Talk:Maerdy

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[edit] Maerdy miners?

"The name Maerdy is also thought to be the origin of the Northern English colloquialism Mardy meaning moody. During the General Strike of 1926, miners from the Maerdy area were sent to Staffordshire and thereabouts to take the place of belligerent locals. Neither these imported miners nor those they replaced were all too thrilled. Locals would mutter darkly when they saw them - 'They're Maerdy.' Since 'mardy' is slightly easier to say, the pronunciation shifted and evolved. From link title"

Is there a cite which is a little more, erm, cite-able than http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A769250 ? If not, I'm taking this out.

Telsa (talk) 19:24, 9 February 2007 (UTC) You're right in thinking this is rubbish. It's typical folk etymology. OED says dialect "mardy" is derived from "marred". It certainly predates the General Strike. Given that it was called Little Moscow, Maerdy wouldn't be my first choice for recruiting scab miners. The story is 100% apocryphal. The BBC website has a lot to answer for. . . . .LinguisticDemographer 21:14, 19 March 2007 (UTC)

A bit more text has been added, in the subjunctive. If no reliable (i.e. not the BBC website) citation appears in the next 4 weeks, I shall take the entire reference out. . . .LinguisticDemographer 10:04, 23 June 2007 (UTC)

Beat you to it! I don't think it's worth waiting a month: it's clear that no-one is going to find proof of this. I have also removed "was on an album cover" and "mentioned in a song" comments. I'm tempted to get rid of the rest of the speculation about mayors and reeves too. "may indicate"? "usually the most affluent"? mayors==reeves? generally, or in Maerdy? And so on.. Telsa (talk) 20:10, 5 July 2007 (UTC)

I agree! A reeve was just an estate manager. . . .LinguisticDemographer 11:50, 6 July 2007 (UTC)