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| Ancestor Gateway Forum - STAMFORD MEMORIES GATEWAY (Lincolnshire England) used as PRIDE and PREJUDICE FILM SET | New Topic | Search |
| Thread Topic: LANGUAGE and LOCAL PRONUNCIATION Topic Originator: Mike Laughton Post Date July 9, 2017 @ 7:04 AM |
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| Mike Laughton |
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At the time of writing I am in my mid-seventies and I can't help but wonder what our grandparents would make of 21st century teenage slang and even the way local place names are pronounced these days. Many words and expressions that were commonly used by elderly people when I was young are no longer in use. Some of my favourite words used by the elderly when I was a child include: YONDER - meaning "Over there" WENCH - girl or young woman. FURLONG - 220 yards or one-eighth of a mile. MARDY - moody or miserable as in "He's a mardy bugger that one!". BACK or BLACK PAD - Footpath to the rear or properties (like the one between Stamford Cemetery and Northumberland Avenue. ME DUCK - term of endearment used throughout the East Midlands but now rarely heard. I have also noticed the way some local place names are pronounced is changing. Here is a list of local place names and their traditional pronunciation: Cottesmore - KOTTSMER (On old maps it is actually spelt Cottsmer) Ryhall - RILE Tinwell - TINNULL Shacklewell Hollow - SHACKLE HOLLER Greatford - GRETTFUDD Scotgate - SCOTTGIT Edith Weston - EDIE WESSUN Collyweston - COLLYWESSUN Barnack - BARNUCK Thornhaugh - THORNHAW Holme - HOME Bulwick- BULLICK Glaston - GLAYSTON Barrowden - BARRERDUN Pilsgate - PILLSGIT Burghley - BURLEY Laughton - LAWTON Pickworth - PICKUTH Clipsham - CLIPSUM Wymondham - WY-MOND-HAM (Yet a place in Norfolk with the same spelling is pronounced WINDOM) Scotgate - SCOTGIT Barholm - BARRUM Marholm - MARRUM Aslacky - AZLEBY Folkingham - FOKKINUM (the favourite place pronunciation of all South Lincolnshire schoolboys). |
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| John Tyers |
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My elder daughter had a French pen friend with whom she kept in touch for many years after leaving school. The former was from a middle class French farming family and spoke good English. On one of her visits to Stamford, my elder son decided to "re-educate" her to speak "proper" Lincolnshire English particularly as spoken in Stamford. She assiduously wrote down many of the colloquial sayings that Mike Laughton listed plus a few more such as "Weren't it" and "Innit?" "Ain't" and so on, you get the picture. On a return visit a few months later, the first thing she did on entering the house was to throw her notebook at my son exclaiming "You pig, you pig, I showed my notebook to correct my English teacher as I thought he was so wrong and he went wild!" You try and speak Oxford English but it is easy to slip back into the vernacular! |
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| Kevin |
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My favourite bit of Stamfordian from the 1960's ....... Oi, air ole gel, git on the pad or you'll git run ovver else. |
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| Betty Haddon |
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In the market about two years ago I heard 'Ay up me duck'- lovely! My Dad always referred to his 'Mother' the O pronounced as in mop,rather than muther. Someone's 'Old gel' was their sister,I wonder if these survive. |
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| Roger Partridge |
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I remember "mardy" being used by children when I was growing up in the 1950s. "Me duck" was still being used by older people in Rushden and Kettering, 20 years ago. |
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| Colin Fowler |
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My late father always referred to me and my brothers as the 'old boys' which I believe means the younger generation of the family. I remember lots of the words you refer to from my upbringing in Stamford of the 1950s and 60s. |
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| Mike Laughton |
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Probably the worst bit of local slang is the way we say "Eh-Ya" when we mean "Are You?" "Eh-Ya going to do this? Eh-Ya going to do that?" or "Eh-Ya alright?" (Al la Ninny Yates). Accents, slang and local sayings continue because, as children, we copy our parents and peers without thinking anything of it. I had a lady friend who lived on the outskirts of Peterborough and one day we were discussing our local accent and she asked me to define it. I told her: "I would describe the way we speak as a Rutland accent because it is the same from Leicester to Peterborough and includes Stamford and Oakham and all the villages in between." I added: "I think the local accent can best be illustrated by the way two elderly ladies always greet each other in the street." I then proceeded to give my impersonation of two local elderly ladies meeting in Stamford market - "'Allo Me Duck! Eh-ya alright gel? I aint seen you fer ages!" Shortly after that my friend's car was in for repair and she had to take the bus from the outskirts of Peterborough into the city centre. And every time the bus stopped, another elderly lady would get on. And in every instance she would greet her fellow passengers with the words: "'Allo Me Duck! Eh-Ya alright Gel! I aint seen you fer ages!" At least our local "Eh-Ya" isn't as bad grammatically as the Wolverhampton area of the West Midlands where they say: "Am Ya!" - "Am ya going to do this? Am Ya going to do that." That really jars on me! |
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