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TRANSCRIPT
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BBC VOICES RECORDINGS http://sounds.bl.uk
Title:
Postbridge, Devon
Shelfmark:
C1190/13/03
Recording date:
26.11.2005
Speakers:
Friend, Cyril, b. 1922; male; retired Forestry Commission Officer (father farmer; mother farmer’s wife)
Lavers, Derek, b. 1932; male; engineer & farm manager (father farmer; mother farmer’s wife)
Medland, Ena, b. 1926; female; farmer’s wife (father farmer; mother farmer’s wife)
Perryman, David, b. 1935; male; farmer (father farmer; mother farmer’s wife)
The interviewees were all born, lived or worked their whole lives on Dartmoor.
ELICITED LEXIS
pleased (not discussed)
tired (not discussed)
unwell (not discussed)
hot (not discussed)
cold (not discussed)
annoyed (not discussed)
throw (not discussed)
play truant truant (not used); mitchy1; mitching from school (“Devonshire phrase”); mitch; fainaigue
○
(“fainaigued school” [fɚnɪgɫd skʏː], used elsewhere in Devon, also used for ‘to fiddle
dishonestly’)
sleep (not discussed)
play a game (not discussed)
hit hard (not discussed)
clothes (not discussed)
1 OED (Online edition) includes ‘mitch’ in this sense; <-y> suffix attributable to productive dialectal morphological process
also captured here in e.g. fitty, frawsy, leary etc.
○ see English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905)
* see Survey of English Dialects Basic Material (1962-1971)
⌂ no previous source (with this sense) identified
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trousers (not discussed)
child’s shoe (not discussed)
mother (not discussed)
gmother (not discussed)
m partner (not discussed)
friend (not discussed)
gfather (not discussed)
forgot name (not discussed)
kit of tools (not discussed)
trendy (not discussed)
f partner (not discussed)
baby baby; chield○ (“her have had a chield” used in past of male/female); sprog (modern); bairn
(used by friend from Scotland)
rain heavily lashing; lashing down (“’tis lashing down cats and dogs”); drenching (“I’ve been out in
the lashing rain I’ve come in drenched” used in north Devon)
toilet (not discussed)
walkway (not discussed)
long seat couch (old); settee
run water brook; stream
main room front room; lounge (used by granddaughter, modern); drawing-room (suggested by
interviewer, not used, “posh”); parlour; dining room; kitchen
rain lightly (not discussed)
rich (not discussed)
left-handed coochy○; clicky
○
unattractive (not discussed)
lack money (not discussed)
drunk sozzled
pregnant (not discussed)
attractive (not discussed)
insane (not discussed)
moody (not discussed)
SPONTANEOUS LEXIS
afters = dessert, pudding (1:00:39 we had some corned beef and then for afters us had sweet biscuits with
some jam but us wasn’t so curious about what was in that there tin after that)
ah = yes (0:02:20 well I used to deal with a lot of people uh down at Morwellham and uh I think the first
reaction you got from half of the holiday-makers soon as they heard you they’d go round the back going,
“ah uh eh uh oh” and you used to get these sort of comments)
Aladdin = paraffin lamp (1:31:54 ’cause I can remember doing homework from Grammar School sitting
there and thinking to self, “Christ, bloody lights going up and down” and in the end ’twas far better to
light the old Aladdin the old paraffin lamp)
anyhow = anyway (0:50:59 if anybody in the district lost all their chickens they’d soon be claiming
anyhow I caught this ferret took en home)
back* = instruction to horse to turn right (0:29:50 down our way there was one that I can always
remember me wife’s uncle used to use farming-wise he never referred to ‘left’ or ‘right’ always ‘way
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fore’ or ‘back fore’; 0:30:20 because he used to say, “up the road here about two gun-shots go way fore
and then about another two gun-shots and go back fore” and now they all um, you know, they’m they’re
completely and utterly lost and you’d have to stand then and do a bit of a bit of bit of interpretation, like,
you know)
bad = ill (0:48:01 uh my wife was taken bad well she had a grumbling appendix)
barras-apron○ = long hessian apron (0:40:01 when my sister came home her had to take her clothes off
and her had to put a barras-apron on; 0:40:16 a barras-apron was something that was made out of kind
of the stuff that you made uh sacks out for corn and you put it over your neck with a piece of cord and you
had to put him on around the back and you tied it around in the front)
bide = to stay (1:22:04 and then ’twould bide there for about oh a fortnight perhaps till ’twas dry it all
depends how ripe ’twas when you cut it)
bloke = man (0:54:32 I was there ploughing a field right beside the camp and this here American bloke
came in)
bone-shaker = bicycle (0:36:14 if you go back go back in the fifties how many households had cars we
didn’t because most of us had bone-shakers)
brandise = three-legged stand for supporting pan/kettle over fire (1:13:30 I remember when us lived down
Lamerton when I was a boy down there in an old farmhouse down Rattaford it was an open chimlay and
you used to have these great big logs in there and you had uh what they used to call brandise uh hanged
on these here chimlay crooks (yeah) (yeah) and all that sort of thing (yeah) and have the fire going
underneath there)
britches = trousers (0:37:53 there was britches and leggings for men and (that’s right) and uh heavy
shoes for girls there was none of this here kind of modern kind of high heels and stiletto heels)
catchy○ = changeable, showery (1:15:16 the farmers in those days if you was making hay this side the
valley and the weather was bit catchy and you could see somebody old Tommy Caw or somebody the
other side the valley who was, you know, struggling a bit and he he he’d (you’d go and help) you’d if you
finished yours you wouldn’t go home everybody would turn to and go and help Tommy Caw but today
everybody’s for theirsels really; 1:18:16 another thing that when it was catchy weather uh, you know, you
get uh sunshine and showers and then you get a nice bright uh period and father used to say, “oh the
sun’s come out, boy, that’ll soon quail it up”)
chimlay○ = chimney (1:13:30 I remember when us lived down Lamerton when I was a boy down there in
an old farmhouse down Rattaford it was an open chimlay and you used to have these great big logs in
there and you had uh what they used to call brandise uh hanged on these here chimlay crooks (yeah)
(yeah) and all that sort of thing (yeah) and have the fire going underneath there)
Christ = exclamation expressing surprise/disbelief/frustration (0:25:05 and you’re going along in your
car and you pass them in a narrow road and they look at ye a bit strange these people and I say, “Christ,
he’s staring like a bloody conger”; 0:25:21 I got a friend Raymond who is quite broad Devon and he’ll
say, “Christ, that’s drixey”, you know, ’tis ’tis falling to pieces; 1:31:54 ’cause I can remember doing
homework from Grammar School sitting there and thinking to self, “Christ, bloody lights going up and
down” and in the end ’twas far better to light the old Aladdin the old paraffin lamp)
court = to date, go out with (0:19:20 when girls started courting age they wouldn’t allow young men
come in from the next village out)
Devon grate2 = type of open fireplace (0:49:23 ’cause the only heating we had in the cottage at the time
was a Devon grate little old Devon grate that’s all we had)
dreckly○ = soon, immediately (0:29:15 and if you know John Germon
3 he’ll say, “oh my beauty see ye
dreckly”)
2 Online forum discussion ‘the Devon grate’ initiated by river rats (09.09.2011 - see Belfast Forum at
http://www.belfastforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=39865.0) contains ‘Devon grate’ in this sense. 3 Author, presumably, of ‘Cheers Me Boodies: A Celebration of Devon Dialect’ (Countryside Books, 2008).
