Yorkshire Dialect Society launch new course

The Yorkshire Dialect Society are launching a 6-week course called ‘Let’s Talk Tyke’ in a bid to keep t’Yorkshire dialect alive.

Transcript

00:00 My name is Rod Dimbleby, I'm a storyteller and know a bit about Yorkshire dialect.

00:05 In fact I'm chairman of the Yorkshire Dialect Society.

00:08 This is a pioneering course, we've never done this before, I'm not quite sure what to expect

00:12 but they're all local people I think who are coming so they will all have some knowledge,

00:17 some background of Yorkshire dialect, varying amounts no doubt.

00:20 So what I'll do, I'll approach you as a languages teacher

00:23 and look at the four skills, speaking, listening, reading and writing.

00:28 So they'll hear me reading or reciting, we'll look at the text together,

00:32 examine the words used compared to what they use because of course it varies so much this dialect

00:38 from one area to another and then the little speaking exercises and it'll be fun.

00:43 There's no examination at the end of it, it's going to be light and fun I hope.

00:49 I picked up this book and it's a book I know I have on my shelves now,

00:53 Yorkshire Pudding it's called by John Hartley, a compilation of his works

00:57 and the first thing I saw was the title of the story, 'It Mudda Been Waa'

01:01 and I thought what's all this about? I know now it means it might have been worse or could have been

01:08 worse, it mudda been waa and when I was about 16 I was at a friend's of mine and his mother was very

01:14 very broad and she was complaining about men, how hopeless men are, she had to do everything

01:22 and she said well somebody's got to keep banding nick and that came out of the mills, it was the

01:28 pulley that drove the machinery, if that weren't seated properly things wouldn't run smoothly,

01:33 so it came to mean to keep things running smoothly. 'Ee tha caps me na' to cap in Yorkshire

01:40 to surprise, well I am surprised and 'A cart th' oilt brass' well that's a famous one isn't it?

01:48 And it's difficult to translate into standard English that, it means I've got the money,

01:53 I want to buy what we're looking at but I can't bear to part with it, as much as I want it,

01:58 'frame th' sen' oh I heard that a lot when I was a lad, get yourself sorted out, get busy,

02:03 get working, get organised you know. 'Ee what a rate calin' oil' now an oil in Yorkshire of course

02:10 is just a place, so you've got your cellar oil, you've got your coil oil, your door oil, your

02:15 chip oil, fish oil, lug oil and a 'calin' oil was where people would gather to cal, to natter,

02:25 to chatter, to gossip. The language of course it takes me right back to my childhood because my

02:30 father was very broad, the oldest of a large working class family, they all worked down at

02:35 mill. My mother had brains, so kids we went to grammar school, I went to university, well you

02:41 don't do that talking broad Yorkshire and I remember going home in my 30s and my dad would say

02:46 'come and sit this end down' and then to my mother 'beck as a pot of tea lass' you know and I think

02:52 silly old folks, you're doing talking like that, but I wish he was around now to hear me you know

02:57 telling these tales, doing what I do, yeah so it's takes you back and I'd say it's part of our history.