The above quote includes a local word - 'femma' which seems to be unknown outside a 2-3 mile radius of North Shields- not in the city of Newcastle some 8 miles up the river, for example. 'Femma' means rickety, unstable or dodgy- it's rarely seen without 'a bit' as a prefix- you don't hear 'a lot...' ever used!
So we seem to have here a word that's used within an area around about 6 miles in diameter- any other extremely local words out there?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Erik Johansen,

Hmmm, it sounds a bit anti-feminist to me.

There are many Chicago phrases and words, but my favorite very local one is "Mt. Trashmore." That's our local trash heap that's been covered up, planted with grass and flowers, but stinks in the hot, humid weather.

While it's easy enough to understand, Portland, Oregon is often referred to by its airport designation, PDX. Portland's also called "Stumptown," a reference to the tree stumps left behind when originally building the town along the Willamette (pronounced Will-AM-it) River 150 years ago. The latter expression is entirely local.

quote:

Originally posted by Erik Johansen:
So we seem to have here a word that's used within an area around about 6 miles in diameter- any other extremely local words out there?

In East Yorkshire, there is a word nunty that means dowdy or dull, usually applied to dress. And there are six-foots or ten-foots that are the alleyways between back streets, known in the West Yorkshire area as ginnels.
In West Yorkshire To mither means to smother, muffle up; to encumber, burden; also to bother, pester, worry.
And nitherin means weather that's bitterly cold.

In Sussex the alleyways between houses are known as "twittens".

In certain parts of the Black Country, sweets/candy are known as 'cook-ooks' (no idea how to spell it!).

And 'bosting' means great, fabulous etc - although that's become more well-known elsewhere now. 'Bost' can also mean broken, as in 'You've bost it now'. A rather arrogant friend at university insisted, after I'd used it in front of him, that I'd got it wrong and the correct word was 'bust'. He couldn't quite grasp the idea of regional colloquialisms...

Bust is originally a dialectal variant of burst.

I always thought the 2 meanings of bust, "to break" and "a sculpture or "woman's breast," were quite odd. However, in looking it up, I see that "to break" is slang. That makes more sense.

quote:

Originally posted by Cat:
In certain parts of the Black Country, sweets/candy are known as 'cook-ooks' (no idea how to spell it!).

True enough but it's usually used as baby-speak. The other black country term for sweets/candy is "suck" which is used by all ages although not heard as much nowadays as when I was at school.

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the alleyways between houses are known as "twittens".

Ooh - I like the sound of that! We used to have neighbors across the twittens that smoked so much marijuana that we felt we could get contact highs from keeping our windows open.

And - could one of you give me some sample sentences using the slang "cook-ook" and "suck" for candy? I haven't heard those terms used before. For that matter, maybe for "twittens" too.

Go'r'enny suck, ar kid?

Do you have any sweets, my friend?

*laughing*
thanks

I wonder if that's where "sucker" came from . . . or if it was the other way 'round.

quote:

Originally posted by Erik Johansen:
The above quote includes a local word - 'femma' which seems to be unknown outside a 2-3 mile radius of North Shields- not in the city of Newcastle some 8 miles up the river, for example. 'Femma' means rickety, unstable or dodgy- it's rarely seen without 'a bit' as a prefix- you don't hear 'a lot...' ever used!
So we seem to have here a word that's used within an area around about 6 miles in diameter- any other extremely local words out there?

Erik - I'm about 18 miles north of you and "femmer" meaning feeble is used here, mostly by miners and older generations.

My favourite regional word is clarts meaning mud. It is always used in the plural e.g. "He's been playing in the clarts." The adj. is clarty e.g. "Take your clarty boots off."

My wife who is from London uses this word in everyday speech and refused to believe that it was north eastern dialect - she thought that she had always used it. I told her to try to find it in a dictionary!

Is clarts a derivitave on a Nordic word, a holdover from the old Danelaw region?

Dictionary.com gives a definition for a verb, to clart, "To daub, smear, or spread, as with mud, etc".

Hi Stan! Aha! Well, that's interesting! It would suggest that it is part of the old mining patois. I've got mates in the Toon who've never heard of it- obviously not as many miners up that way in the past! I mentioned a few weeks ago about the rather undecipherable mining patois that still existed when I was younger but seems to have largely died out apart from a few words here and there. The modern day Geordie accent around here is much clearer nowadays- though probably not to Kalleh and her compatriots!

One thing though, around here- I'm in North Shields at the moment- "Femma" or "femmer" is only ever used for an inorganic object I 've never heard it used to describe a person as "feeble", what about up there in Morpeth?

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Originally posted by Richard English:
In Sussex the alleyways between houses are known as "twittens".

In Newfoundland the alleyways between houses are known as "chutes".

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though probably not to Kalleh and her compatriots!

That's true! My kids tease me because I am terrible deciphoring accents. I worried about visiting England, but I had no problem at all.

I am not sure that we have a word for the alleyways between houses, though we don't call them "chutes" or "twittens."

Incidentally, Stan, the reason I spelt it "femma" rather than "femmer" was simply that's how it sounds to my ears, especially as we pronounce "river" "riva", "father" "fatha", etc.!

quote:

Originally posted by Kalleh:
I am not sure that we have a word for the alleyways between houses, though we don't call them "chutes" or "twittens."

