334 "JEWS IN CORNWALL"; AND*" MARAZION." 



in the name given by Leland, found only in liim, and possibly in- 

 vented by him to explain the shorter names in vulgar use, in the 

 same way that Carew gives Marcaiew=Marhas dieio.^ 



Another signification discussed by the Professor is "Little 

 Market " ; taking ion to be a diminutive termination, such as is 

 commonly found in Welsh, and as we have in rhynen, " a hillock," 

 from rhyn, " a hill " ; t which would make it a contraction of vean, 

 bian, highan, " little " ; and, corresponding with this, we have 

 Marghashigan, Marghashean. % 



But the meaning which the Professor prefers is " Markets." 

 The plural, in Cornish, is formed in various ways ; among others, 

 by adding to the singular the terminations ion, on, or iou, ou. Thus 

 Marazion would be a regular plural of Maraz ; and Marchadioii 

 (=Market Jew) of Marchad, — tv/o forms of the word in the old 

 language. One point in favour of this, besides that it gives the 

 same signification to both forms now in common use, is that, as 

 stated by the Professor, three statute markets were held in the 

 neighbourhood. There is another point which I would suggest. 

 The Armoric, which the Cornish resembles more than the Welsh, 

 would express " Markets " by something very like Market Jeiv. Le 

 Gonidec gives " Marcliad, ' a market ' ; pi. Marcliadou, et par abus 

 marc'hajou, qui est le plus usit6." 



There is an objection, however, to "Marazion" being "Markets." 

 The plural of Maraz would require short i, Marazion, as i or y is 

 sounded by natives in "Burian"=Bur-yan, two syllables. I have 

 heard the name thus pronounced by strangers, on the railway, and 

 by children in schools up the country, but never by a real Cornish- 

 man ; with him the sound of the i is long, — diphthongal, =«i of 

 foreigners, the same as every Englishman at once gives in Zto7i, 

 which has doubtless led some to make the name " Bitter Zion," || 



* Mr. Norris, speaking of^the uncertainty in the orthography of the 

 Dramas says: "We find every word of any length written in half a dozen 

 forms, such as diuath, deweth, dyiveth, devyth, dyvytli, diiveth, &c., &c. ; and 

 so short a word as kig is found under the forms of kyg, kyc, hie, cyk, and 

 prohably more." Dramas, Vol. 11, p. 219. 



f Williams's '■^Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum.'''' 



I Calendar of Domestic Deeds, 24 Henry VIII. Public Eecord Office. 



|] The long i may possibly have originated from a wish to assimilate the 

 name to the Monastery of Zion in Middlesex, to which the Priory of S. 

 Michael's Mount was attached by Henry V ; or it may be that Jewish traders 



