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The VILLAGER Issue 51 - June 2016 and Town Life LOCAL NEWS • LOCAL PEOPLE • LOCAL SERVICES • LOCAL CHARITIES • LOCAL PRODUCTS Inside this issue Win a set of Gardening Tools National Picnic Week Win £25 in our Prize Crossword Bringing Local Business to Local People in Alconbury, Grafham, Kimbolton, Riseley, The Stukeleys and all surrounding areas every month Your FREEcopy 2 Please mention The Villager and Town Life when responding to adverts The VILLAGER Issue 51 - June 2016 and Town Life LOCAL NEWS • LOCAL PEOPLE • LOCAL SERVICES • LOCAL CHARITIES • LOCAL PRODUCTS Inside this issue Win a set of Gardening Tools National Picnic Week Win £25 in our Prize Crossword Bringing Local Business to Local People in Alconbury, Grafham, Kimbolton, Riseley, The Stukeleys and all surrounding areas every month Your Contents FREEcopy The Plitvice Lakes - Croatia ....................................29 National Picnic Week Animal Heroes .......................................................30 R.A.T.S ...................................................................32 8 BMW at the Movies ...............................................35 Puzzle Page ...........................................................36 What’s On ..............................................................38 Prize Crossword .....................................................42 Nick Coffer’s Weekend Recipe ................................44 Win Tickets to the Farr Festival 2016......................46 Book Review .........................................................47 Death of the Dialect ................................................4 Classifieds .............................................................47 National Picnic Week ...............................................8 Win a Set of Wilkinson Garden Tools ......................10 A Touch of Indulgence ...........................................13 Ousefest ................................................................14 World Blood Donor Day .........................................17 Employment Matters ............................................18 No Will, No Way .....................................................20 The Plitvice Lakes - Croatia When Does Your Birth Certificate Expire? ..............21 Keeping Divorce Costs Down .................................23 29 Tackling Troublesome Weeds .................................27 11,000 copies delivered free of charge in the following areas: Abbots Ripton, Alconbury, Brington, Buckworth, Bythorn, Catworth, Covington, Dillington, Grafham, Great Staughton, Hail Weston, Keyston, Kimbolton, Kings Ripton, Leighton Bromswold, Little Staughton, Lower Dean, Molesworth, Old Weston, Perry, Pertenhall, Ramsey, Riseley, Sawtry, Shelton, Stonley, Stow Longa, Swineshead, The Stukeleys, Tillbrook, Upper Dean and Warboys (We also have over 150 distribution points, including pubs, garages, most shops, post offices, Supermarket Chains in all of the above as well as in Huntingdon, Lt Staughton, Grafham Water Visitor Centre’s and Kimbolton) Editorial - Catherine Rose, Ssan Brookes-Morris, Villager Publications Ltd Kate Duggan, Alison Runham, Carol H Scott, 24 Market Square, Potton, Bedfordshire SG19 2NP Veronica Leone, Tony Larkins, Abby Smith, Tel: 01767 261122 Pippa Greenwood, Solange Hando, Iain Betson, RSPCA, [email protected] Nick Coffer and Willow Coby www.villagermag.com Advertising Sales/Local Editorial Disclaimer - All adverts and editorial are printed in good faith, Scott - 01767 261122 [email protected] however, Villager Publications Ltd can not take any responsibility for the content of the adverts, the services provided by the advertisers or any Photography - Dotshock and Darren Harbar Photography statements given in the editorial. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored without the express permission of the publisher. Design and Artwork - Design 9 Tel 07762 969460 To advertise in ThePublishers Villager and Townlife please call 01767 261122 3 History By Catherine Rose Death of the Dialect The English language is constantly evolving, with the 20th century but has now been overtaken by new words being added to the Oxford English the term ‘buggy’ to describe the modern baby Dictionary every year and various outdated carriage! words dropped (if you are like me, browsing Although we base written English on well- through a 1930s dictionary and seeing how established standards of grammar, spoken many curious terms have fallen out of use can be English is as fluid as a river, ever changing, and as endlessly fascinating). the saying goes, ‘you can never step in the same Put in simple terms, while the world moves ever river twice’. forward with technology and invention, new But words and expressions are not the only words are needed