DIALECT AND WORD MEANINGS

[Tizer]

I had a `gammy' leg for about 10 weeks!

[Bruff]

Interesting. Chunnering in my family means low grade incessant grumbling, rather than incessant talking. Incessant talking was 'calling', with the 'cal' pronounced as in 'Calpol'. My grandma and Nellie 'Tripe' used to spend their days calling outside in their chairs on Bethesda Street.

Oh and regarding trumping, there was plenty of that going on in our house too. Still is......

That bogey up your nose in our house was a 'snapperjack', which when you rooted it out with your finger you hoped didn't have a slimey 'candlestick' attached to it. You could, if caught without a hankie, use a finger to block the other nostril and 'bleg' the snapperjack (and perhaps the candlestick) into a grate by blowing. A productive cough would of course, provide a nice, big 'green Henry'.

That's lowered the tone nicely.

To raise it once more, an egg was a 'cackleberry'.

Richard Broughton

[Tripps]

"Interesting. Chunnering in my family means low grade incessant grumbling"

I'd agree with that Richard. I copied that definition from the muffins website. Your definition is nearer the mark.

[Stanley]

God knows what prompted this one but this morning a rhyme we used to chant as demob-happy squaddies came to mind. Once someone started we all joined in and it was strangely reassuring: "Roll on the day when the Lord will say Heaven and Earth, open order march" That order is used in the army to open the ranks for inspection and the inference was that demob was too far away so roll on death!

[rossylass]

Reading the "Chessmen" - part of the "Lewis Trilogy" by Peter May and came across the word "Berserker." They were the fiercest of all the Viking warriors and whipped themselves into a trance like state so they could fight without fear or pain. It is the origin of the expression "going berserk". The pawn piece of the Lewis Chessmen was made in the image of a Berserker. There is a lovely story about the person who found them tucked away on the Isle of Lewis thinking that they were elves.

[Stanley]

Dead right Rossy, going berserk was a common phrase in my youth, I suppose the modern equivalent is 'the red mist'. As for chunnering and chuntering, i regard them as having different meanings, probably from the context in which I first heard them.
Why has 'blagging' just come into my mind?
Remember the rhyme "Doing it, doing it, picking your nose and chewing it" I heard a doctor talking the other day on the radio and he was saying that there is a well-founded theory that this is a natural bahaviour and tends to educate the immune system by giving it small amounts of harmful bacteria to 'practice' on. I like it......

[Stanley]

Do you think I've further lowered the tone Richard? Perhaps a bit too far, it seems to have killed the subject!

[EileenDavid]

Whilst out shopping with our Harry when he was a toddler and I was stopping him picking his nose when a lady said I shouldn't stop him as it is a natural thing and monkeys do it all the time and it helps the immune system. No less embarrassing to have a child with you with it's finger stuck up it's nose. I remember people saying if you carry on like that your head will cave in.

How about this Dave when he was small used to think The fellowship of the Holy Ghost was a ship and he was convinced that the picture of a ship on someones wall was it. Eileen

[Stanley]

For years my mother had me convinced that thunder was God's coal man delivering and I can still remember exactly where I was when I found out where babies really came from. I was 11 years old and it was in the cloakroom at Stockport Grammar School. It makes you wonder how we survived! God knows how old I was before I realised that misled was mis-led. Until then I thought it was pronounced 'meyezled'! (pronounced with the 'i' as 'eye') I'd only read it and had never heard anyone say it.

[chinatyke]

God knows how old I was before I realised that misled was mis-led. Until then I thought it was pronounced 'meyezled'! (pronounced with the 'i' as 'eye') I'd only read it and had never heard anyone say it.

I remember my mother using the word mizzled or missled when something couldn't be found. "It's mizzled" she would say. I suppose that could be from mislaid?

[Stanley]

Never heard that one China but I'd have known what it meant!

[chinatyke]

Never heard that one China but I'd have known what it meant!

She was born in Rawdon and in her teens worked at Threshfield. Her words often differed from my father who was born and reared in Grassington. Amazing the difference a few miles can make to a language,

[Bruff]

That mention of the 'Holy Ghost' up there reminds me a of a tale told by the Irish comedian Dave Allen. As a young boy stood around the grave at a funeral, he thought the words went: 'in the name of the Father, Son and into the hole he goes'.

