Middleport, Stoke-On-Trent
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BBC VOICES RECORDINGS http://sounds.bl.uk Title: Middleport, Stoke-on-Trent Shelfmark: C1190/32/04 Recording date: 25.11.2004 Speakers: Ashton, Paul, b. 1962 Stoke-on-Trent; male; pottery worker (mother chip shop worker) Fryer, Anthony, b. 1939 Stoke-on-Trent; male; retired miner (father, miner; mother, housewife) Hammond, Peter, b. 1937 Wolstanton, Stoke-on-Trent; male; retired builder (father, insurance agent; mother, shop assistant) Heath, Norton, b. 1931 Stoke-on-Trent; male; retired builder (father, clerk; mother, housewife) Simpson, Norman, b. 1934 Stoke-on-Trent; male; retired miner (father, potter; mother, potter) The interviewees are all allotment owners in Middleport. ELICITED LEXIS ○ see English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905) * see Survey of English Dialects Basic Material (1962-1971) ∆ see New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) ◊ see Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) ♥ see Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (2014) # Dictionary of North East Dialect (2011) ▼ see Ey Up Mi Duck! Dialect of Derbyshire and the East Midlands (2000) ♦ see Urban Dictionary (online) ⌂ no previous source (with this sense) identified pleased happy; chuffed (“dead chuffed/really chuffed with that” thought to be used nationwide) tired jiggered; knackered (suggested by interviewer, most common); cream crackered∆ (used by “Cockneys”); bolloxed♦ (“absolutely bolloxed”); absolutely fucked (used frequently) unwell knackered; poorly (“little man he werena* be going school today he’s poorly”); bad (common in past); jiggered (also used for ‘tired’); absolutely effed∆ (i.e. presumably used euphemistically for ‘fucked’) hot sweating cobs∆ (“bloody hell I’m sweating cobs”); boiling; roasting cold frozzen# (“bloody frozzen”); risen-on1 annoyed got a cob on (“cobbed up, he is”) throw chuck (“chuck us that spanner”); sling (“sling it away”) 1 David Wilson’ Staffordshire Dialect Words: a historical survey (1974) includes ‘risen-on’ in this sense. http://sounds.bl.uk Page 1 of 37 BBC Voices Recordings play truant wagging off; bobbing it○ (“did you go school today, no, I bobbed it”); bobbing school○; wagged the day off; wagging; bobbing off○; bob school○ sleep kipping; kip play a game play hit hard welly (“give it some bloody welly” also used of e.g. kicking ball); give it a good belt clothes clobber trousers trousers; kecks, kegs♥ (“oh, he’s got a new pair of kegs” used by younger speakers) child’s shoe pumps (most common locally in past); plimsolls (“posh”, modern); trainers (used by own grandchildren) mother mam (to/of own mother); ma (of own mother-in-law); mum (to/of own mother); mother gmother grandma (used by own grandchildren in Leeds, considered old-fashioned by own wife); granny (“granny Sheila” used by own grandchildren); nan (“I’m going up me nan’s”); nanny; nana (pronounced “nana” [nanɑː] locally) m partner him (used frequently by own wife of self); Him-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed2; hubby (used by own wife of self) friend mates; pals; mate (“I’m just going nip up my mates a minute”) gfather grandpa, johnpa⌂ (used by own grandchildren to distinguish between self and other grandfather called John); grandad (“I’m just going give me grandad a ring”) forgot name what’s-his-name (suggested by interviewer, used); crimes of Paris3 (“oh, crimes of Paris what’s-his-name” phrase used to express frustration at forgetting name for something/someone) kit of tools tools; kit (“have I got me kit with me?”) trendy poof⌂; tart (“looks a right tart, her does” of male/female); slapper (“oh, look at her looks a bit of a slapper” used by younger speakers, learnt from own children) f partner my lady (“I’m just going pick my lady [mɒːleɪdi] up” used frequently of own wife, also title of regular cartoon strip in local newspaper4); the wife (not used) baby nippers; babby○ (“oh, my lady’s sister’s just had a new babby”, “how’s babby is she all right?”); little man (used to own children in past/own nephew now); kid; young ’un ∆ (“has young ’un/big ’un come in yet?” used of own teenage children); little’un∆ rain heavily pissing down toilet bog, privy (used in past of outside toilet); toilet (suggested by interviewer); lav, loo (“I’m just going loo” used now); closet (used in past of inside toilet, also used of ‘junk cupboard’); W.C. (“water closet” used now in architect’s plans) walkway alleys, passage (used in Biddulph); entries (used in Tunstall) long seat sofa (“sit on t’ sofa” [sɪt ɒnt səʊfi]); settee run water stream; brook (common in local nicknames for tributaries of River Trent, e.g. “Banky Brook”5 and “Fowlea Brook”6) main room lounge (used now of main room in semi-detached house); parlour, front room (used in past of room in terraced house reserved for special occasions/visitors); living-room (used in past of middle room in terraced house situated between “parlour/front room” and “kitchen/scullery/back-kitchen”) rain lightly drizzle; drizzling (“it’s all right it’s only drizzling”); mizzle, dagging○ (used by mother in past); mizzly; spitting (“it inna* much it’s only spitting”) 2 OED (online edition) includes ‘She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed’ in sense of ‘female partner’. 