East Midlands English From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia East Midlands East Midlands English is a traditional dialect with modern local and social variations spoken in those parts of the Midlands loosely lying east of Watling Street[n 1] separating it from West Midlands English, north of a variable isogloss of the variant of Southern English of Oxfordshire and East Anglian English of Cambridgeshire and south of another that separates it from Yorkshire dialect. This covers approximately the East Midlands of England: (Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Northamptonshire). The Five Boroughs of the East Midlands distinct from the Kingdom of Mercia in the early 10th century[1] Like that of Yorkshire, the East Midlands dialect owes much of its grammar and vocabulary to Nordic influences, the region having been incorporated in the Norse controlled Danelaw in the late 9th century. At this time, the county towns of the East Midlands counties became Viking fortified city states, known as the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw. For example, the East Midlands verb to scraight (to cry) is thought to be derived from the Norse, skrike in modern Scandinavian, also meaning to cry.[2] East Midlands dialects in literature[edit] The romantic English novelist, and East Midlander, D. H. Lawrence who was from the Nottinghamshire town of Eastwood wrote in the dialect of the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Coalfield in several dialect poems as well as in his more famous works such as Lady Chatterleys Lover and Sons and Lovers.[3] Though spoken less commonly today, the dialect of the East Midlands has been investigated in texts such as the Ey Up Mi Duck[4] series of books (and an LP) by Richard Scollins and John Titford. These books were originally intended as a study of Derbyshire Dialect, particularly the distinctive speech of Ilkeston and the Erewash valley, but later editions acknowledge similarities in vocabulary and grammar which unite the East Midlands dialects and broadened their appeal to the region as a whole. Ey up (often spelt ayup / eyup) is a greeting thought to be of Old Norse origin (se upp) used widely throughout the North Midlands and South Yorkshire, and Mi Duck is thought to be derived from a respectful Anglo Saxon form of address, Duka (Literally Duke), and is unrelated to waterfowl.[5] Non-natives of the East Midlands are often surprised to hear men greet each other as Mi Duck.[2] Dialect words[edit] In recent years, humorous texts such as Nottingham, As it is Spoke have used its phonetically spelt words to deliberately confuse non-natives to the region.[6] For example: Alrate youth? Are you alright young man? Avya gorra wivya? is the wife with you? (lit. Have you got her with you?). The pronunciation wi-yer is more common in the Nottingham and the South East Midlands. Its black ovver Bills mothers it looks like rain. (lit. Its black over Bills Mothers. q.v.) – a common, if somewhat old fashioned, Midlands expression implying impending bad weather. Thez summat up wee im I think he may be ill. (lit. Theres something up with him.) Yer norrayin no tuffees! You arent having any toffees (sweets)! However, there are many words in use in the traditional East Midlands Dialect which do not appear in standard English. The short list below is by no means exhaustive. More comprehensive glossaries exist within texts such as Ey Up Mi Duck by Richard Scollins and John Titford. badly hungover/ill belt-job easy job (used in certain coal-mining communities based on watching a conveyor belt) blubber/blubb to cry/weep uncontrollably (i.e. Stop your blubbing.) bonny In many dialects, this has the sense of ‘looking well’ often referring to a healthy plumpness.[7] In Leicester and Nottingham, a transferred sense of overweight is derived from this sense. (There is a yet older sense now only commonly used in Scots, Northern & some Midland dialects meaning beautiful generally rather than of individuals having a pleasing embonpoint specifically.)[8] chuck throw (Chuck us ball, (South-East Derbyshire)). The word has the Standard English literal sense of to gently toss a light object and the Standard English extended sense of to easily or contemptuously throw a heavy object. The OED does not record a distinct regional use but does say that workmen (manual workers) use it in their trades to mean throw generally. [9] clouts trousers (usually pronounced claarts), or used in the verb form, to clout, which means to hit (i.e Ill clout thee raand tab, translating to - Ill hit you round the ear) croaker doctor croggie an (illegal) crossbar ride, two-up on the crossbar of a mans bicycle cob a bread roll (bap),(as verb:) to throw ducks necks bottle of lemonade fast stuck, caught e.g. /ʔoʊz.ɡɒrə.fɪnɡər.fæst/ (whos got a finger stuck) island roundabout (road junction) jitty/jetty alleyway larup/larop to cover with (usually a thick substance) mardy grumpy, sulky (i.e. Shes a mardy one!) mash to make a pot of tea (i.e. Ill go mash the tea.) nesh a weak person, or one who feels the cold note nothing oakie ice cream (common in Leicestershire) see Hokey cokey ote anything paste to beat, he got a good pastin the other night, often used interchangeably with larrup piddle falling liquid as rain or urine (i.e. Its piddling down with rain or A dogs just piddled on the wall or I gorra go fer a quick piddle) The OED records this as a Standard English colloquialism rather than a regionalism.