I’ve been thinking about the different words used to convey the same things. These thoughts came about as I was writing one of my character’s many dialogues. As I stepped into her shoes, I realized that she would say words that would not necessarily be understood by someone who had not come from the same part of the UK as she had. I was brought up in Yorkshire, though spent many years living in Suffolk and Surrey before moving to live in Holland. Even to this day we still ‘mash’ the tea in our house. Despite my husband being from Surrey, he's adopted some of my sayings! By the way, for those who have no idea what ‘mash’ the tea is, it is making the tea of brewing the tea.
Other little words now spring to mind, I still tend to say ‘our’ as in any member of the family. For example, ‘It’s our Nigel’s birthday.’ Other little words stick in my mind too, when we lived in Suffolk they always referred to Yorkshire puddings as ‘batter puddings.’ They called little girls ‘my maid’, which I still use, a lovely term of endearment. In Holland we learnt the value of being a family. You didn’t address cards, notes or email to Mr & Mrs Blog or Pat & Sue, but to Family Blog. So if you see a card addressed to you as ‘Family…’ you know where it came from!
I love using my local words and learning new local terms and sayings. What about you? Do you have sayings that are used only in your area, if so maybe you will share some of them with us!
6 comments:
I have a friend who always refers to her sister as 'Our Claire'. In Jersey you tend to find people saying 'a' as in the letter A and 'ma love'. Great stuff.
I'm fascinated by the words for alleys. Depending on where you live in the UK they're either jitties (my preferred word), gillies, snickelways (York), ten foots (Hull) and there are probably more. But my favourite type of words are those that have grown up with the children e.g. we still refer to speck-potatoes at a football match (much to the embarrassment of my youngest ;-)
My Nana, from N Wales, used 'duck' as a term of endearment, which I love. And it was the first word my nephew learned to say, which I think is a lovely coincidence.
Hello Debs thanks for calling by and sharing a few words, love the ma love!
Hello Rosalind, we call alleys, snickets! But your are right children's words are so lovely.
notahappybunny, funny how little ones pick up those local words,I think it is because they hear them as words of affection.
Hi Pauline
On my blog I have also been remembering words from my childhood. Take a look! Now I've also learned some of the Bristol 'specialities' like pikelet for what I would call a crumpet. When I worked in Oxford, the oolder ladies called me 'my duck' which I liked, although in Scotland if someone called me 'hen' I would have felt patronised!
AliB
Hi AliB, thanks for stopping by, love pikelet for crumpet. I'm now heading over to your Blog, see you there. x
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