I had thought that the local dialect (or as some used to say \u201clingo\u201d) had disappeared until one day we were lunching in a local hostelry and a young lad, of about 8 or 9 years, entered looked around and said \u201cWheres our table to?\u201d This is certainly not \u201cEast Enders\u201d language learnt from the TV. Since then my ear must have become attuned for it, as I have frequently heard \u201cWheres it to?\u201d since. If \u201cgone\u201d is inserted before \u201cto\u201d the phrase is perhaps improved?<\/p>\n
Years ago I remember a song performed on the radio which from memory went \u201cWur be thick blackbird to? Fur I be atter \u2018e\u201d. This is all I can remember, except a suggestion that it was from Hampshire, but it could as easily have originated anywhere in the West Country. When we were in Sussex we had a regular caller, a poultry farmer who sold us eggs and his local speech could easily have passed for West Country.<\/p>\n
John le Carre (David Cornwall) in his book The Pigeon Tunnel<\/em> refers to his father Ronnie\u2019s voice \u201cwhen I was young it was still Dorset, with his \u201cr\u2019s\u201d and long \u201ca\u2019s\u201d. By the time I was an adolescent he was almost\u2014but never quite\u2014well spoken\u201d. My son often asks me \u201chow many \u201crr\u2019s\u201d did you say then?\u201d, when he catches me in an unguarded moment. Even our top people have these, for Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher once reverted to what I assume was her native tongue when she rebuked an opponent as being \u201cfrightened\u201d and then said \u201cfrit\u201d. An elderly Yorkshireman once told me about people being badly \u201ctreated\u201d as \u201ctret\u201d, which I assume is a similar part of speech.<\/p>\n In recent years we have had three west country musical groups. Acker Bilk MBE, came from Pensford, North Somerset and became nationally known with his Paramount Jazz Band and his own clarinet. You may remember his goatee beard, bowler hat and striped waistcoat, singing with a west country \u201cburr\u201d. He died in 2014. One of his tunes was That\u2019s My Home<\/em> which I find emotional, and his hit Stranger On The Shore<\/em> which he called \u201cstrangler\u201d. His nickname \u201cAcker\u201d is sometimes used in the west country for \u201cmate\u201d or \u201cfriend\u201d.<\/p>\n Another Somerset group \u201cThe Wurzels\u201d, was originated by Adge Cutler, who unfortunately died in a road accident. The group was reformed and has produced Drink Up Thy Zider<\/em> and the Combine Harvester<\/em> song. They also revived \u201cWur be thick blackbird to?\u201d in 1976.<\/p>\n Our own Dorset group, \u201cThe Yetties\u201d from Yetminster have recently retired, but Bonny Sartin, the lead singer has given solo performances locally, combining history and song. Their repertoire included Dorset Is Beautiful, \u201cButtercup Joe<\/em> and the music of Thomas Hardy.<\/p>\n Over the border the Wiltshire Regiment marching song is The Vly Be On The Turmot<\/em> (the fly is on the turnip).<\/p>\n Our two local writers, Thomas Hardy and William Barnes were familiar with much of our local dialect and used it particularly in their poetry. William Barnes\u2019 Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect<\/em> written in 1879 includes A List of Some Dorset Words, from which I have selected a few, as follows: Axan<\/em> = ashes of a fire. Backbran<\/em>\u2019 = block of wood at the back of a fire.<\/p>\n Barton <\/em>= stack or cow yard, probably familiar to most of us still.<\/p>\n Beae\u2019nhan\u2019<\/em> = maintain, e.g. an opinion\u2014this recalls a friend of my father who occasionally visited to discuss a Parish Meeting he had attended and said once \u201cthem as don\u2019t come to the Meeting should\u2019nt criti-kise\u201d, regularly emphasised by tapping his walking stick on the floor.<\/p>\n Bissen<\/em> = thou bist not. I have often wondered if this is the same word as the German, in \u201cDu bist\u201d.<\/p>\n Bluevinny<\/em> = blue mouldy, which we all recognise as the local cheese.<\/p>\n Caddle<\/em> = a muddle, when one knows not what to do first.<\/p>\n Cassen<\/em> = canst not. Charm = a noise of many voices.<\/p>\n Coossen<\/em> = couldest not. Didden<\/em> = did not.<\/p>\n Drong<\/em> = narrow way. Duck<\/em>, or Didden<\/em> = dusk.<\/p>\n Dunch<\/em> = dead nettle. Eltroot<\/em> = cowparsley. Emmet<\/em>\u00a0 = ant.<\/p>\n Evet<\/em>, or Eft<\/em> = newt. Flag<\/em> = water plant. Giddy Gander<\/em> = meadow orchid.<\/p>\n Girt<\/em> = great. Goodnow<\/em> = good neighbour.<\/p>\n More for another time!<\/p>\n Bridport History Society meets on Tuesday April 11th at 2.30 pm in the Main Hall, The United Church, East Street to learn about \u201cThe Dorsets in 1917\u201d from Chris Copson. All welcome, visitors fee \u00a32-50.<\/p>\n Cecil Amor,\u00a0 Hon. President Bridport History Society.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I had thought that the local dialect (or as some used to say \u201clingo\u201d) had disappeared until one day we were lunching in a local hostelry and a young lad, of about 8 or 9 years, entered looked around and said \u201cWheres our table to?\u201d This is certainly not \u201cEast Enders\u201d language learnt from the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"cybocfi_hide_featured_image":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[31],"class_list":["post-3224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-history-community","tag-cecil-amor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3224"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3224\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.marshwoodlife.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}