Norfolk Dialect and other bits....

Some language training for our non-Norfolk readers!

Most of the words and phrases listed here have been taken from "Larn Yarself Norfolk" with kind permission from Keith Skipper

* AFRONT- in front

* AHIND - behind

* ATWIN - between

* BISHY BARNEY BEE-Lady Bird

* BOR - neighbour or boy

* BRED AND BORN - Norfolk purists insist this is the proper order not"born and bred"

* COR BLARST ME! - favourite Norfolk expletive along "Well, I'll be blowed!" lines

* DEW YEW KEEP A TROSHIN! - carry on with the threshing - but is another way of saying "goodbye" or "look after yourself"

* DUDDER - to shiver "all of a dudder"

* GUZUNDER - CHAMBER POT(guzunder the bed!)

* HOLD YEW HARD! - Hang on a moment

* JIP - aggravation, annoyance in the sense of pain

* JOLLIFICEARTIONS - fun, joviality

* LEND US A LUG - asking someone else to listen into a conversation for you (this is one of my father's expressions!)

* LOKE - lane or alley,usually enclosed

* LOLLOP - to progress slowly

* LUMMOX - clumsy or ungainly person ("git yew out o'the way yew gret lummox!")

* MARDLE - 1.to gossip, chat at leisure; 2 a village pond

* MAWTHER - girl or young woman

* OLD YEAR'S NYTE -New Year's Eve

* ON THE HUH - awry, slanted or not level

* RUM - curious, strange, funny

* SQUIT - talking nonsense

* TITTY-TOTTY - Very small

* WARMINT - varmint or vermin, troublesome person "come here you young warmint I'll sort yew out!"

NOTE: many words beginning with V take a W start in Norfolk - warmint, wittles and willage among them. There are also examples of the letter being changed in the middle of the word i.e. aggravating becomes aggraweartin.

* ZACKLEY - exactly ("thass zackly ryte!")

To a "transplant" visiting his roots in Norfolk it must be a nightmare trying to ask a "local" the direction to some of the villages. Here are a few of the problems:

* Costessey = COSSEY

* Happisburgh = HAYSBRUH

* Wymondham = WINDAM

* Postwick = POSSICK

* Potter Heigham = POTTER HAM

* Raveningham = RANNINGHAM

* Mattishall = MATSELL

NARSERY RHOIMES

Little owd gal Muffet

Sat roight down on an owd tuffet

Eatin' har cards an' whey,

When there come a master grut owd spoider

And sat roight down aside o'har

And wholly scart the li'l ol' mawther away.

AND ANOTHER NARSERY RHOIME

The ship are in the midder

The cows are in the corn

The duzzy fule see arter 'em-

He's lorst, soo blow yar horn.

A-snorin in the stuvva-

Tha's where he fare ter be.

Dew he on't wark termorrer-

Oi'll wholly wallop he.

The above was taken from December 1958 East Anglian Magazine.. signed D.E.B.

'Ha' yer fa'r got a dickey, bor?' 'Yis, an' he want a fule ter roide 'im, will yew cum?'

TRANSLATION

Has your father got a donkey, boy? Yes, and he wants a fool to ride him, will you come?

Keith Skipper