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Now, a Database of Brit's Weirdest Words
The Times of India ^ | Jul 4, 2011

Posted on 07/04/2011 11:18:06 AM PDT by nickcarraway

Heard of bobowler, baffies, bishybarnabee, tittermatorter? Well, these are some of the weirdest words used in Britain.

For the first time, the British Library is keeping track of the nation's regional words and has developed a word bank of around 4,000 entries.

The words were submitted by visitors to the British Library in central London or to a series of events at provincial libraries as part of its Evolving English exhibition.

According to experts, many local dialects died off in recent decades, squeezed out by the increasing standardisation of the language thanks to population mobility as well as the influence of television and radio.

But they added that the sheer range of bizarre and impenetrable words submitted by the public shows there remains plenty of life in regional forms of speech, reports the Daily Mail.

While there is plenty of historical evidence for some phrases, others are more recent, such as the Grimsby term for chewing gum, 'spoggy'.

Alongside the terms are entire phrases - for example, someone from Newark in Nottinghamshire might say 'Man de don't know what the buer is rockerin'.

That translates as 'I don't know what the woman is on about', using 'buer' or 'bewer' for woman, and 'rocker', meaning to speak or understand.

The completed word bank will interest anyone from actors wanting to perfect regional roles to foreign call centre workers looking to understand local British dialects.

Jonnie Robinson, curator of sociolinguistics and education at the Library, said regional language retained plenty of vitality.

"Social and geographic mobility nowadays means that people draw on a variety of terms and their default term is likely the mainstream standard term,' he said.

"But people can still draw on terms from their local dialects," he added.

Some of Britain's obscure words compiled by the library:

Baffies -- slippers (east coast of Scotland)

Bishybarnabee -- ladybird (Norfolk)

Bobowler -- large moth (Birmingham)

Deff -- to ignore, split up, pack in, avoid (Birmingham)

Dodderman -- snail (Norfolk/Suffolk)

Gopping -- unattractive ( Manchester)

Guddle -- to rummage about (Northumberland and parts of Scotland)

Gurtlush -- the best ( Bristol)

On the box -- off sick from work (Black Country)

Ronking -- smelly, disgusting (Black Country)

Tittermatorter -- see-saw (Norfolk)

Tranklements -- ornaments (Black Country)

Now, linguists will study their origins, how they relate to other words and how widely spread their use is.


TOPICS: Books/Literature; Humor; Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: aluminium; archeology; british; england; english; epigraphyandlanguage; godsgravesglyphs; slang
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1 posted on 07/04/2011 11:18:11 AM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway

They need to learn English.

/s


2 posted on 07/04/2011 11:21:20 AM PDT by bgill
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To: nickcarraway
It's not the most weird word but certainly the most feared in the UK...”dentist”.
3 posted on 07/04/2011 11:22:32 AM PDT by JPG (Elect Sarah Palin in '12. America won't get another chance.)
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Thanks nickcarraway.

"Keep your pecker up."

Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.
 

· History topic · history keyword · archaeology keyword · paleontology keyword ·
· Science topic · science keyword · Books/Literature topic · pages keyword ·


4 posted on 07/04/2011 11:23:26 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (Yes, as a matter of fact, it is that time again -- https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: bgill

“They need to learn English.”

I was thinking the same. If they won’t learn English, then we need a way to translate what they say to English.


5 posted on 07/04/2011 11:24:51 AM PDT by BobL (PLEASE READ: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2657811/posts)
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To: bgill
They need to learn English.

They would say the same thing.

6 posted on 07/04/2011 11:26:04 AM PDT by reg45
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To: BobL
we need a way to translate what they say to English.

British Slang Dictionary

7 posted on 07/04/2011 11:30:23 AM PDT by reg45
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To: nickcarraway

read later


8 posted on 07/04/2011 11:36:05 AM PDT by arrogantsob (Why do They hate her so much?)
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To: bgill

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtIj1WuoZD4

Translate this for me, West Midlands English?


9 posted on 07/04/2011 11:38:36 AM PDT by Little Bill (Sorry)
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To: nickcarraway

I can’t believe the list didn’t include spotted dick. (English Pudding).


10 posted on 07/04/2011 11:43:55 AM PDT by sportutegrl
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To: nickcarraway

dumb post = dumb post


11 posted on 07/04/2011 11:58:13 AM PDT by Henry Hnyellar
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To: reg45

the F section should be R rated.


12 posted on 07/04/2011 11:59:00 AM PDT by Loud Mime (Democrats = Dependence - Debt - Derision)
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To: nickcarraway
Hot Fuzz
13 posted on 07/04/2011 12:13:12 PM PDT by Vince Ferrer
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To: nickcarraway

“American and England - two nations separated by a common language”


14 posted on 07/04/2011 1:34:26 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: All
I personally like -

Snickelways and Ginnels

Terms for alleys in York left over from medieval times...:^)

15 posted on 07/04/2011 1:46:27 PM PDT by az_gila
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To: Little Bill

That’s not West Mids, the Macc Lads are from Macclesfield in Cheshire (hence the name). They speak in a northwestern dialect with some similarities to the Manchester accent which is dominant in that region.

West Mids is Black Sabbath, Judas Priest etc. An interview with Rob Halford or Tony Iommi would give you a stereotypical west mids accent. I wouldn’t say Ozzie because his accent is some strange amalgamation of west mids, US, drugs and booze!


16 posted on 07/04/2011 3:24:58 PM PDT by Mitch86
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To: sportutegrl

The reason for that is almost certainly because this is a database of regional slang and Spotted Dick is a) not slang and b) not regional


17 posted on 07/04/2011 3:28:36 PM PDT by Mitch86
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To: Windflier

I day know what y’um piping on about our kid :)


18 posted on 07/04/2011 3:30:55 PM PDT by Mitch86
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To: Mitch86
I day know what y’um piping on about our kid :)

When I first lived in England in the late 80s, I could hardly understand a word most Brits said. I really had to train my ear to listen carefully.

After about a year there, I could actually hear British dialects better than I could my own. The Scots were a whole different story, though!

19 posted on 07/04/2011 3:34:48 PM PDT by Windflier (To anger a conservative, tell him a lie. To anger a liberal, tell him the truth.)
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To: bgill; a fool in paradise; JoeProBono
They need to learn English.

Naw, they oughta stune their beebers!

20 posted on 07/04/2011 3:39:35 PM PDT by Revolting cat! (Let us prey!)
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