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BBC VOICES RECORDINGS http://sounds.bl.uk

Title:

Lewes, East Sussex

Shelfmark:

C1190/36/03

Recording date:

22.11.2004

Speakers:

Collins, Shirley, b. 1935 Lewes; female; folk singer/author (father milkman/Post Office engineer; mother

bus conductress/housekeeper)

Lewis, Bob, b. 1936 Midhurst, West Sussex; male; retired farm worker/agricultural engineer (father office

worker; mother housewife)

Muncaster, Martin, b. 1934 Tillington, West Sussex; male; broadcaster & writer (father landscape & marine

painter/writer/lecturer; mother housewife)

Smith, Tina, b. 1945 Portsmouth; female; retired FE College librarian (father b. dockyard carpenter/off-

licence manager; mother teacher)

Smith, Vic, b. 1943 Edinburgh; male; retired headteacher (father b. Oxfordshire, Navy/telephone operator;

mother b. Edinburgh, housewife)

The interviewees are all friends with established roots in Sussex.

ELICITED LEXIS

pleased chuffed (“pure slang”); happy; glad (“oh, I’m so glad”); delighted; tickled to bits1; tickled

pink∆ (disliked by grandmother as presumed rude)

tired dozy; knackered; flakers∆; flaked out; worn-out; whacked; exhausted; dead beat; plumb

2

tuckered (thought to be American)

unwell I don’t feel very well; ill; pretty out of sorts; poorly (“are you feeling poorly?” associated with

schoolteachers, considered comforting); under the weather; sick (“have you got a sick note?”,

disliked); measled○ (used by mother); terrible; dreadful; green (suggested by interviewer,

1 New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) includes ‘to bits’ in sense of ‘extremely’.

2 New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) includes ‘plumb’ in sense of ‘absolutely/completely’.

○ see English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905)

* see Survey of English Dialects Basic Material (1962-1971)

‡ see Linguistic Atlas of Scotland (1975-1986)

× see Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (2009)

∆ see New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006)

◊ see Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010)

♦ see Urban Dictionary (online)

⌂ no previous source (with this sense) identified


BBC Voices Recordings “green around the gills”

∆ associated with ‘Just William’

3); off-colour (suggested by

interviewer, not used); sickening (“sickening for something” used by grandmother of serious

illness, also used for “maddening”); under the doctor

hot boiling (of self); sweltering; all of a muck sweat; scorching (of weather); “it’s fair-to-

middling hot today” (typical understatement used by grandfather in past); warm; warmish;

sweating (disliked by mother, “horses sweat men perspire ladies merely glow”4)

cold chilly bonkers⌂ (presumed idiolectal); freezing; perishing; parky

annoyed riled; irked; “something was a blithering nuisance”; pissed off (“crude”, used to own

husband/friends); pretty mad (“mad at him”); got the hump; cross

throw chuck; lob; bung; toss

play truant bunk off; playing hookey; slope off5; sloping off

5; skiving (suggested by interviewer, more

commonly used of absence from work), AWOL (used in Forces)

sleep went to bed; went to sleep; laid down; kip (modern); shut-eye; go to bed; “get upstairs” (used

by grandmother at bedtime); up the wooden hill◊; nodded off; nod off; doss down; dossing;

have a nap, doze (of brief sleep); cat-nap (suggested by interviewer, used); forty winks (used

by mother of brief sleep)

play a game play (of e.g. cricket/football/darts, “play footy” used by neighbour’s children); larking about

(of something “mischievous”)

hit hard bannick○ (“gave him a good bannicking” of person); bash, clout (of object); thump (of

person); slog (“slog it to the boundary” used in cricket, “slogger” used of big hitter in

cricket); give somebody a good larruping (of person); a good thumping (of person); clout

round the ears, clip round the ear (of person); a skelpit6 leathering (“I’ll gie

○ you a skelpit

leathering if you don’t stop that” used frequently by Scottish grandmother)

clothes togs; clobber; gear; outfit (“what outfit are you putting on today?”); smocks (of clothes worn

by shepherd in past); frock (“put your frock on” used locally in past of shepherd’s smock);

gaberdine (of smock with large collar)

trousers britches; breeks (used by Scottish grandmother); pants; trousers; trews (disliked); yorks,

boot-legs○, nicky tams (of strap/string tied below knee on shepherd’s trousers); corduroys

(used by grandfather of gardening trousers); cords

child’s shoe plimsolls; trainers (modern); pumps (“you’ve got PE today don’t forget your pumps” used by

father); plimmies∆

mother mother; mum; ma

gmother (none supplied)

m partner my husband (of own husband); Vic (i.e. by name), darling (to own husband); partner (used of

daughter’s thirty-something boyfriend); old man; my other half, my better half∆ (disliked)

friend playmate; mate; pal

gfather granfer; gramps* (used by Bob Copper’s7 grandchildren); grandad

forgot name whatchamacallit; thingummy; thingamajig; thingy; whatsit; what’s-his-face∆; oojit⌂

kit of tools budget (associated with folk song “here’s me bag and me budget I bid them adieu”8, used in

past of container for packed lunch); tool-kit; tool-box

trendy swankpot (used by mother in past of female); flash Harry (used by mother in past of male);

dead common (used by mother in past of female); bling (current, associated with ‘The

Sopranos’9)

3 First title published 1922 in series of 39 William Brown books by English author Richmal Crompton (1890-1969).

4 A Dictionary of Catch Phrases British and American from the Sixteenth Century to the Present Day (1985) includes

this expression. 5 OED (online edition) records ‘slope off’ in sense of ‘to depart surreptitiously, sneak off’.

6 Collins English Dictionary (online edition at http://www.collinsdictionary.com/) includes ‘skelpit’ in sense of ‘slapped’.

7 Robert James Copper, Sussex-born English folk-singer (1915-2004).

8 See folk song Sheep-Crook and Black Dog (Roud Folk Song Index 948).


BBC Voices Recordings f partner her indoors (heard on TV); the old ball and chain; the old woman; missus (“the missus” also

used in past of “farmer’s wife”)

baby moppets (used frequently of own children in past); pretty dears (“let’s go and see the pretty

dears” used by great-grandmother of self and sister in past); little’uns∆; nippers; tots (“little

tots”); ankle-snappers10

(suggested by interviewer, thought more likely to refer to small dog);

ankle-biters (used by teacher colleague)

rain heavily chucking it down∆; pouring; raining cats and dogs; pissing down; bucketing down; tipping it

down♦; stair-rods (“raining stair-rods/coming down in stair-rods”)

toilet toilet

walkway twitten (used since living in Sussex); lane; alleyways; passage; cut; slypes (used by mother,

thought to be unique to Hastings/Rye area)

long seat settee; sofa; couch; Chesterfield (used by grandmother); chaise-longue (not used, “too posh

for words”); settle (used in past of wooden seat similar to “church pew”)

run water brook (“babbling brook”); stream; dick; ditch; rill; spring (common on The Downs in past);

lavant (of seasonal stream, name of local river); bourne (of chalk stream, used in local stream

names e.g. “Winterbourne” in Lewes); chalybeate (thought to be used of mineral springs in

Tunbridge Wells)

main room living-room; sitting-room; front room (used in past of room reserved for special occasions);

parlour (old, thought to be used in north); lounge (disliked, only used in past of room in

pub/hotel)

rain lightly drizzle; mizzle (used by mother); soft○ day (used by Irish friends); spitting; “it’s trying to”

(i.e. “trying to rain”)

rich moneyed; loaded; rolling in it11

(“oh, they’re rolling in it”); toffs, landed gentry, toffee-nosed,

posh (used negatively of upper class); three bob millionaires◊12

, all fur coat and no

knickers×13

(used recently by builder from Rottingdean to express disapproval at influx of

wealthy incomers locally, “fur coat and no knickers” also used in Edinburgh of residents of

old town); more money than sense14

(used to express disapproval of people who “flashed it

about”); old money, gentry (used positively of established wealth); new money, nouveau riche

(used negatively of recent/ostentatious wealth)

left-handed cack-handed (also used for “awkward/clumsy”); corrie juked‡ (used by Scottish mother)

unattractive drab (of e.g. room); ugly; plain; unattractive (of e.g. plant); something the cat dragged in15

(used frequently of person in past)

lack money stony-broke; skint; boracic (< boracic lint: skint, “rhyming slang”); hard up (“really hard up

this week” used frequently); down on my uppers (used by father of short-term lack of money)

drunk legless; pissed; skinful; Brahms and Liszt◊ (“rhyming slang”); blotto; one over the eight

pregnant expecting; pregnant (not used in past); in an interesting condition16

(common euphemism in

past); bun in the oven (“terrible expression”); “when are you better?”⌂ (used to own pregnant

wife when visiting family in Dundee); up the club, up the pudding club, up the duff (common

locally in past in e.g. pub, “horrible”)

9 US TV crime drama series originally broadcast on HBO 1999-2008.

10 OED (online edition) records ‘ankle-biter’ in this sense.

11 Macmillan Dictionary (online edition at http://www.macmillandictionary.com/) includes ‘rolling in it’ in this sense.

12 Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) records ‘two bob’ in sense of ‘inferior/second rate’.

13 Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase and Fable (2009) includes this phrase in sense of ‘a certain pretentious and showy

exterior belies a lack of substance’. 14

Macmillan Dictionary (online edition at http://www.macmillandictionary.com/) includes ‘have more money than

sense’ in this sense. 15

OED (online edition) records ‘to look/feel like something the cat has brought in’ in sense of’ ‘to appear/feel

exhausted/bedraggled’. 16

McGraw-Hill’s American Idioms Dictionary (4th

edn. 2007) includes ‘in an interesting condition’ in this sense.


