Local dialects and language

Perhaps the funniest of the Bristol 'l' additions is the poor people whose names ended in 'a' so Barbara(l) Linda(l) Celia(l) Anastasia(l) etc! You can hear it coming and it is hard not to laugh. Tomato(l) is another and of course banana(l) A hoot.

A bit like the Brummies or the Black Country folk with their additional m, e.g. "yowm" instead of you, "wim" instead of we etc.

And they must make gravy with Bisto(l)!

In Gloucester dialect one hears "I sin' er las week" which sounds so much like 'sinner'! "I would have went" is another for "I would like to have gone". "How bist?" might be heard in the Forest of Dean meaning "How are you?" Interesting that "Bist Du" is the familiar form in German of the verb 'to be'. Can there be a connection? "He's my butty" (no not a sandwich, only a friend, viz. buddy perhaps.

Wall, one morning, 'bout three wiks agoo (t'was of a Saddaday) I was gwine ra-round, by de-pound, and I looks over, and dere was de hog, seemingly 'bout as common, and pensley. I looks round agun, and dere she was all strached and gaspin for breath. So I goos indoors and ses 'Mestress,' I ses, de hog be countable ornary. Wal, 'ses she,' dere ail't no call for yew to come spallin, 'bout my clean ketchin naun de moor for dat,' she ses. 'Ah' ses I, but she be countable bad 'mestress,' I ses,' and I dunno but wat she be gwin to die,' 'Massy pon me,' ses she, gwine to die; Never; surelye,' 'Yew come ra-ound and look at er den, 'I ses. Soon as ever she seen her, she ses to me, she ses, 'Why doant ye give her somthin, 'she ses, 'standin here;' So I got down a gurt bottle of stuff wat I had from de doctor time my leg was so bad, and took it and mixed it ill with some skim-milk and a liddle pollard and giv it her, jes lew warm. But it didn't seem as she was anyways de better for it, and all next she kept on gettin wus, and she died de Monday night as she was took de Saddaday. And it seemed jes a though 'twas to be, for naun as we could give her didn't do her no good whatsundever. Dere was a dunnamany people come and looked . And we had her opened, and master Jones he allowed as she was took wid de information.

Exactly what I thought as I read it; although, for "how are you?", they would normally say "wie gehts dir?" which literally means "how goes it to you?". (Often shortened in conversation to "wie gehts?" or just "gehts?"). The English and German languages have much more in common with each other than we usually realise. Similarly, the Geordies use "gan" for go, "gannin(g)" for going, like the German gegangen (gone).

Yes Slim. we are all familiar with a double Decker bus and Die Decke, as you know, is German for ceiling.

A ship of course is a 'she' but I was puzzled when I first lived there to find a clock is always a 'he' not 'it'! "He's ten minutes fast," (or slow.)