to describe them. At the same aspect of our language that changes. The UK has time, redundant words from a more antiquated a population of around 65 million and although time slowly disappear. For example, the once most of us will speak English as part of our commonplace word ‘wireless’, along with the daily life, there is a wide variation of regional large radio set it describes, has disappeared accents - Brummie, Glaswegian, Scouse, Cockney to be replaced by everyday words describing and Geordie to name but few of the more new technology such as DVD player, laptop and recognisable ones. smartphone (that I was once admonished by Years ago, before globalisation and nationwide a youngster for writing as two words). Words commuting when most people would spend also get abbreviated – for instance, ‘personal their life in the area in which they were born, computer’ has become PC. This shortening of regional accents and dialects were even more words is not at all new. ‘God be with ye’ became defined. (The combination of accent and regional condensed to ‘goodbye’ some centuries ago and expressions or words peculiar to that area is is now abbreviated further to ‘bye’, and the word known as a dialect.) ‘perambulator’ was shortened to ‘pram’ during Today, you can still hear the distinct twang of the 4 Please mention The Villager and Town Life when responding to adverts To advertise in The Villager and Townlife please call 01767 261122 5 original rural Bedfordshire accent when talking to towards certain regional accents and at one time, old folk who have lived and worked their whole it was a distinct disadvantage to have one if you lives in the villages of their birth, but accents like wanted to find certain types of work and you did these are slowly dying out with people in the not speak the ‘Queen’s English’ or what is also home counties in particular said to be adopting known as ‘Received Pronunciation’. If you look at what is coming to be known as a ‘multicultural old black and white films, you will hear most of London English’ or ‘Estuary English’ – often the actors talking in what now seems this archaic criticised as being a bland homogenisation of the but rather charming way. old Cockney and outer London accents. This extended to the first radio presenters. When Likewise, many of the old regional words my father started working for the BBC in the and colloquialisms have also disappeared. In 1940s, not only did all the radio and television Bedfordshire the term ‘fercalling’ was once used presenters have to speak ‘BBC English’ (Received for ‘messing around’, ‘clack’ meant ‘mouth’, ‘jallop’ Pronunciation) but under the famous Director described ‘medicine’, and ‘buppy’ was a term for General Lord Reith, they were even expected to ‘butter’. And of course, there was the famous wear dinner jackets while broadcasting over the Bedfordshire ‘clanger’ – the unique meat and jam radio. pasty combination that no field worker would set Similarly, when my mother came down from her off for the day without. home city of Sheffield in the 1950s to find work, Interestingly Dr Shaw found that many of these she had elocution lessons to try and diminish words were used south of Bedfordshire and as her northern accent as she knew that it would be far as north London. I can certainly recall my detrimental to her finding a job in London. Even north London Dad (who was born in 1912) using today, some research has shown that R.P. still the word ‘jollop’ for medicine. The gentle but gives British speakers an edge when it comes to distinctive Bedfordshire accent however was landing the best-paid jobs although this could be peculiar to the area. due to the fact that many people who speak with In the 1950s, the BBC recorded the accents of this accent attended private and public schools rural farmers in Hertfordshire. They found an with the social and networking advantages it can accent which turned words such as ‘price’ into often bring. ‘proice’ and ‘mouth’, ‘maooth’. A mid-morning Fortunately, there are numerous archives of snack was known as a ‘bever’ which interestingly voice recordings both by the BBC and the British is very similar to the word ‘bevvy’ for a drink or Library to name but two that have helped to ‘beverage’. chronicle regional accents and their changes over In some ways, these fading regional accents the past 100 years. are a reflection of the fact that old traditions Imagine you could transport yourself three to and ways of life within small rural communities four hundred years into the future. You would are dying out. At the same time, strong accents probably find it difficult to understand a lot of such as Yorkshire and Cornish which remain are the conversation taking place around you despite becoming far more accepted

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