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dredge○ = mixed corn sown together (1:22:11 also another thing us used to grow but don’t hear about it
now us used to mix the wheat and the barley and the oats together you used to try and get the same
varieties and we’d dry it at the same time and us used to call it ‘dredge’ corn (that’s right, yeah ‘dredge’
corn never hear of it)
drixey○ = dead, rotten (0:25:21 I got a friend Raymond who is quite broad Devon and he’ll say, “Christ,
that’s drixey”, you know, ’tis ’tis falling to pieces)
durn = architrave, door-frame (0:14:08 now we call down here around the door the ‘jamb’ they call it the
‘durn’ uh I mean that’s just one end of Devon to the other so it it but within within Dartmoor there’s
many many different ones (in Dartmoor the ‘door jamb’ or ‘door arch’ is called a ‘prentice’) that’s right
well ‘prentice’ or ‘jamb’, yeah)
electric = electricity (1:07:09 (what’s that called then ‘pumping the organ’ did you have a ...?) well just
pumping the organ uh you see the organs had no electric at the church)
fag○ = dried peat cut for fuel (0:14:31 my father um used to go up on the moor cutting fags and I’ve got
his fag-ire at home now)
faggot = bundle of sticks used for firewood (1:11:49 in in the winter when us was out hedging uh cut off a
hazel hedge or or ash used to tie it up in faggots)
fag-ire*4
= peat cutter (0:14:31 my father um used to go up on the moor cutting fags and I’ve got his fag-
ire at home now)
felly = exterior rim of cartwheel supported by spokes (0:13:07 I turned out a shed the other day and me
son was looking at it and he said, “look at all these old tools you got here, dad” and he said, “there’s
carpenting tools here old spokeshaves (that’s right) and things for shaving wheel fellies” and all that sort
of thing)
fitty = fine, well (0:43:14 they go on about, “I’m feeling fitty” and all this, don’t they?)
fitchy○ = polecat (0:50:39 I had um two ferrets I had a fitchy ferret and a yellow ferret)
fore = before (0:59:09 I can see him now fore he’d go to bed sometimes he’d sit down and he’d have a an
apple pasty and he’d eat an whole apple pasty fore he went to bed; 1:11:32 they’d used to do the outside
round, didn’t them, like that (yeah) fore the binder come in (yeah) then the binder would come in and then
you’d be you had your sheaves but the outside row uh round you’d you’d cut by hand but uh and then tie
and stack stack stook of sheaves)
fore = forwards (0:29:50 down our way there was one that I can always remember me wife’s uncle used
to use farming-wise he never referred to ‘left’ or ‘right’ always ‘way fore’ or ‘back fore’; 0:30:20
because he used to say, “up the road here about two gun-shots go way fore and then about another two
gun-shots and go back fore” and now they all um, you know, they’m they’re completely and utterly lost
and you’d have to stand then and do a bit of a bit of bit of interpretation, like, you know)
frawsy○ = treat, feast (0:41:16 you’d be invited around, you see, to a cup of tea and that would be called a
‘frawsy’)
furze = gorse ( 0:12:07 you see people go to Dartmoor and they look at the gorse out in full flower and
they say, “oh, isn’t that lovely?” and I say, “what do you mean that ‘furze’?” (yeah) and there’s also a a
bird that lives on Dartmoor we call them the ‘furze-hacker’ and if you if you talk to people that are bird-
watchers they don’t know what you’re talking about)
furze-hacker = furze-chat – type of bird (0:12:07 you see people go to Dartmoor and they look at the
gorse out in full flower and they say, “oh, isn’t that lovely?” and I say, “what do you mean that ‘furze’?”
(yeah) and there’s also a a bird that lives on Dartmoor we call them the ‘furze-hacker’ and if you if you
talk to people that are bird-watchers they don’t know what you’re talking about)
grandkid = grandchild (0:35:17 I mean I got grandkids six and five and that)
gun-shot = rough measure of distance (0:30:20 because he used to say, “up the road here about two gun-
shots go way fore and then about another two gun-shots and go back fore” and now they all um, you
4 SED Basic Material (1962-1971) includes ‘fag-ire’ in sense of ‘crescent-shaped spade for cutting turfs’ – see e.g. PEAT
(IV.4.3).
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know, they’m they’re completely and utterly lost and you’d have to stand then and do a bit of a bit of bit
of interpretation, like, you know)
hedgy5 = to lay a hedge (0:32:57 when you stone hedgy you put the stones up look it up in there edgeways
with with a stone wall there all put flat one on top of the other)
hiding = beating, thrashing (1:05:26 when you got home in the night or when the inspector come and seen
mother in the day uh you’d get a good hiding when you come home her’d thrash your legs)
how’s tricks = how are you, how do you do (0:29:43 and ‘how’s tricks’ was another thing they used to
use and I I think all these, yeah, and the these things stuck in your mind)
learn = to teach (0:06:57 and I think one of the things happened with it when you found these teachers
new teachers coming to the school they tried to educate you and learn you what they used to say was the
Queen’s English)
leary○ = empty, hungry (0:31:00 if you was out with the binder and you had a steep field (yeah) you’d go
up ‘leary’ (yeah) which meant they were empty you weren’t cutting of them (yeah, exactly, no) and also
when it come to dinner time you was feeling a bit ‘leary’ (leary) and ’twas time to go in and have some
dinner (dinner that’s right))
maddock○
= tool for breaking up hard earth (0:12:31 we talk about tools you use on farms we talk about a
‘visgy’ (yeah) and they look at ye and say, (“what’s that?”) “oh, what’s a ‘visgy’ where did that come
from?” and this is this is what it’s all about we are proud of it we know what we’re talking about it’s a bit
of bad luck that they don’t (what is it?) (digger) (yes) (a digger) that’s right (also known as a ‘two-bill’)
(yeah) that’s right that’s right, you see, you got a ‘visgy’ and you got a ‘maddock’; 0:33:07 and father
used to say, “take a maddock and don’t forget to ram it in tight, boy, it ain’t no good if you don’t do
that”)
maid = girl (0:33:34 my kids stared to learn to ride ponies, like, and that and us got an old Dartmoor
pony and her’s broken in ’cause they had ponies and and um stuck a maid on them one day and uh course
the pony started to buck and that and instead of sort of saying ‘grip tight’ he used to say, “cream your
knees, mate, cream your knees”, you know)
mangold = mangel-wurzel (1:22:25 another thing you don’t see them growing now is mangolds, do ye,
(no) see used to grow hundreds of mangolds, didn’t them?; 1:22:39 this was uh on uh Radio Devon one
day about mangold ‘M’ ‘A’ ‘N’ ‘G’ ‘L’ ‘E’ but that wasn’t the right way of spelling mangolds ‘M’ ‘A’ ‘N’
‘G’ ‘O’ ‘L’ ‘D’)
meat safe = ventilated cupboard for storing meat (1:33:13 and also us used to have a safe what they call a
safe (yeah) what they call a ‘safe’ (meat safe) meat safe)
mysel○ = myself (0:20:02 father lived at Yelverton mother lived at Meavy so he just said, “oh you’re very
you’re like mysel” he said, “I come from Maristow”)
nabby-grabby⌂6
= small stone (0:32:17 I used to go out stone-walling with my father sometimes and uh he
would be out there and uh he’d say, “I well just want a little uh stone just to a little trigger to put in
under” (yeah) and you’d give him a stone “no, that isn’t no good, boy, I only want a nabby-grabby”
(‘navvy-graffy’ that’s right, ‘naffy-graffy’))
oggy = Cornish pasty (0:58:27 us used to take dinner um used to take bit of saffron cake and a teddy
oggy)
oh ah○ = yes, confirming or contradicting (1:31:22 (but also they had a dynamo that used to run off the
the mill) oh ah, yeah)
paring hook* = bill-hook used for trimming hedges (1:10:55 don’t see a paring hook well I got three
home I got three scythes home (yeah) but I mean they never get used, do they?) 5 OED (Online edition) includes ‘hedge’ in this sense; <-y> suffix attributable to productive dialectal morphological also
captured here in e.g. fitty, frawsy, leary etc. 6 First speaker says [nabiːgɹabiː] suggesting possible interpretation as nabby-grabby – i.e. ‘nab’ [= ‘to snatch/pick up quickly’]
+ ‘grab’ with dialectal morphological <-y> suffix by analogy with e.g. fitty, frawsy, leary etc.; second speaker says [naviːgɹaviː]
suggesting alternative interpretation as navvy-graffy – i.e. navvy [= ‘labourer’] + graff [= ‘spit/spade-graft’] with dialectal
fricative voicing and morphological <-y> suffix by analogy with e.g. fitty, frawsy, leary etc.
