BBC VOICES RECORDINGS http://sounds.bl.uk

Title:

Worthing, West Sussex

Shelfmark:

C1190/36/05

Recording date:

26.11.2004

Speakers: Dutfield, Jean, b. 1942 Epsom, Surrey; female; fancy dress retailer (father b. Battersea, gas stoker; mother b. Horsham, cook) Hart, Ian, b. 1964 Wells, Somerset; male; funeral director (father probation officer; mother drama teacher) Wall, Cyril, b. 1923 Croydon, Surrey; male; retired carpet retailer (father village store owner; mother housewife)

Three interviewees are all local retailers.

PLEASE NOTE: this recording is still awaiting full linguistic description (i.e. phonological, grammatical and spontaneous lexical items).

A summary of the specific lexis elicited by the interviewer is given below.

ELICITED LEXIS

∆ 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 chuffed; over the moon; dead chuffed tired knackered (most common, also used for ‘ruined/finished’); goosed♦ (also has sexual connotations); tired; shagged out (used by younger speakers); burnt out (“yuppy thing”); clapped-out∆, clapped∆ (“typical Sussex expression”); molto stanco⌂ (Italian for ‘very tired’ used jokingly) unwell unwell; not well; sick; ill; under the weather; poorly (used by mother/grandmother); “it’s me time of the month”1 (used by own daughter when “moody”); proper poorly (used in north); bit rough (“Sussex expression”)

1 OED (online edition) records ‘time of the month’ in sense of ‘menstruation’.

http://sounds.bl.uk Page 1 of 4 BBC Voices Recordings hot boiling; sweating; B∆ hot; calde⌂ (Italian for ‘hot’ used occasionally due to wife’s family heritage); “I’ve got heat bumps on my heat bumps” (used jokingly of extreme heat) cold freezing; cold; brass monkey (“it would freeze the balls off a brass monkey”) annoyed upset; bloody angry; “someone’s pissed me off”; narked; nocky2 (“don’t get nocky with me/got the nock with you” used at school in past, considered local); annoyed throw sling (“sling it”); bung (“bung it over”); lob (of e.g. ball); throw; chuck play truant skive; skiving; bunking off (associated with ‘Grange Hill’3); hop the wag (used as child in past); playing truant; bunk off; bunked off school; truant, skiver (of person); skive off sleep bye-byes; land of Nod; kip (“get some kip” of short daytime sleep); going to bed (of sleep at night); “I’m going up the road to Bedfordshire” (used by father in past) play a game play; have a go hit hard clobber; bonk; thump; bash (“bash someone up”); beat (suggested by interviewer, “beat them up”); give it a good thumping; whack (“give it a whack”) clothes clothes; clobber trousers pants (used in north/by older speakers, used now of “knickers”); strides (used in south); knickers (of underwear, “put your knickers on” used by older speakers); panties (of underwear, “put your panties on” used by younger speakers); trews (associated with 1960s/70s, “Donald where’s your troosers”4); flares (used of flared trousers); Lionel Blairs∆ (: flares); loons (of trousers flared below the knee); baggies∆; Oxford bags; Birmingham bags5 child’s shoe trainers (modern); plimsolls (old); pumps; training shoes mother mother (used by own daughter to self to show displeasure/reproof, disliked); mum (to own mother); mummy (used as young child); ma (of own mother to others) gmother nanny (“nanny Jean” used by own grandchildren of self); grandma; granny; nan (used by own grandchildren of self); gran; babushka (used by nephew of Russian mother-in-law) m partner bloke∆; husband; boyfriend (disliked by 58-year-old partner when used of self) friend mate (of close friend); hombre∆ (“all right, hombre?” learnt from friend, “Mexican”); friend (of friend/acquaintance); mucker; pal (of “casual friend”); acquaintance (not used) gfather grandad; grandpa; grandpop; pops♦; pop6 (also used for ‘carbonated soft drink’) forgot name thingummy; thingummyjig∆; whatsit; thingummy-whatsit∆; whatchamacallit; thingmejig◊; oojah; widget; whatever; whoever⌂; whenever⌂; whosit, what’s-his-name (of person); doobrey (“Cockney”); queer thing⌂ (of object, learnt during national service in 1940s) kit of tools tool-kit; tool-box; box of tricks∆ (used occasionally) trendy trash; trashy (“trashy junk jewellery”); white trash (used by Americans); flashy so-and-so, flash Harry (of male/female); chav (current); townies; chavs; tart, tarty (old-fashioned); slut; slag; slapper; mutton dressed as lamb, old bag, more Whitney than Britney∆7 (of older female dressed inappropriately young); animal of the pastures⌂ (i.e. “cow”, “Sussex expression” used frequently)

