WEDGEBURY WORDS

 

NICKNAMES VOWEL SOUNDS TECHNICAL TERMS

COLLOQUIALISMS "CRAMP" SAYINGS

WEDGEBURY PRONOUNS SLANG

 

IN the Saxon times there was, no doubt, a dialect peculiar to the whole of the Midland district. But at the present time that portion of the said district known as the Black Country, cannot, strictly speaking, be said to possess a dialect. It may more correctly be said to possess a provincialism of a very peculiar and very strongly marked character. This provincialism will not, as would dialect proper, stand the test of classification and comparison ; no general rules and inviolable laws can be formulated from the study of the vocabulary, or gathered from the regularity of its inflections ; in fact no grammar of it could be built up. There is one writer who has designated it a dialect ; but he was not a philologist. William Hawkes Smith in his "BIRMINGHAM AND ITS VICINITY," says of the Black Country :

"It's dialect is marked by the preservation of many original Saxon terms, by the habitual inflections borrowed and adapted from the formulæ of that venerable language ; and also by the curious system of eliding, in conversation, many of the consonants, while the long connected compound is chaunted out in a sustained drawl upon the vowel sound, in order to convey it through the long passages of a mine, or to render it audible amid the din and bray of a forge. For example, 'Whoy's no begin to geeaarden ?' signifies 'Why dost thou not begin to garden ?'"

NICKNAMES

Before leaving this author, it is amusing to glance through the list of distinctive sobriquets or nicknames which he picked up in this neighbourhood. The list includes such  nicknames as the following : Bull-head, Nosey, Stoat (from peculiarities of physical formation), Frumity (in allusion to small-pox marks), Ribber, Squeezer (from their prowess as boxers and wrestlers), Ratter, Ranter, Rattler, Rover, Jing-o-bell, Cat-back, Ripskey, Hewdiddle, Lurchomy, Cocknacker, Lowpetick, &c., &c. ; the majority of which are entirely inexplicable and utterly incomprehensible.

But the subject will be better treated by passing on to consider the writings of a specialist.

COLLOQUIALISMS 

Mr. C. H. Poole's "Glossary of the Provincialisms of Staffordshire" (St. Gregory's Press Stratford-upon-Avon), is a little work that ought to be preserved in every Public Library throughout the county. Speaking generally, it is wonderfully exhaustive and carefully accurate, although there are some few deficiences. In addition to the Glossary, the book contains that old local yarn about the Gornal woman going "to be bishop'd - honds on yer yeds - yow know !" - and it is told with a marvellous fidelity to the real modes of expression which obtain among our untutored proletariats. Then the compiler includes some Colloquialisms, the most striking of which is the Walsall ( ? Darlaston) man's estimate of a goose ; namely that it is a "most foolish bird - it's too much for one to eat, and not enough for two." To those published may be added two others peculiar to the town of Wednesbury. We have a saying, "As lucky as Dicky Cox;" and if the stranger asks how lucky this mythical personage was, he is told that Dicky Cox "fun" (that is "found") a bar of iron in a forge ! the covert sarcasm being in the implied impossibility of not being able to find a bar of iron in such a likely place, and the possibility of the iron having been found before it was lost. Sometimes the teller of the tale will add an anti-climax to this effect - "Ah ! and he knowed where there was another !" The other Colloquialism is the rejoinder to those who deplore that they have no appetite that they cannot eat - "Ah ! yow'll like owd Joe Collier's hoss!" The individual with whose name this liberty is taken, used, in the old times before the era of railways, to drive the coach between this town and Birmingham, and was not noted for the overfeeding of his horses ; so if an inquiry is put as to why the parallel is drawn between the indisposed person and the quadruped before quoted, the information is gravely forthcoming that the "hoss" in question learnt to live without eating, but that he had the misfortune to die just as he was "getting used to it".

Affected airs of superiority are sometimes assumed by Wednesbury people over their neighbours, and it is a term of contempt to call anyone a "Darlaston mon," this is a "Darlaston goose." Or if a person endeavours to display a preternatural amount of keenness of repartee he is at once said to have "bin to Tipton," that is, he "is sharp" and requires snubbing ; or possibly he is called a "sharpshins."

In the specimens of our provincialism which are given, the author does not treat of the etymology of any one of them. In "How bist ?" (How are you ?) the verb "bist" is obviously traceable to the verb "to be" and is equivalent to "be-est." In like manner "bayn't" (are not) was once "be not." The example "I caw" or "I cawnt" (I cannot) might have been extended to the oft-heard phrase, "I caw ! I shaw ! and you caw mak me !" (I cannot ! I shall not ! and you cannot make me !) Omission is made altogether of the very common word "Yoam," which is literally "You am," a grammatical liberty with "You are," as in the expression "Yoam all right." Then that other grammatical peculiarity of the district is never once mentioned - that is, the use of the objective form "her" for the nominative "she :" who ever heard our uneducated orders use that word "she" ?

