Home › Glossary › Letter S

salley

Diction
Pronunciation

Understanding ARPABET Pronunciation

Want to hear it? Click the Listen button to hear the browser speak the word using text-to-speech!

The pronunciation guide uses the ARPABET phonetic system—the same system used in speech recognition and text-to-speech applications.

Vowel Examples:
AE1 = cat, bat
EH1 = bed, head
IY1 = see, me
OW1 = go, boat
UW1 = boot, do
Stress Numbers:
0 = no stress (unstressed)
1 = primary stress (loud)
2 = secondary stress (medium)
Example:
AH0 TH IY1 N AH0
= a-THEE-na (Athena)

The stressed syllable (marked with 1) is pronounced louder and clearer than others.

Quick Definition

An old or dialect term for a willow tree, often found near water; in poetry, salley evokes grace, mourning, and the characteristic drooping form of willow, associated with sorrow and the banks of streams.

Detailed Definition
In older English and regional usage, salley refers to a willow, especially in place names like 'salley gardens.' Yeats uses it in a nostalgic, song-like setting that sounds old-fashioned and local rather than modern and standard.
Example
Example in poetry:
“Down by the salley gardens my love and I did meet,” from Yeats’s song lyric; salley is an Irish and dialect word for willow; willow imagery often suggests water, flexibility, and mourning; “salley branches bent above the stream” keeps the local botanical word in a natural setting
Additional Notes
The word 'salley' in the quoted line is not common modern English and may puzzle readers because it names an old dialect term.; Found in the poem, An Old Song Resung by William Butler Yeats
Also Known As
willow salix sally
Skip to main content