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Yola, more commonly and historically the Forth and Bargy dialect, was a 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 "yola" means "old" in the dialect.^[6]

History

Forth and Bargy

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Forth and Bargy shown within Ireland

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.^[7][8]

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.^[7][8] As English continued to spread, both Yola and the 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 anglicized.

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.^[9]

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 wrote a number of articles, including The Ancient Dialect of the Baronies of Forth and Bargy in 1927, and is speculated to have produced some of the last written examples of the dialect.^[10]

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.^[11] 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.^[12]

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.^{[citation needed]}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.^[13]

The Yola Farm has since closed down but since 2021 there have been efforts to reopen it.^[14] Wikitongues also has a section dedicated to Yola on its website which hosts language documentation and revitalization resources.^[15]

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.^[16]

One striking characteristic of Yola was the fact that stress shifted to the second syllable of words in many instances: morsaale "morsel", hatcheat "hatchet", dineare "dinner", readeare "reader", weddeen "wedding", etc.^[17]

Orthography

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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:^[18]

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.^[19]

Articles

The definite article was at first a or ee, which was later replaced by the.^{[citation needed]}

Verbs

Yola verbs had some conservative characteristics. The second and third person plural endings were sometimes -eth or -edh as in Chaucerian English. The past participle retained the Middle English "y" prefix as "ee".^[20]

Nouns

Some nouns retained the -en plural of ME children, such as been 'bees' and tren 'trees'.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[21] He collected words and phrases from his tenants and farm labourers between 1800 and his death in 1827.

Although most of its vocabulary is Anglo-Saxon 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