WEDGEBURY PRONOUNS 

The use of Pronouns is particularly liable to errors. If our great standard authors have perpetuated, sometimes consciously and often unwittingly, an erroneous use of these parts of speech, it is not to be wondered at that the breaches of grammatical laws, made by our vulgar usage of them, should be glaringly incorrect. In the confusion of the Nominative and Objective cases, we may quote from Shakespeare, "As tall as me" ; from Southey, "Let you and I" ; and from Scott, "For such as us." In South Staffordshire the use of the objective form her, to the exclusion of the nominative form, is all but universal ; it is always, "Her did it," or "Her went," and never "She did it," or "She went." Again Thompson in "Rule Britannia," uses the form, "So blessed as thee" ; so Black Country people, in Quaker-like language, prefer thee to thou, or to you. For instance we commonly hear "Thee cosn't" for "Thou canst not" or "You cannot." Those Pronouns which express possession have frequently two forms, as thy and thine, my and mine, the second form being good old English. In the Wednesbury district this dual mode of expression is extended to his and her, your and our, in the shape of hisn and hern, theirn, hisn, yourn, and ourn ; but whether this final n is a bona-fide terminal, or merely an abbreviation of own, it is too doubtful for a positive assertion to be made on the point. It is quite probable that the expression "This is hern" is equivalent to "This is her own." Corrupted pronunciation renders the pronoun you as yo, and them as um (the latter corruption is tolerably universal) ; and, as already observed, the use of she is altogether dispensed with.

Although the article A does double duty, for itself and for An, yet it is the letter n in other parts of speech which seems to get more than its proper share of work in the vocabulary of a "Wedgebury" man, whose use of terminals in -n, -en, or -an, is strongly redolent of his Anglo-Saxon forefathers. The word flannel he pronounces as flannen, and ground as groun.

But not only in Pronouns and Nouns is this final n as characteristic of our provincial tongue ; but for centuries the -n form of the present tense of the verb has been a token of the Midland dialect. We still retain the use of han for have, bin for be, and gin for give. For instance, "Yo han" means "You have" ; "How bin yo ?" * (* Generally it is "How bist ?" - the form bist being good Saxon ; as beo, byst.) means "How be (are) you ?" ; and "Gin (or gie) it me" means "Give it to me." In other tenses the same peculiarity of the use of n is also met with. "He done it" is preferred to "He did it" ; "If yo seen him" is used for "If you see him" ; and "If yo known him" for "If you know him." The verb shall becomes either shan or shat as "You shan" or "Thee shat" for "You shall." Similarly, "They wun," means "They will." Again the verb am is preferred to are ; for instance, the forms yoam and weam are equivalent to "you are" and "we are." Then to form the past tense the vowel sound is frequently changed ; as present tense hit, past tense hut ; present tense pick, past tense puck ; present tense sit, paste tense sot, &c. &c.

The aspirate is not affected much ; not even to misplace it, as the Cockney does. In some words H is singularly replaced by the letter Y. Thus Head becomes Yed, and Herring is pronounced Yerrin.

VOWEL SOUNDS 

If a generalization may be permitted, it may be remarked of our vernacular that we have amongst us a most perverse tendency to modify or to change the vowel-sounds. For instance "sand" becomes "sond," "key" becomes "kay," and "wrestle" becomes "wrostle ;" and similar examples might be multiplied to any extent. Not improbably this perversity has given us the name "breeze" (or as some dealers prefer to spell it "breese") for the washed cinders used on smiths' hearths ; it may be argued that the spelling "breeze" associates with it the idea of the current of air, which is necessary for the bellows to produce, before these cinders can be used : but has not the vowel-sound been altered from the word "braze ?" - we know that the word "brazier" signifies a pan for holding these glowing coals, and the correct way of spelling the word would most probably be "brazes."

The definition given of "glede" is "a red-hot cinder ;" but if it had been given as "a glowing ember" it would at once have clearly connected the word with the Anglo-Saxon "glowan." Again "ess" should be connected with "ash," whence it was probably derived ; and it signifies all kinds of "white ash," whether of turf or of any other fuel : "bellock" (to cry) should be connected with "bellow :" and "stouk" is not only a noun (a spout of a jug) but it is a verb - "to stouck out" being "to pour out violently." The writer also states that the word "lesur," as a synonym for "field," is still used at Bloxwich : so it is at Wednesbury, for who has not heard of "old Joe Bird's lesur" on which the Town Hall now stands ? or who is not familiar with that alliterative reproach to the person who is never in the place where he ought to be - "Yoam always in the lane, when youw ought to be in the lesur ?" "Lesur" springs from the same root as "lea" or "ley." There are some other words which may be included in a revised edition of Mr. Poole's Glossary and which are in common use in Wednesbury.