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paunch = to disembowel (0:51:49 and I used to paunch me rabbits clean them out and then uh put them
on a stick over me shoulder and off I would start to go home)
pook○ = small pile of hay left to dry overnight (1:18:33 but how many times you’d sh... uh you’d turn, you
know, (yeah) fields of corn fields of the hay by hand (yeah) turn your back and down will come the rain
(that’s right) done it many a time (but then if you remember) used to pook it then (that’s right, yeah) put it
in pooks)
prentice⌂ = architrave, door-frame (0:14:08 (now we call down here around the door the ‘jamb’ they call
it the ‘durn’ uh I mean that’s just one end of Devon to the other so it it but within within Dartmoor there’s
many many different ones) in Dartmoor the ‘door jamb’ or ‘door arch’ is called a ‘prentice’ (that’s right
well ‘prentice’ or ‘jamb’, yeah))
pushbike = bicycle (0:36:50 we did have a car and I of course was had uh learnt to drive a car at that
time and I used to go, yeah, pushbike pushbike; 0:37:29 you know, your pushy was used a lot your
pushbike was used a a lot I mean you’d go down or mother’d send you down to Horrabridge to get some
meat or summat and ’twas all on your pushbike)
quail○ = to dry out (1:18:16 another thing that when it was catchy weather uh, you know, you get uh
sunshine and showers and then you get a nice bright uh period and father used to say, “oh the sun’s come
out, boy, that’ll soon quail it up”)
Queen’s English = popular term for Standard English and/or Received Pronunciation (0:06:57 and I think
one of the things happened with it when you found these teachers new teachers coming to the school they
tried to educate you and learn you what they used to say was the Queen’s English)
real = very, really (0:51:06 and I used to go off Saturday mornings with I had me nets and I had a little
terrier dog called Tiny real tiny terrier)
summat∆ = something (0:37:29 you know, your pushy was used a lot your pushbike was used a a lot I
mean you’d go down or mother’d send you down to Horrabridge to get some meat or summat and ’twas
all on your pushbike; 0:50:49 I was coming home from school one night and uh summat rattling in the r...
in the hedge so I looks up and there’s this ferret and of course nobody would admit you’d lost a ferret;
1:31:04 Tommy Caw out Dittisham every Saturday after… every Saturday morning used to come with two
or three bags two-hundred weight bags of of oats or summat to crush and us used to set the wheel going)
spokeshave = carpenter’s tool for carving spokes (0:13:07 I turned out a shed the other day and me son
was looking at it and he said, “look at all these old tools you got here, dad” and he said, “there’s
carpenting tools here old spokeshaves (that’s right) and things for shaving wheel fellies” and all that sort
of thing)
spud = potato (0:08:44 from about eleven year old I suppose you would be picked up of a Saturday
morning and taken maybe to well farms all over the area to pick up spuds; 0:08:57 you were being paid
about four shillings a day for working all day picking up a load of spuds)
stook○ = bundle of corn (1:11:32 they’d used to do the outside round, didn’t them, like that (yeah) fore the
binder come in (yeah) then the binder would come in and then you’d be you had your sheaves but the
outside row uh round you’d you’d cut by hand but uh and then tie and stack stack stook of sheaves)
tea-drinkers⌂ = ‘best’ shoes (0:40:58 but he always kept his tea-drinkers on in case he was out invited out
in the night when he went church again invited out to tea somewhere)
teddy○ = potato (0:07:47 during the war when I was a boy uh us used to have the Land Army come on the
farm doing various jobs, you know, teddy picking and all that and I used to have to take the basket of tea
up to them; 0:58:27 us used to take dinner um used to take bit of saffron cake and a teddy oggy)
theirsels○ = themselves (1:15:16 the farmers in those days if you was making hay this side the valley and
the weather was bit catchy and you could see somebody old Tommy Caw or somebody the other side the
valley who was, you know, struggling a bit and he he he’d (you’d go and help) you’d if you finished yours
you wouldn’t go home everybody would turn to and go and help Tommy Caw but today everybody’s for
theirsels really)
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trig = to apply wedge or block to prevent object moving (0:59:28 I know a chap who used to drive a
steam-roller and he used to be able to put a pasty and he’d bring a pasty if his wife made en would trig
and hold a steam-roller)
trigger = wedge or block used to prevent object moving (0:32:17 I used to go out stone-walling with my
father sometimes and uh he would be out there and uh he’d say, “I well just want a little uh stone just to a
little trigger to put in under” (yeah) and you’d give him a stone “no, that isn’t no good, boy, I only want a
nabby-grabby” (‘navvy-graffy’ that’s right, ‘naffy-graffy’))
two-bill○ = double-headed pick (0:12:31 (we talk about tools you use on farms we talk about a ‘visgy’
(yeah) and they look at ye and say,) “what’s that?” (“oh, what’s a ‘visgy’ where did that come from?”
and this is this is what it’s all about we are proud of it we know what we’re talking about it’s a bit of bad
luck that they don’t) (what is it?) (digger) yes (a digger) (that’s right) also known as a ‘two-bill’ (yeah)
(that’s right that’s right, you see, you got a ‘visgy’ and you got a ‘maddock’))
turn to = to apply oneself to work (1:15:16 the farmers in those days if you was making hay this side the
valley and the weather was bit catchy and you could see somebody old Tommy Caw or somebody the
other side the valley who was, you know, struggling a bit and he he he’d (you’d go and help) you’d if you
finished yours you wouldn’t go home everybody would turn to and go and help Tommy Caw but today
everybody’s for theirsels really)
visgy○ = double-headed pick (0:12:31 we talk about tools you use on farms we talk about a ‘visgy’ (yeah)
and they look at ye and say, (“what’s that?”) “oh, what’s a ‘visgy’ where did that come from?” and this
is this is what it’s all about we are proud of it we know what we’re talking about it’s a bit of bad luck that
they don’t (what is it?) (digger) (yes) (a digger) that’s right (also known as a ‘two-bill’) (yeah) that’s
right that’s right, you see, you got a ‘visgy’ and you got a ‘maddock’)
way* = instruction to horse to turn left (0:29:50 down our way there was one that I can always remember
me wife’s uncle used to use farming-wise he never referred to ‘left’ or ‘right’ always ‘way fore’ or ‘back
fore’; 0:30:20 because he used to say, “up the road here about two gun-shots go way fore and then about
another two gun-shots and go back fore” and now they all um, you know, they’m they’re completely and
utterly lost and you’d have to stand then and do a bit of a bit of bit of interpretation, like, you know;
0:30:46 when they used to plough with the horses I think ‘way fore’ was to the left (yeah) and ‘back fore’
was to the right (yeah))
Yank = person from the USA (0:23:29 and of course not only them you had the the Yanks were living
around for well what two year nearly)
PHONOLOGY
KIT [ɪ > e ~ ə]
(0:01:33 my father was a farmer um I married in 1950 [nəɪntiːnfeftei] and we’ve been farming it all our
life; 0:06:23 just after the war and people who came down the army were billeted [bəlɪtɪd] the Forty-
Eighth Div [fɔ˞ːdiɛɪtθ dɪv] was there and they also had evacuees came down on the train and they were
put in various homes and they they were came from London and quite a few came from the Birmingham
[bɚːmɪŋəm] area; 21:31 a lot of people don’t realise but a lot of the buildings [bɪɫdɪnz] were uh taken
over by the military [mələtɹei]; 0:25:21 I got a friend Raymond who is quite broad Devon and he’ll say,
“Christ, that’s drixey”, [dɹeksei] you know, it is it is falling to pieces; 0:35:17 I mean I got grandkids
[gɹandkɪdz] six [sɪks] and five and that; 0:43:14 they go on about, “I’m feeling fitty” [vedi] and all this,
[ðɪs] don’t they?; 0:48:01 uh my wife was taken bad well she had a grumbling appendix [əpɛndɪks])
biscUIT, kitchEN (0:26:09 and mother used to refer to us if she was in the kitchen [kɪʧən] and on
her own she would look at me and say, “where’s the maidens to?” (yeah) now ‘maidens’ it’s not
‘maidens’ it was ‘maidens’; 1:00:11 us had these here two big pa… uh tins of biscuits, [bɪskəts]
you know, like you buy now (yeah) big tins of biscuits [bɪskəts] come and some tins of corned
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beef; 1:00:39 we had some corned beef and then for afters us had sweet biscuits [bɪskəts] with
some jam but us wasn’t so curious about what was in that there tin after that)
<em, ex-> (0:15:59 we’re talking about peat there was actually a peat peat works up at the back
