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As a shameless attempt to draw people into my thread on the Black Country dialect here's a little quiz, the first we've had for several years. Send your answers to me in a PM rather than spoil it for people who are a bit slower to read it. Here are a selection of Black Country Dialect words. Some we have talked about before, some we haven't. How many could you guess the meanings of? bibble blart bostin bob-owler clammed donny ferk (sometimes "fake") gammy jed cack-onded lamp maegrums skinny suck tararabit wammel yampy yamyam ops'n'ketches suff Beware! Some of them don't have the common meanings they have in other places. "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | ||
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As I l briefly look these over before I retire to bed (as my grandfather use to say), I can tell you that they all will be guesses. Some of them look vaguely familiar, but I can't remember their meaning. | |||
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You're not alone, Kalleh. I think I know a couple, but the rest might as well be gibberish to me. Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life. | |||
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I reckon I know three of them as written; I might know a few more were I to hear them. Richard English | |||
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Let me help a little.  bibble - noun blart - verb bostin - adjective bob-owler - noun clammed - adjective donny - noun ferk (sometimes "fake")- noun gammy - adjective jed - adjective cack-onded - adjective lamp - verb maegrums - noun, sort of skinny - adjective (doesn't mean thin!) suck - noun tararabit - phrase wammel - noun yampy - adjective yamyam - noun ops'n'ketches - phrase suff - noun "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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That doesn't help. | |||
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It must reduce the possibilities by a factor of about three  Richard English | |||
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OK, answers. First though in a PM with some guesses, Kalleh suggests that she might learn to work them out. That, as you will see, is highly unlikely, the origins of the words can (usually) be traced but they are often by no means obvious. Anyway, here goes. bibble - noun a small stone blart - verb now used solely of children - "to cry or weep"; formerly used to indicate the noise made by cattle bostin - adjective very good, excellent bob-owler - noun two meanings- originally a moth, metaphorically someone who stays out late at night clammed - adjective very hungry donny - noun a word used almost only by or to children - hand ferk (sometimes "fake")- noun a cigarette gammy - adjective lame or weak (a gammy hand, a gammy leg etc) jed - adjective dead cack-onded - adjective clumsy (originally left-handed) lamp - verb hit, beat maegrums - noun, sort of pulling a face, also used for throwing a tantrum skinny - adjective (doesn't mean thin!) mean (in the sense of not wanting to part with money) suck - noun sweets, chocolate, candy tararabit - phrase goodbye wammel - noun animal (often applied to dogs) yampy - adjective mad (in the sense of insane, not the sense of angry) yamyam - noun an inhabitant of the Black Country (usually used derogatorily by outsiders but sometimes "reclaimed" by locals) ops'n'ketches - phrase at infrequent intervals, actually "hops and catches" though I don't know the origin suff - noun drain, sewer "No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson. | |||
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I knew bostin, gammy, cack-onded (although it's cack-'anded around here), tararabit and yamyam. Too many pints in Ma Pardoe's, obviously. Richard English | |||
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