BBC Voices Recordings: Bentilee, Stoke-On-Trent

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

Title:

Bentilee, Stoke-on-Trent

Shelfmark:

C1190/32/01

Recording date:

24.03.2005

Speakers: Ball, Amanda, b. 1966 Stoke-on-Trent; female; nursery nurse (father b. Stoke-on-Trent, security; mother b. Stoke-on-Trent, housewife) Ball, Daniel, b. 1922 Tunstall; male (father b. Hanley, steel-worker; mother b. Penkhull, canal boat worker) Ball, Joan, b. 1924 female (father b. Ironbridge, labourer; mother b. domestic service) Ball, Philip Andrew, b. 1960 Stoke-on-Trent; male; manufacturing (father b. Tunstall, kiln worker; mother b. Werrington, pottery worker)

The interviewees represent three generations of a Stoke-on-Trent family.

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 English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905) ∆ see New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) ◊ see Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) ♥ see Dictionary of Contemporary Slang (2014) # see Dictionary of North East Dialect (2011) ⌂ no previous source (with this sense) identified pleased pleased; mint◊ (suggested by interviewer, used as term of approval); cool (used as term of approval); wicked (initially misunderstood when used by daughter as term of approval); happy; glad tired knackered; sleepy; drowsy

http://sounds.bl.uk Page 1 of 3 BBC Voices Recordings unwell ill; under the weather (suggested by interviewer, used occasionally); sick; sickies (of absence from work due to illness); off-side1 (old) hot sweat; sweaty; scorcher; roasting cold frozzen#; chilly; freezing annoyed angry; vexed (old, learnt from parents, “are you vexed of me?”) throw chuck (“chuck that away”, also used frequently as term of endearment) play truant skipped school; skip school; abscond; skive; wag (suggested by interviewer, not known); skiving sleep kip; take a kip; doze; snooze; sleep play a game top and whip (of old-fashioned spinning-top toy); join in hit hard thump; beat (“beat it”); swipe; whack; belt (“belt it”) clothes clothes; me gear (heard used); clobber; dress trousers kegs♥; hot pants; trousers; pants (suggested by interviewer, not used); flannels (used in past of trousers worn with sports jacket) child’s shoe trainers; pumps; plimsolls mother ma; mother; mum gmother nan; nana; grandma m partner my hubby; fella friend mates; me crew (used by young speakers of “gang”, e.g. “Bucknall crew”); pal; mate gfather grandad; grandpa forgot name something; friend⌂ (of person); thingymejig⌂ [θɪŋimiʤɪg]; thing (of object); oojah-ma-flip∆ (suggested by interviewer); “all right, mate” (to person) kit of tools tool-kit trendy tart (of female “out on the pull”, i.e. actively seeking sexual partner); poor; chav (suggested by interviewer, not known by older generation) f partner the missus, her indoors (used of own wife to friends, not used in presence of own wife); me better half; sweetheart (used by own husband of self) baby sibling (heard used); baby; kid (censured at work as nursery nurse); tot; babby○ (suggested by interviewer); nipper rain heavily pour down; pouring down; raining cats and dogs (“oh blimey, it’s raining cats and dogs”); chucking it down∆ toilet lavatory (“posh”); lav; loo; W.C.; bog walkway alley; alleyway; entry long seat settee; couch (“posh”); sofa run water brook; dribble main room lounge; living-room; parlour (used when first married of front room lodgings in terraced house); front room (of room in terraced house) rain lightly spotting; drizzle; spitting; mizzle (suggested by interviewer, not known) rich ?brainy⌂; posh, stuck-up, toffee-nose (used in past), la-di-das (of rich people) left-handed keggy-handed○; keggy○; left-handed unattractive minger; ugly; pig-ugly lack money skint; poor drunk smashed; “P.I. double S. E. D.’d” (i.e. euphemism for ‘pissed’); bottled; sozzled

1 David Wilson’ Staffordshire Dialect Words: a historical survey (1974) includes ‘off-side’ in this sense.

http://sounds.bl.uk Page 2 of 3 BBC Voices Recordings pregnant up the spout (“up the spout, she is” used in past); full as a bedtick○2; expecting; in the club; up the duff, got a bun in the oven (current) attractive fit; sweet (of female); nice-looking; lovely insane mad; crazy; round the bend; round the twist moody grumpy; touchy; in one◊3

2 English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905) records ‘full as a tick’ in sense of ‘eaten one’s fill’ but not in this sense. 3 Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) records ‘go into one’ in this sense.

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