This is where it gets sticky!
Morton Nance (A Cornish-English Dictionary, Marazion, 1955) gives the
following definitions.
Bal - Mine, tinwork.
Nance believed that 'Bal' was cut down from 'whel-bal', where 'bal' has
mutated from 'pal', meaning 'shovel'.
Whel - work, mine-working, but see below!
He complicates matters further by differentiating between deep mining and
streamwork.
Whel-bal - Dug (lit. spade) mine.
Whel-hal - Tin streamwork.
Nance also offers 'gonys' for 'work' but according to him the word can also
mean 'service', 'cultivation', 'tillage' and, yes, you've guessed it, 'mine-
working'!
He also offers a possible origin for 'Sett' in the verb 'Settya'.
Translations of 'Settya' include 'to set', 'to put', 'to place', 'to
lay', 'to fix', 'to value', 'to account' etc.
Regards,
Dick
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