BBC Voices Recordings attractive good-looking (of person/object); attractive; handsome; buxom (of “rosy and plump” female);

cracker (“cor, she weren’t half a cracker”)

insane doolally (“cor, he doolally, he is” used in past by father’s gardener); daft; silly as a rook*;

addle-headed; screw loose; twopence short of a shilling◊17

; not all there; half-there◊; potty;

loony; short of a sheaf up top18

; barmy (“he’s absolutely barmy”); empty barn don’t need no

thatch⌂; his elevator doesn’t stop on all floors

∆19 (“American”); not quite the shilling

◊20;

penny short of a shilling◊17

; moonstruck; dotty

moody misery (“misery guts”); a grump; grumpy; the blue devils (associated with Shakespeare);

glooms (“you’ve got the glooms” used by own doctor); down in the dumps∆; broody;

cantankerous; seasonal affective disorder (suggested jokingly); mardy (suggested by

interviewer, not used); niggly (of being “slightly cross slightly crotchety”)

SPONTANEOUS LEXIS

afore = before (0:40:51 it’s afore my time but I mean uh uh men still went to church in their best Sunday

smock and that on a on a Sunday morning)

antimacassar = protective/ornamental cover over upholstered chair (1:38:27 (always called it the

‘Chesterfield’) (oh right) (‘Chesterfield’, yeah, yeah) with an antimacassar on the back (probably yes, yes,

probably there was))

argufy = to argue (1:24:04 then old grandfather he’d suddenly wake up in the corner there and he’d say he

says, “there’s so much argufying going on round here I reckon we’d better have a song”)

(as different as) chalk and cheese×

= totally different (0:09:24 he said that’s believed to be the origin of

the expression ‘as different as chalk and cheese’ suppose because cheese was Hampshire and chalk was

Sussex)

back-along = back, some time ago (1:16:11 and Slindon Cricket Club they had their two-hundredth

anniversary back back-along some time in the 1950s I think it was)

back-end = late autumn (1:07:39 you know a lot of places didn’t have electric in fact we didn’t have it until

about 1961 or 62 (that’s right) before we had electric but a lot of the village schools didn’t have it either;

1:18:30 he didn’t say, “last October” he said, “at ba… at the back… back-end” (‘back-end’ yeah) “back-

end” he said, “back-end back-end we had we we we had the uh electric come in”)

billycock = low-crowned felt hat worn by men (0:42:38 did they go to church wearing their hats ’cause I

remember my father always talked about (oh, yeah) yeah, me… the old our old gardener he had a billycock

hat)

bill-hook short-bladed pruning knife (1:28:26 for example you you had something that people some people

called a ‘handbill’ but we’d call it a a ‘b…’ a ‘bill-hook’ or a, you know, and there’d be and you’d got

you’d got a longer one called a ‘s…’ uh we used to call a ‘slasher’ […] ‘fag-hooks’ were ‘swap hook’

(yeah, yeah) (‘swap-hook’, yeah, my father used that))

blimey = exclamation expressing surprise/disbelief (0:08:12 I absolutely fell over when I read this and I

thought, “blimey, that has to be the origins of this story”)

Brum = dialect/accent of Birmingham (1:57:29 but they were all talking actually Brum)

bugger = mild expletive (1:36:12 (or the vicar came round) (yeah) (or something, you know, you they took

in went in the front room but it was always just so and kept looking pristine but it was never used and we

had a room like that) “oh bugger, it the vicar”)

chap = man (0:06:11 anyhow these detective chaps they come down from London and they are going round

in the pubs and that asking if anybody knew about these sheep that were missing and um they went in this

particular place and they asked and nobody didn’t say anything; 1:07:00 he was a chap employed by the

17

Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) records ‘two pence short of a bob [i.e. ‘shilling’]’ in this sense. 18

New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) includes several examples of ‘NOUN (part) short of

NOUN (whole)’ in this sense but not ‘short of a sheaf’; OED (online edition) records ‘up top’ as ‘reference to brains/intelligence’. 19

New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) records ‘lift doesn’t go to the top floor’ in this sense. 20

Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) records ‘not the full shilling’ in this sense.


BBC Voices Recordings council used to come round and check up if people hadn’t gone to school; 1:07:53 and this chap used to

turn up in a car with all his paraphernalia his tools and all the gear like that you know in the back)

chum = friend (0:07:12 I had a chum of mine and that who he was librarian and that in Chichester

Library)

dead = very, really (0:34:36 and she said but if she was really um cheap and common we’d uh had cheap

trendy clothes she’d have said she was ‘dead common’)

dinky = ‘dual income no kids’, i.e. professional working couple with siginifcant disposable income

(1:48:11 ‘yuppy’ […] you know, they wouldn’t use it any more because it’s gone, you know, there was a

time when ‘yuppy’ or or ‘dinky’ and all those little things came in)

dreckly○ = presently, in a short while (0:56:00 and you will find that mushrooms start to come with the new

moon up to the full moon and dreckly you’ve gone past full moon the mushrooms will wane off until you get

to the next cycle of the new moon; 0:57.11 and if you want to be urgent about it you know what they’d used

to say I mean it’s something that’s dropped out of fashion now but if you said ‘dreckly minute’ (now) that

would mean you’d do it straightaway)21

drenching-horn = device for giving medicine to animals (1:29:47 apart from crooks and things you’ve got

sort of dipping irons and goodness kno… and and then drenching-horns and goodness knows what else)

electric = electricity supply (1:07:39 you know a lot of places didn’t have electric in fact we didn’t have it

until about 1961 or 62 (that’s right) before we had electric but a lot of the village schools didn’t have it

either; 1:18:30 he didn’t say, “last October” he said, “at ba… at the back… back-end” (‘back-end’ yeah)

“back-end” he said, “back-end back-end we had we we we had the uh electric come in”)

Estuary English = accent associated with south east England considered to contain elements of traditional

London and RP speech (1:53:41 (you know, there’s so much so much of this um uh emphasis on well

regional accents or regional dialect and one thing and another) that’s right Estuary English (you’ve got

you’ve got, you know, it’s either) (yeah, Estuary English) (yeah))

fag-hook = scythe, implement used to reap corn by hand (1:28:26 for example you you had something that

people some people called a ‘handbill’ but we’d call it a a ‘b…’ a ‘bill-hook’ or a, you know, and there’d

be and you’d got you’d got a longer one called a ‘s…’ uh we used to call a ‘slasher’ […] ‘fag-hooks’ were

‘swap hook’ (yeah, yeah) (‘swap-hook’, yeah, my father used that))

fella = man (0:01:20 uh I was born at Tillington in Sussex which is very near Petworth so I’m very much a

a Sussex fella; 0:16:48 and these two old fellas they were sitting there uh talking about nothing in

particular and uh they sees this lovely girl go across the square, you see, “cor, she weren’t half a

cracker”; 0:17:10 these two old fellas they they was watching her across the square)

footy = football (1:10:26 I suppose if I mean today like the boys next door would play football they’d talk

about going to play footy)

gaffer = man (0:06:25 there’s an old gaffer sat underneath the fire, you know, up up by the chimney and

that and he says he says, “I knows who had them”; 0:06:41 so some reluctant, like, you know he goes up

there and he buys this old gaffer a pint of beer and he says, “well you’d better tell me what you know”)

Geordie = dialect of Newcastle upon Tyne (1:55:54 the accent I think I really like are people from the

North East you would describe them as Geordies)

granny = grandmother (1:37:01 and what I especially loved about granny’s harmonium both me and my

sister Dolly was that we used to have to pedal the foot pedals um to uh, you know, when she played it;

1:43:24 my grandad was in s… in was he was a gardener and granny was in service and my mum and my

aunt Grace went into service um, you know, from the age of about fourteen)

grandad = grandfather (1:43:24 my grandad was in s… in was he was a gardener and granny was in

service and my mum and my aunt Grace went into service um, you know, from the age of about fourteen)

handbill = short-bladed pruning knife (1:28:26 for example you you had something that people some

people called a ‘handbill’ but we’d call it a a ‘b…’ a ‘bill-hook’ or a, you know, and there’d be and you’d

got you’d got a longer one called a ‘s…’ uh we used to call a ‘slasher’ […] ‘fag-hooks’ were ‘swap hook’

(yeah, yeah) (‘swap-hook’, yeah, my father used that))

jolly = very, really (1:30:54 jolly expensive now (they are they are) a poor a poor working man wouldn’t be

able to afford one of them now)

21

Glossary of Surrey Words (1894) records ‘drac’ly minute’ in this sense.


BBC Voices Recordings kid = young child (0:37:40 new plimsolls (yeah) was one of the best things in life when I was a kid; 1:52:10

but nowadays kids are picking up this Australian thing from the telly, aren’t they?)

mummer = actor in traditional play, esp. performed at holidays/festivals (0:46:05 well they were in the old

tipteers, you know, the, like, the mummers and that (oh, yeah) at at Tillington and Upperton)

PC = politically correct (0:31:14 Bob is right that, you know, PC has sort of run mad at the moment)

politically correct = in line with liberal opinion, avoiding discriminatory language or behaviour

(0:28:49 I don’t see how you can have a conversation like this if if it’s gotta be politically correct

because this is all a load of nonsense, isn’t it, you know (yes) you can legislate as much as you like

but you can’t alter human nature, can you?)

rick = haystack (1:26:04 and then he uh he would help with the w… with the hayricks and so on bu…

making the hayricks and all that)

shock = to place sheaves of corn upright to allow them to dry (1:25:41 (and he’d get the real feel of it and

and he helped with the stooking of the corn ‘stooking’ of the corn […]) I called it ‘shocking’ corn actually

we always used to call it ‘shocking’ corn (‘shocking’ corn that’s right) we seldom used you seldom used

the word ‘stooking’)

slasher = short-bladed pruning agricultural knife (1:28:26 for example you you had something that people

some people called a ‘handbill’ but we’d call it a a ‘b…’ a ‘bill-hook’ or a, you know, and there’d be and

you’d got you’d got a longer one called a ‘s…’ uh we used to call a ‘slasher’ […] ‘fag-hooks’ were ‘swap

hook’ (yeah, yeah) (‘swap-hook’, yeah, my father used that))

smoke-room = room set aside in pub/hotel for smokers (1:37:40 what on earth happened to the sensible

solution of a smoke-room or smoking room that they used to have in pubs years ago and if you smoked in a

pub you went into a particular bar that was called a ‘smoke-room’)

some = quite, somewhat (0:06:41 so some reluctant, like, you know he goes up there and he buys this old

gaffer a pint of beer and he says, “well you’d better tell me what you know”)

stook = to place sheaves of corn upright to allow them to dry (1:25:41 and he’d get the real feel of it and

and he helped with the stooking of the corn ‘stooking’ of the corn […] (I called it ‘shocking’ corn actually

we always used to call it ‘shocking’ corn) ‘shocking’ corn that’s right (we seldom used you seldom used

the word ‘stooking’))

summat∆ = something (1:22:46 in winter evenings they’d be sitting in the cottage and uh mum would be

mother’d be one side the fire uh knitting or or doing a little tatting or summat)

swap-hook = scythe, implement used to reap corn by hand (1:28:26 for example you you had something

that people some people called a ‘handbill’ but we’d call it a a ‘b…’ a ‘bill-hook’ or a, you know, and

there’d be and you’d got you’d got a longer one called a ‘s…’ uh we used to call a ‘slasher’ […] ‘fag-

hooks’ were ‘swap hook’ (yeah, yeah) (‘swap-hook’, yeah, my father used that))

tat = to sew/do lace-work typically used to make e.g. doyleys (1:22:46 in winter evenings they’d be sitting

in the cottage and uh mum would be mother’d be one side the fire uh knitting or or doing a little tatting or

summat)

tipteer○ = Christmas mummer (0:46:05 well they were in the old tipteers, you know, the, like, the mummers

and that (oh, yeah) at at Tillington and Upperton; 0:46:42 and they got as far as Benbow Pond (yeah)

which was all frozen over and there was a load of swans on there and they didn’t like the look of these

blooming tipteers coming along the road)

trug = shallow oblong basket made of wooden strips with handle from side to side used for carrying

fruit/vegetables (1:30:01 I mean I suppose probably the most distinctive word that that a lot of people

recognise today is a ‘trug’ (yeah) (yeah) you know, and you think (yeah) and um trugs were made for all

sort of jobs never mind the sort of gardeners one, you know)

woe betide22

= expression used as warning of/allusion to negative consequences (1:08:22 woe betide you if

you slowed down because I think the old drill used to sort of jump)

yuppy = young professional person (1:48:11 ‘yuppy’ […] you know, they wouldn’t use it any more because

it’s gone, you know, there was a time when ‘yuppy’ or or ‘dinky’ and all those little things came in)

22

Cambridge Idioms Dictionary (2006) records ‘frozen/chilled to the marrow’ in this sense.


