There are many words in common use in Devonshire which are almost or entirely unknown elsewhere, and which may be regarded as survivals of ancient Saxon or, in some cases, British speech. Such, for example, are:—
| whisht, weird, uncanny, lonely, | pluff, not well. |
| overlooked. | spraggetty, spotted. |
| cloam, earthenware. | dimpety, dusk. |
| clam, a foot-bridge. | chicket, cheerful. |
| yark, lively. | spilsky, lean. |
| stivery, disordered. | fess, smart. |
| clunk, to swallow. | plum, soft. |
| giglets, young men or women | scamlin, irregular. |
| seeking new situations. | thurdle, miserable. |
| havage, character. | sklum, to grasp roughly. |
| zamzoaky, tepid. | yaw, to bite. |
| coochey, clumsy. | shugg, shy. |
| mawn, a basket. | ippet, a lizard. |
| frickety, heavy, sodden. |
It should be remembered that some of the forms of Devonshire dialect which strike the educated ear as ungrammatical are really survivals of pure Saxon speech, such as was in use at the courts of Alfred the Great and Athelstan. English in other parts of England has undergone great changes. In the West Country it has in some respects kept closer to the original forms.
The Norman Conquest left its mark in many places. Double names, such as Berry Pomeroy, Sampford Courtenay, and Wear Gifford, suggest the addition of a Norman family title to the existing Saxon name of a manor. It is quite possible that the common Devonshire word fay, as in Yes, fay and No, fay, is a survival of the Old French fay (for foi), "faith."
A Cockle Woman, River Exe
Huguenots and other French refugees have also at various times settled in the county, as, for instance, at Exeter, where they introduced the art of weaving tapestry, at Barnstaple, where they taught new and better methods of making cloth, and at Plymouth, where many took refuge after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes. And it seems likely that Bratton Fleming and Stoke Fleming were named after Flemish immigrants, many of whom settled in Devonshire.
