v. Also 5 warl-. [Imitative.] intr. To pronounce the letter r with a burr or guttural sound; = BURR v.3 1. Hence Wharl sb. = BURR sb.6, Wharler, Wharling vbl. sb.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 37/2. Blaffoorde or warlare, traulus. (P. Traulus peccat in R, peccat in S sidunus.). Ibid., 523/2. Wha[r]lare, in speche.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 517. As for Carleton, as one would say, the husbandmens towne,… wherein … all in maner that are borne,… have an ilfavoured, untunable, and harsh maner of speech, fetching their words with very much adoe deepe from out of the throat, with a certaine kind of wharling.
1634. W. Wood, New Eng. Prosp., II. xviii. 92. The Tarrenteens, whose Tongues runne so much upon R, that they wharle much in pronunciation.
1656. Duch. Newc., Natures Pict., etc. 376. Not stuttering, nor wharling in the throat, or speaking through the Nose.
1661. J. Childrey, Brit. Baconica, 109. I have heard from some that were this Country [Leicestershire] men, that it is Breson that is the Town of the Wharlers, and not Carleton.
1769. De Foe’s Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 7), III. 251. The Northumberland R, or Wharle.
1825. Jamieson.
