Bill Walsh raises an interesting comment under the 'why do we emigrate' thread.
He says he has lost his Yorkshire accent. How many of us still speak as we did at school, how many have lost it completely? I guess many of us now have a 'muted' form of the original, sometimes refered to as 'Educated Yorkshire'. I certainly find that when with predominantly Yorkshire 'fowk', ie my parents/sister, or in our company office in Headingley, I certainly drift into a more of Yorkshire accent, than if in company of others. However some sounds I have lost completely. My 'bath'& 'path' are always long sounds now. Garage is a strange one, I am somewhere in between 'garridge' and the posh 'garrarrrge'.

But Ive been pretty fortunate in life, others would say 'If 'e fell in t'middin', 'id cum aht smellin' o' roses'

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

I'm in a bit of a no-man's-land! When I visited a pub in Keighley in '96 the Landlord thought I was Australian - 'yer sound like them in t'Neighbours'.
Here, I'm told I have a strong accent but if truth be known the Aussies have little idea what a strong Yorkshire accent is really like!
My wife, Australian born, says she doesn't even notice my accent now unless someone mentions it and she points out that after a short time with my parents, who HAVE retained the strong accent, I too begin to drift into the broader accent. Weird isn't it? I sometimes think I would sound a tad 'posh' back in the home town. I do sound my 'aitches' and pronounce 'the' instead of the shortened 't'.

tp

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 56-62

Current location (optional) Oz

When I worked for Barclays, many of my London and European-based customers used to joke about my accent even-though I ‘spoke proper’ when conversing with them; some of my new clients still do. That said, I believe that it all depends on where you are and who you are with at a specific moment in time as to how your accent is perceived.

Whilst I don’t notice my mother’s (who originated from west Durham) north east accent, people who meet her for the first time express their surprise that she hasn’t lost her home accent despite living in Keighley for almost 70 years.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 59-66

Current location (optional) Embsay

Folk here say I've got a Yorkshire accent. Alan Britten says I've got an Edinburgh accent. Wha kens?

I didn't make a conscious decision to "lose" my accent but as a teen in a new country,using a telephone at work, when the person at the end of the line keeps saying"beg your pardon" you try to speak a bit slower and a bit clearer so they didn't say"beg your pardon"and I guess it gradually changed.I used to cop heaps from Aussies at work trying to imitate my accent.They would say 'uttons oot---- over and over.(Hutton is out !!)
Interestingly enough,when I'm in Yorkshire I notice that my contempories children,adults now,speak broader then their parents-I wonder if that is the result of Comprehensive system compared to Grammar School.
My wife reckons that I revert to kind when in the company of Yorkshire folk,and when we were last there,speaking with a farmer friend who is very broad in his speech and uses quite a bit of dialect,I was responding without realising it,using words I haven't used since I was a youngster. Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

This goodwill message may be too late for those the wrong side of the dateline - or those who go to bed when we're getting up - but a Happy Yorkshire Day to us all.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Bloody 'ell. Ah've nivver 'eard o' Yorkshire Day. When worrit?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

Just shows how uncivilised the Wirral is!
August 1st Brian. Put it in your diary now!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 59-66

Current location (optional) Embsay

Who would have dreamed up Yorkshire Day? And why does it fall on the horses' birthday - at least those foaled in the southern hemisphere? What happens on Yorkshire Day - do you eat pudding and watch Parkinson re-runs? Do you salute the White Rose (or perhaps shop at the Waitrose?) Do you grieve for the bits stolen by Lancashire? Do you mourn the dear dead days when you could play competitive cricket? Do you perhaps have clog fights, then go to sort out trouble up at t' mill? Is it some kind of masonic secret business - just what do you Tykes get up to?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-57

Current location (optional) Melbourne

.... or celebrate with a pint of Taylor's Landlord in the land of REAL beer.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Back to the retention (or otherwise) of our Yorkshire accents ... when I moved away from Keighley I found that I unwittingley picked up speech mannerisms from my new friends and, at times, have been taken for a scouser, a southerner and a Brummie. I now seem to have settled into sounding like a rather indeterminate northerner.
However, I do know people who deliberately tried to lose their Yorkshire accent, usually replacing it with an awkward version of a 'posh' southern accent. It would be interesting to see them again to see if they have retained this peculiar manufactured accent, have reverted to a northern accent or have developed a true southern accent.

