Incorrect Use of the Word FolkloreAuthor(s): Violet AlfordSource: Folklore, Vol. 49, No. 3 (Sep., 1938), pp. 299-300Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd.Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1257475 .

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Correspondence 299

" Owd Nick " was accompanied by five Imps, called " Nick's Brats " or " the Black Dog's Whelps." His name is interesting, because " Shuck, the Black Dog ", is known in Hereford and " Shuck's Wood " is not far from Newton-le-Willows. Shuck seems to be Thor's hound. He occurs in a Fylde " Blacksmith's Song."

There was much horseplay, and the vulgarity that one often finds in the decadent folk-festival; but there is, I am sure, much trace of an old religious " motif " in the basis of it. I have a most interesting old Nativity carol (with tune) from Winwick, quite near, which seems to show another survival in folk-memory of certainly pre-Reformation drama.

Truly yours, MILES W. MYRES

To THE EDITOR OF Folk-Lore

DEAR SIR,-I would like to call attention to the incorrect use of the word folklore, which is rapidly gaining ground on this side of the English Channel. French, Spanish and Portuguese (I cannot speak as to Italians) have enthusiastically adopted the word without understanding its meaning. To them it has no exact significance.

One sees on a concert programme a group of songs marked "folklore ". A lecture on a local worthy is announced as " folklore ". An Esbart, or group of people devoted to regional dances, proclaimed itself " Esbart Folklore de Catalunya." Le ournal announced on 29th May, " Le Congrbs des Groupe- ments folkloriques de l'Ile de France." Their first subject for discussion was " La Vigne et le Vin," but not the traditions and lore of the "vignerons." The proceedings end with a " piece r6gionale" and the name of the author is given. At Nice the other day a choir sang songs called, as usual, " folklore," not one single one of which was traditional, all being composed by leaders of the group. The smallest boy who dances The Faran- dole, the newest-comer to a regional society is now a " folk- lorista " or " folkloriste " according to the slope of the Pyrenees on which he dwells. So alien is the word to the Romance languages that it is constantly printed thus-fol-klore.

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300 Correspondence

When meetings are organized such as the first International Folk Dance Festival- in London, and the second which is to take place at Stockholm in'August 1939, difficulties immediately arise, first as to the use of the word at all, secondly as to what it signifies. When the Rhodanians meet, as they do every year or so, the same questions occur, the Swiss using the word correctly (having taken it from the German Swiss), the French ignoring the sub-divisions into folk dance, folk song, folk art, etc., and confusing it with every sort of regional custom. Even in English programmes I have seen the same misuse when foreign artists are concerned, the organizers copying without correction what is presented to them.

When real traditional manifestations by the folk are in ques- tion, confusion becomes worse confounded, detrimental, even degrading. To-day a poster has appeared here giving the programme of a "' Soir6e Folklorique." It announces Cors de Chasse, a Battle of Flowers, Basque dancers, a declamation on Henri Quatre, and a ball with a Jazz band, So-and-so and his Boys.

There is no satisfactory translation of the word into any of the Romance languages. Rdgionale or traditionnel, eliminating the formerly used populaire, seems the best solution.

If our Society, the oldest and the one which launched the composite word, could find some means of checking its downfall, an excellent work would be done. I see no reason why a letter pointing out the confusions mentioned above, might not pro- perly be addressed to La Soci6t6 de Folklore de France asking its help, to the two or three federations of folk dance groups, and to the more active of the Syndicats d'Initiative such as those of Nice, Cannes and Biarritz, who unfortunately use their traditional arts as entertainment for tourists. When circumstances allow a similar d6marche in Spain such action would be, I believe, even better understood than in the country from which I write.

Yours faithfully, VIOLET ALFORD

PAU, rune 1938.

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