English dialect

[Brian GParticipant @briang]

As long as the quality manager can produce certification showing that the gnat's cock can be traced back to the International Standard Gnat at the BIPM I don't have a problem – I am no longer a quality manager

Incidentally, is the expression "made a right cod's of that" local to Kent or nationwide?

Brian

[Mick B1Participant @mickb1]

Posted by Fowlers Fury on 14/09/2017 10:41:45:

The corollary of which, one must presume, is that there is no scientific consensus of what constitutes a gnat's cock.

Which is why its conversion factor to some verifiable UoM makes it useful in assessment of a workshop's or section's approximate standard of precision.

Long may it remain so, and attempts to fix it should be energetically resisted…

[Cornish JackParticipant @cornishjack]

Posted by Brian G on 14/09/2017 12:59:03:

Incidentally, is the expression "made a right cod's of that" local to Kent or nationwide?

Brian

Is 'cod's' not a diminutive of 'codswallop' ? … known as far afield as Kernow -as we 'Janners' call it.

Personally, my measure of accuracy derives from 35+ years of Auntie Betty's Flying Club – "Close enough for Government work"

rgds

Bill

[HasBeanParticipant @hasbean]

Having just returned from taking my daughter to university the people in the Premier Inn we were staying in and the Beefeater next door (excellent steaks by the way) were really confused by my Jersey accent and the fact that I also throw in Jerrriais and French while I speak, just the way it is. As it happened a lot of the staff were were uni students just about to to go back to their respective studies and found it quite interesting to chat about it.

Paul

Edited By HasBean on 14/09/2017 18:39:28

Edited By HasBean on 14/09/2017 18:40:13

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

Strange I never heard the expression scunt. However I lived about 3 miles from Cradley Heath and I could not understand the locals there!

Andrew.

[MeunierParticipant @meunier]

Posted by Brian G on 13/09/2017 21:03:41:

…… As a result he and his comrades just brushed 'gnats' aside whilst on the lookout for mosquitoes the size of dragonflies.

Brian

Images for how to identify female anopheles mosquito

perhaps this would have helped his recognition but not much use to anyone here using the most precise units of measurement !
DaveD

[BrevaParticipant @breva]

My late father who was raised in Motherwell had quite a few descriptive phrases in his vocabulary that originated from the work that he and his father did in the Lanarkshire Mills in the 1920s. Eg. if the materials at hand for a particular job were of a poor quality he would refer to the inferior materials as being a poor scantling of….

His name for an awl was a mennie.

Some of the more colourful descriptions he bought back with him were of people he met. Among those were descriptions of people who had : a nose like a gimlet, shoulders like a lemonade bottle, or a face that would turn a funeral.

Then the PC cops arrived and we all got to speak real proper.

[Nick HulmeParticipant @nickhulme30114]

I always liked the term for a loose fit – "Worm in a Bucket"

[Chris Evans 6Participant @chrisevans6]

"Loose fit" working with a succession of Black Country lads that would be a "Cock in a Sock"

[Andy HoldawayParticipant @andyholdaway]

The only time I heard the word scunt was by a Worcester boat builder to denote something not properly aligned, or "on the pi$$".

Andrew Tinsley – I worked in Cradley Heath for a number of years, and found the only way to understand shopkeepers was to carefully monitor the facial expression. It didn't always work!

Andy

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

I got pretty good at unnerstannin' Black Country talk, but there's a huge variation in accents across the area.

cybermetrics.wlv.ac.uk/blackcountrytranslation.php

[EugeneParticipant @eugene]

"On the scunt" was common enough usage in the factories around Smethwick when I was a young man.

In similar vein we had "rough as a bear's a**e", and "sticking out like a bulldog's b******s". An easy sliding fit was "Like the skin orf a donkey's d**k".

I did say we were common!

Eug

 

 

 

 

 

Edited By Eugene on 17/09/2017 11:53:02

[Stuart BridgerParticipant @stuartbridger82290]

Another term for a loose fit. "rattling around like a wotsit in a shirtsleeve"

[Andrew TinsleyParticipant @andrewtinsley63637]

Thank goodness I was not the only one who could not understand the Cradley Heath dialect. I believe that a lot of it was in fact old English, according to a Birmingham University philologist who published at least one paper on the dialect.

A common phrase for someone from Cradley Heath was "Strong in the arm and weak in the head". I think this was because the community was rather enclosed and probably interbred. Quite why this was so, is a bit of a mystery, but it would explain the incomprehensible dialect!

I too lived in Smethwick, so I am amazed that I never heard the term "scunt". Maybe something to do with me going to grammar school and "lernin' to talk and spel proper!".

Apologies to anyone hailing from Cradley Heath. No disrespect to you, just quoyting some widely held views from the Black Country!