Oh, yeah! I almost forgot. In Newfoundland we also call the alleyways between houses "drungs". Isn't it great to have lots of different words to choose from that have the same meaning?

quote:

Originally posted by Richard English:
In Sussex the alleyways between houses are known as "twittens".

I don't think this can be coincidence: German slang (my dictionary didn't identify it as a regionalism) has the word Twiete (pron.: t'VEEtuh) for a narrow side street or alley.

As a side note: the German word Allee is a false cognate, since it means, not "alley" but rather a tree-lined boulevard. The standard German word for alley is Gasse (and a dead-end alley is a Sackgasse.

David the Dshurman-o-file

the German word Allee is a false cognate

Do you mean a false friend? The German Allee and the English alley really are cognate, i.e., both words are historically linked to the French allee and thence back to Latin ambulo. The meanings have changed, but this is true of many cognates.

Some findings from the OED Online:

Twitten

A narrow path or passage between two walls or hedges.
Sussex dial.
[Perh. related to LG. twiete alley, land; but cf. also OE. twicen and TWITCHEL1.]


1801 PENNANT Journ. fr. Lond. to Isle of Wight II. 77 Alleys, or, as they are called here [at Brighton] twittings, narrow passages, often not three feet wide. 1860 W. H. AINSWORTH Ovingdean Grange 334 Having tracked a series of ‘twittens’..they issued forth into West-street. 1904 Sat. Rev. 2 Apr. 424/1 Along the bostals of the Downs and through the village twittens.

A narrow path or passage between two walls or hedges.
clart, n.
Sc. and north. dial.
Sticky or claggy dirt, mud, filth; (with pl.), a daub of sticky dirt.
1808 JAMIESON, Clairt, Clart, a quantity of any dirty or defiling substance. Clarts, dirt, mire, anything that defiles. 1847-78 HALLIWELL [Locality not assigned], A flake of snow, when it is large and sticks to the clothes, is called a clart. 1863 Tyneside Songs 85 Weel supplied wi' Newcastle amonishen clarts. 1876 Whitby Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clart, a smear of dirt. 1877 E. PEACOCK N.W. Linc. Gloss., Clart, sticky dirt. 1877 Holderness Gloss., Clart, stickiness.
b. A dirty person (Sc.); a ‘cheap and nasty’ thing; hypocritical talk or flattery (north. Eng.).
1808 JAMIESON, Clairt, a woman who is habitually and extremely dirty. 1876 Mid-Yorksh. Gloss. (E.D.S.), Clart, a worthless article or person. 1877 E. PEACOCK N.W. Linc. Gloss., Clart, silly or exaggerated talk, flattery.
clarty, a.
Sc. and north. dial.
[f. CLART n., or ? v. + -Y1.]
Besmeared with sticky dirt; of the nature of sticky dirt, dirty, nasty.
a1586 MAITLAND Poems in Pinkerton Sc. Poems (1786) 185 (Jam.) Thay man be buskit up lyk brydis..With clarty silk about thair taillis. a1693 URQUHART Rabelais III. xxviii. 236 Clarty cod. 1789 BURNS Lines on Appointm. to Excise, Och, hon! the day!
That clarty barm should stain my laurels. 1816 SCOTT Antiq. xxvi, Their old sluttish proverb, ‘The clartier the cosier.’ 1845 Whitehall xlv. 317 ‘Kneel yourself, if you want clarty hose,’ replied Joyce.
clart, v. trans.
[Of this and the related words, clart n., clarty, the origin is unknown: it must have been long in spoken use, for the compound vb. beclart occurs in 13th c.]
1. trans. To smear or daub with dirt, bedirty.
[c1230 Wohunge in Cott. Hom. 279 at spatel at swa biclarted ti leor.] 1808 MRS. E. HAMILTON Cott. Glenburnie 181 (Jam.) If it's but a wee clarted, there's no sae mickle ill done. 1830 FORBY Voc. E. Anglia, Clart, to dawb with syrup, juice of fruit, or the like. 1876 Mid-Yorksh. Gloss., Clart, to smear.
2. fig. To cause to stick, to plaster on or upon.
1681 GLANVILL Sadducismus 177 No other Contradictions or Repugnancies on this our Notion..than what the minds of our Adversaries, polluted with the impure dregs of Imagination..do foully and slovenly clart upon it. 1682 H. MORE Annot. Glanvill's Lux O. 226 Mr. Baxter fancies God may clart on Life the specifick Form of Spirit. 1683 Annot. Bp. Rust's Disc. Truth 237 Three essences clarted upon some fourth essence, or glewed together one to another.
beclart dial., to be dirty;
c1230 Wohunge in Cott. Hom. 279 at spatel at swa *biclarted ti leor.

Tinman

quote:

My wife who is from London

Who'd have guessed that Stan has a wife!

"Drungs,"chutes," and "twittens"...Americans, do we ever use any of those words for alleyways between houses? I sure don't. Of course a "chute" has the meaning of a passageway that things pass through, such as a dirty clothes chute.