Aw Jonnee will ee cum a long
(cum a long) now?
or Jonnee will ee waet fer a wile?
(fer a wile?)
Than cum a long Jon
weth yer big boots awn,
Er Jonnee will ee waet fer a wile?

Jan Knuckey waz a miner bold
as ever woz t’ Baal,
An cruel good cud raassel too
An thraw a tidy faall.

Now up along t’ Churchtown livd
a fine an thumpen daam.
She woz pure stout – so was er purs
Aant Graasee wer er naam.

Aant Graasee ad fer many ears
a liddel shoap like keepd,
Wer goods fer oald an chelern too
wer oll together eepd.

 
 Waell Jan ee fetchd es coos waun day
ta tell es mind to Graas,
But wen ee got enside tha dooer
ee dedn av tha faas.

At laas sez ee “I do ee luv
wen shall us be axed owt?
lev me an you keep comnee”
tha anser woz a clowt!

“Aw lev us av noa fuss” sez Jan
“ an doant ee taak t amess.
Ef that I ax afooer we part
a liddel crum ov kess.”

But Graasee’s dander now woz up.
She screechd an jawd be turns,
an then she took un be tha scruff
an foochd un thoo tha durns!

Dunstan tell us that the verses are based on a Cornish tale in Wm. Sandy’s Specimins of Cornish Provincial Dialect, published under the pen-name of Uncle Jan Treenoodle in 1846. The chorus and tune were collected from Captain Thomas Collett of Perrancoombe in 1929.

The first verse has the word baal from Cornish bal - ‘a mine’. The ‘a’ is long and does not exist in English therefore Sandys invented the symbol <â> for the sound /a:/ in order to make the English derived word fall rhyme with the Cornish derived word bal - such are the problems of representing Dialect. 

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