of the Fox and Hounds Hotel pre-war they used to dig the peat up there the old they used to
employ [ɪmplɔɪ] quite a lot of staff; 0:38:54 Sunday mornings I used to have to walk Sampford
Church for Sunday school Sunday afternoons I’d be expected [ɛkspɛktɪd] to walk Okehampton
Church for Sunday school; 1:12:36 well my grandfather would expect [ɪkspɛkt] his boys to do
seventy bale seventy bundles a day)
his, in, tin (0:06:23 just after the war and people who came down the army were billeted the
Forty-Eighth Div was there and they also had evacuees came down on the train and they were put
in [ɪn] various homes and they they were came from London and quite a few came from the
Birmingham area; 0:33:07 and father used to say, “take a maddock and don’t forget to ram it in
[iːn] tight, boy, it ain’t no good if you don’t do that”; 1:00:11 us had these here two big pa… uh
tins [tɪnz] of biscuits, you know, like you buy now (yeah) big tins [tiːnz] of biscuits come and
some tins [tɪnz] of corned beef; 1:06:21 Art that’s it and his [iːz] boy lives up Princetown and he’s
a electrician (yes, that’s Christopher) Christopher that’s right; 1:12:36 well my grandfather
would expect his [iːz] boys to do seventy bale seventy bundles a day; 1:28:11 you would say, “I’ve
been out in the lashing rain I’ve come in [iːn] drenched”)
DRESS [ɛ]
(0:48:01 uh my wife was taken bad well [wɛɫ] she had a grumbling appendix [əpɛndɪks]; 0:59:09 I can
see him now fore he’d go to bed [bɛd] sometimes he’d sit down and he’d have a an apple pasty and he’d
eat an whole apple pasty fore he went [wɛnt] to bed [bɛd]; 1:12:36 well [wɛɫ] my grandfather would
expect [ɪkspɛkt] his boys to do seventy [sɛmti] bale seventy [sɛmti] bundles a day)
get (1:36:11 early in the morning horses was all done up they was out cutting grass (yeah, that’s
right) you daren’t speak to your farmer he “hasn’t got time to talk to thee, boy, I got to get [gɪd]
on”)
TRAP [a > æ]
(1:00:30 one day it happened [apənd] the van [væn] didn’t turn up; 1:15:16 the farmers in those days if
you was making hay this side the valley [vali] and the weather was bit catchy [kæʧei] and you could see
somebody old Tommy Caw or somebody the other side the valley [vali] who was, you know, struggling a
bit and he he he’d (you’d go and help) you’d if you finished yours you wouldn’t go home everybody would
turn to and go and help Tommy Caw but today everybody’s for theirsels really; 1:25:40 my wife was the
captain [kaptn]̩ of the ladies’ team and course when I went in her said it wasn’t fair her said ’cause her
said, “Cyril here’s ambidextrous [ambɪdɛstɹɪks] he can he can bat [bat] whichever one” course I made
the highest score for the gents and us won the match [maʧ])
fag, have (0:00:26 li… born and still living in the house uh that I’m in at the moment um although
I have [ɛv] sold it now; 0:14:31 my father um used to go up on the moor cutting fags [vɛgz] and
I’ve got his fag-ire [vɛgəɪɚ] at home now; 0:36:50 we did have [ɛv] a car and I of course was had
uh learnt to drive a car at that time and I used to go, yeah, pushbike pushbike; 0:38:23 you know,
if mother thought that we ought to have [ɛv] a, you know, a new winter coat something like that as
a child well very often it used to be done so that we would wear it to harvest festival; 0:59:09 I can
see him now fore he’d go to bed sometimes he’d sit down and he’d have [ɛv] a an apple pasty and
he’d eat an whole apple pasty fore he went to bed; 1:29:59 up to the time I le... we left Lake we
didn’t have [ɛv] any electric)
lash, thrash (1:05:26 when you got home in the night or when the inspector come and seen mother
in the day uh you’d get a good hiding when you come home her’d thrash [dɹɛɪʃ] your legs; 1:27:37
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yeah, well ‘raining heavily’ we’d say we’d ‘lashing down’ [lɛɪʃɪn dəʏn] it’s really, you know, well
‘lashing down’ [lɛɪʃɪn dəʏn] (yeah, ‘heavy rain’) (yeah, also, “it is lashing down cats and dogs”
[tɪz lɛɪʃɪn dəʏn kats ən dʌgz]) yeah, yeah)
LOT [ɒ > ɑ]
(0:02:20 well I used to deal with a lot [lɒd] of people uh down at Morwellham and uh I think the first
reaction you got [gɒt] from half of the holiday-makers soon as they heard you they’d go round the back
going, “ah uh eh uh oh” and you used to get these sort of comments; 0:14:31 my father um used to go up
on the moor cutting fags and I’ve got [gɑd] his fag-ire at home now; 0:26:22 and that was the only phrase
that I remember my mother really talking and I’m sure lots [lɑts] of people used to say, “well what [wɒd]
are you saying?”; 1:09:29 then there was somebody with a recitation then we had somebody who sang a
few songs [sɒŋz] to a guitar)
dog (0:51:06 and I used to go off Saturday mornings with I had my nets and I had a little terrier
dog [dʌg] called Tiny real tiny terrier; 1:27:37 (yeah, well ‘raining heavily’ we’d say we’d
‘lashing down’ it’s really, you know, well ‘lashing down’) (yeah, ‘heavy rain’) yeah, also, “it is
lashing down cats and dogs” [tɪz lɛɪʃɪn dəʏn kats ən dʌgz] (yeah, yeah))
STRUT [ʌ]
(0:13:21 and he said he said, “you want to keep that, dad, ’cause they’ll be worth some [sʌm] money
[mʌni] later on and uh that is true but you a lot of it a lot of it is fading away because no one doesn’t
[dʌzənt] want it and no one doesn’t [dʌzənt] know anything about it; 1:00:39 we had some [sʌm] corned
beef and then for afters us [ʌs] had sweet biscuits with some [sʌm] jam but us [ʌs] wasn’t so curious
about what was in that there tin after that; 1:09:07 and we had no rehearsals no nothing [nʌθɪn] and I
compèred; 1:12:36 well my grandfather would expect his boys to do seventy bale seventy bundles
[bʌndɫ̩z] a day; 1:33:13 and also us [ʌz] used to have a safe what they call a safe (yeah) what they call a
‘safe’ (meat safe) meat safe)
ONE (0:14:08 now we call down here around the door the ‘jamb’ they call it the ‘durn’ uh I mean
that’s just one end of Devon to the other so it it but within within Dartmoor there’s many many
different ones [wʌnz] (in Dartmoor the ‘door jamb’ or ‘door arch’ is called a ‘prentice’) that’s
right well ‘prentice’ or ‘jamb’, yeah; 0:29:50 down our way there was one [wʌn] that I can always
remember my wife’s uncle used to use farming-wise he never referred to ‘left’ or ‘right’ always
‘way fore’ or ‘back fore’; 0:37:53 there was britches and leggings for men and (that’s right) and
uh heavy shoes for girls there was none [nɒn] of this here kind of modern kind of high heels and
stiletto heels; 0:47:23 all through that winter we only lost one [wɒn] and it was there and that
bullock died near the cottage at Two Bridges)
FOOT [ʏ > ʊ ~ ʌ]
(0:06:23 just after the war and people who came down the army were billeted the Forty-Eighth Div was
there and they also had evacuees came down on the train and they were put [pʌt] in various homes and
they they were came from London and quite a few came from the Birmingham area; 0:13:07 I turned out
a shed the other day and my son was looking [lʏkən] at it and he said, “look [lʏk] at all these old tools
you got here, dad” and he said, “there’s carpenting tools here old spokeshaves (that’s right) and things
for shaving wheel fellies” and all that sort of thing; 0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and
helped father turn them out that was one of my job when I was a boy eight nine years old and when they
was brought home I had to help pack them in the shed and (yes) put [pʊd] them in the fire and the put
[pʌt] the old trivet in the thing in the kettle (yeah) and put [pʊd] en over the peat fire and very often you
had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted of peat; 0:45:36 but one of the funniest things the butcher [bʏʧə] van
was in Okehampton village and he decided he’d just got in the village and he decided he couldn’t [kʏdn̟]
deliver no more meat so matey tried to get back up Yelverton, see; 0:47:23 all through that winter we only
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lost one and it was there and that bullock [bʌlək] died near the cottage at Two Bridges; 1:05:26 when you
got home in the night or when the inspector come and seen mother in the day uh you’d get a good [gʏd]
hiding when you come home her’d thrash your legs)
BATH [aː]
(0:38:54 Sunday mornings I used to have to walk Sampford Church for Sunday school Sunday afternoons
[aːftənʏːnz] I’d be expected to walk Okehampton Church for Sunday school; 0:53:29 and this used to be
from the first week in April until the last [laːst] week in September; 0:59:09 I can see him now fore he’d
go to bed sometimes he’d sit down and he’d have a an apple pasty [paːsti] and he’d eat an whole apple
pasty [paːsti] fore he went to bed)
CLOTH [ɔ ~ ɑ]
(0:04:34 things’ve changed and that’s why I think we’ve lost [lɔst] the Devonshire dialect because
everybody now is being the children are all bussed to one area and they’re all speaking the same; 0:28:44