Keighley not only had its' accent, it also had its' own (or at least regional) words. Like Kayli [pronounced K - Lie]. This confection seems to have only been available in a very localised area stretching not much further south than Wakefield. It was wonderful stuff. Turned your index finger pink or yellow. Everywhere else seems to have only had sherbet - yuk!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Who remembers going 'progging' ??
I have asked colleagues in Headingley what this was and they didnt know.
Was this another word specific to Keighley?
Some didnt even know what a 'dub'(noun) was.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

"Progging" yes. In other areas they went "jumping". Keighley seems to have some particular terms of its own, "dub" being one. I have tried this out on friends with some dialect knowledge of other parts of the West Riding - and it was unknown to them.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

The use of the word 'Progging' wasn't just peculiar to Keighley; it's known throughout Yorkshire as a term for collecting bonfire wood before November 5th.
I always used it as part of "Are you laking so we can go progging and then get some spice from t'sweet shop?"
Now who remembers what was "Spanish"?
I think we're straying off the KBGS topic with this thread! However, what about contributions for 'local' names for foodstuffs sold at the ice cream 'parlour'/sweet shop over the road and the cake shop and Sharpe's deliveries at Oakbank School eg "growlers"?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1960-68

Ah yes, spice, I's forgotten that one.
But I couldn't forget spanish. There were penny spanishes that had the consistency of Pontefract cakes and came in a variety of shapes - the pipe was a particular delicacy, and there was a kind of spatula thing too. And ha'peny spanishes which were samll, hard and brittle. You could smash them up into fragments, put them in an old bottle with water, give them a good shake and leave to stew. It turned into a peculiar brownish liquid known as pop-a-lol. It was truly foul to drink so why did we keep making it?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

'Cos yer Mam woh glad it kep yer bowels oppen!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

It were t'Spanish shoe laces I always chose. I can visualise now Ernest Hall (Jim's dad R.I.P) guarding the 'penny box' in his shop. The penny box contained everything that cost a penny, eg gobstoppers, and some small chewy things, some of which had a black face on the front and were called 'blackjacks' - they would be illegal now. The liquorice things were also there, and the flying saucers containing Shauns Kay-lie. Some things were three or four for a penny.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

You can still buy Black Jacks, flying saucers etc from here:

http://www.aquarterof.co.uk/

Yes, Florrie Buckler (Howard's mum) had a penny tub in her shop on Queen's Road too. Most things we bought seemed to cost 1p. The green grocer's just along Queen's Road from our house had penny apples. We would delight in asking the "old" lady (probably about the age I am now) "How much are your penny apples?" and skipping out in case a piece of reject fruit came flying our way.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Lucky Dips were not the invention of Camelot. Mr Wadsworth who kept the post office in Marlborough Street, dead handy for the kids from Eastwood School, had a tup'ny cig drawer. He would spill the contents of several cigarette packets into the drawer and for tuppence you might get one of: a Woodbine; Turf; Senior Service; Capstan; Players; Park Drive; Lucky Black Cat; Passing Cloud; Gold Flake; Picadilly; etc. depending on your good fortune. Apart from endangering your health, it widened your taste for tobacco.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Surely flying saucers contained sherbet Brian, not Kayli.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Continuing the non sequitur of sweets on this thread..
how about: Luck/Jamboree Bags (2d),McKewans Highland toffee bars,Barrett's 1d liquorice toffee bars (&plain and banana)Bell Boy chewing gum (with cartoon in wrapper) Anglo 1d bubblies (3 times size of current version) aniseed balls (1/4d each) Spangles (fruit, peppermint,Old English, spearmint) spearmint lattice chew bars, sweet tobacco (now banned but a poor substitute is Spanish Gold - minus the vital additives}...the list (to be continued?) is endless

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1960-68

With regard to Keith's recollection of the Marlborough St Post Office, they also sold the best frozen orange lollies in the area.Frozen Jublies? were also a local delicacy at Wilmott's shop in Emily St.

