Allotments 4 All

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v164/photo04/geordie.jpg

I am Geordie, Tim, but even I don't understand some of these. I think they come more from the older generation, though a lot of the  old mining areas like Ashington and Bedlington still have their own special dialect, and the fishing areas as well.  The Wearside accent has a different twang to it too.  One of the lovely things my Mother used to say, which I always used to love hearing, was someone was, "a canny hinny"  Canny being "loveable", "sweet"or  "nice", being the closest definition, but still a word hard to explain, and the "hinny" which  is a loving title that she always called the children, could be honey, I suppose.   Agree with you it would be very sad to see them all go. busy_lizzie

Wonderful piece Tim!

Interesting that 'in fine fettle' and 'out of kilter' are phrases that have surely been absorbed into the wider repertoire...or am I just that bit older?

Dialects and local customs are part of heritage and should be preserved, part of history and colour.

CLx

But the other side of the coin is that that many Americans speak purer English than we do.  And that they get their 'funny way of talking' from our dialects??

QuoteAnd that they get their 'funny way of talking' from our dialects??

I think so too Tim. Especially from the southern counties of "Devon & Cornwall."
Plus the Dutch, Scots, Irish, Welsh, German, etc.
Is it any wonder they have a 'funny way of talking'
It's the nasal "twang" that gets me..it's gotta be down to "pronunciation, aliens, or bad sinus's" ;D

BL, I wonder if the Geordie 'hinny' is connected to the Scottish 'hen' in origin. Hen's a word used like 'love' or 'dear', but only to a female.

Become rather afraid of offending anyone on this aite ...but 'hinny' is well known term for 'mule'......

CLx

I love dialects and accents - it is another layer of our cultural diversity that should be preserved.  I have a few in my classroom and I encourage the children to be proud of their accents and their heritage and to try and keep as much of thier dialect as they grow up as possible.  I like to think that I still have quite a bit of Lincs in the way I speak.

A mule? Offended? Me?

Neeeeiiiiggghhh, lass!!

;D ;D ;D

QuoteI like to think that I still have quite a bit of Lincs in the way I speak.

I've still got the Kidderminster/Worcestershire twang.
People over here think I'm Scottish and call me Glen...
I answer to both. ;D

Went into a local garden centre the other day - paid the bill & said " Thank you petal"

The assistant replied " Don't say that"

"Why not?" I replied.

My name's 'Plant'.

Was that a whinny you did, Amazin??

This has given me a smile. Sometimes when I'm posting I have to really think of another word for what I mean because I've been queried a few times when I've used words that I've grown up with.

Moving up from Newcastle to Northumberland the dialect is different and the accent is softer.  I used to hear the kids in the street shouting "Noah!"  Wondered who Noah was until I watched them one day,they were actually saying "No!"

I think dialects are becoming mixed up partly due to the fact that people travel about more. Universities are a good example. 

I find myself saying things that I have picked up from a flatmate who hailed from Liverpool and went to university in Newcastle.Three years in the same flat has to rub off doesn't it.  I bet he calls his ears his "lugs" now as well.

I love the range of accents & dialects in the UK.  Sadly my own dialect is disappearing thanks to tv ( Border Scots) and people moving away.  My old uni flatmate used to fall about laughing at my accent, especially when on the phone to my mum.  Now in a twist, she & her partner ( both poshly educated) are running a hotel in the Borders and are picking up the language.  She rang me a few weeks ago with delight to inform me she was now using phrases such as "having my buckets uplifted" ( refuse collection) "dinna fash" ( don't worry) & "gein it laldy" ( wellying something)

Sometimes it takes the "incomers" to remind us of what we're losing.

I too love dialect & accents & think it is sad that they are gradually seeming to disappear or at least being "dumbed down" for want of a better phrase. Although we no longer hear the plummy tones on TV & radio that there used to be, the regional accents that we do hear now tend to be very watered down & with people moving around the country for education & jobs it's not really surprising. For instance I am Cumbrian, spent 6 years in S Wales & now live in London. All I really have now is a very vague northern accent which I am quite sad about.