and he and now if he’s talking you would never think he was from Devon at all he he’s completely lost
[lɔst] it; 0:30:20 because he used to say, “up the road here about two gun-shots go way fore and then
about another two gun-shots and go back fore” and now they all um, you know, they’m they’re
completely and utterly lost [lɑst] and you’d have to stand then and do a bit of a bit of bit of interpretation,
like, you know; 0:38:23 you know, if mother thought that we ought to have a, you know, a new winter
coat something like that as a child well very often [ɑftən] it used to be done so that we would wear it to
harvest festival; 0:40:01 when my sister came home her had to take her clothes off [ɑf] and her had to put
a barras-apron on; 0:47:23 all through that winter we only lost [lɑst] one and it was there and that
bullock died near the cottage at Two Bridges)
NURSE [əː]
(0:01:12 I worked [wɚːkt] for the Forestry Commission for forty years thirty [θɚːdi] years as a Wildlife
Officer in all of Cornwall and part of Devon; 0:02:20 well I used to deal with a lot of people uh down at
Morwellham and uh I think the first [fɚːst] reaction you got from half of the holiday-makers soon as they
heard [ɚːd] you they’d go round the back going, “ah uh eh uh oh” and you used to get these sort of
comments; 0:13:21 and he said he said, “you want to keep that, dad, ’cause they’ll be worth [wɚːθ] some
money later on” and uh that is true but you a lot of it a lot of it is fading away because no one doesn’t
want it and no one doesn’t know anything about it; 1:00:30 one day it happened the van didn’t turn [tɚːn]
up)
furze (0:12:07 you see people go to Dartmoor and they look at the gorse out in full flower and
they say, “oh, isn’t that lovely?” and I say, “what do you mean that ‘furze’?” [vʌz] (yeah) and
there’s also a a bird that lives on Dartmoor we call them the ‘furze-hacker’ [fʌzakɚ] and if you if
you talk to people that are bird-watchers they don’t know what you’re talking about; 0:13:52 but
there are so many different things (yeah) I mean you’re talking to us now about about the furze
[vʌz] and that (yeah) it’s like I mean there’d be the ferns and the bracken well we call them
‘ferns’, isn’t it? (that’s right, ‘ferns’))
ferns (0:13:52 but there are so many different things (yeah) I mean you’re talking to us now about
about the furze and that (yeah) it’s like I mean there’d be the ferns [fɚːnz] and the bracken well
we call them ‘ferns’, [vɪɚnz] isn’t it (that’s right, ‘ferns’ [vɪɚnz]))
FLEECE [iː]
(0:49:23 ’cause the only heating [hiːtɪn] we had in the cottage at the time was a Devon grate little old
Devon grate that’s all we had; 0:53:29 and this used to be from the first week [wiːk] in April until the last
week [wiːk] in September; 1:00:39 we had some corned beef [kɔ˞ːnd biːf] and then for afters us had sweet
biscuits [swiːt bɪskəts] with some jam but us wasn’t so curious about what was in that there tin after that)
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been, seen (1:05:26 when you got home in the night or when the inspector come and seen [sɪn]
mother in the day uh you’d get a good hiding when you come home her’d thrash your legs;
1:39:18 I mean I can remember one old lady in Okehampton who died uh not so many years ago
and her’d only been [bɪn] her hadn’t been Plymouth [bɪm plɪməθ] since the war)
tea (0:07:47 during the war when I was a boy uh us used to have the Land Army come on the farm
doing various jobs, you know, teddy picking and all that and I used to have to take the basket of
tea [teɪ] up to them; 0:41:16 you’d be invited around, you see, to a cup of tea [teɪ] and that would
be called a ‘frawsy’; 0:53:05 then when I used to come home from school four o’clock I had to
take milk up in the afternoon for officers because they had their fresh milk with their tea [tɛɪ])
FACE [eː ~ ɛɪ]
(0:08:57 you were being paid [pɛɪd] about four shillings a day [dɛɪ] for working all day [dɛɪ] picking up a
load of spuds; 0:13:21 and he said he said, “you want to keep that, dad, ’cause they’ll be worth some
money later on” [leːdɚɹ ɒn] and uh that is true but you a lot of it a lot of it is fading [feːdɪn] away [əwɛɪ]
because no one doesn’t want it and no one doesn’t know anything about it; 0:40:01 when my sister came
[keːm] home her had to take [teːk] her clothes off and her had to put a barras-apron [baɹəseːpɹən] on;
0:53:29 and this used to be from the first week in April [eːpɹəɫ] until the last week in September; 0:58:16
used to be able [eːbɫ] to get these lemonade [lɛməneːd] crystals I remember that; 1:12:36 well my
grandfather would expect his boys to do seventy bale [bɛɪɫ] seventy bundles a day [dɛɪ])
ain’t (0:33:07 and father used to say, “take a maddock and don’t forget to ram it in tight, boy, it
ain’t [ɛɪnʔ] no good if you don’t do that”)
maiden (0:26:09 and mother used to refer to us if she was in the kitchen and on her own she
would look at me and say, “where’s the maidens to?” [wɛɚz ðə mɛdn̩z tə] (yeah) now ‘maidens’
[mɛdn̩z] it’s not ‘maidens’ [mɛɪdn̩z] it was ‘maidens’ [mɛdn̩z])
<-day> (0:02:20 well I used to deal with a lot of people uh down at Morwellham and uh I think
the first reaction you got from half of the holiday-makers [ɒlɪdɛɪmɛɪkɚz] soon as they heard you
they’d go round the back going, “ah uh eh uh oh” and you used to get these sort of comments;
0:38:54 Sunday [sʌndi] mornings I used to have to walk Sampford church for Sunday [sʌndi]
school Sunday [sʌndi] afternoons I’d be expected to walk Okehampton Church for Sunday [zʌndi]
school; 0:45:29 and and it was Saturday [sadɚdɛɪ] afternoon and the blizzard come in I can
remember I was out getting trying to get some logs and one thing and another; 0:51:06 and I used
to go off Saturday [sadɚdi] mornings with I had my nets and I had a little terrier dog called Tiny
real tiny terrier)
PALM [aː > ɑː]
(0:01:33 my father [fɑːðə] was a farmer um I married in 1950 and we’ve been farming it all our life;
0:02:20 well I used to deal with a lot of people uh down at Morwellham and uh I think the first reaction
you got from half [haːf] of the holiday-makers soon as they heard you they’d go round the back going,
“ah uh eh uh oh” and you used to get these sort of comments; 0:32:17 I used to go out stone-walling with
my father [fɑːðɚ] sometimes and uh you’d be out there and uh he’d say, “I well just want a little uh stone
just to a little trigger to put in under” (yeah) and you’d give him a stone “no, that isn’t no good, boy, I
only want a nabby-grabby” (‘navvy-graffy’ that’s right, ‘navvy-graffy’); 0:37:20 I mean I meant to say
you was leaving home here half past seven [haːf paːs sɛbm̩] in the morning to get to school and now look
at them today I mean they don’t leave leave home till half past eight [haːf paːst ɛɪt] to get to school for
nine, do them? (no); 1:09:52 I did the compèring but I would tell one of my grandfather’s [gɹanfaːðɚz]
old tales, like, you know)
THOUGHT [ɔː]
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(0:04:08 and then I had to go to Ashburton School where there was about three hundred children and that
was quite a cultural shock for me and they was all talking [tɔːkɪn] in different languages there was um
children down there from London because it was just after the war; 0:51:49 and I used to paunch [pɔːnʧ]
my rabbits clean them out and then uh put them on a stick over my shoulder and off I would start to go
home; 0:25:21 I got a friend Raymond who is quite broad Devon [bɹɔːd dɛbm̩] and he’ll say, “Christ,
that’s drixey”, you know, it is it is falling [fɔːlɪn] to pieces)
alter, salt (0:11:23 and as you go further south down towards the Plymouth area it alters [ɒɫtɚz]
there; 1:33:43 you used to salt your pork [sɒɫʧə pɔ˞ːk])
GOAT [oː]
(0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and helped father turn them out that was one of my job
when I was a boy eight nine years old [oːɫd] and when they was brought home [oːm] I had to help pack
them in the shed and (yes) put them in the fire and the put the old [oːɫd] trivet in the thing in the kettle
(yeah) and put en over [oːvɚ] the peat fire and very often you had uh smoky [smoːki] tea that uh it tasted
of peat; 0:40:01 when my sister came home [oːm] her had to take her clothes [kloːz] off and her had to
put a barras-apron on; 1:05:26 when you got home [oːm] in the night or when the inspector come and
seen mother in the day uh you’d get a good hiding when you come home [oːm] her’d thrash your legs)
going (to) (0:27:19 another thing we used to say when to um children is uh, “where do you think
you’m going?” [wɚː djə θɪŋk juːm gwɛɪn] (yeah, “where be going?” [wɚː bɪ gwɛɪn]); 0:29:24
one of the other phrases you always uh hear people talking about is, “where be going?” [wɚː bɪ
gwɛɪn] (yeah) “what’s on today then?” (that’s right) yeah and, you know, all these things stick to
