1 : Carry On
We have, earlier and metaphorically, been asked
what we are a-doing ON. What is going-on here??
Standard English merely asks -
What we are doing, not Of what.
In Norfolk the ancient form survives, perhaps to
distinguish from : with what, by what etc.?.
We all (including Churchill) know that a preposition
is not something to end a sentence with.
However, it is not guilt that modifies
the final preposition from of to on.
The pronunciation of the former (using v instead of f)
may not appear strange in Europe, but seems to be
anathema in our beloved County.
Not too often does 'of' survive beyond the contextual
grunt (see CONCATENATION); yet even when
it does, it doesn't :-
Mardle describes the boy as a-ridin' o' (h)is boike.
Using of, in that way, is certainly part of older Norfolk
speech; but - more surely - cannot become a single O.
The sound, as ever, would be some kind of grunt :
a-ridin'-a
2 : Sex
No, not the usual attention-grabbing headline.
It is the French and Germans who are obsessed with
sex within the construction of their languages.
Norfolk is content to distinguish male and female
persons, but pernickerty about doing so:-Look you (h)are, Booy Ber(t) - tal Gal Ethel she . . .
It seems redundant, if not exactly tautological,
to separate Bert and Ethel so dramatically.
In particular, addressing Bert as a Boy is telling him
something he is well aware of (the same mode of
address lasts a whole lifetime).
It should also sound more like Baa(t)
(or, indeed Harbu(t)).
Is this, however, a case of Norfolk prescience,
going beyond 50 years?.
How useful, these days, to be able to address
Boy Kim or Gal Kim, as required !.
"Unisex" rules - but Norfolk can coop. (not Co-Op).
More plausibly, Boy Bert is the mirror-image of
Baat, E say. Titular respect for the humblest . . .
Note the even more complex construction in:-
Oi wooz a-gorn along, toime Oi see
the Gal Mary t'other soide-a the rood.
3 : Norfolk Broads
Bert is probably a good blook;
Ethel may be a mawther - not so good?.
She wouldn't be Ethel (Kelly perhaps?), as all
mawthers have some degree of youth (if nothing
else) on their side : right down to babyhood -
(The dare li(tt)le mawther !).
N.B. The term maw (female for bor) is
rapidly falling into disuse. See Chapter J.1
It is my belief that the longer word was not
normally applied to married &/or older women
(as in Nayther he, she na yi(t) th'owl woman).
Yes, mawther can be a fairly pejorative term;
and a good match for the American broad.
It must be the ultimate, in Norfolk perversity, to use
a word obviously derived from or absurdly similar to
mother - for a baby, child or single girl !.
(Literally : no husband AND no children -
the word having originated when unmarried girls
were "always" thus . . .)
As ever, many were unmarried because they were
unpleasantly fat : the kind of figure which lacks much
semblance of shape or "control". You've met 'em,
but Political Correctness won't let you say so !.
The standard insult or "put down" for such unfortunates
has always been :- Slummockin' gri(t) mawther. You have the picture that the adjective is trying
to paint; its spelling is a bit more vague.
I am disposed towards links with both hummock
(lumpy shape) and slum (collapsing edifice?).
This line of thought rules out alternatives like
"slammicking", which sound wrong anyway.
Nor do I believe the word implies slut or any
kind of dirt - which attributes could apply to
very thin people.
Great surely rules out "super-models"
and indeed most young ladies.
Look-a them couple-a mawthers
a-gorn down the rood!.
In(t) [sing.] they boo(ti)ful?!
Note : that couple is not used. Which is more correct?
4 : Folklore
Nothing about dialect appeals more than such
unique words - "new" names for well-known things.
Like dialects themselves (but not mawthers) many
of these things are no longer well-known; or even
known at all.
Who does not lament the many and varied references
to "half-a-crown", or the passing of the farden?.
One of the most famous Norfolk waads is dwile
(a floorcloth). Nowadays the housewife/husband uses
a JayCloth for most purposes, and a fancy piece of
apparatus (with a handle, to save bending and kneeling)
- not to mention Flash - for the floor.
