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*** ‘Speakin Zummerzet’ ***
As people travel and relocate, the old words and dialects are gradually changing and being lost. So ‘Speakin Zummerzet’ is an attempt to redress the balance. Each week I’ll introduce a word once commonly used in the county and it’s meaning, along with an example of its use.
It must be stressed that not all Somerset folk speak this way today and some may be offended if you think they do.
Don't forget to scroll down for earlier entries.
17th July 2008
This feature will return soon. Keep checking the NEWS page for information.
10th July 2008
This week will be the last 'Speakin Zummerzet' for a while, as I need to spend more time on developing (pardon the pun) my other photography website.
So I'm going to leave you with one of Zummerzet's favourite sons, Adge Cutler.
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Adge was born in Bristle (Bristol) in 1930 and was the lead vocalist in the Somerset group 'The Wurzels' and invented the musical genre 'Scrumpy & Western'. Plenty of his song titles are classic Zummerzet with 'Thee's Gott'n Where Thee Cassn't Back'n, Hassn't?' one of my favourites. It is a song about a young couples' adventures in their new car around Bristle. Translated, the title reads 'You've got to where you can't go back, haven't you?' and sort of means 'You have got into a position where it is impossible to reverse'. |
Adge Cutler died in a car crash in 1974, on his way back from a concert in Hereford. He is buried in Nailsea.
Speakin Zummerzet will return, and in the meantime I can only suggest you satisfy your Zummerzet cravings by purchasing a cd of the great man. Click here to visit the Somerset3d store and click on the Somerset Music link, where you'll find a small selection of his cd's you can buy.
3rd July 2008
‘It’ instead of ‘at’.
There is a tendency in Zummerzet, at least in the part where I live, to use the word ‘it’ instead of ‘at’.
I noticed this some years ago and have found it quite a common thing over the years. My work colleagues say it daily and come out with things like;
“It the momun” - “At the moment”.
“It the wick-end” - “At the weekend”.
“E’s it the orse-pit-all” - "He’s at the hospital" (remember the silent ‘t’ in 'orse-pit-all').
Though, if 'at' is followed by 'it' then the 'at' is said properly, so you wouldn't hear "E's it it aghen" - "He's at it again" for example.
26th June 2008
This week featured word is 'Yurp'.
'Yurp' is a continent containing countries such as 'Vrance', 'Porchergul' and ' Ih-ah-lee' to name but a few.
The ‘Yurpeen Vutball Champunships’ are currently being played in ‘Ors-tree-a’ and ‘Swizzerlund’.
19th June 2008
'Are old dear' and 'Are old man'.
Many moons ago, when I was still at school and had just entered my teens, I was in a car with a recent addition to the school and his father. Archie, as we nicknamed him, had moved with his family to the 'Wess Vingland' from London. During the journey to his house to practise the guitar I asked him a question, to which his reply was "I don't know, I'll have to ask are old dear". His father asked incrediously "Who's 'are old dear'!?". Archie replied, "Our mum, that's what they call them around here". His dad wasn't too pleased to learn that he was referred to as 'are old man'.
This was the first time I was made aware that the rest of the country used different phrases and terms than us in Zummerzet. I'd travelled around the country on holiday before but had never really taken any notice of the different ways in the way we speak.
It should be noted that 'are old dear' or 'are old man' are affectionate terms. The 'are' is how the 'our' sounds when said in Zummerzet.
A few years ago a group of us organised a school reunion and, during our research and attempts to track people down, we learnt that Archie was now a rock star, based in Japan. No, really, check the blog out for the evidence (updated in the morning, UK time).
12th June 2008
Hello to you all and “How bist?”
A few weeks ago I asked you the question “How be on?”
‘How bist?’ is another way of saying the same thing.
Translated it reads as “How are you?” though the literal translation will drop the ‘you’ off of the question.
Bist is an Anglo-Saxon word.
5th June 2008
The use of the word 'To'.
In itself 'To' is not a Zummerzet word but it is used in a Zummerzet way.
You will hear it used as follows;
"Where be goin to?" ("Where are you going?").
"Where do e work to?" ("Where do you work?).
and "Where e bin to?" ("Where have you been?").
So in Zummerzet, used in this way, the word 'To' denotes location. In each case the addition of the
word is unnecessary but, that's what makes it a Zummerzet word.
29th May 2008
This week features the word Baint.
Used as follows;
“I baint tellin e” or, in normal English “I ain’t telling you”.
So, baint means ain’t, am not. Literally translated it should read “I be not going to tell you”.
Baint is a culmination of Anglo Saxon and Olde Somerset.
22nd May 2008
This week's word is Wopse.
“Look out, there’s a gurt big wopse vlying abou’, e’ll sting e iffee get im miffed”
Translates like this;
“Look out, there’s a great big wasp flying around, he will sting you if you upset him”
Wopse is an Anglo Saxon word (Wops) for Wasp and can still be heard by locals today.
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My Great Uncle Mike (1901-1994) always said wopse and had a fantastic Zummerzet accent. I have some recordings of him speaking about his ancestors and I intend to create some audio files to put on line so that you can hear Zummerzet said properly. Miffed means upset, angry, annoyed. |
15th May 2008
This week there are two words, Wunnum and Wunner.
Used as follows;
“They’ll aff to cum in wunnum?” or “E’ll aff to cum in wunner?”
This translates as;
"They will have to come in won't they?" and "He will have to come in won't he?"
As said above wunnum translates as “Won’t they?” The first part, Wunn, has been Zummerzetized© from Won’t and the second part, ‘um’, is a variation of ‘em’ from the word ‘them’, and in the case of ‘Wunner’ the ‘er’ is the Anglo Saxon term for her/him or it.
