James Wraith is on the council of the Yorkshire Dialect Society. Here he highlights the concept of false friends in linguistics and how they apply to the traditional dialect of the West Riding. All of this, of course, is written in his local Sheffield variety of the dialect.
(A little noat on pronunciation afoor we get started: “h” is allus [always] written for t’ sek o mekkin wurds eeasier to reconise but shoun’t [shouldn’t] ivver be pronaanced.)
Naa then has-ta [have you] hear’d tell abaat them false friends? Nay, Aw doan’t meean t’ soort o fowk yo goa aat to a fancy restaurant wi, an yo fork aat hafe [half] yor savins o’ some French chop (happen [perhaps] a recipe for sautied chicken feet), nobbut for em to leeav 5 minutes afoor t’ bill mun be splitten up [must be split up]. Aw’m talkin abaat wurds here! Oh, tha hasn’t, has-ta? Well, let me gie thee a bit o proper Yorkshire-style info chop to help grow yond brainbox o thine [yours]!
What ‘false friends’ is
Naa what’m Aw on abaat then? Well, when it comes to languages, sometimes yo can get it wheer two wurds i two languages as looks alike dun’t meean t’ same thing. I some cases it’s cos they happen to look, else saand, similar but han’t nowt to do wi eeach other so far as what their rooits is: their ‘etymology’ for them as likes syllables.
For instance, a particly soft-heeaded body [particularly stupid person] coud end up thinkin as ‘teach’ in Irish meeans t’ same as t’ English wurd wi t’ same spellin, when i reality it meeans ‘haase’ (It mun be said, chuse-haa [however], as ‘teach’ is pronaanced summat like ‘tyahh’ in Irish soa ther’s noa chonce o mixin em up when hearin em). To me, thease soorts o wurds, wheer ther’s noa etymological link between em, is raither poor examples o what Aw’m on abaat wi ‘false friends’.
Much better examples comes up, hoavver, when ther is a connection betwixt two wurds i two languages, but wi a difference i t’ meeanin. When two wurds i separate languages shares t’ same rooit, they’re call’d ‘cognates’. Typically, sich differences i meeanin atween [between] cognates can come thro [from] t’ fact as mebbe one language has changed t’ meeanin o t’ wurd, wheras t’ tother han’t as much or i different ways.
This here’s why ‘deer’ in English meeans a particlar soort ov animal, wheras i related languages sich as Jarman, t’ equivalent o t’ same wurd, ‘Tier’, can talk abaat ony animal under t’ sun. In Owd English, ‘deor’ hed t’ same meeanin as wi t’ Jarman wurd, soa what’s happen’d sin t’ Medieval period, is t’ English wurd has narro’d ovver time to meean summat moor specific.
In other cases ther’s ovverlap, wheer a wurd i one language has one meeanin, wheras in another yo find t’ same meeanin wi a extra-un beside. This here’s why i French ther’s ‘espérer’, meeanin ‘to hoap’, an i Spanish ther’s ‘esperar’ wi t’ same meeanin, an another-un beside as in’t fon [isn’t found] i French, that-un bein “to wait”.
Haa Brooad Yorkshire fits into all this
Naa what’s all this to do wi Dialect, eh? Well, even cloisly related language varieties, them as fowk considers to be part o t’ same language (tho o coorse this here’s a subjective soort o thing), can hev a relationship wi wurds same as t’ ones Aw’ve talk’d abaat aboon [above]. I West Ridin Dialect ther’s tons ov examples, especially them at’s like what we’ve seen wi t’ pair o wurds i French an Spanish, so naa we’ve getten yon [got that] lang-wynded introduction aat o t’ rooad [out of the way], let’s get agate [get going] an gie a twoathry [few] examples o what we’re on abaat:
To rooar: ‘Aw han’t getten a wink o sleep cos t’ babby wor rooarin all t’ neet.’
Naa doan’t be flaid [afraid], t’ babby han’t started teethin fangs an growin claws. In English we’d say, ‘I haven’t got a wink of sleep because the baby was crying all night.’
To starve: ‘Woud yo gie him yor leather coit? He’s fair starv’d aat theer!’
Ey up, they’re not expectin him to eyt t’ leather off o t’ coit, they’re nobbut [only] giein him summat to keep warm. In English we’d say, ‘Would you give him your leather coat. He’s freezing cold out there!’