Whoops meant Terry not Keith.

What's the difference?

Agreed, Brian. After a hard session of cricket with Allan and Trev Hockey, John Raine, Billie and Bob Townson, Barry Phillips, John Turner et al in the Eastwood school yard (or if it was raining, in the "shed" under the woodwork room), we would repair to the Post Office for orange lollies and sit and suck'em on the school yard wall - that was before we graduated to cheap cigs.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Sorry, I hadn't realised that the thread had extended to two pages. What is the difference between sherbert and kali?

Thats a question for Shaun I think. I thougt they were the same.

Of course we musnt forget the sweet cigarettes, with a red blob on the end to look as it it was lit.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

Sherbet is a powder which fizzes slightly in contact with water, pale yellow and not too pleasant a taste.
Kayli is sweet nectar in comparison. It is crystalline, comes in a variety of colours and dissolves in water without fizzing. It was available in all good sweet shops in Keighley in the '50s but is rarely to be seen now, though it is still produced because there is a shop in Eastmoor, Wakefield that still sells it from time to time.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Well, Ben Tren couldn't have given better definitions. You learn summat new every day. I liked sherbert fountains, especially when you sucked too hard and everything frothed up big style and ended up coming down your nose.

From Shauns definition, I guess sherbert must have been a dry mixture of citric acid and sodium bicarbonate. On contcat with water they would dissolve and react , giving off carbon dioxide.
Kayli is possibly sodium or potassium citrate or tartrate. Of course either could also have some sugar added to improve the taste

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

There seems to be a couple of threads here - sweets and dialect. Regarding sweets, I fondly remember popalol, spanish and kali (anyone know the origin of this name?). On my trips back to Yorkshire I always have a list of family favourites that I have to bring back in bulk - Poor Bens, Glacier Mints, Walnut Whips and Thornton's Toffee. The latter ( as well as McGowans toffee blocks) I can now get in Torquay at a small sweetshop but it's expensive so I only treat myself to a box every now and then and scoff the lot in a couple of days. However, on my last visit I couldn't find anywhere my favourite sweets from the past- Riley's Chocolate Toffee Rolls. After enquiring at several sweet shops I was told that a lot of the smaller manufacturers had been taken over by larger conglomerates and that RCTRs had been discontinued - tragedy!!
Now, as for progging - I bought an LP years ago (remember them?) called Bullockies, Bushwackers and Booze and I quote here the sleeve notes by Martin Wyndham-Read in regard to a song - The Battle of Stringybark Creek'.

'But he never saw the Kellys, planted safe behind the log,
So he sauntered back to yarn and smoke and wire in the prog.'
When I first saw this word 'prog' it appeared to me rather an incredible word, and I felt that the only reason it was there was because the bloke who wrote it couldn't think of anything else to rhyme with 'grog' and I'm sure that's how some Australian words got into usage.' MWR

Some time later I met Martin and I explained to him our meaning for the term prog and he was delighted that the problem was finally solved.

TP

I must admit that my Yorkshire accent has totally disappeared, after 30 years with the Australian Army, I now speak with a distinctly educated Australian accent. One thing I do notice is that when I am with my brothers, I immediately relapse into Yorkshire.

Reading this post has opened a lot of memories for my, Kay-Lie, spanish, do you remember licorice root? We used to chew on these sticks trying to get the last drops out. I'm surprised my teeth lasted as long as they did.

Thanks for giving me progging, I live in one of the colder regions of Australia and firewood is a major concern, I shall most certainly be out progging this weekend.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958 - 61

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia

On holiday in Sydney a couple of months ago I found a shop selling English sweets--I treated myself to a bag of Bottomleys glacier mints.I made them last a while !!Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

My earlier note suggested that Kayli was possibly potassium tartrate (or maybe citrate). Of course the chemical symbol for potassium is K, as it came for the latin Kalium. This adds credence to my earlier assertion that Kayli was a potassium salt. I am not quite sure how safe it is to consume a lot of potassium , however, after all potassium chloride is what they use in the first stage as a relaxant, when they are about to execute someone by lethal injection!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

Good grief, Brian. If that's what they di in the Wirrsl I'm glad I live in Yorkshire.
And as for liquorice root, you can still get it in the Pontefract area, though it's difficult nowadays to get good juicy sticks. Thay're mostly imported (from the far est, I think).

