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Local sayings from yesteryear!


peterinfrance

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9 minutes ago, tozzin said:

I’ve never heard that expression before, but it’s brilliant, door wide open just like, with their mouth agape.

....which mention of mouths reminds me that my (Derbyshire) parents used to say that someone who talked a lot had "a mouth like a parish oven".

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3 hours ago, Athy said:

....which mention of mouths reminds me that my (Derbyshire) parents used to say that someone who talked a lot had "a mouth like a parish oven".

I do remember “ A gob like a parish oven”

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I seem to remember "ekky thump" as a saying. I think it means something along the lines of "blooming heck"

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Just now, peterinfrance said:

I seem to remember "ekky thump" as a saying. I think it means something along the lines of "blooming heck"

I associate Ekky Thump with the Goodies and maybe Mike Harding, I’m sure it was a made up term for comedy.

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13 hours ago, tozzin said:

I associate Ekky Thump with the Goodies and maybe Mike Harding, I’m sure it was a made up term for comedy.

I heard 'A Gob like Totley Tunnel' many years ago! I think it's a regional thing, a friend of mine from Liverpool used to say, 'A Gob like the Mersey Tunnel'.

Wazzie Worrall.....

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1 minute ago, Paul Worrall said:

I heard 'A Gob like Totley Tunnel' many years ago! I think it's a regional thing, a friend of mine from Liverpool used to say, 'A Gob like the Mersey Tunnel'.

Wazzie Worrall.....

Plus “ As Wide As Wicker Arches” which means nothing gets past him or her.

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Explanation here

Basically (1) ecky = hecky = Hell. (2) thump is a substitute word used where a swear word would be inserted: “What the thump have you done!”  So a rough translation is "Bloody Hell"

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17 minutes ago, MartinR said:

Explanation here

Basically (1) ecky = hecky = Hell. (2) thump is a substitute word used where a swear word would be inserted: “What the thump have you done!”  So a rough translation is "Bloody Hell"

Ive never heard Ecky Thump used in the street, so to speak, only in comedy programmes. despite the explaination, every saying and word can be explained away but its doesn't mean its a saying used by people in the street, like eckky Thump.

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On 28/08/2021 at 10:07, MartinR said:

Explanation here

Basically (1) ecky = hecky = Hell. (2) thump is a substitute word used where a swear word would be inserted: “What the thump have you done!”  So a rough translation is "Bloody Hell"

 

 

Test

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On 28/08/2021 at 10:27, tozzin said:

Ive never heard Ecky Thump used in the street, so to speak, only in comedy programmes. despite the explaination, every saying and word can be explained away but its doesn't mean its a saying used by people in the street, like eckky Thump.

I heard it before the era of The Goodies but I can't remember where or when. I got the impression that it was a saying used further North and West than Sheffield.

   I had always thought that "By (h)eck" was a Northern English expression, until I heard Elvis Presley using it on a record which dated back to 1958.

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Elvis was using the word that was around in the U.S. god knows how it started or when but I can only relate to my own memories and I never heard By Eck on the street, Wilfred Pickles, Gracie Fields in films reinforcing their northern roots maybe , I don’t know, Uh-Hu !!


 

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I've just remembered that I did hear a related expression in my Sheffield days: "eckers like", meaning disagreement, as in "Is the train on time? Is it 'eckers like", i.e. no, it's late.

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8 hours ago, Athy said:

I've just remembered that I did hear a related expression in my Sheffield days: "eckers like", meaning disagreement, as in "Is the train on time? Is it 'eckers like", i.e. no, it's late.

I thought this was "Heck as like".

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I'd go with Hopman on this.  It makes more linguistic sense: "Hell as like", in other words "as likely as Hell".  IMHO of course!

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Looking a bit dark over Bill's mother's house.  Zithee = See thou here. This tea  as weak as weasel wee wee. You don't say . Gerr away with you.

I allus said, and don't mind saying it again, if Sheffield United get a good manager and 11 good players then they will go places (2018)

Shurrup yer fool (after youth called no ball after the sharper eyed had in unison called three previous consecutive no balls from West Indian bowler. Sitting in the football side of the ground was a long way from the pitch !)  Tha's daft as a brush. In paper innit ?

(Love the automatic 'change' to something more polite -after weasel)

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Eh By Gum.

Realising local sayings may just be a corruption of plain English it is easy to put anything in the vernacular ( whats vernacular Harry ? Dunno, summat in dictionharry)

I once asked a Doncaster worthy directions to a sports shop. Sithee; reet down street, turn reet at leets and it's on tha reet All reet ? Absolutely the cats whiskers.

We're reet dahn in coal ole whe'r muck spats on winners; we've used all our coal and we're reet dahn to sinders; If yon bailiff cums he'll never findus; 'cos we're reet dahn.......

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To a certain extent you're right.  Traditionally an accent was the way you pronounced words (eg "brass" vs "brarse" or "casul" vs "carsul").  A dialect means that you are using some different vocabulary (eg "ginnel" for "alley-way" or "wagon" for "lorry").  A language means that the grammar has changed, for instance the difference between the Scots language and Scottish English.

Sheffieldish is a dialect in which some words differ from Southern British English (SBE, what used to be called RP) but a lot of the difference is dialect.  Don't go down the route of saying "a corruption of plain English", English was never standardised.  SBE has become the accepted norm for a variety of reasons but is really just the local Oxford dialect in origin.  Local dialect terms may indeed be an older form which SBE has "corrupted".

As an aside, when I studied Chaucer for my O-levels (yes, I'm that ancient) I found it much easier than most of the class.  They were mainly southerners (or foreigners who had learnt SBE) whereas I have a mixed Sheffield/Black Country/Middlesbrough/Tyneside tinge to my speaking.  Middle English is closer to a northern dialect than that French-corrupted southern way.😁

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19 hours ago, MartinR said:

 

As an aside, when I studied Chaucer for my O-levels (yes, I'm that ancient) I found it much easier than most of the class. 

I found that my (fairly light) aksent helped me speak French, as the vowel sounds were so similar - it must have worked because I later spent 30 years teaching it!

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Do Sheffield people still use "thee" (I'm talking to thee) and tha (What tha doing?) instead of "you", or has that now died out. Please forgive the question, I've been away from the city for quite a long time.

Also "thine" as a possessive (Is that mine or thine?)

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You are more likely to hear accents from Eastern Europe or Asia nowadays, Sheffield is becoming more cosmopolitan.

But I did hear recently " aye up sithee, it's conked aht ageern" so there a few folk hanging on to the past.

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2 hours ago, Athy said:

I remember "sithee" ( = "see thee" i.e. "do you see?".) My parents occasionally used it, but only in jest.

I always had it down to “see what I mean?”, as clarification that whoever you were speaking to understood you.

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3 minutes ago, DaveJC said:

I always had it down to “see what I mean?”, as clarification that whoever you were speaking to understood you.

Precisely, synonymous with the Brummy "Knowworroimeanloike?"

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