Although I was born in Norfolk, both my parents were from London, so I've always been at a disadvantage when it comes to the Norfolk dialect. My husband is a proper Norfolk bor, however, and keeps me in check. He gets particularly cross with me when I say Heigham Street rather than Ham Street. His grandad had one of the broadest Norfolk accents I have ever heard. I only met him a handful of times before he died, but all our conversations were one way. Him talking and me politely smiling and nodding my head, while having no idea at all whatsoever about what he was trying to tell me.
I spoke to my mum on the phone last night, and she was telling about a little coach trip she'd been on and she used the following phrases it was a bootiful vue, and yew dusn't want to dew that dust yew.
I bought crabs off him (note not caught crabs from him) and he was one of the lifeboat men I served in the bar on cromer pier.
If you can get hold of "Dew yew lissen hare" or "Orl bootiful an new", bible stories in Broad Norfolk by Colin Riches, I'll guarantee you'll wet yourself laughing. They are absolutly hilarious, here's a little snippet............Gawd he say, at int arf suffin dark roun hare, we orta ha some loight, an do yew look tagather, there wus some loight! ILD OTBC
There was a radio Norfolk show that used to be on, with canon Ivan Bailey, and keith Skipper. Used to love listening to that. My dad's got that book 'Dew yew Lissen hare', and you're dead right. It's brilliant. I think the show was called Just a Moment. It used to go round the county. If i remember rightly, Roy Waller had something to do with it as well.
When I wuz jest a totty boi, wen oi wuz stull ut skool, we used to get the EDP and there was an article in there daily called "Thass a larf, by Lew!" The only one I can remember is a saying from his Granny Polly who say, "Thass no gud put'n yer foot down if yew hent got a leg ter stand on!"
But what bleedin pisses me orf is the acting profession thinks everyone from Norfolk talks like Long John Silver. In fact, they think everyone from rural areas talks like that or Bernard Miles. O R O R O R. I feel like saying its a ****ing Canary on the badge not a ****in parrot!
I would much rather have a Suffolk/Norfolk accent then have a Brummie accent! I was listening to this radio program once on local dialects and the expert who was being interviewed started talking about East Anglian accents. One amazing fact that I never knew was that Suffolk people in the early days made up 80% of the population of Australia! (Convicts the lot of them). He went onto say that the Australian accent sounds very similar to the way that true Suffolk people speak. He likened the Suffolk accent to be in a "Singing" style of delivery! Well i'll be buggered!
That radio show on radio Norfolk I was trying to remember was called 'Does The Team Think'. Carrying on from you redruth, it also annoys the hell out of me when the acting profession think a west country accent will do for a Norfolk one
Can't say I have an East Anglian accent. I occasionally struggle understanding people that's usually older people though. My favourite is listening to my Dad pronounce names like Hughes or anything which has loads of vowels in, his accents quite vague when his back in the midlands but when his back in Norfolk it gets really broad for some reason.
A few words from the Norfolk dictionary: Shat - Shirt (not ****!) Skat - Skirt Pus - Purse Rud - Road Boppem - Bottom Richert - Richard Gorn - Going Hent ut - Isn't it roight - right blas - blast wus - what's
Maestro.. Always welcome over on the Safc boards marra, nowt like a gent popping over from time to time.. See you canaries Wednesday in our fine City behave yourselves like..
When I was a kid our local fish shop owner used to ask if you wanted "munt" on your mushy peas. And my favourite place was, and you could walk it quicker than people. could say it, Caaaaarrrrrsel Medder.
Neither am I Keep hoping for the 3 points and if it has been a bad day down the docks then welcome to hell Different world up here marra