BTW hinny is also used in N Cumbria.

I do like listening to all the dialects from throughout the U.K.  I am Border Scots but having lived in other parts of the country throughout my life I have also picked up other words.  I like to keep the old words alive and often get strange looks from young family members as to what I am saying.  We don't say 'hinny' up here but 'hen' is used.  (I hate that expression).  My Dad used to call me hen but it was OK from him!   Its a complete language really and I am sure if anyone heard me talking on the phone they would not know a word I said because of the dialect.  Keep it alive, keep talking your dialect before it dies.

Tim, agree absolutely with your comment on our friends from 'over the pond'. I have many friends in the Washington DC area, none of whom would dream of saying 'Can I?' when they mean 'May I?'.

When I was working in London years ago a colleague used to often say, as an expression of surprise, 'Well I'll go the foot of our stairs'. Loved that one! Think he was a Lincolnshire lad. Maybe someone could enlighten me?

CLx

I've got a West Berkshire / South Oxfordshire accent. Which basically if means if I speak to a cockney they think i'm from Bristol, and if i speak to a Bristolian they think i'm a cockney  ???

We have a few weird sayings, like if i bought somthing from a shopping channel, i would say "I bought it off of the telly", and we call everyone "Mate" and say "Cheers"  instead of thankyou.

Quote from: redclanger on February 08, 2006, 22:24:17
I love dialects and accents - it is another layer of our cultural diversity that should be preserved.  I have a few in my classroom and I encourage the children to be proud of their accents and their heritage and to try and keep as much of thier dialect as they grow up as possible.  I like to think that I still have quite a bit of Lincs in the way I speak.

I've lived in the same City as RC for 12 years and it has certainly helped water down my Lancashire accent. However, I was given a sharp reminder of how differently I must sound to people when I asked where the scones were in Asda the other day. I was met with a completely blank look until I attempted to pronounce it like my wife does. Scoans sounded perfectly OK to me!

PS. Although my children don't sound anything like me, they do say Ay yup Chuck to my mother which tickles her.

Aye Carol Hen....n if the fowk in here wis ti see us yak oan msn a word thi
  widnea ken  ;D ;D

I originally come from the Black Country where accents used to be so localised (they are being diluted now people are more mobile) that when I was young, people from my area had trouble understanding people who lived only five or six miles away. :D

Ah dinnae ken whit ye are oan aboot Jags, and when is that bear gonnae stop lowpin' aboot like an ejeet!!!

See whit I mean fowks, its no english.....  its lowland scots, the mither tongue.

I don't know what you are on about Jags,and when is that bear going to stop jumping about like an idiot?

See what I mean folks,it's not English....  it's lowland Scots,the mother tongue.


Hows that?!

I blame the vikings Heldi  ;D ;D

Quote from: Carol on February 09, 2006, 17:32:52
Ah dinnae ken whit ye are oan aboot Jags, and when is that bear gonnae stop lowpin' aboot like an ejeet!!!

See whit I mean fowks, its no english.....  its lowland scots, the mither tongue.

Ah but it is a fact that what is known as received English (aka the Queen's English) is based upon East Midland pronunciation and vocabulary. ;)

That'll be your Oxford English then???? ;D ;D ;D ;D

This is well worth a look on the BBC website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/wil/

I gre up in East Oxford, and what we spoke wasn't anything like 'recieved English'; for one thing, we dropped all our H's, which always used to get me in trouble. At the timne, there was no real contact between the working class areas, where most people worked at the car factory in Cowley, and North Oxford, which was the posh end, dominated by the University, and where H's weren't dropped. It's all been gentrified since I left in the early 70's, and I don't know what the situation with H's is now.

That's right Robert. I was in Oxford in the early 70's. Local folk spoke with a pronounced accent and a great deal of dialect but so-called "Oxford English" was the neutral albeit very southern England mode of English endemic in the university and north oxford.

Quite tough for a mere Glaswegian! :o :o

Robert, GWARC,

Have to say one does not often pop into Hoxford these days on account of the hideous one way system!

