DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Tripps]

There is the Liverpool dish Pea W(h)ack Soup

Reminds me that in childhood fresh peas, (remember them?) were known as 'pea wags'

PS - As I've mentioned before, this site is great for reminding you of things that you'd forgotten you'd forgot.

[Bruff]

Hmmm, never heard of 'pea wags'. It was the rather dull pea pods for us....

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

'Pea swods (swads?)' was a common name around here for pea pods but I think it's died out now.
The lads from Bebington seemed to have their own dialect Richard. The main dock for imported Irish cattle was in Birkenhead and again, they had a different twang. I remember that when explaining clip marks to me one of them used the word 'tutty' for the one on the tail root, I got the impression this was a dialect word for the vulva.

[David Whipp]

It was, and still is, 'wads' for me; love 'em.

[Bruff]

Micro-dialects were quite common it seems. I seem to recall reading in one of the books on Barlick perhaps by Dorothy Carthy (or as any Gisburn Road pupil of a certain age would say, 'Mrs Carthy'). It had a section on this; think it referenced Lothersdale.

Neston at the bottom of the peninsular here had a particular dialect that remains today in a particularly distinct accent. The dialect developed due to the pit there employing lots of Welsh miners from Flintshire over the estuary, as well as the fishing industry at Parkgate next door. Worth noting Neston has the only remaining Female Friendly Society, and each year holds a Ladies Walk.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

Funny place, The Wirral.....

[Stanley]

A little thing has been nattering me lately. It's confusion between reign as in monarch and rein as in horse harness. I saw a headline on a news item last night on TV which referred to 'reigning in'. surely that should have been 'reining'? Or has the language moved on and left me behind!

[LizG]

I think you're correct Stanley; it should be reining as in horse. The problem in these days of texting and shortening words is that no-one really learns 'proper english' any more. The mis-use of there, their and they're and your and you're drives me mad.

[LizG]

The other day I fell downstairs. I felt like an idiot and got no sympathy at all, even though I keep trying to show off my massive bruise.

So the question is ... at what age do you stop 'falling over' and it becomes 'had a fall'?

[Stanley]

I don't know Liz but I remember some research that was done on this which confirmed my suspicion that such falls are usually on the last three steps....

[Bruff]

The other week a Guardian journalist was noting they were 'laid up' with a cracked rib having fallen on the stairs 'like an old man', or as a friend rather uncharitably corrected him: 'as an old man'. Know how he feels on two counts. I went off the second bottom step last year and went over on my ankle badly, easily done. And 'as an old man' I can remember the first time, 3 or 4 years ago when some youth offered me their seat on a bus.........

Richard Broughton

[plaques]

at what age do you stop 'falling over' and it becomes 'had a fall'?

To my mind there are two indicators.
1) When you say to yourself "what am I doing down here".
2) When nobody is interested at looking at your bruises!
Liz, I think you are half way there!

[LizG]

Stanley, correct it was down the last 3 steps!

Plaques, Correct - half way there. My first thought was not quite as polite "what am I doing down here".

[Stanley]

You know it's getting really serious when your first rational thought is "Is there anything I can usefully do while I am down here?"
Has anyone else ever heard the exclamation; "Well! I'll go to the foot of our stairs!" I wonder where that came from...
On a general note about accidents, researchers have long told us that the home is the scene of most minor accidents. Have a look at this LINK and be very afraid!

[chinatyke]

Has anyone else ever heard the exclamation; "Well! I'll go to the foot of our stairs!" I wonder where that came from...

My mother used that expression. She was born and brought up in Rawdon and worked "in service" in Threshfield from about age 14.

[Bruff]

My mother used that expression too. I recall Terry Wogan using it once when he used to do the Eurovision. France received 'null points' from Denmark, meaning their chance of winning went. Cue Terry: 'Quelle damage! I'll go to the foot of our escalier'.

Richard Broughton

[Wendyf]

I say it....but I don't know where I got it from.

[Stanley]

I've had a furtle and can't find anything about an origin for this phrase. General opinion is that it started in Yorks/Lancs and never got further South than Birmingham. Mind you, one source commented that there was never any such thing as a specialised tripe shop! He had obviously not come across the United Cattle Products Company (UCP).
Just used 'degging' in respect of the Barlick in Bloom flower beds.... Remember 'degging cans'?

[Stanley]

I heard an amusing bit of conversation yesterday on the programme from Silverstone. A German team boss who spoke excellent English was being interviewed and in our terms he 'tripped over his own words'. However he translated the German equivalent into English and said "I am standing beside my own shoes".

[PanBiker]

Is it too much to ask that when the major broadcasters (ITV in this case) cover events in the North of England that they enlist the help of someone with local knowledge? The commentator on stage one of Le Grand Departe successfully managed to move one of our villages into Poland, "Krakow" and another location made famous by the WI was described as "Rile Stone". Shortly afterwards the view of Malham Cove from the helicopter was verified by the commentator as Gordale Scar, apparently he was certain of this because he went to school in Leeds!

[Tripps]

Amusing when they passed Menwith Hill, and - reading from his brief it was described as an RAF 'early warning station', rented out to the USA since 1966, and known by the nickname 'Echelon'. Also said they spoke to submarines from there.
Yeah right.

[Tizer]

A German team boss who spoke excellent English was being interviewed and in our terms he 'tripped over his own words'. However he translated the German equivalent into English and said "I am standing beside my own shoes".

Having worked with a German colleague I found that whereas we `cross our fingers' when hoping for good luck, they `press their thumbs' (the face of one thumb pressed against the face of the other). I tried it but it didn't seem to work for me!

[Stanley]

I had a mate who worked at Menwith Hill for the NSA. At that time the joke in America was that this stood for 'No Such Agency' as its existence was always denied. He was fluent in Russian and Arabic and he told me his last task was listening to radio cab messages in Omsk. He didn't feel comfortable with what he was doing but you couldn't resign from the NSA. The lads worked out a way round this, they got a bit of grass and smoked it before the frequent lie detector tests they had to take. When asked if he had done any drugs he said no. He said that this worked every time, shortly afterwards he was 'retired'. By the way, the mention of Echelon in this post almost certainly means it has been picked up and identified....

[Bruff]

''Is it too much to ask that when the major broadcasters.......''

It got worse the day after. We were informed we would go past Castle Howard, but I don't think it went anywhere near; we were shown Helmsley Castle apparently (I wouldn't know it), which must have been 30miles away. I'm sure Heptonstall was mixed up with Ripponden; Woodhead Resevoir is not Ladybower, nor is it known as such, and the 'Dambusters' I'm sure trained on neither, rather that being the Derwent Resevoir.

That said, I think the 'information' is provided by the organisers and not the broadcasters who simply read it out, so I'm not sure it's the fault of ITV and perhaps similar 'errors' litter the French stages. Thankfully they got Keighley right on the pronunciation, but we got no footage of the race going through the town which I bet has gone down a bomb there! Though as some wag said, given this was a chance to show Yorkshire at its best we can't be surprised. The comedian Mark Steel wrote a book called Mark Steel's In Town, a sort of 21st Century English Journey, inspired in large part by a female member of the audience at a show he did in Skipton heckling with quiet menace 'Keighley is a sink of evil'.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

Lovely post Richard....