3 OED (online edition) records ‘crimes’ as exclamation expressing surprise/disbelief/frustration but not ‘crimes of Paris’. 4 Reference, presumably, to ‘May un Mar Lady’ by British cartoonist Dave Follows (1941-2003) which first appeared 1986 in North Staffordshire Sentinel. 5 See Wikipedia entry for ‘Ford Green Brook’ (at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Green_Brook). 6 See Wikipedia entry for ‘Fowlea Brook’ (at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fowlea_Brook). http://sounds.bl.uk Page 2 of 37 BBC Voices Recordings rich loaded; got plenty money; well off; not short; “he inna* short of a bob or two ∆7; got plenty of ackers (“ackers” used locally for ‘money’) left-handed keggy-handed○; keggy○ unattractive right ugly; busted∆ (“her’s busted, [bɒstɪd] her is”, “face/mug like a busted [bɒstɪd] clog”8); ugly mug♦ (“she’s got an ugly mug”); “look at his bloody fizzog” (expression commonly directed at miserable-looking person) lack money skint; brassic (“Cockney rhyme” > brassic lint: skint); broke (“I’m broke [bɹɒk] this week”); got no money; got naught drunk pissed as arseholes∆; pissed; nissed as a pewt9/newt; drunk as a skunk∆; hammered∆; kaylied; had a few pregnant up the duff; bun in the oven (“got a bun in th’ oven” [gɒɾə bʊn ɪn ðʊvn̟]); full; up t’ spout; (“he’s put her up the spout again”); “her’s had a bit in”⌂ (“her’s had a bit in and now her’s got a lot in”); full as a bed tub⌂; full as a tick/bedtick○◊10) attractive fit (“her’s fit, her is”); “what a belter” (“her’s a belter, her is”); smart bit of crumpet; strutters⌂ (“she’s a strutter” used on building site of attractive female passer-by “walking nicely/sticking her boobs out”); smart (“her’s smart”); “good headlights”∆, “big pair of baps” (used of “well-endowed” female) insane (not discussed) moody (not discussed) SPONTANEOUS LEXIS and all = too, as well (0:20:56 (and we call we e… even ca… call used to call the kids our kids ‘little man’ even now we say, like, to the y… youngest one who’s fifteen we say, “has young ’un come in yet?” or) aye, we refer (“has has big ’un come in yet?” you know) we refer to t’ ‘young ‘un’ and all; 0:58:57 (and there’s that sentence something about a) (“canst kick a ball against a wall and head it till thee burst it”11) […] (“head it till it bursts”) there’s another and all, “ghosts sitting on posts eating crusts out of their fists”) any road up12 = humorous catchphrase commonly used in game of bingo to refer to number sixty-nine (0:09:14 (go on what are they?) well ‘legs’ ‘eleven’ and (‘two fat ladies’ ‘eighty-eight’)‘two fat ladies’ (and uh) (‘one little duck’) (‘number two’) (‘a duck’ ‘a duck on a crutch’ ‘twenty-seven’) ‘any road up’ ‘sixty-nine’ (‘Kelly’s eye’) or (‘Kelly’s eye’) (go on what’s the other one go on) ‘two can chew’ ‘sixty- nine’) aught = anything 0:33:23 (or) I don’t know really it is more ‘babby’ than aught, isn’t it? (yeah, or same as me me and my lady we always say ’cause we look after our little my my nephew we always say ‘little man’)) aye = yes (0:10:37 (do you consciously make it slower and clearer then?) yeah, yeah (is that what you do you do that a lot do you find?) (mind you, he has to do that ’cause mother-in-law goes down t’ same club, see) oh aye, yeah (so her conna13 understand so you have to you have to speak clear, don’t you?) get a bollocking off her, aye; 0:21:09 (if mother put uh a fire in the what did she call it ‘front room’) ‘front room’ 7See entry for ‘worth a bob or two’ 8 ‘A Dictionary of Slang’ (Ted Duckworth, 1996-2015 at http://www.peevish.co.uk/slang/index.htm) includes ‘face like a busted clog’ in this sense. 9 Spoonerism, presumably, for ‘pissed as a newt’. 10 English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905) records ‘full as a tick’ in sense of ‘eaten one’s fill’ but not in this sense; Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) records ‘full as a tick’ in sense of ‘intoxicated’ but not in this sense. 11 Alan Povey & Andy Ridler’s 2nd Book of Arfur Tow Crate in Staffy Cher (1975) records this as ‘well-known Pottery phrase’. 12 Bingo Lingo (http://www.bingo-lingo.net/bingocalls.htm) includes ‘any way up’ in this sense; OED (online edition) includes ‘road’ in sense of ‘way’.