So Wunnum is the plural of Wunner.
8th May 2008
Hello and may I start by saying “Ow be on then?”
…or to put it another way, “How are you?”
I’ve no idea as to how this phrase has originated but it is one that I can remember being frequently used when I was young(er).
We can work out that ‘ow’ is an abbreviation of ‘how’ and that ‘be’ is the Somerset/West Country term for ‘are’, but I’m as puzzled as you are as to how ‘on’ replaces ‘you’. If any of you can explain this to me please drop me a line (Click here)and I’ll post the explanation on the website. The phrase can also be said without using the final word shown above (then).
1st May 2008
This weeks’ word is SHADDIN.
It is used as follows:
“Ah, shaddin yesty, an e b a right darling too!”
Translated as;
“Yes, she had him yesterday, and he is a beauty too!”
Shaddin is the result of bits taken from three words. She, had and him, with the m being replaced with an n and an extra d added for good measure.
24th April 2008
So, DINNER.
I’m sure you worked it out yet again.
If you did you should be able to understand the following sentence
“E made dinner dinner?”
Yes, dinner means ‘Didn’t he’.
So the above translates as “He made dinner didn’t he?”
See? It’s easy innit?
The ‘Din’ bit is an abbreviation of the already abbreviated word ‘Didn’t’ and the ‘er’ bit is the traditional Zummerzet/Anglo-Saxon term for ‘he’.
17th April 2008
CLAPS – Did you work it out? You did? Then well done.
Yes it means to fall apart, to cave in, to crumple or disintegrate.
As in the following “I were so out of breff I were about to claps” (Don't forget the silent 't's)
or "I was so out of breathe I was about to collapse".
This highlights how, when written, Zummerzet can be misunderstood. So when you read these words try to say them out loud, and hear the word properly.
Dinner is next week’s word. Let’s see if you can make it two in a row.
10th April 2008
This week features the word ‘ALASKER’.
It can be used like this “Dunno, alasker”.
Translated as “I don’t know, I’ll ask her”.
When pronouncing ‘alasker’ it is worth noting that the second ‘a’ is longer than the first ‘a’. So the phonectic spelling would be ‘ah-laass-ker’.
Said with the Zummerzet accent it works, but said with any other accent it probably doesn’t.
Next weeks word will be CLAPS. See if you can work out its Zummerzet meaning before next week’s update.
3rd April 2008
This week’s word is ‘Twurlee’ meaning, ‘to be too soon’.
It could be used as; “I bain’t geh’in up now, its far twurlee”
Translated as “I’m not getting up now, it’s far too early”.
This word is a classic example of how one word is made up by how it sounds rather than from the words it’s made up from. It is simply the words “too early” joined together and then ‘Zummerzetized’* into a word of its own.
Another word to baffle your friends with should they arrive ‘twurlee’.
*©Somerset3d2008
27th March 2008
A collection of words are explained this week. All quite similair in how they work.
They are FLOFF, FLON, FLOVER, FLIN & FLOUT. They sound like a gang in a children's cartoon don't they?
Their use could be as follows;
"E floff is orse an flon the floor, then flover is boots an it is ed on the door,
Then e flin luv wiv the maid oo were doin er chores, an flout wiv is wife oo could take no more".
translated as,
"He fell off his horse and fell on the floor, then he fell over his boots and hit his head on the door,
then he fell in love with the maid who was doing her chores, and he fell out with his wife who could take no more".
So the word FELL has been shortened to FL and then simply attached to ON, OVER, IN, OUT or OFF.
See how many times you can use them when out with your friends this weekend.
20th March 2008
This week there are two words, 'Smornin' and 'Safternoon' ('ah-er-noon' is another option but usually used as a greeting rather than the context as explained below).
Commonly used in phrases such as;
"It's a vrosty un smornin innit? " = "It's a frosty one this morning isn't it?"
and "We'll do tha' safternoon" = "We'll do that this afternoon".
Both of these words are a good examples of how easy the Somerset dialect is. In this instance we only use the 's' of the word 'this' and attach it to the next word to create one. Outsiders say the language is lazy, we say efficient.
As mentioned in previous posts we do not usually bother with consonants at the end of words. We figure that by the time we've said the first bit of the word you should be able to work out the rest for yourselves.
13th March 2008
This week’s word is ‘Gurt’, meaning ‘Great', but only as in size (Great big) rather than stature (Great Britain).
Commonly used in phrases such as;
"Ere, e's a gurt big young'n inner?" = "Hey, He's great big youngster isn't he?"
and "I 'ad a gurt big dollop of the stuff" = "I had a great big serving of the stuff". A 'Dollop' is a term used to describe one serving of anything, food, medicine, lubricant etc.
As you can see Gurt is followed by big, so in effect they are one and the same. We wouldn't say Gurt on it's own. it would always be 'Gurt big'.
6th March 2008
This week’s word is ‘inner’, meaning ‘isn’t he/it.
Commonly used in phrases such as;
“E’s a brite spark inner?” = “He’s very clever isn’t he?”
and “E’s a bit spensive inner?” = “It’s a bit expensive isn’t it?”
As you can see ‘E’ can mean He or It and the ‘er’ bit of ‘inner’ can refer to He/She or It.
Another thing to remember when speaking Zummerzet is that we rarely finish a word or pronounce the consonants at the end of words.
So the ‘t’ in ‘brite’ is almost silent.
I’ll leave it to you to explain to your friends why you’ve started speaking strangely.
All photographs © Woolly Pictures
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