In my never-ending discovery of new words and phrases belonging to the English language, I've discovered several that seem to be local to the East Midlands, or even just to Nottingham. Local dialects flourish in England. According to Bill Bryson, that Iowa-born, Yorkshire-dwelling, bestselling Anglo-American ambassador and astute language student:
"A paradox of accents is that in England, where people from a common heritage have been living together in a small area for thousands of years, there is still a huge variety of accents, whereas in America, where people from a great mix of backgrounds have been living together in a vast area for a relatively short period, people speak with just a few voices." (Mother Tongue, published in the U.S. by William Morrow, 1990)
Here a few gems I've learned since living in Nottingham, suitable for mixing it up next time you're bored at an office party.
'Ay up m' duc?
Short for: Hey up, me duck?
Translation: How are you? or How's it going?
Pronunciation: Say it very fast in the front of your mouth.
Notes: Do not be offended if a stranger calls you duck, or love, or chicken. Variations include ducky, lovey, lovely and chickie. They're all friendly terms given to a stranger, although sometimes can be patronizing, as doctor Max Pemberton wrote in this newspaper column.
All right?
Standard UK Translation: What's up? used as a greeting, not expecting a real answer.
Nottingham Translation: That's OK.
Notes: As proof that even the English don't always understand each other, my English friend Jack tells this story about when she first moved to Nottingham from London and was working as a checker in a grocery store.
"I'd literally been in Nottingham a couple of weeks and I was packing a customer's bags. She said, 'You all right?" and I answered, "I'm fine, thanks," as I was packing her bags. She said, "You all right?" again and I answered, "Yeah, I'm fine." So she finally said, "No, you're all right, I'll pack the bags myself."
You can imagine how this is confusing to me, who still feels the need to answer the question, "All right?" with "Of course, I'm all right, why wouldn't I be?" instead of the standard, "You all right?" back.
Nesh
Translation: People who feel the cold excessively.
Notes: This one also comes from Jack, who learned it from her Nottingham-raised husband.
"Because I like to sit next to the radiator all the time, he says I'm nesh," she explained. "They're nesh, all those people who are always saying, 'I'm cold.'"
Jitty
Translation: Alleyway between houses. Known as gangways in Chicago.
Common usage: "To get to the door, just go up that jitty."
Mackle
Translation: Cobble, craft, whip up, as in "I'll mackle something together."
Mash as in "mash the tea"
Standard UK translation: brew or stew. "Brew the tea" or "Stew the tea."
US translation: steep. "Steep the tea."
Notes: Anybody else think, "Mash the tea" sounds funny?
I live in Canada now and have not lived in Lincolnshire(Sleaford) since 1950's but still use the term "nesh" as in someone who is weakly complaining of the cold "Cha (or some such expletive) don't be so nesh." I can hear my grandmother say it and have passed it on to my children who have never been to Lincolnshire. It may go on like that spread over the world for a few generations!
A little bit about regional accents, aka dialects. Many are of very great age. The Cumbrian dialect - north west England, sort of Kendal to Carlisle - still has elements from the sixth century Welsh speaking kingdom of Strathclyde: counting 'one-two-three' becomes 'yan, tan, tethera'. My own 'native tongue' (sic) is from South Yorkshire, and weirdly, retains its East Saxon intonation and accenting without either German (Saxon) words or grammar. The same is true of Norfolk. My mother (born in a tiny village devoted incongruously to coal mining and farming - very vaguely like West Virginia!) could remember many different examples of vocabulary in each of three villages only a couple of miles apart - 'Spuggies" (for sparrows), or the difference between 'ginnel' and 'snicket' - both different types of lane. Of course, it's all due to the relative lack of mobility until the last century, and the relative lack of education. When mum wanted to be 'posh' she used R.P.