Language and Linguistics

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable Further reading

MUMMERSET

Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language | 1998 | | Copyright

MUMMERSET [A blend of mummer, one who mutters and murmurs, or takes part in a mime, and SOMERSET], also Mummersetshire. An imaginary rustic county of England and its dialect: ‘Nowadays you can't be sure if they are eggs, even when somebody on television says they are in B.B.C. Mummerset’ ( C. Mackenzie, Paper Lives, 1966). This form of stage WEST COUNTRY is drawled and emphasizes retroflex /r/ (‘Arrr, that'll be roit, zurr’). It replaces /s/ with /z/, /f/ with /v/ (‘We ain't zeen 'im zince last Vroiday’), and uses special forms of be (‘We be happy yere, bain't we?’). Comedians sometimes add pseudo-dialect words to the brew. See BURR.

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

TOM McARTHUR. "MUMMERSET." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

TOM McARTHUR. "MUMMERSET." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-MUMMERSET.html

TOM McARTHUR. "MUMMERSET." Concise Oxford Companion to the English Language. 1998. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O29-MUMMERSET.html

Learn more about citation styles

Mummerset

The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable | 2006 | | Copyright

Mummerset an imitation rustic West Country accent used by actors, from the name of an imaginary or idealized rustic county in the West of England. The name probably comes from mummer, on the pattern of Somerset.

Cite this article
Pick a style below, and copy the text for your bibliography.

MLA
Chicago
APA

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Mummerset." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. 29 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Mummerset." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Encyclopedia.com. (May 29, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Mummerset.html

ELIZABETH KNOWLES. "Mummerset." The Oxford Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. 2006. Retrieved May 29, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O214-Mummerset.html

Learn more about citation styles

Free newspaper and magazine articles

	Unconvincing history of Warwickshire via Mummerset; A Warwickshire Testimony... Newspaper article from: The Birmingham Post (England); 8/16/1999
	Roll up for the Much Culling in the Marsh Summer Show. Newspaper article from: Daily Mail (London); 8/7/2007
	Underneath The Archers: More suds than spuds in Ambridge; With plot lines... Newspaper article from: The Birmingham Post (England); 3/29/2004