"CRAMP" SAYINGS 

We cut down the interrogative "Will you ?" into "Wut ?" we "hull" a stone, but we never "hurl" it, although we may "chock" it ; we fill a thing "chockful," not "chokeful ;" when we let people alone very severely, we have "no truck with them," that is, we do not "truckle" or deal with them in any shape ; when a boy cheats another of his marbles he does not "cajole" him, but he "codsoles" him ; and when one beats or excels another, as in a race, he "laces" him. In Wednesbury the word "flit" is used exclusively to denote the act of removing from one dwelling to another. For instance, some time ago, when a lad, with that love of change and that intense interest which all children take in it, shouted to a companion across one of our streets to the effect that his big brother Bill had "flitted," he was immediately understood ; the other showed his unmistakable comprehension of the language employed by contemptuously asserting that Bill had no furniture to "flit" with, to which the scandalised brother indignantly replied "Hadn't he though ? By Gom ! I know'd he had a barrerful and a half !" Many of our idiomatic expressions embody exceedingly quaint conceits, and no doubt the combination is intentional which puts together the phrase "barfoot-yeded" (barefoot headed) to signify an uncovered head. In the same way a "Wedgebury mon" will "cum and tak and fatch yer" (come and take and fetch you) or "cum and goo with yer" (come and go with you) when he accompanies you. These are called "cramp" sayings, and among the older native families of the town are exceedingly rife.

SLANG 

It is feared that Mr. Poole fell into the hands of some of these Philistines when he was induced to print "neck-oil" as a name for ale ; such words as these are pure unadulterated Black Country slang, and belong to the same category as "funniosity" (a curiosity) and "conveyicle" (vehicle.) We have another weakness for pleonastic phraseology which pervades the district : port wine is always "re poart," and a glove is always a "hond-glove." This word "hond" too, in combination, plays an important part in the local vocabulary ; there is an old ironical simile - "as hondsome as a buck-hoss" - a "buck-horse" being some fabulous animal of extraordinary ugliness. Then the comparison of adjectives, after the vulgar method, is well illustrated by that declaration of love which a Wednesbury worthy once made to a buxom widow who kept a snug little tavern in this town many years ago. He said to her in persuasive accents, "Yow might have a better mon. You might have a hondsomer mon. And yow might have a mon with more money. But a more lovin'er mon - yow never could have."

How far mispronunciation is responsible for many of our words it would be difficult to calculate. Dough is always pronounced "duff," and laugh "loff" ; while nincompoop has been corrupted into "nawneypump." As before mentioned head becomes "yed" if it is not altogether supplanted by the slang term "napper."

Before concluding, a few other words forcibly present themselves, and demand our attention. To "ike" is not only to toss with horns, but to beckon with the hand : the word "lungeous" (viciously cruel) is from the verb "to lunge" ; if some one says "Giz it here," it must be interpreted as "give it to me," the word "giz" being an abbreviation of "give us"; if a person is undecided, he is "hiverin-an-hoverin," or as another slang word expresses it, he is "shillyshallying :" a "gob" of anything is a lump ; a "rippet" is another name for the stomach ; and lastly "Madam," as applied to a female, is a term of reproach, as in the phrase "You are a madam."

TECHNICAL TERMS 

Of technical words which have been called into existence by the staple trades of the town we have "skelps," the name given to the iron strips when first bent for the purpose of making them into tubes ; but this word "skelp" was used in the old gun-barrel trade , and according to the Encyclopoedia of Arts a "skelp" was "a piece of iron three feet long and four inches wide, thicker and broader at one end that at the other ; a gun-barrel was formed by bending this into a cylinder, over-lapping the edges and welding them." The same scientific authority speaks of "stub-iron" formed from old horse-shoes called "stubs" and prized on account of its tenacity acquired from frequent working. From this (and sometimes from "scrap") "stub-barrels" were made ; and the various other kinds of gun-barrels were said to be known as "twist," "Damascus twist," "stub-twist," "threepenny skelp," "twopenny, or Wednesbury skelp," etc., etc., etc.

Other terms obtained through our Iron Trade are "oliver," a hammer worked by a treadle, and probably so called from its inventor ; tuyere (some times called a "two-iron") the double casing for the nozzle of the bellow ; "tee" a term used in the tube trade for the fitting of the T shape.

The Coal Trade gives us the word "doggy" a name for a pit-overseer ; and the name "butty" for a chartermaster. In the phrase "As warm as a bat," the term "bat" is a South Staffordshire name for a slaty piece of coal which will glow with intense heat without burning away.