Band: ‘Aw need a bit o band iv Aw’m to laik at conkers.’
Dun’t goa accusin me o cheytin bi usin summat heavy duty to smash others’ conkers to bits! In English we’d say, ‘I need a bit of string if I’m to play conkers.’ Another meeanin for this-un ‘d be translated as ‘power belt’, sich as them as wor used daan t’ pit.
Rare: ‘We’d a rare time on it, Aw tell thee.’
When we say this we’re not bein defeeatist abaat things not happenin agean! In English we’d say, ‘We had a really good time of it, I tell you.’
Chamer: ‘Sho stopp’d in her chamer to finish her signment.’
We’re noan necessarily talkin abaat a member o t’ royal family’s raam [room] here, wi curtains raand t’ bed an a assistant on call to sam summat aat [pick something out] o t’ litter bin as falls in bi accident. In English we’d say, ‘She stayed in her bedroom to finish her assignment.’
To flit: ‘They’re banno flit somewheer nicer after winnin t’ lotto.’
This in’t a Redbull ad, Aw’m noan much for sponsorships onyrooad [anyway]. In English we’d say, ‘They’re going to move somewhere nicer after winning the lotto.’
To land: ‘They med sure they’d land at t’ haase for t’ Sunda roist.’
Hod on, we’re still not doin sponsorships so we can get ussens [ourselves] a private jet eeach or owt else o that soort…yit. In English we’d say, ‘They made sure they’d arrive at the house for the Sunday roast.’
Sad: ‘Yo coud tell mi breead wor sad when it come aat o t’ oven.’
Yorkshire yest [yeast] dun’t mek uz looavs come to life wi a case o t’ depression. In English we’d say, ‘You could tell my bread was dense/heavy when it came out the oven.’
Sed: ‘Tha’ll ne’er be sed whol tha’s had t’ last wurd!’
A variant o t’ precedin wurd. In English we’d say, ‘You’ll never be satisfied till you’ve had the last word!’
To hug: ‘Huggin this bag o flaar abaat’s mekkin mi back wark.’
We’re not deealin wi a parent-i-trainin wi their bag o flaar as a stand-in for a babby here. In English we’d say, ‘Carrying this bag of flour about’s making my back ache.’
Rooad: ‘Tha’rt i t’ rooad o t’ kettle an Aw’d like a cuppa, so shove off!’
Yorkshire kitchen appliances dun’t come wi drivin licenses an plannin permission for a front drive. In English we’d say, ‘You’re in the way of the kettle and I’d like a cuppa, so shove off!’
To awn: ‘Aw awn’d it as sooin as Aw saw it.’
Yorkshire fowk in’t much for tekkin possession o stuff when they see it (when somedy’s wetchin that is). In English we’d say, ‘I recognised it as soon as I saw it.’
Hoil: ‘We coun’t believe we wor set i t’ sittin-hoil for aboon a haar afoor we wor seen to.’
Yorkshire fowk ‘ll say a lot abaat ivverythin bein some soort ov hoil or other; ‘kallin-hoil’ for ‘talking place’, ‘hen-hoil’ for ‘chicken coop’, ‘chip-hoil’ for ‘fish-and-chips shop’ an soa on, but it isn’t cos t’ caancil han’t bin raand to fill t’ hoils in. In English we’d say, ‘We couldn’t believe we were sitting in the sitting-room for over an hour before we were seen to.’
This here wurd can be stuck onto others spontaneous-like to meean a place wheer summat happens or tends to be fon.
Some partin wurds
To be truthful wi thee, Aw coud goa on for ages an ages giein thee some moor examples, but Aw reckon Aw’ve auready talk’d thi lughoils [ears] off enuff as it is. Onyrooad it’s a bonny [nice-looking] day as Aw write this here, an tha knaws what they say abaat mekkin hay whol t’ sun still shines.
In ony case Aw hoap this here’s bin a gooid enuff introduction to some o t’ intricacies o language an haa they mout [might] come in handy when talkin abaat haa we speyk raand here an noan just further afield. Some fowk ‘ll say we nobbut speyk wi a accent here i Yorkshire, an happen for some fowk that’s true, but when yo look cloiser at haa t’ brooadest amang uz speyks, we find some reight deep an different stuff to what’s seen i Standard English.
Onyrooad, tah [thank you] varry much for pinnin thi earhoils back an we’ll happen talk abaat summat else language-wise i times to come!
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