It's not that we don't know what a dwile is;
many younger people don't even know what it was.
We still find things to laugh about, sometimes.
Whether we golder as often, I can't say.
Nor can I be sure that we ever simply 'goldered',
because the word laugh(ter) is usually included :-
Blast, E say, Oi goldered a-laughin'. A golder of may, in fact, be a volume (gale?) of.Oi shruck a-laughin' is a bit more extreme, and a
very fine example of the past-participle (of shriek).
To top that, we have the Norfolk person who goes
into complete highstirrics or highstrikers.
Mere sniggering is gimblin(g).
5 : Going Dutch
I am convinced that a truly dedicated researcher,
preferably one fluent in Dutch/Flemish, will find
that most "native" Norfolk words originated
across the North Sea.
Dwile most certainly does (dweil in Dutch).
One that travelled much further relates to gipsies,
who themselves travelled a heck of a long way!
Norfolk has, over the centuries, tolerated various
influxes of (genuine) foreigners i.e. refugees,
from Jews to Huguenots.
But, like most folk, we harbour suspicions about
gipsies; and have uncomplimentary names for them.
At least, we think they are rude names; but they
usually turn-out to be neutral, even factual.
Totally by accident I once discovered the Hungarian
word for "from a long way off" : diddecor.
My forebears used to complain about the diddecoys,
but (like gipsies) no real harm seems to have been done(?).
If Hungarians don't know about the Travellers,
who does?!.
They probably don't believe the Egypt story, either.
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6 : Nothing Special
We should not be frightened about all these
"unique" and unfamiliar words.
Often native usage merely swaps, not creates, words.
The Americans never get angry - they get mad.
Likewise the Norfolk person - who gets . . .
raw or savage.
[angry means inflamed, as in a skin abrasion
or infection].
To be in a temper is to be honky (interestingly
a word found in the West Indies) or in a passe
(passion). Or perhaps, colloquially, he gets
his 'rag out' (or some other euphemism).
Blast, E din(t) arf mairke me raw -
soo Oi give [gave] 'im a soidewoinder.
A bad-tempered person is a snasty one (fair enough?).
Norfolk folk never get ill; at worst they say :
Oi'm feelin a bi(t) quare or Oi'm no(t) up ter much
(= up to doing much).
Mother's friend used to feel a bit dingy = floppy?
- not pronounced as for a small boat,
nor as 'dinjy' (dull). Also see Not Too Good.
Hence, there was a time, before the term GAY
took over, when Norfolk illness was - potentially -
a minor embarrassment (odd, for a County
renowned for practising incest!?).
All strange persons are known as queer in Yorkshire
(inter alia). In most parts cranks are a sub-set of the
(mentally) queer folk.
It is therefore an interesting parallel that cranks
in Germany would simply be ill (krank) -
like our quare Norfolk person.
There are, of course, genuine
mental illnesses/deficiencies.
A daft person is described as "soft" [soft-headed] :-
E say "dorn(t) talk sorft".
N.B. : 'sorft' has the hard-o and the exceptional
use of the final t - but not within a phrase :-
e.g. E's a sorf bugger!. (equivalent of a daft sod).
Hopefully, this duple insult will be the last reference
to Sodomy in this highly respectable treatise.
7 : Crowded Out
Medical matters seem to have cornered the market
in re-defined words, perhaps (sometimes) because
of a perceived need for euphemism.
In Niceties we note that the word push is now
in the medical arena; so we either make do with :-
shove, its close relation shuft (shift), or the
other Norfolk word hurch (as a companion to lurch).
Either is a mildly violent one-off event.
What about a steady propulsion, as with a pram
(cooch) or a boike?. Would you believe crowd?
- and the yet more improbable past tense of crod.
Tha(t) ow'd gardner, E din(t) 'alf crowd 'is barrer!
Early bicycles were known by their frames,
rather than wheels. The local word for frame being
grid, pushing a bike was "crowding a grid".
A pig escaped by forcing its body under the gate :
Th'owd sow, she crod unean-a. [underneath it].