BBC Voices Recordings

PHONOLOGY

KIT [ɪ]

(0:02:43 I’ve just finished [fɪnɪʃt] work as a Further Education College [kɒlɪʤ] librarian; 0:53:59 well you

look down on the pavement there and there’s a great big [bɪg] brass strip [stɹɪp] goes up ac… up across

there and it says the boundary of Sussex and Kent; 1:10:21 but that implied [ɪmplɑɪd] something [sʌmθɪŋ]

mischievous [mɪsʧɪvəs] (it did) slightly as well, didn’t it? [dɪdn̟ɪt])

<em-, en-, es-, ex-> (0:03:50 I come from a uh country background my grandad was a um head

gardener on a big estate [ɪstɛɪt] just outside Battle; 0:41:24 quite often when a couple got engaged

[ɪŋgɛɪʤd] wi… the the or the the bride-to-be, you know, the the wife-to-be would make her hu… her

husband’s Sunday smock; 1:07:00 he was a chap employed [ɪmplɔɪd] by the council used to come

round and check up if people hadn’t gone to school; 1:30:54 jolly expensive [ɪkspɛnsɪv] now (they

are they are) a poor a poor working man wouldn’t be able to afford one of them now; 1:52:28

people se… seem to think that it enhances [ɪnhɑːnsɪz] the language all these new words coming in

but it what it seems to me to do is to narrow it)

missus (0:28:28 the farmer’s wife, you know, that she’s sort of slightly in charge as well sometimes

‘the missus’, [mɪsəs] isn’t she, she’s got a position of importance)

DRESS [ɛ]

(0:34:36 and she said [sɛd] but if she was really um cheap and common we’d uh had cheap trendy [tɹɛndi]

clothes she’d have said [sɛd] she was ‘dead common’ [dɛd kɒmən]; 0:40:51 it’s afore my time but I mean

uh uh men [mɛn] still went [wɛnt] to church in their best [bɛst] Sunday smock and that on a Su… on a

Sunday morning; 1:08:00 and the thing that we all dreaded [dɹɛdɪd] was having to pedal [pɛdɫ̟] this bicycle

thing that he had he literally had a like a monocycle)

TRAP [æ ~ a]

(0:12:28 I wouldn’t ever call a person ‘unattractive’ [ʌnətɹaktɪv] I don’t think but I might call um say a

plant ‘unattractive’ [ʌnətɹaktɪv] (um, yes) or or if a room someone, you know, someone’s decoration was

drab [dɹab] possibly, yes; 0:31:14 Bob is right that, you know, PC has sort of run mad [mæd] at the

moment; 1:43:24 my grandad [gɹændæd] was in s… in was he was a gardener and granny [gɹæni] was in

service and my mum and my aunt Grace went into service um, you know, from the age of about fourteen;

1:48:27 it changes much more rapidly [ɹapɪdli] than it used to and I think that [ðaʔ] is the influence of uh

the media)

LOT~CLOTH [ɒ]

(0:34:36 and she said but if she was really um cheap and common [kɒmən] we’d uh had cheap trendy

clothes she’d have said she was ‘dead common’ [dɛd kɒmən]; 0:40:51 it’s afore my time but I mean uh uh

men still went to church in their best Sunday smock [smɒk] and that on a Su… on a Sunday morning;

0:56:00 and you will find that mushrooms start to come with the new moon up to the full moon and directly

you’ve gone past [gɒm paːst] full moon the mushrooms will wane off [ɒf] until you get to the next cycle of

the new moon; 1:13:28 they got [gɒd] a collection up and raised the money to pay his fine off [ɒf] so ’cause

they didn’t want to [wɒn͡tʔə] lose him, you know, so he got [gɒʔ] he got off [gɒd ɒf] he didn’t get

transported)

STRUT [ʌ > ɐ]

(0:03:50 I come [kʌm] from a uh country [kʌntɹi] background my grandad was a um head gardener on a

big estate just [ʤʌst] outside Battle; 0:40:51 it’s afore my time but I mean uh uh men still went to church in

their best Sunday [sʌndɪ] smock and that on a Su… on a Sunday [sʌndɪ] morning; 0:56:00 and you will find

that mushrooms [mɐʃɹuːmz] start to come [kʌm] with the new moon up [ʌp] to the full moon and directly

you’ve gone past full moon the mushrooms [mɐʃɹuːmz] will wane off until [ʌntɪɫ] you get to the next cycle


BBC Voices Recordings of the new moon; 1:57:29 and they could actually differentiate between the two which to myself and

probably the the rest of us [ʌs] here would be the difference would be so subtle [sʌtɫ]̟)

ONE (0:21:04 there are one or two [wɒn ə tuː] I simply cannot understand (nor can I) um I won’t

I’d better not say which they are; 0:22:10 and she said, “well I did have another boyfriend um

once” [wʌns]; 0:37:40 new plimsolls (yeah) was one [wʌn] of the best things in life when I was a

kid; 0:42:16 and certainly I can remember only once [wʌns] ever seeing one [wɒn] that I I actually

saw an old red one [wɒn] red smock; 1:30:01 I mean I suppose probably the most distinctive word

that that a lot of people recognise today is a ‘trug’ (yeah) (yeah) you know, and you think (yeah)

and um trugs were made for all sort of jobs never mind the sort of gardeners one, [wʌn] you know)

worry (1:48:51 I think they are speaking a sort of shorthand language of English now and and that

worries [wɒɹɪz] me)

FOOT [ʊ > ɵ]

(1:29:47 apart from crooks [kɹʊks] and things you’ve got sort of dipping irons and goodness kno…

[gɵdnəs nə] and and then drenching-horns and goodness knows [gɵdnəs nəʊz] what else; 1:14:42 the

umpire was the old blacksmith, you see, and he couldn’t [kʊdn̟t] have his fellow out first ball so he he

shook [ʃʊk] his head, you see; 1:31:12 and it was actually it was blooming full of woodworm [fʊl ə

wʊdwɚːm] it was rotten (yeah) and they’d got thirty-five pound on it and I wouldn’t’ve [wʊdn̟əv] given you

twopence for it)

stook (1:25:41 and he’d get the real feel of it and and he helped with the stooking [stʊkɪŋ] of the

corn ‘stooking’ [stʊkɪŋ] of the corn […] (I called it ‘shocking’ corn actually we always used to call

it ‘shocking’ corn) ‘shocking’ corn that’s right (we seldom used you seldom used the word

‘stooking’ [stuːkɪn]))

BATH [ɑː > aː]

(0:12:28 I wouldn’t ever call a person ‘unattractive’ I don’t think but I might call um say a plant [plɑːnt]

‘unattractive’ (um, yes) or or if a room someone, you know, someone’s decoration was drab possibly, yes;

0:53:59 well you look down on the pavement there and there’s a great big brass [bɹɑːs] strip goes up ac…

up across there and it says the boundary of Sussex and Kent; 0:56:00 and you will find that mushrooms

start to come with the new moon up to the full moon and directly you’ve gone past [paːst] full moon the

mushrooms will wane off until you get to the next cycle of the new moon)

elastic, <trans-> (0:40:41 ’cause all the elastic [ɪlastɪk] used to sort of go very very very unelastic

[ʌnɪlastɪk] at the end of a summer in the sea; 1:13:28 they got a collection up and raised the money

to pay his fine off so ’cause they didn’t want to lose him, you know, so he got he got off he didn’t get

transported [tɹanspɔ˞ːdɪd])

NURSE [əː]

(0:12:28 I wouldn’t ever call a person [pəːsən] ‘unattractive’ I don’t think but I might call um say a plant

‘unattractive’ (um, yes) or or if a room someone, you know, someone’s decoration was drab possibly, yes;

0:40:51 it’s afore my time but I mean uh uh men still went to church [ʧɚːʧ] in their best Sunday smock and

that on a Su… on a Sunday morning; 1:43:24 my grandad was in s… in was he was a gardener and granny

was in service [səːvɪs] and my mum and my aunt Grace went into service [səːvɪs] um, you know, from the

age of about fourteen)

weren’t (0:16:48 and these two old fellows they were sitting there uh talking about nothing in


cracker” [ʃi wʊn aːf ə kɹakɚ]; 0:23:21 (he used to tell these Sussex stories um the old boy) well the

old boy, oh yeah, I well because he was undertaker, weren’t he? [wɚːniː] (yeah, that’s right))

FLEECE [iː]

(0:09:24 he said that’s believed [bəliːvd] to be [biː] the origin of the expression ‘as different as chalk and

cheese’ [ʧiːz] suppose because cheese [ʧiːz] was Hampshire and chalk was Sussex; 0:34:36 and she said

but if she was really um cheap [ʧiːp] and common we’d uh had cheap [ʧiːp] trendy clothes she’d have said



she was ‘dead common’; 1:55:54 the accent I think I really like are people [piːpɫ̩] from the North East

[nɔ˞ːθiːst] you would describe them as Geordies)

been, mean, measle, seen, sheep (0:00:56 and I had to go and uh go in the army and go and do