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Back to Yorkshire accent or, to be moew accurate, dialect. I heard a removal man at our neighbours' house last week talking about flittin'. Now there's a word from my childhood that I've not heard for many a year.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

My mother worked at Bottomley's.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-66

Alan--I thought that Bottomleys had closed some years ago--maybe they were taken over,but when I saw the jar with "Jonas Bottomley" on the label my interest was aroused,as were my taste buds.Sure tasted like the real thing.Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

Bill, perhaps Bottomleys has closed. My mother worked there when I was at school, or around that time.Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-66

After a hard day's work Keighley fowk werew always "paid".

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

... and, of course, on the way home they'd see't nippers laikin' on't causer.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Having been in Australia for 44 years, I find that the only time I revert to my Yorkshire accent is when I am with my family or I meet someone fra Yorkshire, then I can't stop myself.

It was interesting to hear the word proggin again, I do a lot of it, I live on a large property and I seem to spend just about every weekend proggin during winter.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958 - 61

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia

In 'A Trip Home' Allan mentions cheggies. Now there's another good old Keighley word that I've never heard anywhere else'

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

One local word that I don't think has been mentioned here yet is "bray", as in the Keighley for "If you miss school to go looking for bonfire wood, you'll receive a sound beating": "If tha twags it to go proggin, tha'll get brayed"!

'Appen you're right Allan.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

What about witterin' and chunterin'. Tony Woodwiss and I had a good laugh about these in Africa as we used them quite a lot - mmmm!!
Witterin' is of course complaining while chunterin' is just having a mumble to yourself as in:
'Oh stop your witterin' woman' and 'now what are you chunterin' about?'

All good stuff!

tp

Cheggies and CONKERS!!
tp

If a couple of wimmin are 'avin' a natter ower t'garden fence arn't they callin' (with a hard 'a').
In my wife's neck o't'woods (Suffolk) it's 'mardling' (with a good long 'a')

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

Absolutely--- I remember when I was a nipper--- some big lads near us built a "cal-hole"--simply a shed/leanto where they sat around and talked.I remember my dad talking about "Caling-Kalling-with his mates.Thats a word I hadn't heard for many years.Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

...and there are grammatical rules governing the use of "tha" "you" "ye" and "ye-lot" which it would take a Wilbur Bloomfield to fully explain...

Togs.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-66

Cal-hole - never heard that one but we did have a small 'room' next to the front door which held the coal and me dad used to call it the 'coil-'oil' as in 'coal-hole'. And the big lumps were called cobs -'Trev, put another cob on t'fire'

In regard to swimming attire, they were always TRUNKS - why that name I don't know unless it was alluding to what was underneath!! As an aside it is definitely not cool to wear 'trunks' in Oz, one has to wear 'board shorts'. Trunks here are known as 'meat hangers' or 'budgie carriers'.

tp

up fri' grund.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-66

good one Trevor--"Coil oil" is an expression my wife learnt when we were there in '01.On our way to visit some old friends at Haworth,I took her around the backstreets and she asked me what were those "openings in the wall with flaps on" --I explained in good English that that is where the coalman emptied his sack of coal into the coal hole---cellar etc.When we arrived at my old friends --old in every sense--I was still enjoying the coal hole bit so,having explained it to my old friend he promptly asked "Does ta mean coiloil???" much laughter all round.Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

Aye, an' beside t'cobs fer t'big uns, the were t'nutty
slack for t'even sized smaller stuff. Abaht an inch i' size.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

One of my father's favourite expressions was "Think on" - as in (the one piece of advice I was given when I left home) " Na think on. Never pay na more na thi'ty bob fer a pair o' shoeis."

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

How about, "Cum on m'lad - frame thisen!"

