BBC Voices Recordings: Nottingham [Meadows]
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
BBC VOICES RECORDINGS http://sounds.bl.uk Title: Nottingham Shelfmark: C1190/26/05 Recording date: 17.11.2004 Speakers: Amelia, b. 1963; Nottingham; female (father b. St Kitts; mother b. St Kitts) Lauren, b. 1989; Nottingham; female; school student Rosalind, b. 1964; Nottingham; female (father b. St Kitts; mother b. St Kitts) Valerie, b. 1965; Nottingham; female (father b. St Kitts; mother b. St Kitts) Amelia, Rosalind and Valerie are sisters whose parents came to the UK from St Kitts in the 1950s; Lauren is their niece. ELICITED LEXIS ○ see English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905) ▲see Dictionary of Jamaican English (1980) ● see Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage (1996) ♠ see Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago (2009) ▼ see Ey Up Mi Duck! Dialect of Derbyshire and the East Midlands (2000) ∆ see New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) ◊ see Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) ♦ see Urban Dictionary (online) ⌂ no previous source (with this sense) identified pleased (not discussed) tired (not discussed) unwell sick; “me na feel too good”1 (used by mother/older black speakers) hot (not discussed) cold (not discussed) annoyed (not discussed) throw (not discussed) 1 See Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage (1996, p.407) for use of ‘no/na’ as negative marker in Caribbean English and for spelling of markedly dialectal/Creole pronunciations, e.g. the (<de>), there (<deh>). http://sounds.bl.uk Page 1 of 27 BBC Voices Recordings play truant skive; nick off∆; skank◊; wag, wag off school, wag off (suggested by interviewer, heard used); cap off▼ (suggested by interviewer) sleep having a nap; go lie down play a game (not discussed) hit hard (not discussed) clothes (not discussed) trousers (not discussed) child’s shoe (not discussed) mother (not discussed) gmother (not discussed) m partner (not discussed) friend bredrin∆ (used by black male speakers); sistren∆; mate (“you all right, mate?” used frequently in Nottingham) gfather (not discussed) forgot name thingymajig♦; thingy; petal (affectionate form of address used to children); ting● (“de red ting up deh, you know”1 used by mother) kit of tools (not discussed) trendy mutton dressed up as lamb; show-off f partner (not discussed) baby pickney◊ (“Caribbean slang”) rain heavily (not discussed) toilet bog (used at school in past); toilet (used now); loo walkway alley; jitty○ (suggested by interviewer, heard); ginnel, gennel (suggested by interviewer, not known); entry (used in past) long seat (not discussed) run water (not discussed) main room (not discussed) rain lightly (not discussed) rich (not discussed) left-handed (not discussed) unattractive (not discussed) lack money skint drunk pissed (“pissed to the head”) pregnant (not discussed) attractive good-looking; handsome; sweet; nice insane (not discussed) moody (not discussed) SPONTANEOUS LEXIS bap = bread roll (0:32:00 (uh we call b… um the ‘bread rolls’ ‘cobs’) ‘bread rolls’ ‘cobs’, yeah, they call them ‘baps’ (and I went I think uh, “so can we can we have six cobs please?” it’s like, “cobs […] lions ba… baby lions?” they’re saying and we say, “no, six cobs”)) http://sounds.bl.uk Page 2 of 27 BBC Voices Recordings barm cake = bread roll (0:32:34 (I had that actually in Liverpool I asked for a ‘chip cob’ and they call it a ‘barm cake’) (‘barm cake’ oh right for ‘chip cob’) (yeah, ‘barm cake’) (that’s a bit funny, isn’t it?) thought you’d’ve thought a ‘chip butty’ or summat, wouldn’t you?) bitch = moan, grumble (0:10:58 (we all meet at mother’s like she says for di... for dinner) and we go… have a good chin-wag and a good a good bitch and all the rest of it) bogger◊ = nuisance, so-and-so (0:26:27 there’s a word that I that I used to use and aunty Mary used to sa… say I was I was it was a rude word (‘bogger’ ‘bogger’) ‘bogger’, yeah, I’d say, “you bogger” (“oh you little bogger”) and my aunty said yeah, “you little bogger” and aunty Mary would say, “oh, that’s swearing you mustn’t say that”; 0:26:55 I mean, you get it all the time, don’t you, you know if if you do summat naughty when you’re little, “eh, you little bogger” and (although our our mum and dad didn’t use it) mum, oh no no no, but it was people used it to us though, didn’t they, if we ever got into mischief when we were playing out, “you little bogger”) Brummy = person from/dialect of Birmingham (0:21:37 we talk here in Nottingham so and we think we’re common but there a… people in Birmingham will speak in their Brummy accent and they think it’s, do you know what I mean so (yeah, yeah) works the other way, doesn’t it, really; 0:37:59 she’ll come back and she got the Brummy accent (the uh, yeah) or she goes to Leeds she comes back and