National Service and that and then I come out and uh I trained up and I became an e… agricultural

engineer and I’ve been [bɪn] doing that most of my life and that ever since then; 0:10:21 there

wasn’t a sign (oh I see) it was just known as Sheep Street [ʃɪp stɹiːt] or Sheep Street [ʃiːp stɹiːt]

depending on which villager you spoke to; 0:40:51 it’s afore my time but I mean [mɪn] uh uh men

still went to church in their best Sunday smock and that on a Su… on a Sunday morning; 0:47:25 I

don’t think there’s too many people’ve actually ever seen [sɪn] it; 0:48:09 from from moonlight and

it was sufficient to do that and it’s the only only time in my life I’ve ever seen [sɪn] that (oh, lovely)

(never seen [sɪn] that) (that’s once in a lifetime, isn’t it, something like that really); 1:03:37 again

one from my mum she’d she’d say, “oh, we feel measled” [mɪzʊd]; 1:06:04 we wouldn’t’ve been

[biːn] allowed mum made us go to school she made us walk to school in the Great Freeze23

)

FACE [ɛɪ]

(0:47:53 it was raining [ɹɛɪnɪn] and I saw a rainbow [ɹɛɪnbəʊ] in moonlight; 1:26:04 and then he uh he

would help with the w… with the hayricks [hɛɪɹɪks] and so on bu… making [mɛɪkɪŋ] the hayricks [hɛɪɹɪks]

and all that; 1:43:24 my grandad was in s… in was he was a gardener and granny was in service and my

mum and my aunt Grace [ɑːnk gɹɛɪs] went into service um, you know, from the age [ɛɪʤ] of about

fourteen)

ain’t, always, <-day> (0:06:47 he said, “well it’s like this here” he said, “old Lord Leconfield he

had them but he ain’t [ɪnʔ] got them now, has he?”; 0:40:51 it’s afore my time but I mean uh uh

men still went to church in their best Sunday [sʌndɪ] smock and that on a Su… on a Sunday [sʌndɪ]

morning; 0:41:24 quite often when a couple got engaged wi… the the or the the bride-to-be, you

know, the the wife-to-be would make her hu… her husband’s Sunday [sʌndi] smock; 1:35:56 these

houses weren’t big and there was lots of people and yet (yes) there was always [ɔːɫwɪz] this one

room (that you didn’t use) that was never used it could’ve been a children’s playroom (that’s right)

but it never was; 1:38:27 always [ɔʊwɪz] called it the ‘Chesterfield’ (oh right) ‘Chesterfield’, yeah,

yeah (with an antimacassar on the back) probably yes, yes, probably there was)

great (1:27:46 grandad used to talk about things like, “going down the great wood” [gəːʔ ʊd] and

that was going down to the the ‘big wood’, you know, the “great wood” [gəːt ʊd])

PALM [ɑː]

(0:02:12 they bought a house well built a house actually in Petworth and my father [fɑːðə] had his studio

there for the rest of his life actually; 1:43:24 my grandad was in s… in was he was a gardener and granny

was in service and my mum and my aunt Grace [ɑːnk gɹɛɪs] went into service um, you know, from the age

of about fourteen)

THOUGHT [ɔː]

(0:02:12 they bought [bɔːt] a house well built a house actually in Petworth and my father had his studio

there for the rest of his life actually; 0:09:24 he said that’s believed to be the origin of the expression ‘as

different as chalk [ʧɔːk] and cheese’ suppose because cheese was Hampshire and chalk [ʧɔːk] was Sussex;

0:53:27 oh you mean you’re you’re talking [tɔːkɪŋ] about those springs like they get up Tunbridge Wells

(yes up Tunbridge Wells right up Kent); 1:57:29 but they were all talking actually [bɹɔːd] Brum)

Australia, alter, Saltdean (0:00:32 just the last twenty years I’ve been living over near Brighton I

lived for ten years up in Patcham and now I live down in Saltdean [sɒɫtdiːn]; 0:28:49 I don’t see

how you can have a conversation like this if if it’s got to be politically correct because this is all a

load of nonsense, isn’t it, you know (yes) you can legislate as much as you like but you can’t alter

[ɔːɫtɚ] human nature, can you?; 1:52:10 but nowadays kids are picking up this Australian

[ɒstɹɛɪliən] thing from the telly, aren’t they?)

23

Winter of 1962-63, more commonly referred to as the ‘Big Freeze’.



GOAT [əʊ]

(0:34:36 and she said but if she was really um cheap and common we’d uh had cheap trendy clothes

[kləʊz] she’d have said she was ‘dead common’; 0:46:42 and they got as far as Benbow Pond [bɛmbəʊ

pɒnd] (yeah) which was all frozen [fɹəʊzən] over [əʊvɚ] and there was a load [ləʊd] of swans on there

and they didn’t like the look of these blooming tipteers coming along the road [ɹəʊd]; 1:37:40 what on

earth happened to the sensible solution of a smoke-room [sməʊkɹuːm] or smoking room [sməʊkɪŋɹuːm]

that they used to have in pubs years ago [əgəʊ] and if you smoked [sməʊkt] in a pub you went into a

particular bar that was called a ‘smoke-room’ [sməʊkɹuːm])

<-ow> (0:01:20 uh I was born at Tillington in Sussex which is very near Petworth so I’m very much

a a Sussex fellow [fɛlə]; 0:17:10 these two old fellows [fɛlɚz] they they was watching her across the

square; 0:45:08 I tell you what you could put this uh dining table and chairs inside the tree ’cause

it’s hollow [hɒlɚ]; 1:36:40 practically every household in the land had a piano [pianəʊ] in the front

room (yeah) (yes) (yeah) and a piano stool [pianə stuːɫ]; 1:52:28 people se… seem to think that it

enhances the language all these new words coming in but it what it seems to me to do is to narrow

[naɹəʊ] it)

GOAL [ɔʊ > əʊ]

(0:06:41 so some reluctant, like, you know he goes up there and he buys this old [ɔʊɫd] gaffer a pint of beer

and he says, “well you’d better tell me what you know”; 0:23:21 (he used to tell these Sussex stories um the

old boy [əʊɫd bɔɪ]) well the old boy, [ɔʊɫd bɔɪ] oh yeah, I well because he was undertaker, weren’t he?

(yeah, that’s right); 1:10:44 there was a wonderful story I was told [təʊɫd] I’m not dropping names but I

mean I was told [təʊɫd] by the Duke of Richmond)

plimsoll (0:37:40 new plimsolls [plɪmpsəʊˑz] (yeah) was one of the best things in life when I was a

kid; 0:37:56 they were either white or blue, weren’t they […] white or blue plim… (white or blue)

white or blue plimsolls [plɪmsəɫz])

GOOSE [uː]

(0:02:12 they bought a house well built a house actually in Petworth and my father had his studio

[stjuːdiəʊ] there for the rest of his life actually; 0:37:56 they were either white or blue, [bluː] weren’t they

[…] white or blue [bluː] plim… (white or blue [bluː]) white or blue [bluː] plimsolls; 0:56:00 and you will

find that mushrooms [mɐʃɹuːmz] start to come with the new moon [njuː muːn] up to the full moon [fʊɫ

muːn] and directly you’ve gone past full moon [fʊɫ muːn] the mushrooms [mɐʃɹuːmz] will wane off until

you get to the next cycle of the new moon [njuː muːn])

blooming, room, twopence (0:12:28 I wouldn’t ever call a person ‘unattractive’ I don’t think but I

might call um say a plant ‘unattractive’ (um, yes) or or if a room [ɹʊm] someone, you know,

someone’s decoration was drab possibly, yes; 0:46:42 and they got as far as Benbow Pond (yeah)

which was all frozen over and there was a load of swans on there and they didn’t like the look of

these blooming [blʌmɪn] tipteers coming along the road; 1:31:12 and it was actually it was

blooming [blʌmɪn] full of woodworm it was rotten (yeah) and they’d got thirty-five pound on it and

I wouldn’t’ve given you twopence [tɐ ͡pʔn̟s] for it; 1:35:37 so I’d said about the bedroom [bɛdɹʊm]

with the fire in the bedroom [bɛdɹʊm] you knew you were ill if you’d got your fire in your bedroom

[bɛdɹʊm]; 1:35:56 these houses weren’t big and there was lots of people and yet (yes) there was

always this one room [ɹuːm] (that you didn’t use) that was never used it could’ve been a children’s

playroom [plɛɪɹuːm] (that’s right) but it never was)

PRICE [ɑɪ > ʌɪ]

(0:02:43 I’ve just finished work as a Further Education College librarian [lʌɪbɹɛːɹiən]; 0:40:51 it’s afore

my [mɑɪ] time [tɑɪm] but I mean uh uh men still went to church in their best Sunday smock and that on a

Su… on a Sunday morning; 0:48:09 from from moonlight [muːnlɑɪʔ] and it was sufficient to do that and it’s

the only only time [tɑɪm] in my life [lɑɪf] I’ve ever seen that (oh, lovely) (never seen that) (that’s once in a



lifetime, [lʌɪftʌɪm] isn’t it, something like [lʌɪk] that really); 1:53:06 I think Vic’s idea’s right [vɪks ɑɪdiəz

ɹɑɪʔ] that you should give children the opportunity of listening to older people)

my (0:00:56 and I had to go and uh go in the army and go and do National Service and that and

then I come out and uh I trained up and I became an e… agricultural engineer and I’ve been doing

that most of my [mɪ] life and that ever since then)

umpire (1:14:42 the umpire [ʌmpʌɪə] was the old blacksmith, you see, and he couldn’t have his

fellow out first ball so he he shook his head, you see)

CHOICE [ɔɪ]

(0:39:05 my memory of grandad saying his ‘corduroys’ [kɔːdəɹɔɪz] and that was his garden trousers

“trousers”; 1:07:00 he was a chap employed [ɪmplɔɪd] by the council used to come round and check up if

people hadn’t gone to school; 1:27:11 mum’s got a fairly, you know, good old Sussex voice [vɔɪs] and mine

has got Sussex vowels)

MOUTH [aʊ > æʉ ~ æɪ]

