says: ‘The south-west of Pembrokeshire, or two peninsulas at the south-west, form an old English colony.’[1] He points out that the character of the dialect of this part of Pembrokeshire is decidedly southern, having such examples as dr for thr in three, through, and threaten; having v for f in fair, farm, fast, feel, fiddle, fox, flail, from, and furrow; having z for s in say, self, seven, sick, six, soon, and Sunday; while s remains with less regularity in sad, sand, saw, so, and sweet. He likewise says: ‘The peninsula of Gower is also a very old English colony, consisting of seventeen English parishes.’ He remarks that the reverted r is inferred from the word drou for through, and that there is an occasional use of z as an initial sound for s, and un as an unaccented word for him. These examples are distinctly southern English, but the dialect in Gower seems to have much worn out. With this evidence, side by side with the English place-names, and the prevalence of manorial customs in the vale of Glamorgan identical with those in the vale of Taunton, the supposition that the English characteristics of the people in these parts of South Wales are due to the Flemings entirely breaks down.
One of the most interesting of all the English district names is that anciently given to Pembrokeshire, Anglia Transwalliania, or ‘England beyond Wales.’ That it must have been a very old designation is probable from the surviving Angle place-names in this county, which clearly point to early settlements.
Isaac Taylor says: ‘The existence of a very early Scandinavian settlement in Pembrokeshire is indicated by a dense cluster of local names of the Norse type which
- ↑ Ellis, A. J., ‘English Dialects,’ p. 23.