ye; 0:44:33 course there was nobody from Devon going to [gənə] put in a reply but somebody up
from Kent and he got the names of the people that was on the horse wrong; 1:37:00 I know where
I’m going [gwɛɪn] and I’m going to [gɛɪnə] find the way)
<-ow > (0:23:05 I mean I can remember one Saturday morning looking out the bedroom window
[wɪndə] and seeing what I’d never seen before black men; 0:58:53 the Cornish pasty of course is
the beef and potato [pəteːdə] onion pasty (bit of swede as well))
so (1:39:18 I mean I can remember one old lady in Okehampton who died uh not so many years
ago [nɑt sə mɛni jɪɚz əgoː] and her’d only been her hadn’t been Plymouth since the war)
GOOSE [ʏː > uː]
(0:05:57 uh the bulk of them around that we had in our area would’ve been Bristol and some from
London but I think they had an influence [ɪɱflʏəns] really when you were going to school [skʏːɫ] you
weren’t with the same sort of people that you were with at your primary schools [skʏːɫz]; 0:38:54 Sunday
mornings I used to have to walk Sampford Church for Sunday school [skuːɫ] Sunday afternoons
[aːftənʏːnz] I’d be expected to walk Okehampton Church for Sunday school [skuːɫ]; 1:18:33 but how
many times you’d sh... uh you’d turn, you know, (yeah) fields of corn fields of the hay by hand (yeah) turn
your back and down will come the rain (that’s right) done it many a time (but then if you remember) used
to pook [pʏːk] it then (that’s right, yeah) put it in pooks [pʏːks])
to (0:26:09 and mother used to refer to [tʏ] us if she was in the kitchen and on her own she would
look at me and say, “where’s the maidens to?” [wɛɚz ðə mɛdn̩z tə] (yeah) now ‘maidens’ it’s not
‘maidens’ it was ‘maidens’)
PRICE [əɪ > ɔɪ > aɪ > aː]
(0:00:11 uh I’m a farmer I’m farming all my life [ləɪf] and um lived at Buckland-in-the-Moor and with my
parents and when they’ve died [dəɪd] I’ve taken over the farm and uh and I expect that I shall b… stay
there until I die [daɪ]; 0:01:33 my father was a farmer um I married in 1950 [nəɪntiːnfeftei] and we’ve
been farming it all our life [ləɪf]; 0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and helped father turn
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them out that was one of my job when I was a boy eight nine [naɪn] years old and when they was brought
home I had to help pack them in the shed and (yes) put them in the fire [fɔɪɚ] and the put the old trivet in
the thing in the kettle (yeah) and put en over the peat fire [fɔɪɚ] and very often you had uh smoky tea that
uh it tasted of peat; 0:29:43 and ‘how’s tricks’ was another thing they used to use and I I think all these,
yeah, and the these things stuck in your mind [mɔɪn]; 0:31:00 if you was out with the binder [bəɪndɚ] and
you had a steep field (yeah) you’d go up ‘leary’ (yeah) which meant they were empty you weren’t cutting
of them (yeah, exactly, no) and also when it come to dinner time [dɪnɚtaːm] you was feeling a bit ‘leary’
(leary) and it was time [taːm] to go in and have some dinner (dinner that’s right); 1:05:26 when you got
home in the night [nɔɪt] or when the inspector come and seen mother in the day uh you’d get a good
hiding [əɪdɪn] when you come home her’d thrash your legs; 1:10:55 don’t see a paring hook well I got
three home I got three scythes [zɔɪðz] home (yeah) but I mean they never get used, do they?)
by, my (0:00:11 uh I’m a farmer I’m farming all my [mɪ] life and um lived at Buckland-in-the-
Moor and with my [maɪ] parents and when they’ve died I’ve taken over the farm and uh and I
expect that I shall b… stay there until I die; 0:03:00 I think he uh brought up with a Devon accent
and living with my [mi] grandparents and my [mi] father which they were true Devon and uh I
followed the accent; 0:28:04 I could bring my [mɪ] sister home ’cause dad said she’d got to be
home by [bɪ] nine o’clock or you never know who’s about; 0:29:50 down our way there was one
that I can always remember my [mɪ] wife’s uncle used to use farming-wise he never referred to
‘left’ or ‘right’ always ‘way fore’ or ‘back fore’; 0:51:06 and I used to go off Saturday mornings
with I had my [mi] nets and I had a little terrier dog called Tiny real tiny terrier; 0:51:49 and I
used to paunch my [mɪ] rabbits clean them out and then uh put them on a stick over my [mɪ]
shoulder and off I would start to go home; 0:55:13 so he said, “you’m all right you sound
Devonshire by [bɪ] what I know about ye” ; 1:11:32 they’d used to do the outside round, didn’t
them, like that (yeah) fore the binder come in (yeah) then the binder would come in and then you’d
be you had your sheaves but the outside row uh round you’d you’d cut by [bi] hand but uh and
then tie and stack stack stook of sheaves; 1:18:33 but how many times you’d sh... uh you’d turn,
you know, (yeah) fields of corn fields of the hay by [bɪ] hand (yeah) turn your back and down will
come the rain (that’s right) done it many a time (but then if you remember) used to pook it then
(that’s right, yeah) put it in pooks; 1:25:40 my [mɪ] wife was the captain of the ladies’ team and
course when I went in her said it wasn’t fair her said ’cause her said, “Cyril here’s ambidextrous
he can he can bat whichever one” course I made the highest score for the gents and us won the
match)
child (1:02:34 when there was a baby born they used to s… they used to say that that, “missus so-
and-so her’ve had a baby her have had a child” [ɚː əv ad ə ʧɪəɫ] […] (now it’s modern it’s a
‘sprog’ now but that used be a ‘child’ [ʧɪəɫ] then))
fire (0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and helped father turn them out that was one
of my job when I was a boy eight nine years old and when they was brought home I had to help
pack them in the shed and (yes) put them in the fire [fɔɪɚ] and the put the old trivet in the thing in
the kettle (yeah) and put en over the peat fire [fɔɪɚ] and very often you had uh smoky tea that uh it
tasted of peat)
CHOICE [ɔɪ]
(0:15:59 we’re talking about peat there was actually a peat peat works up at the back of the Fox and
Hounds Hotel pre-war they used to dig the peat up there the old they used to employ [ɪmplɔɪ] quite a lot
of staff; 1:23:00 during the war I registered to join [ʤɔɪn] the army but I wasn’t allowed to because I was
working on the farm)
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boy (0:15:25 uh when I was a boy [bʌɪ] I actually went up and helped father turn them out that
was one of my job when I was a boy [bʌɪ] eight nine years old and when they was brought home
had to help pack them in the shed and (yes) put them in the fire and the put the old trivet in the
thing in the kettle (yeah) and put en over the peat fire and very often you had uh smoky tea that uh
it tasted of peat; 0:32:17 I used to go out stone-walling with my father sometimes and uh you’d be
out there and uh he’d say, “I well just want a little uh stone just to a little trigger to put in under”
(yeah) and you’d give him a stone “no, that isn’t no good, boy, [bʌɪ] I only want a nabby-grabby”
(‘navvy-graffy’ that’s right, ‘navvy-graffy’); 1:06:21 Art that’s it and his boy [bɔɪ] lives up
Princetown and he’s a electrician (yes, that’s Christopher) Christopher that’s right)
MOUTH [əʏ]
(0:13:21 and he said he said, “you want to keep that, dad, ’cause they’ll be worth some money later on”
and uh that is true but you a lot of it a lot of it is fading away because no one doesn’t want it and no one
doesn’t know anything about [əbəʏd] it; 0:28:12 this was against my sister’s grain about [əbəʏt] “why
should he be allowed [ələʏd] out [əʏt] and I‘ve got to come home I don’t think it is fair,” her used to say;
0:28:44 and he and now [nəʏ] if he’s talking you would never think he was from Devon at all he he’s
completely lost it)
our (0:06:53 her said it’ve always stuck with our [əʏɚ] family ever since; 0:07:10 when we went
home at night we would still go back into our [ɚː] Devin lingo and the way we used to talk;
0:29:50 down our [ɑ˞ː] way there was one that I can always remember my wife’s uncle used to use
farming-wise he never referred to ‘left’ or ‘right’ always ‘way fore’ or ‘back fore’; 0:48:17 our
[ɑ˞ː] cottage had snow up to the eaves running out across the garden)
NEAR [ɪə]
(0:05:57 uh the bulk of them around that we had in our area would’ve been Bristol and some from
London but I think they had an influence really [ɹɪəli] when you were going to school you weren’t with the
same sort of people that you were with at your primary schools; 0:17:12 Dave here [hɪə] has a certainly
different accent than what I’ve got I mean to me I speak reasonably clear [klɪɚ] but he Dave is a real
Dartmoor accent (yeah, he’s middle of Dartmoor); 0:26:52 um there was uh an old lady um had a farm
near us [nɪɚɹ ʌs] with uh two spinster daughters; 0:47:23 all through that winter we only lost one and it
was there and that bullock died near [nɪə] the cottage at Two Bridges)