she’s got the Yorkshire, do you know (she picks it up straightaway) yeah, yeah; 0:38:17 some people may think, “oh well if I go in there and I speak the way the the way the Brummies speak they’ll not know that I’m from somewhere else but you can tell) butty = sandwich (0:32:34 (I had that actually in Liverpool I asked for a ‘chip cob’ and they call it a ‘barm cake’) (‘barm cake’ oh right for ‘chip cob’) (yeah, ‘barm cake’) (that’s a bit funny, isn’t it?) thought you’d’ve thought a ‘chip butty’ or summat, wouldn’t you?) bwai▲ = boy (0:39:22 it’s ‘English gyal’, isn’t it, they call you when you go down there […] they know we’re from England, don’t they […] ‘gyal’ and is it ‘bwai’, isn’t it, really? (yeah, ‘bwai’) ‘bwai’) chin-wag = chat (0:10:58 (we all meet at mother’s like she says for di... for dinner) and we goo… have a good chin-wag and a good a good bitch and all the rest of it) cob = bread roll (0:32:00 uh we call b… um the ‘bread rolls’ ‘cobs’ (‘bread rolls’ ‘cobs’, yeah, they call them ‘baps’) and I went I think uh, “so can we can we have six cobs please?” it’s like, “cobs […] lions ba… baby lions?” they’re saying and we say, “no, six cobs”; 0:32:34 (I had that actually in Liverpool I asked for a ‘chip cob’ and they call it a ‘barm cake’) ‘barm cake’ oh right for ‘chip cob’ (yeah, ‘barm cake’) that’s a bit funny, isn’t it? (thought you’d’ve thought a ‘chip butty’ or summat, wouldn’t you?)) cuss = to curse, direct profanities at someone (0:15:19 (more excitement) (yes, more excitement) (more excitement definitely, yeah, when you when you break out in it, isn’t it, um, yeah) or when you’re cursing somebody (well, yeah) or when you’re ‘cussing’ somebody) dandan● = child’s dress (0:19:20 actually it’s like the Caribbean they would use the the word a pretty ‘dandan’ and basically you’re on about a dress, you know (a small child’s dress) yeah, “it’s a pretty dandan”) dasheen = Caribbean root vegetable (0:12:33 (what is this soup then what does she put in it, nanny?) (um chicken dumpling with um carrots and) (what’s that yams) yams dasheen sweet potato (sweet potato green banana) green banana (all all) pumpkin sometimes (yeah, pumpkins, yes) (all them sort of things) it’s it’s a proper West Indian soup it is, you know, we all love it, don’t we?) ey up▼ = hello (0:16:16 Nottingham people actually do have an accent right I’m just gonna try and think of um something um ‘mash’ might be one and um ‘ey up’ when we used to be at school, “ey up me duck” (oh yeah, we all say ‘ey up’, don’t we, “ey up me duck” that’s it, “ey up me duck”); 0:22:32 if someone’d say, “hello” you’d say, “ey up” (yeah) isn’t it, “you all right?” you know, and they say, “are you all right?” you go, “you all right?”) gosh = exclamation expressing surprise or disbelief (0:28:59 (and what about now do you think the kids have a different experience of swearing?) oh gosh, yes (yeah) I mean for some children every second word is, you know, has got a ‘F’ in it or something) http://sounds.bl.uk Page 3 of 27 BBC Voices Recordings gyal♠ = girl (0:39:22 it’s ‘English gyal’, isn’t it, they call you when you go down there […] they know we’re from England, don’t they […] ‘gyal’ and is it ‘bwai’, isn’t it, really? (yeah, ‘bwai’) ‘bwai’; 0:42:02 (do that again ’cause I couldn’t possibly make that out) “watch for de gyal face now watch how she a-grin and watch me” (oh God) to you I take it it sounds like a different language, doesn’t it?1) half-caste = mixed race (0:33:27 I think I had that with my daughter who’s now seventeen and um it was a matter over um being um ‘half-caste’ and ‘mixed race’ and politi… politically correct it is ‘mixed raced’ but we were brought up if you were mixed breed you were ‘half-caste’; 0:33:52 yeah, back in the in the s… (yeah) in the seventies it was (yeah) wasn’t it, it was ‘half-caste’, wasn’t it, yeah (yeah, because y… you was either black white or) yeah, ‘half-caste’ (‘Paki’ well now it’s not a ‘Paki’ it’s an ‘Asian’)) mash = to brew tea (0:16:16 Nottingham people actually do have an accent right I’m just gonna try and think of um something um ‘mash’ might be one and um ‘ey up’ when we used to be at school, “ey up me duck” (oh yeah, we all say ‘ey up’, don’t we, “ey up me duck” that’s it, “ey up me duck”)) me duck▼ = form of address (0:16:16 Nottingham people actually do have an accent right I’m just gonna try and think of um something um ‘mash’ might be one and um ‘ey up’ when we used to be at school, “ey up me duck” (oh yeah, we all say ‘ey up’, don’t we, “ey up me duck” that’s it, “ey up me duck”)) merino = undershirt, vest (0:18:45 what did you have a de… a case where there was um a gentleman on your team and um a ‘vest’ um what what you’d call a ‘vest’ he called (a ‘merino’) was it a ‘merino’ (a ‘merino’) a ‘merino’) mum = mother (0:10:38 almost every Saturday well apart from these last five weeks because