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Oi’m gorn dowen th’ loibree

If you ask someone from Suffolk about the Suffolk dialect, it is no doubt that the same phrases will be mentioned. If something is not quite straight, it’s “on tha huh”, you might hear people asking “ar yer orroight bor?”, and if you find yourself in a peculiar situation you might describe it as a “rum owd do”. Some of you might be reminded of local resident Charlie Haylock, who gifted us all with some prime examples of Suffolk dialect features earlier last year.

As Charlie states in his video, it is often people’s opinion that if you speak in a dialect (particularly a rural one), it is assumed you are ‘somewhat uneducated’. I must admit, growing up in Suffolk I was constantly hearing others speak about their dislike of the Suffolk dialect, leading them to adapt their way of speaking to a more standardised English. What non-linguists might not realise is that we ALL speak in a dialect (even those who adhere to strict BBC English!). As a proud Suffolk resident, a University of Suffolk Alumnus, and now UoS employee, I feel it is about time we start celebrating the dialect of our institution’s home.

We’ve used a few dialect phrases above, but what are some of the linguistic features of the Suffolk dialect? Here’s a few of the most notable:

• Yod-dropping, this is where the ‘yew’ sounds in words like ‘music’ are dropped and instead are realised as ‘moosic’ (standard /mjusɪk/ becomes Suffolk /musɪk/)
• In unstressed closed final syllables, we put a schwa /ə/. This is a mid central vowel sound and can be found in the ‘a’ sound in the word ‘about’. This feature is difficult to explain orthographically, however this feature can be found in words such as ‘washes’ and ‘rabbit’.
• Word final -ing is often realised as -en. Standard ‘talking’ (/tɔkɪŋ/) becomes Suffolk ‘talken’ (/tɔkən/), standard ‘farming’ (/fɑmɪŋ/) becomes Suffolk (/fɑmən/)
• Diphthong changes can be heard in words like ‘house’ and ‘like’, thus resulting in realisations of ‘heus’ and ‘loik’
• The Suffolk dialect tends to conjugate certain verbs for tense in an irregular way, such as ‘snowed’ becoming ‘snew’ and showed (or have shown) to ‘shew’.
• Past participle of ‘be’ changes from standard been (/biːn/), to a much shorter ‘bin’ (/bɪn/)

This is just a small set of features to exemplify the Suffolk dialect. Our dialect is often described as one of England’s most historic dialects, an opinion that our friend Mr. Charlie Heylock agrees with. He cites in his book Sloightly on th’ Huh!, that Suffolk is where the English language began, after the settlement of the Angles and their meeting with the Saxons. However, the Suffolk dialect as we know it is much more than Angle and Saxon-made. In gratitude for our diverse dialect, we can thank the Vikings, the Normans, the Jutes, the Fresians, the Celts, the Danes, the Romans, and even the Dutch.

Therefore, in the spirit of diversity, and in the interest of historical preservation, it is our duty to not feel shame in our dialect. The next time someone is unfamiliar with the Suffolk dialect, you best get em to read ‘iss ‘ere blog post, and if et mayke ‘em dauzy, you just say hold yew hard bor, et’ll be alroight.

If this post has whet your linguistic appetite, why not check out the following resources:

Print books in the UoS Library:

Trudgill, P. (1999) The dialects of England. Shelfmark: 427. 1 TRU
Wells, J.C. (1982) Accents of English. Shelfmark: 427 WEL
Moor, E. (1823) Suffolk words and phrases; or, an attempt to collect the lingual localisms of that county. Shelfmark: 942.64 MOO
Claxton, A.O.D. (1960) The Suffolk Dialect of the 20th Century. Shelfmark: 942.64 CLA

Online resources:

Survey of English Dialects:
https://sounds.bl.uk/Accents-and-dialects/Survey-of-English-dialects

Interactive IPA Chart:
http://www.ipachart.com/

IPA Keyboard:
https://ipa.typeit.org/

Have a look at our new English with Language (BA) Hons
https://www.uos.ac.uk/courses/ug/ba-hons-english-literature-language

And remember, moind how yew go, bor!
 

Allanah Peck
Library Assistant