(0:06:11 anyhow [ɛniæʊ] these detective chaps they come down [dæɪn] from London and they are going

round [ɹæɪnd] in the pubs and that asking if anybody knew about [əbæɪt] these sheep that were missing

and um they went in this particular place and they asked and nobody didn’t say anything; 0:53:59 well you

look down [dæʉn] on the pavement there and there’s a great big brass strip goes up ac… up across there

and it says the boundary [bæʉndɹi] of Sussex and Kent; 1:06:04 we wouldn’t’ve been allowed [əlaʊd] mum

made us go to school she made us walk to school in the Great Freeze23

; 1:35:56 these houses [haʊzɪz]

weren’t big and there was lots of people and yet (yes) there was always this one room (that you didn’t use)

that was never used it could’ve been a children’s playroom (that’s right) but it never was)

our, vowel (0:18:34 all of us consciously or unconsciously modify our [ɑ˞ː] speech according to the

company that you’re in; 0:20:47 part of um our [ɑː] love of traditional music is is to do with

preserving that; 1:27:11 mum’s got a fairly, you know, good old Sussex voice and mine has got

Sussex vowels [vaʊəɫz])

NEAR [ɪə > ɪː]

(0:00:32 just the last twenty years [jɪ˞ːz] I’ve been living over near [nɪɚ] Brighton I lived for ten years

[jɪ˞ːz] up in Patcham and now I live down in Saltdean; 0:01:13 uh I was born at Tillington in Sussex which

is very near [nɪə] Petworth so I’m very much a Sussex fellow; 0:06:41 so some reluctant, like, you know he

goes up there and he buys this old gaffer a pint of beer [bɪɚ] and he says, “well you’d better tell me what

you know”; 0:48:38 I now use the word ‘twitten’ but it took me years [jɪəz] to feel confident to use it)

SQUARE [ɛː ~ ɛə]

(0:02:43 I’ve just finished work as a Further Education College librarian [lʌɪbɹɛːɹiən]; 0:07:17 and uh they

had a sort of old section, you know, like uh uh uh of, you know, uh rare [ɹɛɚ] books or valuable books;

0:31:08 and it’s so careless [kɛːləs] and it’s so easily done you you often do things without thinking;

0:45:08 I tell you what you could put this uh dining table and chairs [ʧɛɚz] inside the tree ’cause it’s

hollow)

START [ɑː > aː]

(0:28:28 the farmer’s wife, [fɑːməz wɑɪf] you know, that she’s sort of slightly in charge [ʧɑːʤ] as well

sometimes ‘the missus’, isn’t she, she’s got a position of importance; 0:45:43 there’s some mates of mine

and that well I’ve got a mate of mine farms [faːmz] up at Upperton; 0:56:00 and you will find that

mushrooms start [stɑ˞ːt] to come with the new moon up to the full moon and directly you’ve gone past full

moon the mushrooms will wane off until you get to the next cycle of the new moon; 1:43:24 my grandad

was in s… in was he was a gardener [gɑːdnə] and granny was in service and my mum and my aunt Grace

went into service um, you know, from the age of about fourteen)

NORTH [ɔː]

(0:39:05 my memory of grandad saying his ‘corduroys’ [kɔːdəɹɔɪz] and that was his garden trousers

“trousers”; 0:40:51 it’s afore my time but I mean uh uh men still went to church in their best Sunday smock



and that on a Su… on a Sunday morning [mɔ˞ːnɪŋ]; 1:55:54 the accent I think I really like are people from

the North East [nɔ˞ːθiːst] you would describe them as Geordies [ʤɔ˞ːdiz])

or (0:21:04 there are one or two [wɒn ə tuː] I simply cannot understand (nor can I) um I won’t I’d

better not say which they are)

FORCE [ɔː > ɔə˞]

(0:40:51 it’s afore [əfɔɚ] my time but I mean uh uh men still went to church in their best Sunday smock and

that on a Su… on a Sunday morning; 1:30:54 jolly expensive now (they are they are) a poor a poor

working man wouldn’t be able to afford [əfɔːd] one of them now; 1:43:24 my grandad was in s… in was he

was a gardener and granny was in service and my mum and my aunt Grace went into service um, you

know, from the age of about fourteen [fɔːtiːn])

CURE [ɔː]

(0:30:52 yes, I’m sure [ʃɔː] you’re right, Vic; 1:30:54 jolly expensive now (they are they are) a poor [pɔː] a

poor [pɔː] working man wouldn’t be able to afford one of them now)

happY [i]

(0:33:30 a lot of agricultural terms and words that were in common usage [kɒmən juːzɪʤ] and that uh

well even fifty [fɪfti] fifty [fɪfti] sixty [sɪksti] years ago are gradually [gɹaʤəli] sort of (right) dropping out

of use now; 0:34:36 and she said but if she was really [ɹɪːli] um cheap and common we’d uh had cheap

trendy [tɹɛndi] clothes she’d have said she was ‘dead common’; 1:10:26 I suppose if I mean today like the

boys next door would play football they’d talk about going to play footy [fʊti])

lettER [ə]

(0:46:05 well they were in the old tipteers, you know, the, like, the mummers [mʌmɚz] and that (oh, yeah)

at at Tillington and Upperton [ʌpɚtən]; 1:07.12 yeah, that’s right I I heard that only quite recently when I

was talking to somebody whose father [fɑːðə] had been a teacher [tiːʧə] (yeah) uh in uh near Chichester

[ʧɪʧɪstə] actually; 1:43:24 my grandad was in s… in was he was a gardener [gɑːdnə] and granny was in

service and my mum and my aunt Grace went into service um, you know, from the age of about fourteen)

trousers (0:39:05 my memory of grandad saying his ‘corduroys’ and that was his garden trousers

[gɑːdn̟ tɹaʊzəz] “trousers” [tɹaʊzɪz])

commA [ə]

(0:27:57 it’s an uncomfortable area [ɛːɹiə] now I think it’s awkward for people, isn’t it?; 1:39:11 I now

have a nice sofa [səʊfə] and I think it call it a ‘sofa’ [səʊfə] mostly; 1:48:27 it changes much more rapidly

than it used to and I think that is the influence of uh the media [miːdiə])

horsES [ɪ]

(1:07:39 you know a lot of places [plɛɪsɪz] didn’t have electric in fact we didn’t have it until about 1961 or

62 (that’s right) before we had electric but a lot of the village schools didn’t have it either; 1:48:27 it

changes [ʧɛɪnʤɪz] much more rapidly than it used to and I think that is the influence of uh the media;

1:52:28 people se… seem to think that it enhances [ɪnhɑːnsɪz] the language all these new words coming in

but it what it seems to me to do is to narrow it)

startED [ɪ]

(0:01:35 I’m most interested [ɪntɹəstɪd] in this project; 1:08:00 and the thing that we all dreaded [dɹɛdɪd]

was having to pedal this bicycle thing that he had he literally had a like a monocycle)

mornING [ɪ > n]̟

(0:16:48 and these two old fellows they were sitting there uh talking about nothing in particular [nʌʔn̟ ɪm

pətɪklɚ] and uh they sees this lovely girl go across the square, you see, “cor, she weren’t half a cracker”;

1:14:12 they were having [havɪŋ] this match and um saw the village team, you know, they put their ve…

best batsman in first and so on and then Larwood24

was on bowling [bəʊlɪŋ] and he was he was a sort of I

24

Harold Larwood (1904-1995), Nottinghamshire and England professional cricketer.


BBC Voices Recordings think he was called bodyline

25 bowler, wasn’t he?; 1:26:04 and then he uh he would help with the w… with

the hayricks and so on bu… making [mɛɪkɪŋ] the hayricks and all that)

VARIABLE RHOTICITY26

(0:01:13 uh I was born [bɔːn] at Tillington in Sussex which is very near [nɪə] Petworth so I’m very much a

Sussex fellow; 0:07:17 and uh they had a sort of old section, you know, like uh uh uh of, you know, uh rare

[ɹɛɚ] books or valuable books; 0:40:51 it’s afore [əfɔɚ] my time but I mean uh uh men still went to church

[ʧɚːʧ] in their [ðɛ˞ː] best Sunday smock and that on a Su… on a Sunday morning [mɔ˞ːnɪŋ]; 0:46:05 well

they were in the old tipteers, [tɪptɪɚz] you know, the, like, the mummers [mʌmɚz] and that (oh, yeah) at at

Tillington and Upperton [ʌpɚtən]; 0:56:00 and you will find that mushrooms start [stɑ˞ːt] to come with the

new moon up to the full moon and directly you’ve gone past full moon the mushrooms will wane off until

you get to the next cycle of the new moon; 1:29:47 apart from [əpɑ˞ːt fɹəm] crooks and things you’ve got

sort of [sɔdəv] dipping irons [dɪpɪŋɑɚnz] and goodness kno… and and then drenching-horns

[dɹɛnʧɪŋhɔ˞ːnz] and goodness knows what else; 1:30:54 jolly expensive now (they are they are) a poor

[pɔː] a poor [pɔː] working [wəːkɪn] man wouldn’t be able to afford [əfɔːd] one of them now; 1:43:24 my

grandad was in s… in was he was a gardener [gɑːdnə] and granny was in service [səːvɪs] and my mum

and my aunt Grace went into service [səːvɪs] um, you know, from the age of about fourteen [fɔːtiːn])

hyperrhoticity (0:17:10 these two old fellows [fɛlɚz] they they was watching her across the square;

0:45:08 I tell you what you could put this uh dining table and chairs inside the tree ’cause it’s hollow

[hɒlɚ]; 1:02:36 (what is ‘plumb tuckered’ American?) I’ve no idea [nəʊ ɑɪdɪɚ] it might’ve originated from

there I’ve no idea [nəʊ ɑɪdɪɚ]; 1:07:53 and this chap used to turn up in a car with all his paraphernalia

[paɹəfənɛɪliɚ] his tools and all the gear like that you know in the back)

PLOSIVES

T

frequent word final T-glottaling (e.g. 0:40:51 it’s afore my time but [bəʔ] I mean uh uh men still went to

church in their best Sunday smock and that [ən ðaʔ] on a Su… on a Sunday morning; 1:13:28 they got a

collection up and raised the money to pay his fine off so ’cause they didn’t [dɪdn̟ʔ] want to lose him, you

know, so he got [gɒʔ] he got off he didn’t [dɪnʔ] get [gɛʔ] transported; 1:27:11 mum’s got [gɒʔ] a fairly, you

know, good old Sussex voice and mine has got [gɒʔ] Sussex vowels; 1:48:11 ‘yuppy’ […] you know, they

wouldn’t [wɵdn̟ʔ] use it [ɪʔ] any more because it’s gone, you know, there was a time when ‘yuppy’ or or

‘dinky’ and all those little things came in)

word-medial & syllable initial T-glottaling (0:28:28 the farmer’s wife, you know, that she’s sort of

slightly in charge as well sometimes ‘the missus’, isn’t she, she’s got a position of importance [ɪmpɔːʔn̟s];