If, however, what had happened to the pig didn't
really matter too much, then the owner would add:
. . . but tha(t) dorn(t) signify.
Re the latter expression of indifference :
certainly in Norwich we also use (perhaps more so)
the other, standard, word; but in the plural :
Tha(t) dorn(t) ma(tt)ers ter me, bor!
We now need a term for crowding and crushing things,
and people, together. This is scrouge, pronounced like
gouge, not like a Dickens' character.
To crowd voluntarily, i.e. to congregate
or throng is to smore.
Something put in place of something else is
[in] room of it :-
Oi see Here go(t) a green(h)ouse rume-a
tha(t) shud woo(t) E go(t) rid-on.
8 : Stone Me
An allegedly (unique) Norfolk word is pamments
(for floor-tiles). I have never heard it used in real-life;
and, most plausibly, it is a corruption of pavements.
Also, floor-tiles (brick, not plastic of course!) are better
known as "flag-stones" or simply "flags" i.e. pennants.Possibly pennants became pammants phonetically:- (a) the e-to-a shift is to be expected;
(b) the letter 'n' is not popular (see only, plenty).
Needless to say, except in the most favoured houses,
or public buildings, you will not find genuine
stone floors in Norfolk.There is no indigenous stone, except flint -
which is not at all suitable for floors.
Small paving-bricks, set on edge, are clinkers.
A stonehouse is not at all what it seems,
being a "stone" (pottery) beer-bottle.
A po(t)che(t) is a piece of boken pottery. A perfectly genuine Norfolk term is : on the sosh
(or, as a single adjective, soshens).
This means slanting, askew (scoowiff) or offset;
as in "a bit on the huh" or, simply, ahuh.
See STORY M.
An alternative, but more contrived, is slantendicular.
9 : The Sound Of SilenceRather more intriguing is the word dean (or deen)
as in - There hen(t) bin a dean -
translates as "not the slightest sound heard". In other words, although almost certainly derived
from din, it means the exact opposite (by volume).In louder circumstances, a howling child may be told :-
(H)owld your duller, booy, do!
This "Norfolk word" needs a bit of de-bunking too;
which is effortless. Just read "dolour" (as colour).
The dictionary reveals no such noun (!!); but
the adjective dolorous (mournful) says it all. If more people knew the old-fashioned word,
would they call a child Dolores? (Indeed, why
do parents of blonde girls call them Melanie?)
I digress . . .
Norfolk people don't bawl but (not uniquely)
holler as in E's a-ollerin.
Sadly, there is little diffus between this and hollow
(both of which may have no h, of course);
so when I holler it resembles Oi (h)aller. (Ba(tt)er?)
Two fine onomatopoeic words to end with :
(a) blar = to cry;
(b) brork or brortch = to break wind (belch),
as in 'broach the subject'.
10 : All Squit
No, it isn't - it's true, I tell you. Please read-on . . .
It shouldn't be necessary to point-out that Norfolk,
the County of Nelson, with its enormous length of
coastline, is a sea-faring and fishing county. With so few fish left to catch, the problem of
squit (squid) ought, now, to be worse than ever.
When hauling-in a netful of "catch", there can
prove to be a poor ratio of the desired fish, to
all the other marine-life ensnared by accident
(may well include North Sea squid in abundance).
Such a disappointing haul is always greeted
with the cry : "Jist a lood-a squi(t) !".
Hence the response to other outpourings of useless
nonsense; and why squit never comes singly or in
minute amounts.
E say "Dorn(t) talk squi(t)!!". If you prefer a more obscure word, for
nonsensical rubbish, try gammara(tt)le or popple.
We can still get herring ("silver darlings") in the
shops : goodness knows where they are caught . . .
In the days of plenty, indeed glut, everyone knew the
diffus between kippers and bloaters. Not any more.
The former are dried, and probably smoked;
the latter are ditto, and salted too (bad for you !).
A famous salt-water plant (found in a few favoured
North Norfolk spots) is samphire, pronounced sanfer.
This is so nice that I shouldn't have betrayed a State Secret. It is far too good for "foreigners".
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