[10] piggle to pick at a scab, spot or a skin irritation (i.e. Stop piggling that scab!) puddled/puddle-drunk intoxicated puther to pour out uncontrollably[11] usually of smoke, steam or dust pot a plaster cast rammel rubbish/waste scraight/scraitin to cry/crying[3] skank Mean or unfair snapin lunch/food,tekken ta werk[12] snidered/snided/snied covered/infested, (DH Lawrence used the word Snied in a description of an infestation of mice in Sons and Lovers.),[12] sucker iced lolly twitchel alleyway tabs ears tuffees sweets, confectionery sket a useless person. wazzerk/wassock fool (used across the East & West Midlands) yack to throw Dead Fit (handsome or beautiful) Dead Ace (great, as in that games dead ace) Cos (can you) The greeting now then (as Nah theen) is still in use in Lincolnshire and North-East Derbyshire, used where other people might say Hello.[citation needed] Nen mate can also be heard instead of now then mate. It is very common to hear people replacing the word of with on. There were two on em (There were two of them). Get hold on em (Get hold of them).[citation needed] People from Leicester are known in the popular holiday resort Skegness as Chisits, due to their expression for how much is it when asking the price of goods in shops.[13] Grammar[edit] Those who speak traditional regional dialects are not trying unsuccessfully to speak Standard English. East Midlands English follows a series of distinct grammatical rules. Some examples follow below. Formal address[edit] Up until the mid 20th century it was not uncommon to hear the use of informal forms of address, Thee and Thou, as compared to the more formal Yo or You. Use of the informal form of address is now uncommon in modern speech. Personal pronouns[edit] Personal pronouns differ from standard English as follows: yorn yours mine mine theirn theirs ourn ours Example It eent theirn; its ourn! (It isnt theirs; its ours!) Reflexive pronouns[edit] Reflexive pronouns are characterised by the replacement of Self with Sen (From Middle English seluen) Yusen – Yourself, Mesen – Myself, Thisens – Themselves/Yourselves, Ussens – Ourselves Example We shll ay to do it ussens. (We shall have to do it ourselves) Dialect variations within the political region[edit] Southern Northamptonshire[edit] Northamptonshire is in the East Midlands region defined in the late 20th century, and has historically harboured its own dialect comparable to other forms of East Midlands English,[11] particularly among the older generation. However, more recently its the linguistic distinctiveness has significantly eroded due to influences from the western parts of East Anglia, the West Midlands, and the South as well as the Watford Gap isogloss, the demarcation line between southern and northern English accents. The Danelaw split the present county into a Viking north and a Saxon south. This is quite plainly heard, with people in the south speaking more like people from Oxfordshire or Cambridgeshire and people in the north sounding more like people from Leicestershire.[citation needed] Corbyite[edit] Also of note is the anomalous dialect of Corbyite spoken around Corby in the north of Northamptonshire, which reflects the migration of large numbers of Scottish and Irish steelworkers to the town during the 20th Century. The dialect is often compared to Glaswegian.[citation needed] Derbyshire[edit] The dialect of Coalville in Leicestershire is said to resemble that of Derbyshire because many of the Coalville miners came from there, and the dialect of Glossop in North West Derbyshire has similarities with Manchester dialect due to its close geographical position to Greater Manchester.[citation needed]. The dialect of the Derbyshire Dales is near identical to that of the bordering North Staffordshire. Lincolnshire and East Lincolnshire[edit] Lincolnshire has long been an economically relatively homogeneous, less industrial more heavily agricultural county and is in part naturally separated by the River Trent divorcing its largest market town, the City of Lincoln from Nottinghamshire. East of the Lincolnshire Wolds, in the southern part of the county, the Lincolnshire dialect is closely linked to The Fens and East Anglia, and, in the northern areas of the county, the local speech has characteristics in common with the speech of the East Riding of Yorkshire. This is largely due to the fact that the majority of the land area of Lincolnshire was surrounded by sea, the Humber, marshland, and the Wolds; these geographical circumstances permitted little linguistic interference from the East Midlands dialects until the nineteenth century when canal and rail routes penetrated the eastern heartland of the county. Nottinghamshire[edit] Minor variations still endure between Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. Though all native speakers sound similar, there are noticeable differences between the accents of residents of, for example, Nottingham and Derby[citation needed], or Mansfield and Bolsover which is pronounced locally as /boʊzə/.
Posted on: Wed, 19 Nov 2014 09:19:43 +0000
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