The Queen's English was good enough for Jesus Christ

[venta]

Over on verlaine's journal yesterday, a thread after my own heart sprung up. And during the course of it, I remembered the Yorkshire language test which I found in the back of a drawer last summer when we were clearing my great-aunt's house in Sheffield.

The original is typed (remember typewriters?), on a single sheet of yellowing foolscap (remember foolscap?), with holes developing along the folds. In itself, it's clearly an artefact of a long-gone time. However, for anyone interested, here it is recreated in LJ-poll format.

(Anyone who wants to play and doesn't have an LJ can mail me their answers. No cheating, where cheating includes but is not limited to: googling for answers, asking Gemma.)


Newcomers to Sheffield might like to test their understanding of the language spoken by some of the local people, and students who will have to on teaching before long will find it an invaluable introduction to the way many of their pupils communicate with each other.

Time allowed:- 20 minutes.

10 correct answer: On your way to being a settler.
40 correct answers: Presumably your (sic) from Doncaster.
All correct: It's time your brushed up your Queen's English.

TRANSLATE INTO ENGLISH

(N.B. the 'g' is always hard as in 'got')

[I should point out that I don't have any definitive answers to this, only what I think's correct. I apologise for any typos in the poll; I copied it out in a hurry. And since you can't edit polls, I've copied it out twice already :(]

[Poll #282191]


Update: As suggested below, something else should be taken into account, so can participants post a comment here indicating their Yorkshire credentials ? (ie born-and-bred, lived there a bit, lived somewhere near there, southern pansy, etc).

Comments

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Pesky person. I'm going to keep coming back and adding more answers in.

[lnr]

Some bits are a bit different to what I'd expect from Leeds, but not far off. Only one or two were complete guesses.

[ghoti.livejournal.com]

I tried to do it in the time limit, and also to fill every answer, so some of them are a bit random.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Actually, one of your answers has shaken my faith in my own (different) answer :(

[http://users.livejournal.com/_corpse_/]

I only lived in Sheffield for 13 years, so I'm not expecting 100%.

I'm pretty sure of almost all, except I think about 4 where there's some single 'word' that I just couldn't penetrate.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

Can there be a separate "amateur" honourable mention for the best answer from someone who's never actually lived anywhere near Yorkshire?

[venta.livejournal.com]

Indeed there can, so long as all participants can post something here indicating their Yorkshire credentials ? (ie born-and-bred, lived there a bit, lived somewhere near there, southern pansy, etc)

I'd create an extra poll entry for it, but I've lost the will to live with poll-creation this morning.

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

My Yorkshire credentials are that my Dad's Dad supports Sheffield United, but is actually from just over the hill in Derbyshire.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Irrelevantly, I'd have had you down as a kippers man. Am I wrong, or are you just wary of the postal service in these strike-ridden days ?

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

I'm in favour of kippers in principle, just not in my mailbox.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure there is a mime encoding for kippers, so you're probably safe.

[neilh.livejournal.com]

I've been to Whitby a couple of times and stopped at Meadowhall on the way past...

[megamole.livejournal.com]

Southern for ages, but born in Burnley and lived in Bratfud till I was 10. I can still speak West Yorks. if kicked hard enough.

[taimatsu]

Am southern pansy. Have Lancashire grandparents. Visited York once.

[addedentry.livejournal.com]

Wonderful!

ObPansy: The furthest north I've lived is Loughborough. My grandfather was from Dudley, which seems equally remote.

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Um, lived in Wet Yorks for 12 years. Hang on, 12 years? Ye gods and little fishes, I was feeling quite good up until that point, and now I feel old & decrepit.

I came from the land of the "Scouse dictionary" (motto: "werzya senza uma") which was equally amusing :-)

[venta.livejournal.com]

Was that a typo for West, or is it really waterlogged again ?

I'm glad someone else says "Ye gods and little fishes" in moments of stress, though.

My mother reminds me that we have the linguaphone course (book and accompanying LP) of "Larn Yersel Geordie".

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

It's a bit soggy at the moment, certainly. However, I've been calling it Wet Yorks for a while, a hangover from my usenet days, due to the complete lack of decent weather we had in the late 90s.

I've read bits of Larn Yersel Geordie, and it's funny how phonetically transcribed Scouse, Geordie and Yorkie can look the same!

[beckyc.livejournal.com]

I'm from the other side of the pennines.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_corpse_/]

If anyone wants it, and is prepared to be emailed, I have an advertisement for "Word for Northerners" which is, itself, a Word document.

If you have ever lived in Yorkshire, it's sufficiently amusing that I laughed again just now as I reviewed it.

E.g. The save options from the File menu:

    Sev it
    Sev it as summat else...
    Sev it for t'web
    Sev it for the man from t'Pru

[venta.livejournal.com]

Aye, go on then (mailto:elizabeth@eastwick.fsnet.co.uk). I'm not sure if I've seen it or not; I remember Windows for Geordies, not so sure about this.

[triskellian]

I'm a southern pansy, and I'm bored now. I might come back and do some more later, if it's allowed.

[verlaine.livejournal.com]

I am a Yorkshireman by osmosis (Gemma).

Judging by my answers, though, it wasn't very good osmosis.

[kauket.livejournal.com]

I suck at this :) But then I'm not even sure where Yorkshire is.....
Reminded me of doing french GCSE where you look at the reading exam and think you might possibly recognise a bit of a word, but can't for the life you work it out....

Not Even Going To Try -

[killalla]

But then, I was born and raised on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean, where we ate saimin and manapua, and had street names like Kalanianaole Highway and Lunalilo Home Road. I went to York once, with a school group, about ten years ago.

Pretty much all of this is incomprehensible to me. I think that instead of visiting the north of England, I should holiday somewhere like France, where I can understand the natives. ;)

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'm Welsh. I'd mention that my dad's from Lancashire, but then you'd just have to kill me.

[venta.livejournal.com]

Have to kill you ? I'm from Durham, and hence do not give a flying stuff what colour your roses are.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Good. They're obviously yellow. Or maybe green (if you go for leeks instead).

[cardinalsin.livejournal.com]

I find it strange how about 85% of those I found ludicrously easy, but the rest were completely incomprehensible, with little gap between. Then again, its quite hard to type yorkshire.

(incidentally, I'm not convinced this lot qualifies as exclusively yorkshire speak. I grew up mostly in Derbyshire and it sounded familiar in my head)

[dmh.livejournal.com]

Lor' luv a duck! I darn't understand a Dicky Bird ov that. I just darn't get ow they Rabbit and Pork in Norvern England. Nar what I mean?

[fluffymormegil.livejournal.com]

Southern pansy of half-Yorkshire descent (my mum was born in Doncaster, but her family moved to Leigh when she was little; my dad was born in St. Leonard's-on-Sea, near Hastings) who went out with a Yorkshire lass for eighteen months.