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Sheffield Dialect


hougomont

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Who exactly was Bill's mother, she always seems to suffer with bad weather.

My grandad would say "its looking black or bill's mothers" and it had a cyclical sort of nonsense about it.

My dads brother was my uncle Bill, so Bill was my grandads other son (after my dad)

Therefore, Bill's mother was my grandmother

As my grandad lived with my grandmother "black over Bill's mothers actually meant, - it was black over his own house!

So who was Bill? and who was his mother?

and, from another of grandads sayings, where exactly is "the back o' Fosters"

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Guest BUXT0NGENT

What about

"Its coming down like stair rods"

Perhaps some of our younger members don't know what stair rods are, perhaps for another topic.

Probably not, but if it was raining that heavy 'it warn't fit to kick cat off'n t'arth, but thi'Dad'l still go to't Pub'

reply: " if i get wet on't artside, I might as well get wet on't inside.

Any road we cu'nt afford stair carpet, so what were t' good o,stair rods. Tacks'l keep t'oilcloth darn.

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It confuses me to have a supermarket called ASDA. They should be made to call it something else or at least give it its full name, Associated Dairies!

Why?

Because whenever anyone says ASDA to me I automatically assume they are asking me a question.

Everyone knows that ASDA translates into "proper English as "Have you" and so automatically starts a question like.

Asda bin ter tarn?

or

Asda sin dat ont telly?

ASDA?

Or even worse - "As Da bin ter ASDA?" lol

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One of my Christmas presents is a lovely little book of Sheffield Dialects,with lovely words like Trankliments,Cornish,Cackhanded,and so on,words from my childhood and youth,as I do not live in Sheffield,are these and other such lovely local words still used,and should we preserve them,some times I use an expression which is greeted with some funny looks,for instance recently I referred to a "Snecklifter"and my friends did not know what I was on about!

Any comments and observations?

As a child , my mum & dad used to say "pass me my cigarettes from off the cornish" which as I got older turned into the fireplace or mantlepiece.

It's my belief that "cornish" probably came from "Cornice" which is defined as "A horizontal molded projection that crowns or completes a building or wall."

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One of my Christmas presents is a lovely little book of Sheffield Dialects,with lovely words like Trankliments,Cornish,Cackhanded,and so on,words from my childhood and youth,as I do not live in Sheffield,are these and other such lovely local words still used,and should we preserve them,some times I use an expression which is greeted with some funny looks,for instance recently I referred to a "Snecklifter"and my friends did not know what I was on about!

Any comments and observations?

Was this the one?

http://www.printanddesignshop.co.uk/cgi-bi...peech&pid=6

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What about the "coursey edge"? Don't go off coursey edge you'll get run or he he

Yes we used to use that one a lot, the "causey edge", meaning the kerbstones between the road and the pavement.

The word "causey" or as it's pronounced in Sheffield "coursey" is an abbriviation of the word causeway, meaning a road.

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Often heard - is it peculiar to Sheffield?

To move house = to flitt? ;-)

Flit actually implies doing a runner, making yourself scarce to get out of the way of someone (thugs / gangsters / baliffs etc) as in "doing a midnight flit"

The word Flit is presumably an abbreviation of Flight, as in "to take flight" ie to run or move away

Wouldn't know if it was just local or more widespread but it does get used a lot around Sheffield.

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Guest wellington03

Flit actually implies doing a runner, making yourself scarce to get out of the way of someone (thugs / gangsters / baliffs etc) as in "doing a midnight flit"

The word Flit is presumably an abbreviation of Flight, as in "to take flight" ie to run or move away

Wouldn't know if it was just local or more widespread but it does get used a lot around Sheffield.

It brings to mind, a piece I once read in "On the knife Edge" Ernest Mills, the well known cutler used the phrase "Heeley duff'uns", he describes how Heeley ( in the 1920=30s)had many tenant houses. People who hadn't got rent would know when the landlord was coming, every Monday morning-tic tack along the road-and they would bolt their doors so he couldn't get in. Then next time he'd come they had blown, run off, gone to another place. That rent man was called a "Heeley duff'un, because he was a no good.

B. Ronald Dyson compiled a remarkable little booklet " A Glossary Of Old Sheffield Trade Words And Dialect" published by Washington's in 1936.

Ron realised that with the advent of better education, radio, better communications etc that much of the "Sheffield" dialect would disappear over time and become lost to future generations. He therefore made an effort to record the phrases words etc used in industrial life (not everyday)

A few examples

Thrussen -Crowded, or pressed " better be thrussen for room nor thrussen for rent" :unsure:

Thumbhandside -the right hand side.