0:48:38 I now use the word ‘twitten’ [twɪʔn̟] but it took me years to feel confident to use it; 1:31:12 and it

was actually it was blooming full of woodworm it was rotten [ɹɒʔn]̟ (yeah) and they’d got thirty-five pound

on it and I wouldn’t’ve given you twopence for it; 1:01:24 I would say I was uh p… ‘pretty mad’ [pɹɪʔi

mæd] really; 1:48:11 ‘yuppy’ […] you know, they wouldn’t use it any more because it’s gone, you know,

there was a time when ‘yuppy’ or or ‘dinky’ and all those little [lɪʔɫ̩] things came in)

frequent T-voicing (e.g. 0:28:49 I don’t see how you can have a conversation like this if if it’s got to

[gɒdə] be politically correct because this is all a load of nonsense, isn’t it, you know (yes) you can legislate

as much as you like but you can’t alter human nature, can you?; 0:34:36 and she said but if [bəd ɪf] she

was really um cheap and common we’d uh had cheap trendy clothes she’d have said she was ‘dead

common’; 1:13:28 they got [gɒd] a collection up and raised the money to pay his fine off so ’cause they

25

Controversial method of bowling in cricket, also known as ‘fast leg theory’, implemented by England cricket captain Douglas

Jardine (1900-1958) during 1932-33 Ashes tour to Australia. 26

Bob generally uses postvocalic R, Vic does so very occasionally; the other speakers are consistently non-rhotic.



didn’t want to lose him, you know, so he got he got off [gɒd ɒf] he didn’t get transported [tɹanspɔ˞ːdɪd];

1:29:47 apart from crooks and things you’ve got sort of [sɔdəv] dipping irons and goodness kno… and and

then drenching-horns and goodness knows what else [wɒd ɛɫs]; 1:21:47 ‘kip’ or have a ‘nap’ depending,

you know, that was well it was a little [lɪdɫ̩] sleep, wasn’t, it a ‘nap’)

P, T, K

glottal reinforcement of P, T, K27

(0:08:31 that’s what I thought when you were starting on about

turkeys [təː ͡kʔiːz] I thought, “well, yeah, I know what you mean but I always thought it was sheep”,

like; 0:47:37 as you come over the top of the hill and yet people [piː ͡pʔʊ] can see Petworth

silhouetted [sɪluːɛ͡tʔɪd] against the s… the sort of skyline, you know; 1:31:12 and it was actually it

was blooming full of woodworm it was rotten (yeah) and they’d got thirty-five pound on it and I

wouldn’t’ve given you twopence [tɐ͡pʔn̟s] for it; 1:13:28 they got a collection up and raised the

money to [ ͡tʔə] pay his fine off so ’cause they didn’t want to [wɒn͡tʔə] lose him, you know, so he got

he got off he didn’t get transported)

NASALS

NG

frequent NG-fronting (e.g. 0:06:11 anyhow these detective chaps they come down from London and they

are going [gəʊɪn] round in the pubs and that asking [ɑːskɪn] if anybody knew about these sheep that were

missing [mɪsɪn] and um they went in this particular place and they asked and nobody didn’t say anything

[ɛnɪθɪŋ]; 0:16:30 ‘buxom girl’ is sort of acknowledging [əknɒlɪɪʤɪn] the sort of largeness but also

acknowledge that it’s it is attractive; 0:47:53 it was raining [ɹɛɪnɪn] and I saw a rainbow in moonlight;

1:22:46 in winter evenings [iːvnɪŋz] they’d be sitting [sɪtɪn] in the cottage and uh mum would be mother’d

be one side the fire uh knitting [nɪtɪn] or or doing [duːɪn] a little tatting [tatɪn] or summat)

<-thing> with NK (0:57.11 and if you want to be urgent about it you know what they’d used to say I

mean it’s something [sʌθɪŋk] that’s dropped out of fashion now but if you said ‘dreckly minute’

(now) that would mean you’d do it straightaway)

N

syllabic N with nasal release (0:12:28 I wouldn’t [wʊdn̟ʔ] ever call a person ‘unattractive’ I don’t think

but I might call um say a plant ‘unattractive’ (um, yes) or or if a room someone, you know, someone’s

decoration was drab possibly, yes; 0:31:32 but on the other hand it would also be used for people maybe

who’d got uh saddled with a load of debt or something like that to imply that they’d got a burden [bɚːdn̟];

0:39:05 my memory of grandad saying his ‘corduroys’ and that was his garden trousers [gɑːdn̟ tɹaʊzəz]

“trousers”; 1:07:39 you know a lot of places didn’t [dɪdn̟] have electric in fact we didn’t [dɪdn̟] have it

until about 1961 or 62 (that’s right) before we had electric but a lot of the village schools didn’t [dɪdn̟]

have it either; 1:10:21 but that implied something mischievous (it did) slightly as well, didn’t it? [dɪdn̟ɪt];

1:16:11 until all of a sudden [ɔːl əv ə sʌdn̟] they found out that um Slindon Cricket Club was a great deal

older than the MCC28

and they changed their tune and came down and played; 1:31:12 and it was actually

it was blooming full of woodworm it was rotten (yeah) and they’d got thirty-five pound on it and I

wouldn’t’ve [wʊdn̟əv] given you twopence for it; 1:39:23 they had a wooden [wʊdn̟] settle up at up at uncle

Wally’s farmhouse; 1:48:11 ‘yuppy’ […] you know, they wouldn’t [wɵdn̟ʔ] use it any more because it’s

gone, you know, there was a time when ‘yuppy’ or or ‘dinky’ and all those little things came in)

27

All tokens supplied by Bob. 28

Marylebone Cricket Club, founded 1787 in London, formerly governing body of cricket in England still based at Lords

Cricket Ground.


BBC Voices Recordings syllabic N with epenthetic schwa (0:45:43 there’s some mates of mine and that well I’ve got a mate of

mine farms up at Upperton [ɐpɚtən]; 1:25:38 you know very often [ɒftən] there was the back-drop of the

Downs and he’d got the real feel of it)

FRICATIVES

H

H-dropping (0:06:11 anyhow [ɛniæʊ] these detective chaps they come down from London and they are

going round in the pubs and that asking if anybody knew about these sheep that were missing and um they

went in this particular place and they asked and nobody didn’t say anything; 1:15:35 there’s always been a

thing going and that between Sussex and well, you know, Ha… [a] Sussex and and um and Hampshire

[ampʃɚ] about the sort of origins of cricket)

TH-stopping (0:16:48 and these two old fellows they were sitting there uh talking about nothing [nʌʔn̟] in


cracker”)

LIQUIDS

R

approximant R (0:12:28 I wouldn’t ever call a person ‘unattractive’ [ʌnətɹaktɪv] I don’t think but I might

call um say a plant ‘unattractive’ [ʌnətɹaktɪv] (um, yes) or or if a room [ɹʊm] someone, you know,

someone’s decoration [dɛkəɹɛɪʃən] was drab [dɹab] possibly, yes; 0:56:00 and you will find that

mushrooms [mɐʃɹuːmz] start to come with the new moon up to the full moon and directly [dɹɛkli] you’ve

gone past full moon the mushrooms [mɐʃɹuːmz] will wane off until you get to the next cycle of the new

moon; 1:43:24 my grandad [gɹændæd] was in s… in was he was a gardener and granny [gɹæni] was in

service and my mum and my aunt Grace [ɑːnk gɹɛɪs] went into service um, you know, from the age of about

fourteen)

L

clear onset L (0:02:43 I’ve just finished work as a Further Education College [kɒlɪʤ] librarian

[lʌɪbɹɛːɹiən]; 0:37:56 they were either white or blue, [bluː] weren’t they […] white or blue [bluː] plim…

(white or blue [bluː]) white or blue [bluː] plimsolls [plɪmsəɫz]; 1:37:01 and what I especially loved [lʌvd]

about granny’s harmonium both me and my sister Dolly [dɒli] was that we used to have to pedal the foot

pedals um to uh, you know, when she played [plɛɪd] it)

dark coda L (0:02:12 they bought a house well [wɛɫ] built [bɪɫt] a house actually in Petworth and my

father had his studio there for the rest of his life actually; 0:56:00 and you will [juː wəɫ] find that

mushrooms start to come with the new moon up to the full moon [fʊɫ muːn] and directly you’ve gone past

full moon [fʊɫ muːn] the mushrooms will wane off until [ʌntɪɫ] you get to the next cycle [sɑɪkɫ̟] of the new

moon; 1:26:04 and then he uh he would help [hɛɫp] with the w… with the hayricks and so on bu… making

the hayricks and all that [ɔːɫ ðat])

frequent L-vocalisation (e.g. 0:47:37 as you come over the top of the hill [hɪʊ] and yet people [piː͡pʔʊ] can

see Petworth silhouetted against the s… the sort of skyline, you know; 1:28:12 (can you remember, Bob?)

well all the tools [tuːʊz] had special [spɛʃʊ] names I mean the all sorts [ɔːʊ sɔːts] of names and that for

particularly for agricultural [agɹɪkʌɫʧəɹəɫ] tools [tuːʊz]; 1:53:06 I think Vic’s idea’s right that you should

give children [ʧɪʊdɹən] the opportunity of listening to older [əʊːdə] people [piːpʊ])

syllabic L with lateral release (0:03:50 I come from a uh country background my grandad was a um head

gardener on a big estate just outside Battle [batɫ]̟; 0:31:32 but on the other hand it would also be used for

people maybe who’d got uh saddled [sædɫd̟] with a load of debt or something like that to imply that they’d

got a burden; 1:08:00 and the thing that we all dreaded was having to pedal [pɛdɫ̟] this bicycle thing that


BBC Voices Recordings he had he literally had a like a monocycle; 1:37:01 and what I especially loved about granny’s harmonium

both me and my sister Dolly was that we used to have to pedal [pɛdɫ̟] the foot pedals [pɛdɫ̟z] um to uh, you

know, when she played it; 1:39:23 they had a wooden settle [sɛtɫ̟] up at up at uncle Wally’s farmhouse;

1:57:29 and they could actually differentiate between the two which to myself and probably the the rest of

us here would be the difference would be so subtle [sʌtɫ̟])

GLIDES

W

WH-W contrast29

(0:40:19 what colour was that would it be white, [ʍaɪt] would it? (it was white, [waɪt]

yes) it was white, [ʍaɪt] yes; 1:48:11 ‘yuppy’ […] you know, they wouldn’t use it any more because it’s

gone, you know, there was a time when [ʍɛn] ‘yuppy’ or or ‘dinky’ and all those little things came in)