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Someone has to scrape the bottom of the barrel - how about blegs and bab??

tp

Bab I remember, but we mainly called it Biz (short for Business.) Todays more polite word (poo) was hardly used in those days.
I dont remember blegs, but I guess that is what we called 'bogies' ??
Whilst we are in the gutter so to speak, I dont think 'loo' entered general use until late 60's/early 70's. It was always 'lav', but the old Yorkshire word for an outside loo was 'midden' as in "see that yon fella, hes so lucky if 'e fell in t'midden he cum aht smellin o' roses."

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

Thanks Brian C, I'd forgotten to frame missen.
That's a really good one, and what puzzles me about it is that, unlike all the other old Keighley expressions, there doesn't seem to be a clear connection to any similar standard English expression or old English word. So where did "frame" come from?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Could it have its origin in textile terminology?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln

That could be so, but I just took it to mean something along the lines of "squaring the shoulders" or "showing some backbone", etc. - something akin to adopting a rigid shape (in contrast to a blancmange really).

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Snooker ?? ie get your balls in order!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

I used to live opposite a 'snicket' in Lawnswood Road. Is anyone familiar with the term 'lynchet'?

tp

According to the dictionary a lynchet is a medieval term for a terrace or ridge formed by ploughing a hillside.
By the way did anyone in their childhood walk ont causer edge and splash int dubs.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1959-1964

Current location (optional) Keighley

'Appen, Dave, 'Appen.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

Never heard of a lynchet.
A snicket is/was the preferred term in a limited area of Yorkshire including Keighley. Much of Yorkshire uses a ginnel, and when you get into the East Midlands it's an entry.
Another expression that springs to mind is sidin' as in "I'nt it abaht time yer were sidin' yer toys away".
"Nay Dad it's nobbut evelen a'clock."

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

And what about "sammin' up" as in Stanley Holloway's monologue (with double entendre)- "Sam, Sam, Pick up thi musket"? -
And "golluppin' yer jock" - as in "eightin up reight sharp"?

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

It were allus t'snicket between Lister St and Hird St, where Keith Waddington lived (who remembers him?).

An' dont ferget traffic'll be busy in t'Oakworth Road when t'Oxford 'all is losin'.

(This reminds me of my uncle Ted gettin into trouble with his dad , when he was very late home from school one day, his excuse was that there was a traffic jam in Kensington Street and he couldnt cross the road!!!)

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

What about "living over t'brush"? That is a beauty. cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

It certainly was, Bill.
Oh, and why did they seem to have reels everywhere else rather than our "bobbins".

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

..and "prannock"...a favourite term of abuse at KBGS for a while...

A new one to me-----on my last trip home in '01,when I couldn't get through a huge roast dinner at the Wuthering Heights at Stanbury,the waitress asked me " ar ya keffling on me?" or it may have been "kaffling". In other words was I giving up on her and her big meal.Anyone else familiar with that expression? Cheers.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 47-51

Current location (optional) Auckland NZ

There were times when 6th formers and prefects were required to read in assemblies etc. After a rehearsal for Founders' Day (I think) Watthey came to me and, with good intent (I think), offended my native speech. "Listen, lad, it's 'the Son of God' not 'the Sun of God'". I can't remember how it sounded on the day, but nobody looked confused.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 52-60

I once had trouble with the line 'he who hath ears to hear, let him hear'. Comes out like 'eeooathearstoearletimear.' Though Im sure I can manage it now.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

When I first went to University we Yorkshire lads had great fun giving some of the southern ex-public school boys phrases to translate from the Latin and confusing them thoroughly since what they were actually confronted with was the Yorkshire. For example - Issesitintis burraberritis.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

Some sweets not mentioned: sherbert lemons, spangles and fruit salad. On the drinks side prior to Timothy Taylors bitter addiction one enjoyed Dandelion and Burdock and Tizer. Ben Shaw's drink products were also welcome. And of course regardng potato crisps Seabrooks of Bradford with its little blue salt bag was always top quality.

As a student I worked at Hoyle's Pop factory in Knowle Park Keighley. Adrian ex KBGS and the owner boasted that Golden Dawn Mineral waters like his lemonade were the best in the Northern Union. Adrian was quite a character!.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 59-66

Current location (optional) Haworth

Id just like to share with you a story from my father in law (a Suffolk man) when he was in the army.