Tak thi hook -Depart in a hurry.

Taking agean -The filegrinders equivalent of "cookoo": correcting faulty work in filecutting.

The little book is well worth looking out for.

Mick .

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It brings to mind, a piece I once read in "On the knife Edge" Ernest Mills, the well known cutler used the phrase "Heeley duff'uns", he describes how Heeley ( in the 1920=30s)had many tenant houses. People who hadn't got rent would know when the landlord was coming, every Monday morning-tic tack along the road-and they would bolt their doors so he couldn't get in. Then next time he'd come they had blown, run off, gone to another place. That rent man was called a "Heeley duff'un, because he was a no good.

B. Ronald Dyson compiled a remarkable little booklet " A Glossary Of Old Sheffield Trade Words And Dialect" published by Washington's in 1936.

Ron realised that with the advent of better education, radio, better communications etc that much of the "Sheffield" dialect would disappear over time and become lost to future generations. He therefore made an effort to record the phrases words etc used in industrial life (not everyday)

A few examples

Thrussen -Crowded, or pressed " better be thrussen for room nor thrussen for rent" :unsure:

Thumbhandside -the right hand side.

Tak thi hook -Depart in a hurry.

Taking agean -The filegrinders equivalent of "cookoo": correcting faulty work in filecutting.

The little book is well worth looking out for.

Mick .

Very interesting wellington03, as you say this book seems well worth looking out for.

It would appear that the phrases you quote as examples of in danger of becoming lost to future generations may unfortunately have already become so, looking down the list the only one I immediately recognise and do still occasionally use is "Tak thi hook", sometimes spoken (by me at least as "sling thi hook" meaning go away in a less than polite manner but without swearing. Todays youth would invariably be much more vulgar and use one of several swear words followed by "off" to mean the same thing. Tak (or sling) thi hook sounds much better.

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Interesting little clip from You Tube about 2 Sheffielders (played by animated action man figures) squaring up for a fight.

Forget the graphics, its the conversation that makes this one a little gem.

Tha got beaf wi me

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Then it gets complicated is it 'un' or 'une (male or female), we can't really be sexist and say a sports paper is male can we
there must have been quite a few sheffielders that emigrated to america in the 1800's in many films i hear them say such things as " get the young uns ready "
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A word which caused me particular problems while doing maths at university was the word 'AIF meaning a half.

Better elocuted (mainly southerners) people took this to mean an eighth.

This meant that they thought it was talking about a quarter the amount I actually meant :o

..and I am sure I was short measured when I asked for "'aif a pint" down the pub :angry:

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A word which caused me particular problems while doing maths at university was the word 'AIF meaning a half.

Better elocuted (mainly southerners) people took this to mean an eighth.

This meant that they thought it was talking about a quarter the amount I actually meant :o

..and I am sure I was short measured when I asked for "'aif a pint" down the pub :angry:

Talking about southern elocution, I saw this sign in a bus many years ago, probably on a visit to my grandma in Aldershot. PLEASE SHEW YOUR TICKET. This was very confusing to an 11 or 12 year old brought up in Sheffield. The Concise Oxford Dictionary actually gives it as a (rare) alternative spelling. I'm trying hard to imagine the queen trying to pronounce it and not making it sound like - Please Chew Your Ticket

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I frequently kid people on at work that my first name isn't really Dave at all, its NARDEN.

In fact everyone born in Sheffield is called NARDEN

I tell the people who don't believe me when I say this to go and stand in Fargate on Saturday afternoon and shout "Hey! Narden!" and then look at how many people in the street turn and look because they think you are speaking to them.

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I frequently kid people on at work that my first name isn't really Dave at all, its NARDEN.

In fact everyone born in Sheffield is called NARDEN

I tell the people who don't believe me when I say this to go and stand in Fargate on Saturday afternoon and shout "Hey! Narden!" and then look at how many people in the street turn and look because they think you are speaking to them.

Dave, now, if Narden was your last name, you could write your name formally Narden D.

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Guest skeets

Either nobody knows or has not said in answer to the original question re; origin of sneklifter here goes. ln the 20ties/30 ties almost every door on cottage property and back to back property and even internal doors were fitted with what was the proper name was either a Suffolk or Norfolk latch which consisted of a latch, catch, and carry, and hook, the latch being the section which was pressed down, to lift the catch, which was held by the carry, and opened the door,as it lifted the catch from the hook, which was fitted to the door jamb, the latch was called, almost by everyone at that time the snek hence the snek to the pub door was lifted,. hence the snecklifter was a few pence or a tanner [sixpence] Hope you get all this. Skeets.