2 OED (online edition) records ‘narky’ in this sense. 3 Popular children’s TV series broadcast on BCC 1978-2008. 4 Comic song written and performed by Andy Stewart MBE (1933-1993) first released in UK 1960. 5 Online comment posted by Tony Hayes (Tamworth) in response to ‘Seventies shang-a-lang’ article at BBC Where I Live Coventry & Warwickshire (see http://www.bbc.co.uk/coventry/content/articles/2005/07/11/seventies_memories_feature.shtml) describes ‘Birmingham bags’ as ‘high waistband 30" bottomed trousers with side pockets’). 6 OED (online edition) records ‘pop’ in sense of ‘father’. 7 New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) records ‘Whitney dressed as Britney’ in this sense.

http://sounds.bl.uk Page 2 of 4 BBC Voices Recordings f partner better half; girlfriend; wife; her indoors (disliked, used by friend when trying to appear “Cockney”); mate; bed-mate; partner (disliked, considered “poncy”, used of ‘business partner’, “howdy partner” associated with Western films); bird; my significant other (used by Del Boy8); the current Mrs. Wogan (used by Terry Wogan9 “just to keep her on her toes”, subsequently adopted and used jokingly); her at home◊10; (used by Arthur Daley11) baby bubby; baby; bambino; kiddy; babe; kid (“the kids” disliked by own older children) rain heavily lashing it down; torrential rain; pouring; pissing down; raining cats and dogs; raining stair- rods toilet loo; bog; Londonderry⌂ (used jokingly with friends) walkway passageway; alleyway; alley; rear/side access (used by estate agents); passage; back entrance; twitten (suggested by interviewer, “Twitten Way” in Worthing) long seat settee; sofa (“old-fashioned”); couch (suggested by interviewer, “couch potato” used frequently by wife of self when watching too much TV) run water stream; brook; trickle main room lounge (used now); living-room (used as child in past); front room rain lightly drizzle; spitting; wee-wee⌂ (used jokingly); spitting it rich loaded; stinking rich; minted; “lucky buggers”⌂ (suggested jokingly); lottery winners⌂ left-handed cack-handed unattractive ugly (“cor, that one was bug ugly”♦); dog (“bit of an old dog”); dull; faceless; beauteous he/she is not (“jocular”); rough; minging, mingers (current, associated with Jordan12); “they weren’t there when they were handing out the good looks”♦13; back end of a bus∆ (suggested by interviewer, used); buffalo girl◊14; paperbag job∆15; brown paperbag job∆15; “spot the grot/pull a pig” (“game” played when younger in which friends would compete to identify/date most unattractive female) lack money skint; hard up; brassic (> brassic lint: skint); potless; haven’t got a pot to piss in∆ (associated with Del Boy9); arse hanging out their trousers⌂ drunk pissed (used with friends); pissed up; drunk; legless; under the alcofluence∆16 (jocular) pregnant with child; pregnant; in the club; expecting; preggers; in the pudding club; “been eating new bread”⌂17; up the gut18; up the duff attractive a smasher (of female); fit (“a fit bird”); stunning; a stunner; tasty; a cracker (also used jokingly of “ugly bird [who] only gets pulled at Christmas”) insane nutter; loopy; off their rocker moody bloody-minded; got the hump; moody; nocky2 (“don’t’ get nocky/got the nock”); fractious; touchy; mardy (suggested by interviewer, “mardy-arse/mard-arse”◊ used in north of “softy”)

© Robinson, Herring, Gilbert

8 Lead character (Derek Edward Trotter) in long-running sit-com Only Fools and Horses first broadcast on BBC 1981. 9 Sir Michael Terence Wogan (b.1938), Irish radio and TV presenter. 10 Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) includes ‘her’ in this sense. 11 Fictional character played by British actor George Cole (b.1929) in ITV television comedy drama series ‘Minder’ originally broadcast 1979-1994. 12 Formerly pseudonym of Katie Price (b.1978), British glamour model and reality TV star. 13 Urban Dictionary (online) includes ‘at the back of the queue when looks were given out’ in definition of ‘nightbreed’ [= ‘ugly’]. 14 Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) records ‘buffalo’ in sense of ‘fat woman’. 15 New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) includes ‘paperbag case’ in sense of ‘ugly woman’. 16 New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) records ‘under the affluence of alcohol’ in this sense. 17 Editor’s father (b. Castleford, 1934) uses ‘eating Sunblest bread’ in this sense. 18 Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (2014) includes ‘up the guts’ in this sense.

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Voices of the UK, 2009-2012 A British Library project funded by The Leverhulme Trust

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