engineer, here, year (0:00:01 I’ve lived in Devon for sixty-nine years [jɚːz]; 0:00:43 I managed a
farm for about ten twelve years [jɪɚz] um television engineer [ɛnʤɪnɚ] mainly and kept a few
bullocks and one thing and another; 0:01:12 I worked for the Forestry Commission for forty years
[jɪɚz] thirty years [jɪɚz] as a Wildlife Officer in all of Cornwall and part of Devon; 0:13:07 I
turned out a shed the other day and my son was looking at it and he said, “look at all these old
tools you got here, [ɪɚ] dad” and he said, “there’s carpenting tools here [jɚː] old spokeshaves
(that’s right) and things for shaving wheel fellies” and all that sort of thing; 0:37:20 I mean I
meant to say you was leaving home here [jɚː] half past seven in the morning to get to school and
now look at them today I mean they don’t leave leave home till half past eight to get to school for
nine, do them? (no); 1:20:06 and he made these here [ðiːz jɚː] wooden triangles (oh yeah) to put
up with three poles (I remember, yeah, I remember))
SQUARE [ɛə > ɛː]
(0:38:23 you know, if mother thought that we ought to have a, you know, a new winter coat something like
that as a child well very often it used to be done so that we would wear it [wɛɚɹ ɪt] to harvest festival;
0:47:23 all through that winter we only lost one and it was there and [ðɛː ən] that bullock died near the
cottage at Two Bridges; 1:03:29 we used to come home and if someone was expecting a baby and we’d
make a statement well we would have a clip beside the ear (yeah) so you you’d got to be a little bit
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careful [kɛɚfʊɫ]; 1:10:55 don’t see a paring [pɛɚɹɪn] hook well I got three home I got three scythes home
(yeah) but I mean they never get used, do they?; 1:25:40 my wife was the captain of the ladies’ team and
course when I went in her said it wasn’t fair [fɛɚ] her said ’cause her said, “Cyril here’s ambidextrous
he can he can bat whichever one” course I made the highest score for the gents and us won the match)
there, where (0:40:58 but he always kept his tea drinkers on in case he was out invited out in the
night when he went church again invited out to tea somewhere [zʌmwɚː]; 0:47:23 all through that
winter we only lost one and it was there and [ðɛː ən] that bullock died near the cottage at Two
Bridges; 0:54:32 I was there [ɚː] ploughing a field right beside the camp and this here American
bloke came in)
START [ɑː]
(0:01:33 my father was a farmer [fɑ˞ːmɚ] um I married in 1950 and we’ve been farming [fɑ˞ːmɪn] it all
our life; 0:14:08 now we call down here around the door the ‘jamb’ they call it the ‘durn’ uh I mean
that’s just one end of Devon to the other so it it but within within Dartmoor [dɑ˞ːtmʊɚ] there’s many
many different ones (in Dartmoor [dɑ˞ːtmʊɚ] the ‘door jamb’ or ‘door arch’ [dɔɚ ɑ˞ːʧ] is called a
‘prentice’) that’s right well ‘prentice’ or ‘jamb’, yeah); 1:09:29 then there was somebody with a
recitation then we had somebody who sang a few songs to a guitar [gɪtɑ˞ː])
NORTH [ɔː]
(1:00:39 we had some corned beef [kɔ˞ːnd biːf] and then for afters us had sweet biscuits with some jam
but us wasn’t so curious about what was in that there tin after that)
FORCE [ɔː ~ ɔə]
(0:14:08 now we call down here around the door [dɔɚ] the ‘jamb’ they call it the ‘durn’ uh I mean that’s
just one end of Devon to the other so it it but within within Dartmoor there’s many many different ones
(in Dartmoor the ‘door jamb’ [dɔɚ ʤam] or ‘door arch’ [dɔɚ ɑ˞ːʧ] is called a ‘prentice’) that’s right
well ‘prentice’ or ‘jamb’, yeah; 1:10:07 well we were never bored [bɔɚd]; 1:25:40 my wife was the
captain of the ladies’ team and course [kɔ˞ːs] when I went in her said it wasn’t fair her said ’cause her
said, “Cyril here’s ambidextrous he can he can bat whichever one” course [kɔ˞ːs] I made the highest
score [skɔ˞ː] for the gents and us won the match)
fore (0:29:50 down our way there was one that I can always remember my wife’s uncle used to
use farming-wise he never referred to ‘left’ or ‘right’ always ‘way fore’ [wɛɪvɚː] or ‘back fore’
[bakfɔ˞ː])
CURE [ʊə]
(0:07:47 during [ʤʊɚɹɪn] the war when I was a boy uh us used to have the Land Army come on the farm
doing various jobs, you know, teddy picking and all that and I used to have to take the basket of tea up to
them; 0:14:31 my father um used to go up on the moor [mʊɚ] cutting fags and I’ve got his fag-ire at home
now; 1:00:39 we had some corned beef and then for afters us had sweet biscuits with some jam but us
wasn’t so curious [kʊɚɹiəs] about what was in that there tin after that)
happY [i > ei]
(0:01:12 I worked for the Forestry Commission for forty [fɔ˞ːdi] years thirty [θɚːdi] years as a Wildlife
Officer in all of Cornwall and part of Devon; 0:01:33 my father was a farmer um I married in 1950
[nəɪntiːnfeftei] and we’ve been farming it all our life; 21:31 a lot of people don’t realise but a lot of the
buildings were uh taken over by the military [mələtɹei]; 1:15:16 the farmers in those days if you was
making hay this side the valley [vali] and the weather was bit catchy [kæʧei] and you could see somebody
old Tommy Caw or somebody the other side the valley [vali] who was, you know, struggling a bit and he
he he’d (you’d go and help) you’d if you finished yours you wouldn’t go home everybody [ɛvɹibɒdi] would
turn to and go and help Tommy Caw but today everybody’s for theirsels really)
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lettER [ə]
(0:26:52 um there was uh an old lady um had a farm near us with uh two spinster [spɪnstɚ] daughters
[dɔːtɚz]; 0:40:46 and he used to put his best suit on in the morning and when he come home for dinner
[dɪnɚ] he used to put on a black apron; 0:47:23 all through that winter [wɪndə] we only lost one and it
was there and that bullock died near the cottage at Two Bridges)
mirror (0:44:22 on yesterday’s Daily Mirror7 [deːli mɪɹː] was one of they pieces on the inside
wanted to know what uh Widecombe Fair was all about)
commA [ə]
(0:04:34 things’ve changed and that’s why I think we’ve lost the Devonshire dialect because everybody
now is being the children are all bussed to one area [ɛːɹɪə] and they’re all speaking the same; 0:06:23
just after the war and people who came down the army were billeted the Forty-Eighth Div was there and
they also had evacuees came down on the train and they were put in various homes and they they were
came from London and quite a few came from the Birmingham area [ɛːɹɪə])
horsES [ɪ]
(0:25:21 I got a friend Raymond who is quite broad Devon and he’ll say, “Christ, that’s drixey”, you
know, it is it is falling to pieces [piːsɪz]; 0:31:46 and one of the things with horses [ɔ˞ːsɪz] horses [ɔ˞ːsɪz]
knew what you were talking about if you said ‘come here’ or ‘go away’ they would know exactly what
they’d got to do)
startED [ɪ]
(0:06:23 just after the war and people who came down the army were billeted [bəlɪtɪd] the Forty-Eighth
Div was there and they also had evacuees came down on the train and they were put in various homes
and they they were came from London and quite a few came from the Birmingham area; 0:15:25 uh when
I was a boy I actually went up and helped father turn them out that was one of my job when I was a boy
eight nine years old and when they was brought home I had to help pack them in the shed and (yes) put
them in the fire and the put the old trivet in the thing in the kettle (yeah) and put en over the peat fire and
very often you had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted [teːstɪd] of peat)
mornING [ə ~ ɪ]
(0:12:59 and when you look around there’s all sorts of things that we got in in farming [fɑ˞ːmən]; 21:31 a
lot of people don’t realise but a lot of the buildings [bɪɫdɪnz] were uh taken over by the military; 0:26:22
and that was the only phrase that I remember my mother really talking [tɔːkən] and I’m sure lots of
people used to say, “well what are you saying?” [sɛɪʲən]; 1:09:07 and we had no rehearsals no nothing
[nʌθɪn] and I compèred)
FULL RHOTICITY8
(0:01:33 my father [fɑːðə] was a farmer [fɑ˞ːmɚ] um I married in 1950 and we’ve been farming [fɑ˞ːmɪn]
it all our life; 0:14:31 my father [fɑːðɚ] um used to go up on the moor [mʊɚ] cutting fags and I’ve got his
fag-ire [vɛgəɪɚ] at home now; 0:26:52 um there [ðɛɚ] was uh an old lady um had a farm [fɑ˞ːm] near us
[nɪɚɹ ʌs] with uh two spinster [spɪnstɚ] daughters [dɔːtɚz]; 0:40:46 and he used to put his best suit on in
the morning [mɔ˞ːnɪn] and when he come home for dinner [dɪnɚ] he used to put on a black apron;
0:47:23 all through that winter [wɪndə] we only lost one and it was there and [ðɛː ən] that bullock died
near [nɪə] the cottage at Two Bridges)
hyper-rhoticity (0:02:20 well I used to deal with a lot of people uh down at Morwellham and uh I think
the first reaction you got from half of the holiday-makers soon as they heard you they’d go round the back