Strange, but I can no longer do a proper Black Country accent. However I can do a Birmingham accent, which is very different. I am rather sad that my native dialect and accent elude me. I do like the regional differences in speech and am somewhat ashamed that I now speak BBC English.

Andrew.

Edited By Andrew Tinsley on 17/09/2017 12:53:26

[OuBallieParticipant @ouballie]

Posted by Robert Dodds on 13/09/2017 21:46:27:

As a North Midlander I recognise the "skunt" as a term for skewness but I also have come across those from Rose country who might refer to "Not wreck t' th ay"
In terms of scale, which is the greater, a gnats cock or a smidgin?
Can anyone elaborate on the difference between a Timper and a Spelcher?
I know that if it only a smidgeon out you can put it right with a Timper but big ones need a Spelcher to shift them
In the more refined Enginnering Shops the faulty part might be known as a cobble or clanger and finish up being "chucked on the shawd ruck" along with any other dingers.
Up and down the country there are many different dialects and workshops within each. They pick up words that associate with the particular industry or craft of the area and are meaningful there.
Its what makes the English language so colourful. Long may it last!

Bob D

Together with the regional accents!

Geoff – Foot 99% healed by the feel of it!

[Brian WoodParticipant @brianwood45127]

Two Derbyshire expressions I learned to live with were:-

'' Strong in't arm and wake in't 'ead" which is a corruption of the expression used at Cradley Heath

The other was " Nowt a pound and bump in weight " to describe a real dummy, the reference to scales being obvious

Brian

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

English Home Counties dialect translated:

• Scottish = mean, dour, humourless
• Northern = uncouth, incomprehensible and slow-witted
• Black Country = Northern with adenoids
• Welsh = tuneful but sadly addicted to the charms of sheep
• Irish = uneducated
• West Country = yokels
• Norfolk = inbred yokels
• Essex = yokels where the women have loose morals
• All of the above plus anyone else not mentioned = Provincial
• Provincial = uncultured, ignorant, naive, unsophisticated and untrustworthy

[mark costello 1Participant @markcostello1]

Does anybody like anyone else there?

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by mark costello 1 on 17/09/2017 18:29:55:

Does anybody like anyone else there?

No, of course not.

Southerners are arrogant, supercilious and completely disconnected from the real world. Come to think of it no-one who lives more than 5 miles away can be trusted, and all my next door neighbours are weirdos too. I've heard there are a few decent folk living in Nempnet Thrubwell. Probably just a rumour…

Dave

[Dod MoleParticipant @georgeclarihew]

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 17/09/2017 14:28:04:

English Home Counties dialect translated:

• Scottish = mean, dour, humourless
• Northern = uncouth, incomprehensible and slow-witted
• Black Country = Northern with adenoids
• Welsh = tuneful but sadly addicted to the charms of sheep
• Irish = uneducated
• West Country = yokels
• Norfolk = inbred yokels
• Essex = yokels where the women have loose morals
• All of the above plus anyone else not mentioned = Provincial
• Provincial = uncultured, ignorant, naive, unsophisticated and untrustworthy

I note that England never got a sweeping generalisation like the SCOTS, WELSH and IRISH.

Edited By George Clarihew on 17/09/2017 20:05:36

[SillyOldDufferModerator @sillyoldduffer]

Posted by George Clarihew on 17/09/2017 20:04:42:

Posted by SillyOldDuffer on 17/09/2017 14:28:04:

…

I note that England never got a sweeping generalisation like the SCOTS, WELSH and IRISH.

Edited By George Clarihew on 17/09/2017 20:05:36

Impossible to make sweeping generalisations about the English. Unlike lesser nationalities we have far more faults to choose from!

[Neil WyattModerator @neilwyatt]

Well as a Welsh immigrant living in England I could make some generalisations for you but I haven't got the bandwidth

Neil

(We are one of England's least numerous minorities – try and find out how many Welsh people live in England…)

[duncan webster 1Participant @duncanwebster1]

If the entire population of Wales moved to England, there would still be fewer Taffys in England than Yorkshire people.

And by the way this old story about people in North Wales being unfriendly is complete tosh. I worked there for many years and found them really easy to get on with

Edited By duncan webster on 18/09/2017 00:52:56

[Bill PudneyParticipant @billpudney37759]

I heard "Strong in the arm, thick in the head" relating to Isle of Wight residents, known locally as "caulkheads" or "corkheads" never sure which.

Also, I used to work with a couple of Cornishmen, who happened to have grown up within a (long) stones throw of each other. Each of them reckoned that the other had a weird accent. Obviously, to the rest of us couldn't understand a word either of them said!

cheers

Bill

[Adrian GilesParticipant @adriangiles39248]

"D**k in a wellie boot" tends to indicate a rather looser than required fit in our Hampshire workshops. My father being of Sussex &Kent extraction had a lot of local sayings, but CRS means I can't relate any here.

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