(tongue in cheek guys, please!)


this site is cute:-

www.phrases.org.uk

In fact, had to go to the foot of our stairs!

CLx

God yes ! My daughter and husband and sprogs have just left Oxford after 15 years  for Devon. While it's further from Edinburgh we anticipate being able to park on arrival.

On the other hand ... we can understand Oxford folk .... (now)   Devon!!!!!! Aaargh.

You're not intended to be able to find your way through Oxford; they change the system regularly. The centre is totally unsuitable for heavy traffic anyway, so I can well understand why. I moved to Cornwall in 1979, and it was a while before I could really understand the local dialect.

Really interesting thread.  I somehow don't think "hinny" is the same as "hen" which is not quite as attractive sounding but I do think the true Geordie accent is from Nordic influences.   "Am Gannin hame",  "I'm going home", is supposed to very close to a Norwegian equivilent.   :) busy_lizzie

Can't comment on the Geordie/Nordic but can say that I'm sure you guys who've emigrated to Devon and Cornwall  from Oxford will have a lot more scope for exploration of language there. (AND better road routes!)

Maybe you arrived as 'emmets'.....

Love being in Cornwall every summer, as as Tim prompted earlier, there lies the roots of our east coast Us cousins way of talking.

CLx

PS re Geordie, and I'm sure there are others, this is a bit basic, but
http://www.bbc.co.uk/insideout/northeast/series7/geordie_dialect.shtml

BL.   As you know the Borders is near you in the N.E.  and we would say  'I am gaun hame'  or in my case now  ' I am gaun tae bed'   

Goodnight!!!!

Thanks for that CL, very informative, and I am also "gannin to me bed now" Carol, Nighty night!  ;D

Growing up in the west of Scotland, I well remember the habit of turning the order round in sentences, for instance, "Awfy cauld, gettin'" Also we use 'but' at the end of phrases, meaning 'though' or 'mind you' (as well as 'but'!), as in: 'Yesterday wis fine - awfy cauld the-day, but'.

Right, that's me done - ah'm away tae ma scratcher noo.

;D

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on February 09, 2006, 19:31:56
I gre up in East Oxford, and what we spoke wasn't anything like 'recieved English'; for one thing, we dropped all our H's, which always used to get me in trouble. At the timne, there was no real contact between the working class areas, where most people worked at the car factory in Cowley, and North Oxford, which was the posh end, dominated by the University, and where H's weren't dropped. It's all been gentrified since I left in the early 70's, and I don't know what the situation with H's is now.

We still say aaych.

Aye, wi ah this talk o hame, Ah'v bin oot an boucht a haggis fur ma tea.

"North Country " lullabys


The sheep's in the meadow,
  The kye's in the corn,
(Thou's ower lang in thy bed)
Bonny,at morn.

           Canny at night,
           Bonny at morn.
           (Thou's ower lang in thy bed)
           Bonny at morn.

The bird's in the nest,
  The trout's in the burn,
Thou hinders thy mother
   In many a turn.

          Canny at night,
          Bonny at morn.
          (Thou's ower lang in thy bed)
          Bonny at morn.

We're all laid idle
   Wi' keeping the bairn,
The lad winnot work
   And the lass winnot lairn.

          Canny at night,
          Bonny at morn,
          (Thou's ower lang in thy bed)
          Bonny at morn.

            ***********

Ca' HawKie,ca' Hawkie,
Ca' Hawkie through the watter,
Hawkie is a sweir beast,
And Hawkie winna wade the watter.

           ************

What a "sweir beast" is I do not know?!   I guess the "Lambton Worm" would show  North East dialect better but I don't know it well enough.

Lovely, Heldi!  :D busy_lizzie

Here, here Heldi.....lovely!  ;)

Froglets.   Hope ye had the haggis wi' stovies???

;D ;D ;D

Mmmm pure dead magic! :) :)

Good grief!
I remember saying goodnight to a 'tottie' in Winnepeg in the sixties with next day plans.
"I'll knock you up in the morning"
Got a black eye for it!