Richard Broughton

[Stanley]

" Our Father who art in heaven, Harold be thy name"
I've told this story before but it bears repeating. When I went to Lancaster I had to do linguistics and whilst it was interesting and I did well I never considered majoring in it. However, amongst the gems I learned was the survey done by linguists who scoured the country plotting where the names of common items changed and plotting the results on a map of England. They found that they had plotted lines on the map and realised that they were the boundaries of the old Kingdoms of Northumbria. Mercia, Wessex and and the rest. Despite all the change and migration the language had preserved the differences between the old kingdoms. I think the lines were called Isoglosses.

[EileenDavid]

That mention of the 'Holy Ghost' up there reminds me a of a tale told by the Irish comedian Dave Allen. As a young boy stood around the grave at a funeral, he thought the words went: 'in the name of the Father, Son and into the hole he goes'.

Richard Broughton

Love it Richard Eileen

[Bruff]

'....Harold be thy name.'

London bus driver's Lord's Prayer (there are many versions - this is the one I was told and is very similar to Ian Dury's and I like it as I lived in Thames Ditton):

Our father, which art in Hendon
Harrow be thy name.
Thy Kingston come
Thy Wimbledon
In Erith, as it is in Hendon.
Give us this day our daily Brent
And forgive us our Westminster
As we forgive them that Westminster against us.
And lead us not into Thames Ditton
But deliver us from Ewell
For thine is the Kingston, the Purley and the Crawley
For Esher and Esher,
Crouch End.

The Geordies might say: Our father which art in Hebben, Jarrow be thy name....

Richard Broughton

[Tripps]

"As we forgive them that Westminster against us." Speak for yourself Richard......

I am still trying to decide if 'chunnering' is the same as 'wittering on'. I think it's close.

I went Ely recently - or Elly as Ms Satnav insists on calling it - I was heard to remark - "It's as flat as a fluke". Is that a Northern expression? Isn't it nice to have somewhere to write all this rubbish that rattles round in your head ?

[Stanley]

Amongst other things a fluke is a type of flatfish, hence 'flat as a fluke'. In the US they say 'flat as a flounder' which is the same thing.

[Bruff]

Yes a type of flatfish and the fishmonger here in town sells Hoylake Flukes which she gets from the last fisherman in town, among others he fishes out of the bay. If I'm being honest, I'm not keen on them.....

Richard Broughton

[Tizer]

Fluke to me means a flatworm parasite (trematode) such as liver fluke...
or
An unexpected occurrence, an odd coincidence, such as when one of my friends went to Haiwaii on honeymoon and stayed at an isolated beach...then found his boss was there too!

[Tripps]

I think they call them dabs as well. I got a couple from Morrisons last year - probably the only supermarket that would stock them. I grilled them whole, and you need two, and they're a bit fiddly boneswise, but I enjoyed them.
PS - they were very cheap.

[Stanley]

Have I ever told you about...... Breakfast many years ago in a fish café on the dock at South Shields. I was asked whether I wanted inshore or off shore. Didn't know the difference so had both. Inshore was caught off the sewer outfall and was grey and earthy. Off shore was white and tasty. So I suppose you'll have to find out where the outfall is Richard!
Tiz, yes, I can still see the 'fluke and roundworm' drenches on the shelf at the agricultural suppliers.

[Stanley]

To bungle something, make a mess, a bungler.
Webster says uncertain origin. Collins says possibly related to Swedish dialect 'bangla'. However, how about this for a possible origin. (Remember that there are strong connections between Poland and Sweden)
In Norman Davies' 'God's Playground, Vol1, p. 165 he is recounting the advantages the Jews had in Poland. One privilege they had was that the nobility were allowed to employ them as tradesmen or craftsmen when normally this would be prohibited activity for non-guild members. The guilds scathingly described such interlopers in their trades as 'Fuszer' or 'bungler'. Looks like a solid connection to me.... Remember at this time a lot of Scotsmen were trading with Poland/Lithuania and there was consequently intercourse between there and Britain.

[Tripps]

Two words which I have noticed becoming increasingly used in modern media....

Channel - used in a variety of ways - this from a press headline today,

"Pippa Middleton channels strawberries and cream ahead of Wimbledon as she stocks up in Waitrose "


Next - 'existential' seems to be cropping up everywhere. Still not sure what it means - suspect it's usually redundant and means nothing.

[chinatyke]

Two words which I have noticed becoming increasingly used in modern media....

Channel - used in a variety of ways - this from a press headline today,

"Pippa Middleton channels strawberries and cream ahead of Wimbledon as she stocks up in Waitrose "

Never seen 'channel' used in that context. I don't even know what it is supposed to mean. Is it a legitimate use of the word?

It was in the Daily Mail and I'm sure English is a second language for some of their reporters.

Heard the word 'gallivanting' today. A lovely word.