J

yod with D, T (0:02:12 they bought a house well built a house actually in Petworth and my father had his

studio [stjuːdiəʊ] there for the rest of his life actually; 1:11:36 the Duke [djuːk] was really quite a good

batsman he always used to go in first, you see; 1:16:11 until all of a sudden they found out that um Slindon

Cricket Club was a great deal older than the MCC28

and they changed their tune [tjuːn] and came down

and played)

yod dropping with N (0:06:11 anyhow these detective chaps they come down from London and they are

going round in the pubs and that asking if anybody knew [nuː] about these sheep that were missing and um

they went in this particular place and they asked and nobody didn’t say anything; 1:32:46 you know that

the old licensees the landlords of the pubs and that used to have to go every year and that to the

magistrates’ court and that to get their licence renewed [ɹɪnuːd]; 1:35:37 so I’d said about the bedroom

with the fire in the bedroom you knew [nuː] you were ill if you’d got your fire in your bedroom)

yod dropping – other (0:16:48 and these two old fellows they were sitting there uh talking about nothing

in particular [nʌʔn̟ ɪm pətɪklɚ] and uh they sees this lovely girl go across the square, you see, “cor, she

weren’t half a cracker”; 0:39:05 my memory of grandad saying his ‘corduroys’ [kɔːdəɹɔɪz] and that was

his garden trousers “trousers”)

yod coalescence (0:02:43 I’ve just finished work as a Further Education [fəːðə ɛʤəkɛɪʃən] College

librarian; 0:54:17 and did you [dɪʤu] know that the Greenwich meridian runs through Lewes?; 1:07:53

and this chap used to turn up in a car with all his paraphernalia his tools and all the gear like that you

[lɑɪk ðaʧu nəʊ] know in the back; 1:53:06 I think Vic’s idea’s right that you should give children the

opportunity [ɒpəʧuːnəti] of listening to older people)

ELISION

prepositions

frequent of reduction (e.g. 0:06:41 so some reluctant, like, you know he goes up there and he buys this old

gaffer a pint of [ə] beer and he says, “well you’d better tell me what you know”; 0:28:49 I don’t see how

you can have a conversation like this if if it’s got to be politically correct because this is all a load of [ə]

nonsense, isn’t it, you know (yes) you can legislate as much as you like but you can’t alter human nature,

can you?; 0:45:43 there’s some mates of [ə] mine and that well I’ve got a mate of mine farms up at

Upperton; ; 0:46:42 and they got as far as Benbow Pond (yeah) which was all frozen over and there was a

load of [ə] swans on there and they didn’t like the look of these blooming tipteers coming along the road;

1:07:39 you know a lot of [ə] places didn’t have electric in fact we didn’t have it until about 1961 or 62

(that’s right) before we had electric but a lot of [ə] the village schools didn’t have it either; 1:15:35 there’s

always been a thing going and that between Sussex and well, you know, Ha… Sussex and and um and

29

All tokens supplied by Vic.



Hampshire about the sort of origins of [ə] cricket; 1:31:12 and it was actually it was blooming full of [ə]

woodworm it was rotten (yeah) and they’d got thirty-five pound on it and I wouldn’t’ve given you twopence

for it)

negation

secondary contraction (0:10:29 only trouble with that is, Tina, that if you put a sign up it’d be some

council chap would put it up there, wouldn’t he? [wʊniː]; 1:13:28 they got a collection up and raised the

money to pay his fine off so ’cause they didn’t [dɪdn̟ʔ] want to lose him, you know, so he got he got off he

didn’t [dɪnʔ] get transported)

simplification

word final consonant cluster reduction (0:06:11 anyhow these detective chaps they come down from

London and they are going round in the pubs and that asking if anybody knew about these sheep that were

missing and um they went [wɛn] in this particular place and they asked [ɑːst] and nobody didn’t say

anything; 0:10:29 only trouble with that is, Tina, that if you put a sign up it’d be some council chap would

put it up there, wouldn’t he? [wʊniː]; 0:16:48 and these two old fellows they were sitting there uh talking

about nothing in particular and uh they sees this lovely girl go across the square, you see, “cor, she

weren’t half a cracker” [ʃi wʊn aːf ə kɹakɚ]; 0:23:21 (he used to tell these Sussex stories um the old boy)

well the old boy, oh yeah, I well because he was undertaker, weren’t he? [wɚːniː] (yeah, that’s right);

0:27:57 it’s an uncomfortable area now I think it’s awkward for people, isn’t it? [ɪzn̟ɪt]; 0:28:49 I don’t see

how you can have a conversation like this if if it’s got to be politically correct because this is all a load of

nonsense, isn’t it, [ɪzn̟ɪʔ] you know (yes) you can legislate as much as you like but you can’t alter human

nature, can you?; 0:34:36 and she said but if she was really um cheap and common we’d uh had cheap

trendy clothes [kləʊz] she’d have said she was ‘dead common’; 1:07:39 you know a lot of places didn’t

[dɪdn̟] have electric in fact we didn’t [dɪdn̟] have it until about 1961 or 62 (that’s right) before we had

electric but a lot of the village schools didn’t [dɪdn̟] have it either; 1:10:21 but that implied something

mischievous (it did) slightly as well, didn’t it? [dɪdn̟ɪt]; 1:31:12 and it was actually it was blooming full of

woodworm it was rotten (yeah) and they’d got thirty-five pound on it and I wouldn’t’ve [wʊdn̟əv] given you

twopence for it; 1:35:26 it was always damp, wasn’t it? [wɒn̟nɪ̟ʔ] (’cause it wasn’t used))

word medial consonant cluster reduction (0:16:48 and these two old fellows they were sitting there uh

talking about nothing in particular [nʌʔn̟ ɪm pətɪklɚ] and uh they sees this lovely girl go across the square,

you see, “cor, she weren’t half a cracker”; 0:57.11 and if you want to be urgent about it you know what

they’d used to say I mean it’s something [sʌθɪŋk] that’s dropped out of fashion now but if you said ‘dreckly

minute’ (now) that would mean you’d do it straightaway)

syllable deletion (0:56:00 and you will find that mushrooms start to come with the new moon up to the full

moon and directly [dɹɛkli] you’ve gone past full moon the mushrooms will wane off until you get to the next

cycle of the new moon; 0:57.11 and if you want to be urgent about it you know what they’d used to say I

mean it’s something that’s dropped out of fashion now but if you said ‘dreckly minute’ [dɹɛkli mɪnɪt] (now)

that would mean you’d do it straightaway; 1:10:26 I suppose [spəʊz] if I mean today like the boys next

door would play football they’d talk about going to play footy)

L-deletion (0:10:29 only [əʊni] trouble with that is, Tina, that if you put a sign up it’d be some council

chap would put it up there, wouldn’t he?; 0:48:09 from from moonlight and it was sufficient to do that and

it’s the only [əʊni] only [əʊni] time in my life I’ve ever seen that (oh, lovely) (never seen that) (that’s once

in a lifetime, isn’t it, something like that really))

TH-deletion with them (0:38:48 they was ei… there was two words they used for them [əm] one was to call

them [əm] ‘yorks' or ‘boot-legs’)

V-deletion with have (0:34:36 and she said but if she was really um cheap and common we’d uh had

cheap trendy clothes she’d have said she was ‘dead common’ [ʃiːdə sɛd ʃi wəz dɛd kɒmən]; 1:06:04 we



wouldn’t’ve been allowed [wʊdn̟ʔə biːn əlaʊd] mum made us go to school she made us walk to school in

the Great Freeze23

; 1:35:56 these houses weren’t big and there was lots of people and yet (yes) there was

always this one room (that you didn’t use) that was never used it could’ve been a children’s playroom [ɪt

kɵdə biːn ə ʧɪɫdɹənz plɛɪɹuːm] (that’s right) but it never was)

W-deletion (1:27:46 grandad used to talk about things like, “going down the great wood” [gəːʔ ʊd] and

that was going down to the the ‘big wood’, you know, the “great wood” [gəːt ʊd])

LIAISON

linking R (0:40:41 ’cause all the elastic used to sort of go very very very unelastic at the end of a summer

in the sea [sʌməɹ ɪn ðə siː]; 1:14:42 the umpire was the old blacksmith, you see, and he couldn’t have his

fellow out first ball [kʊdn̟t hav iz fɛləɹ aʊt fəːst bɔːɫ] so he he shook his head, you see; 1:35:37 so I’d said

about the bedroom with the fire in the bedroom [fɑɪɹ ɪn ðə bɛdɹʊm] you knew you were ill if you’d got your

fire in your bedroom [fɑɪɹ ɪn jə bɛdɹʊm])

zero linking R (0:02:43 I’ve just finished work as a Further Education [fəːðə ɛʤəkɛɪʃən] College

librarian; 1:35:37 so I’d said about the bedroom with the fire in the bedroom you knew you were ill [ju wəː

ɪɫ] if you’d got your fire in your bedroom)

zero intrusive R (0:42:16 and certainly I can remember only once ever seeing one that I I actually saw an

old red one [sɔː ən ɔʊɫd ɹɛd wɒn] red smock; 0:47:53 it was raining and I saw a rainbow [sɔː ə ɹɛɪnbəʊ] in

moonlight; 1:14:32 you know the poor old batsman who was very very good it was such a fast ball he never

saw [sɔː ɪʔ] it and he just nicked it, you know, went straight in the slips you see and “howzat”)

SUBSTITUTION

metathesis (1:27:46 grandad used to talk about things like, “going down the great wood” [gəːʔ ʊd]

and that was going down to the the ‘big wood’, you know, the “great wood” [gəːt ʊd])

+/- VOICE

usage (0:33:30 a lot of agricultural terms and words that were in common usage [kɒmən juːzɪʤ] and that

uh well even fifty fifty sixty years ago are gradually sort of (right) dropping out of use now)

WEAK-STRONG CONTRAST

vowel reduction (0:01:35 I’m most interested [ɪntɹəstɪd] in this project)

vowel strengthening

word final vowel strengthening (0:01:20 uh I was born at Tillington in Sussex [sʌsɪks] which is very near

Petworth so I’m very much a a Sussex [sʌsɪks] fellow; 0:16:30 ‘buxom girl’ is sort of acknowledging the

sort of largeness [lɑːʤnɪs] but also acknowledge that it’s it is attractive; 1:15:35 there’s always been a

thing going and that between Sussex [sɐsɪks] and well, you know, Ha… Sussex [sɐsɪks] and and um and

Hampshire about the sort of origins of cricket; 1:27:11 mum’s got a fairly, you know, good old Sussex