It was parade time and 'Dad' was standing next to a brusque man from our own county.
The (posh speaking) officer singled this guy out out, ask him to step forward two paces and asked his name.

' 'Arrison ' he replied

Officer: ' Oh yes 'Arrison, and 'ow do you spell that 'Arrison ?

Sir! an Haitch , a hay, two hars, a hi, a hess, a ho and a hen Sir!

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

Lately I have been pondering over not so much the accent as the Yorkshire dialect. It seems that we are probably the last generation to have heard our elders speaking it, thanks to tv and Americanisation of everything, it will probably be gone forever.

I think that there is a need for a West Yorkshire Dictionary so that we can do our bit for future generations.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-61

Current location (optional) Blue Mountains, NSW, Australia

An interesting read this nice long thread.
A couple of comments.
Re blegging and blegs.
'Blegging' was 'blackberrying' and got carried over to nose picking as a sort of euphemism, if you think about it.
The Yorkshire dialect I knew as a child is vanishing although the accent itself prevails.
I used to lecture and I do know that my voice changes up a notch when I lecture but that was as a sort of courtesy to listeners, {if they did listen).
Mind you I am very aware of my accent if I hear a recording of myself.
Back in the old Sinclar Spectrum days there used to be a programme that allowed you to reproduce speech by analysing the sounds you made phonetically and changing it into a number coding. Very laborious. One day I tried encoding the first few lines of Wordsworth's 'Daffodils' it came out OK but with the most grotesque Yorkshire accent. You could have hung your flat cap on it.
My old grandma used to say that when the rain was driven by the wind down the street that it was raining ' in iggs and swuthers '.
Also Keighley seemed the only place where they sold 'scones' in a fish shop everywhere else they were called 'fishcakes' or just 'cakes'. Go into a fish shop in London and ask for a scone!!
My grandma also baked and sold 'cracknies' and I've never seen or heard of them since.

Yes indeed Arthur, my Grandmother made 'crackney' or 'cracknies' too, a sort of shortish pastry with a few currants or raisins - a biscuit really rather than a cake. She used to bake a big one in a sheet, then cut it up with what she called her 'crackney runner', it was a device with a little wheel on a stick, I suppose today we would use it for cutting a pizza. (her other specialtites were 'scotch cake','mint and currant pasty'and 'date and walnut cake')
Changing the subject, another word I only recall hearing in Yorkshire was 'skellard' for bent/twisted.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1958-1964

Current location (optional) Wirral

Ah yes, Crackney - mum still makes it and brings it over for us as a flat round(about 20mm thick). Dad rudely refers to it as 'fly cake' as it appears to be full of flies!
While discussing beverages (which we're not, but anyway), I read in a local mag. this week that not only is Madonna a great fan of English beer but her favourite is a Timothy Taylors - good stuff TT!!!!

Trevor

I have yet to see Madonna in the Boltmakers or the Volunteers! Perhaps she goes in the Eastwood Tavern.

Somehow this thread has metamorphosed from Accent (and Dialect) to food and drink. Still, I can't complain after being reminded of those wonderful crackneys. They were delicacies, as were the jam pasties that my mum used to make. [There's a baker's shop ten minutes from where I live in Leeds that still makes jam pasties and does a roaring trade with students.] .... and then there were Yorkshire puddings ...lovely thick cakey confections that were sprinkled with sugar and made a magnificent dessert .... not the little round puffy things filled with air that are everywhere nowadays, andturn to sludge next to the roast beef.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 58-65

Current location (optional) Leeds

It's here again - come Sunday.
Yorkshire Day!
This time the newly composed and recorded Yorkshire Symphony will be played on all the local Yorkshire BBC radio stations - and later that day it can be seen/heard on the BBC web page - so the downunderers, yankophiles and Kipling squad can get in on the act.
(There's a harpist from Haworth in the band!)

May I be the first to wish you all a Happy Yorkshire Day - and may you fly the flag and put it about - come Sunday.

Years at KBGS e.g. 1958-1964 (optional) 1952-60

Current location (optional) Lincoln