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What's irritating is the fact that much of "Sheffield" can't be written down without knowledge of the phonetic alphabet. Consequently, it can't really be pronounced by anyone who doesn't already speak it.

Reading some of the posts, I can imagine the bits where posters have debated with themselves as to how to spell certain words. (and then had to make a compromise with something which sort of looks / sounds similar.)

For instance, WE all know that art (as opposed to in) is not pronounced as in a piece of sculpture, but how do you convey that? You could try spelling it aart, but that would give the impression that it should be pronounced as in aardvark.

How on earth could we write "get it out of the way" in such a way that a foreigner would see how it should be pronounced? gerri'ar'n'way (or even gerri'ar'n'rooad) is about as near as I can think of (where the apostrophe represents a glottal stop.) The letter "t" which normally gets put in there is just a poor substitute for the real thing, and how to pronounce rooad is nigh on impossible to explain in written form. An obvious one is "to the" which normally has to be written as something like tut. But again, to a foreigner, this looks like it should be pronounced as in cut, hut etc. Nothing like the reality.

Over Here ? over ear maybe, but then the over just looks the same, instead of the actual over as in hover without the H.

The problems are endless. :(

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What's irritating is the fact that much of "Sheffield" can't be written down without knowledge of the phonetic alphabet. Consequently, it can't really be pronounced by anyone who doesn't already speak it.

Reading some of the posts, I can imagine the bits where posters have debated with themselves as to how to spell certain words. (and then had to make a compromise with something which sort of looks / sounds similar.)

For instance, WE all know that art (as opposed to in) is not pronounced as in a piece of sculpture, but how do you convey that? You could try spelling it aart, but that would give the impression that it should be pronounced as in aardvark.

How on earth could we write "get it out of the way" in such a way that a foreigner would see how it should be pronounced? gerri'ar'n'way (or even gerri'ar'n'rooad) is about as near as I can think of (where the apostrophe represents a glottal stop.) The letter "t" which normally gets put in there is just a poor substitute for the real thing, and how to pronounce rooad is nigh on impossible to explain in written form. An obvious one is "to the" which normally has to be written as something like tut. But again, to a foreigner, this looks like it should be pronounced as in cut, hut etc. Nothing like the reality.

Over Here ? over ear maybe, but then the over just looks the same, instead of the actual over as in hover without the H.

The problems are endless. :(

This looks like a thesis for a degree in modern English regional accents to be awareded by the University of Sheffield.

First award goes to vox M.A, D.lang.

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Guest skeets

Whilst I never lived in Sheffield, I've followed the Owls all my life, and for a number of years now, have come into contact with 'Dee Daa's.

I have a small booklet which I will look up, called 'SHEFFIELDISH or how she is spoke' which translated some of the old sayings. One I remember particularly, is a Sheffield woman addressing an American Couple - Bow-Sheff? Tha means Beechiff, duck.

I must go but I will look it out publish the details later.

Ex Hoyland, Clowne & Buxton

HI BUXTON GENT I also have a copy, very amusing, its author is DEREK WHOMESLEY illustrations by WHITWORTH. Published by Sheffield publicity dept 1981 Skeets

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This looks like a thesis for a degree in modern English regional accents to be awareded by the University of Sheffield.

First award goes to vox M.A, D.lang.

Thank you kind sir.

I do like accents and dialects. It's a shame they're getting more and more watered down by the influences of travel, relocation & TV etc.

I saw an interesting programme a few years ago which featured a professor on the subject. She worked with the Police as well as doing voice coaching work with actors etc.

She could identify the difference in dialects from places just a few miles apart. Amazing! She noted that the "type" of accent or "way of speech" is closely related to the kind of terrain in the area. Sounds strange and a little far fetched but it bears out 100%.

Predominantly flat areas, like around the Midlands, give rise to flat accents as in the Birmingham type monotones, whereas People from hilly or mountainous regions like the Welsh (and ourselves of course) speak in a "sing song" fashion, up and down all the time. Similarly, rolling landscape, will be reflected in a lilting vocalisation.

I've looked from time to time on Google to try to identify who she is in order to read whatever she may have written, but haven't had any success so far.

I could sing her praises more, but - well you get the picture.

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