[sʌsɪks] voice and mine has got Sussex [sʌsɪks] vowels)

vowel strengthening – other (1:07.12 yeah, that’s right I I heard that only quite recently when I was

talking to somebody whose father had been a teacher (yeah) uh in uh near Chichester [ʧɪʧɪstə] actually;

1:27:11 mum’s got a fairly, you know, good old Sussex voice and mine has got [ɪz gɒʔ] Sussex vowels)

LEXICALLY SPECIFIC VARIATION


BBC Voices Recordings again(st) (0:47:37 as you come over the top of the hill and yet people can see Petworth silhouetted against

[əgɛnst] the s… the sort of skyline, you know; 1:03:37 again [əgɛɪn] one from my mum she’d she’d say,

“oh, we feel measled”)

because (0:28:49 I don’t see how you can have a conversation like this if if it’s got to be politically correct

because [bɪkʊs] this is all a load of nonsense, isn’t it, you know (yes) you can legislate as much as you like

but you can’t alter human nature, can you?; 1:48:11 ‘yuppy’ […] you know, they wouldn’t use it any more

because [bɪkɒz] it’s gone, you know, there was a time when ‘yuppy’ or or ‘dinky’ and all those little things

came in)

(n)either (1:07:39 you know a lot of places didn’t have electric in fact we didn’t have it until about 1961 or

62 (that’s right) before we had electric but a lot of the village schools didn’t have it either [ɑɪðɚ]; 1:53:41

you know, there’s so much so much of this um uh emphasis on well regional accents or regional dialect

and one thing and another (that’s right Estuary English) you’ve got you’ve got, you know, it’s either

[ɑɪðɚ] (yeah, Estuary English) yeah; 1:58:18 well she was very ash… ashamed of it that, you know, she

could neither [nɑɪðə] read nor write)

often (0:31:08 and it’s so careless and it’s so easily done you you often [ɒfən] do things without thinking;

0:41:24 quite often [ɒfən] when a couple got engaged wi… the the or the the bride-to-be, you know, the the

wife-to-be would make her hu… her husband’s Sunday smock; 1:25:38 you know very often [ɒftən] there

was the back-drop of the Downs and he’d got the real feel of it)

pristine (1:36:12 or the vicar came round (yeah) or something, you know, you they took in went in the front

room but it was always just so and kept looking pristine [pɹɪsˈtiːn] but it was never used and we had a

room like that (“oh bugger, it the vicar”))

says (0:06:41 so some reluctant, like, you know he goes up there and he buys this old gaffer a pint of beer

and he says, [sɛz] “well you’d better tell me what you know”; 0:53:59 well you look down on the pavement

there and there’s a great big brass strip goes up ac… up across there and it says [səz] the boundary of

Sussex and Kent; 1:24:04 then old grandfather he’d suddenly wake up in the corner there and he’d say he

says, [sɛz] “there’s so much argufying going on around here I reckon we’d better have a song”)

GRAMMAR

DETERMINERS

zero indefinite article (0:23:21 (he used to tell these Sussex stories um the old boy) well the old boy, oh

yeah, I well because he was _ undertaker, weren’t he? (yeah, that’s right))

demonstrative them (0:24.22 oh he’s talking to old Len and that as well and uh, yeah, there was things

about what was it, you know, “them black candles, Alfie, and that what we had of course we had to have

black candles during the blackout so they couldn’t see the light”; 0:43.50 but I’ve frequently heard people

say, “oh, they’re strange them people over in West Sussex”)

NOUNS

zero plural (1:31:12 and it was actually it was blooming full of woodworm it was rotten (yeah) and

they’d got thirty-five pound on it and I wouldn’t’ve given you twopence for it)

PRONOUNS

me in co-ordinate subjects (1:37:01 and what I especially loved about granny’s harmonium both me and

my sister Dolly was that we used to have to pedal the foot pedals um to uh, you know, when she played it)


BBC Voices Recordings possessive me (0:00:56 and I had to go and uh go in the army and go and do National Service and that and

then I come out and uh I trained up and I became an e… agricultural engineer and I’ve been doing that

most of me life and that ever since then)

unbound reflexive (1:57:29 and they could actually differentiate between the two which to myself and

probably the the rest of us here would be the difference would be so subtle)

zero relative (0:10:29 only trouble with that is, Tina, that if you put a sign up it’d be some council chap _

would put it up there, wouldn’t he?; 0:45:43 there’s some mates of mine and that well I’ve got a mate of

mine _ farms up at Upperton; 0:47:25 I don’t think there’s too many people _’ve actually ever seen it;

0:53:59 well you look down on the pavement there and there’s a great big brass strip _ goes up ac… up

across there and it says the boundary of Sussex and Kent; 1:07:00 he was a chap employed by the council _

used to come round and check up if people hadn’t gone to school)

VERBS

past zero past (0:00:56 and I had to go and uh go in the army and go and do National Service and that and

then I come out and uh I trained up and I became an e… agricultural engineer and I’ve been doing that

most of my life and that ever since then; 1:42:13 I think there’s always been um from from uh uh as long as

I can think um a distinction between between people who might’ve been w… w… what you would describe

as old money or gentry (yeah) and people who suddenly come into a lot of money and flashed it about)

be – was generalisation (0:17:10 these two old fellas they they was watching her across the square;

0:38:48 they was ei… there was two words they used for them one was to call them ‘yorks' or ‘boot-legs’)

was-weren’t split (0:16:48 and these two old fellas they were sitting there uh talking about nothing in


cracker”; 0:23:21 (he used to tell these Sussex stories um the old boy) well the old boy, oh yeah, I well

because he was undertaker, weren’t he? (yeah, that’s right))

alternative past (1:21:15 we just ‘went to bed’ or you ‘went to sleep’ or you ‘laid down’)

compounds

simple past with progressive meaning (0:06:25 there’s an old gaffer sat underneath the fire, you know,

up up by the chimney and that and he says he says, “I knows who had them”)

double past with used to (0:57.11 and if you want to be urgent about it you know what they’d used to say I

mean it’s something that’s dropped out of fashion now but if you said ‘dreckly minute’ (now) that would

mean you’d do it straightaway)

invariant there is/there was (0:24.22 oh he’s talking to old Len and that as well and uh, yeah, there was

things about what was it, you know, “them black candles, Alfie, and that what we had of course we had to

have black candles during the blackout so they couldn’t see the light”; 0:38:48 they was ei… there was two

words they used for them one was to call them ‘yorks' or ‘boot-legs’; 0:46:42 and they got as far as

Benbow Pond (yeah) which was all frozen over and there was a load of swans on there and they didn’t like

the look of these blooming tipteers coming along the road; 0:47:25 I don’t think there’s too many people’ve

actually ever seen it; 1:35:56 these houses weren’t big and there was lots of people and yet (yes) there was

always this one room (that you didn’t use) that was never used it could’ve been a children’s playroom

(that’s right) but it never was; 1:50:44 there is parts of the Junior National Curriculum where for example

they are now talking about memories of the Second World War)

historic present (0:06:25 there’s an old gaffer sat underneath the fire, you know, up up by the chimney and

that and he says he says, “I knows who had them”; 0:06:41 so some reluctant, like, you know he goes up

there and he buys this old gaffer a pint of beer and he says, “well you’d better tell me what you know”;

0:16:48 and these two old fellas they were sitting there uh talking about nothing in particular and uh they

sees this lovely girl go across the square, you see, “cor, she weren’t half a cracker”; 0:24:04 then old


BBC Voices Recordings grandfather he’d suddenly wake up in the corner there and he’d say he says, “there’s so much argufying

going on around here I reckon we’d better have a song”)

NEGATION

multiple negation (0:06:11 anyhow these detective chaps they come down from London and they are going

round in the pubs and that asking if anybody knew about these sheep that were missing and um they went

in this particular place and they asked and nobody didn’t say anything)

ain’t for negative have (0:06:47 he said, “well it’s like this here” he said, “old Lord Leconfield he

had them but he ain’t got them now, has he?”)

cannot (0:21:04 there are one or two I simply cannot understand (nor can I) um I won’t I’d better not say

which they are)

PREPOSITIONS

deletion

zero of (1:22:46 in winter evenings they’d be sitting in the cottage and uh mum would be mother’d be one

side _ the fire uh knitting or or doing a little tatting or summat)

preposition deletion – other (0:53:27 oh you mean you’re you’re talking about those springs like they get

up _ Tunbridge Wells (yes up _ Tunbridge Wells right up _ Kent); 1:47:27 if you went down_ the pub you

and would say to some, “oh, she’s up the club”)

ADVERBS

unmarked manner adverb (0:06:41 so some reluctant, like, you know he goes up there and he buys this

old gaffer a pint of beer and he says, “well you’d better tell me what you know”)

DISCOURSE

utterance final and that (0:00:56 and I had to go and uh go in the army and go and do National Service

and that and then I come out and uh I trained up and I became an e… agricultural engineer and I’ve been

doing that most of my life and that ever since then; 0:06:11 anyhow these detective chaps they come down

from London and they are going round in the pubs and that asking if anybody knew about these sheep that

were missing and um they went in this particular place and they asked and nobody didn’t say anything;

0:06:25 there’s an old gaffer sat underneath the fire, you know, up up by the chimney and that and he says

he says, “I knows who had them”; 0:07:12 I had a chum of mine and that who he was librarian and that in

Chichester Library; 0:24.22 oh he’s talking to old Len and that as well and uh, yeah, there was things

about what was it, you know, “them black candles, Alfie, and that what we had of course we had to have

black candles during the blackout so they couldn’t see the light”; 0:45:43 there’s some mates of mine and

that well I’ve got a mate of mine farms up at Upperton)

utterance final like (0:06:41 so some reluctant, like, you know he goes up there and he buys this old gaffer

a pint of beer and he says, “well you’d better tell me what you know”; 0:08:31 that’s what I thought when

you were starting on about turkeys I thought, “well, yeah, I know what you mean but I always thought it

was sheep”, like)

utterance internal like (0:46:05 well they were in the old tipteers, you know, the, like, the mummers and

that (oh, yeah) at at Tillington and Upperton)

intensifier dead (0:34:36 and she said but if she was really um cheap and common we’d uh had cheap

trendy clothes she’d have said she was ‘dead common’)

intensifier jolly (1:30:54 jolly expensive now (they are they are) a poor a poor working man wouldn’t be

able to afford one of them now)


BBC Voices Recordings © Robinson, Herring, Gilbert

Voices of the UK, 2009-2012

A British Library project funded by The Leverhulme Trust

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