7 British national daily tabloid newspaper founded in 1903.
8 Rena is variably rhotic; the three male speakers consistently use postvocalic R.
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going “ah [ɑ˞ː] uh [ɚː] eh uh [ɚː] oh” [ɔ˞ː] and you used to get these sort of comments; 0:45:50 so he
gets up the road and before matey left the van the van was just [ʤɚːst] about covered but when they
uncovered the van about three weeks later there wasn’t a bit of meat left in hin)
PLOSIVES
T
word final T-glottaling (0:47:23 all through that [ðaʔ] winter we only lost one and it was there and that
[ðaʔ] bullock died near the cottage at Two Bridges; 0:47:38 it was because of the ice that caused much of
the problem that you couldn’t manage to get [gɛʔ] anywhere)
frequent T-voicing (e.g. 0:01:12 I worked for the Forestry Commission for forty [fɔ˞ːdi] years thirty
[θɚːdi] years as a Wildlife Officer in all of Cornwall and part [pɑ˞ːd] of Devon; 0:02:20 well I used to
deal with a lot [lɒd] of people uh down at Morwellham and uh I think the first reaction you got from half
of the holiday-makers soon as they heard you they’d go round the back going, “ah uh eh uh oh” and you
used to get these sort of [sɔ˞də] comments; 0:07:34 we get [gɛd] them on the council we we get [gɛd] them
in every facet of life and they are trying to teach us the way to speak but [bʌd] if you be Devon you still
speak Devon; 0:13:21 and he said he said, “you want to keep that, dad, ’cause they’ll be worth some
money later on” [leːdɚɹ ɒn] and uh that [ðad] is true but you a lot [lɒd] of it a lot [lɒd] of it is fading
away because no one doesn’t want it and no one doesn’t know anything about [əbəʏd] it; 0:14:31 my
father um used to go up on the moor cutting [kʌdɪn] fags and I’ve got [gɑd] his fag-ire at [əd] home now;
0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and helped father turn them out that was one of my job
when I was a boy eight nine years old and when they was brought [bɹɔːd] home I had to help pack them
in the shed and (yes) put [pʊd] them in the fire and the put the old trivet in the thing in the kettle [kɛdɫ̩]
(yeah) and put [pʊd] en over the peat fire and very often you had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted of peat;
0:29:10 “how be, my beauty?” [əʏ biː maː bʏːdi] (“how be” and “beauty”, yeah) (yeah) that’s a that’s a
(yeah) Devonshire thing (yeah); 0:43:14 they go on about, “I’m feeling fitty” [əɪm fiːlɪn vedi] and all this,
don’t they?; 0:45:29 and and it was Saturday [sadɚdɛɪ] afternoon and the blizzard come in I can
remember I was out getting [gɛdɪn] trying to get some logs and one thing and another; 0:47:23 all
through that winter [wɪndə] we only lost one and it was there and that bullock died near the cottage at
Two Bridges; 1:03:29 we used to come home and if someone was expecting a baby and we’d make a
statement well we would have a clip beside the ear (yeah) so you you’d got to [gɒdə] be a little [lɪdɫ̩] bit
careful; 1:07:17 behind the organ there would be a big bar sticking out big handle and there’d be a little
[lɪdɫ̩] lead weight with a red line; 1:31:54 ’cause I can remember doing homework from Grammar School
sitting [sɪdɪn] there and thinking to self, “Christ, bloody lights going up and down” and in the end it was
far better to light the old Aladdin the old paraffin lamp)
T to R (1:31:04 Tommy Caw out Dittisham every Saturday after… every Saturday [sɑɹːdi] morning used
to come with two or three bags two-hundred weight bags of of oats or summat to crush and us used to set
the wheel going)
NASALS
NG
frequent NG-fronting (e.g. 0:04:08 and then I had to go to Ashburton School where there was about
three hundred children and that was quite a cultural shock for me and they was all talking [tɔːkɪn] in
different languages there was um children down there from London because it was just after the war;
0:12:59 and when you look around there’s all sorts of things that we got in in farming [fɑ˞ːmən]; 0:26:22
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and that was the only phrase that I remember my mother really talking [tɔːkən] and I’m sure lots of
people used to say, “well what are you saying?” [sɛɪʲən]; 1:09:07 and we had no rehearsals no nothing
[nʌθɪn] and I compèred)
N
frequent syllabic N with nasal release (e.g. 0:09:25 they wouldn’t [wʏdn]̩ understand what we were
saying (no) and probably the Yorkshire accent we probably didn’t understand what they (that’s right) we
had to keep our ears open to understand what they were saying; 0:36:14 if you go back go back in the
fifties how many households had cars? we didn’t [dɪdn̩t] because most of us had bone-shakers; 0:38:54
Sunday mornings I used to have to walk Sampford Church for Sunday school Sunday afternoons I’d be
expected to walk Church [woːkamtn̩ ʧɚːʧ] for Sunday school; 0:45:36 but one of the funniest things the
butcher van was in Okehampton village and he decided he’d just got in the village and he decided he
couldn’t [kʏdn̩] deliver no more meat so matey tried to get back up Yelverton, see; 0:48:17 our cottage
had snow up to the eaves running out across the garden [gɑ˞ːdn]̩; 1:00:30 one day it happened the van
didn’t [dɪdn]̩ turn up; 1:15:16 the farmers in those days if you was making hay this side the valley and the
weather was bit catchy and you could see somebody old Tommy Caw or somebody the other side the
valley who was, you know, struggling a bit and he he he’d (you’d go and help) you’d if you finished yours
you wouldn’t [wʏdn̩] go home everybody would turn to and go and help Tommy Caw but today
everybody’s for theirsels really)
syllabic N with epenthetic schwa (0:38:23 you know, if mother thought that we ought to have a, you
know, a new winter coat something like that as a child well very often [ɑftən] it used to be done so that we
would wear it to harvest festival)
FRICATIVES
H
frequent H-dropping (e.g. 0:02:20 well I used to deal with a lot of people uh down at Morwellham and
uh I think the first reaction you got from half of the holiday-makers [ɒlɪdɛɪmɛɪkɚz] soon as they heard
[ɚːd] you they’d go round the back going, “ah uh eh uh oh” and you used to get these sort of comments;
0:13:07 I turned out a shed the other day and my son was looking at it and he said, “look at all these old
tools you got here, [ɪɚ] dad” and he said, “there’s carpenting tools here [jɚː] old spokeshaves (that’s
right) and things for shaving wheel fellies” and all that sort of thing; 0:14:31 my father um used to go up
on the moor cutting fags and I’ve got his fag-ire at home [əd oːm] now; 0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I
actually went up and helped [ɛɫpt] father turn them out that was one of my job when I was a boy eight
nine years old and when they was brought home [oːm] had to help [ɛɫp] pack them in the shed and (yes)
put them in the fire and the put the old trivet in the thing in the kettle (yeah) and put en over the peat fire
and very often you had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted of peat; 0:30:20 because he used to say, “up the
road here [jɚː] about two gun-shots go way fore and then about another two gun-shots and go back fore”
and now they all um, you know, they’m they’re completely and utterly lost and you’d have to stand then
and do a bit of a bit of bit of interpretation, like, you know; 0:31:46 and one of the things with horses
[ɔ˞ːsɪz] horses [ɔ˞ːsɪz] knew what you were talking about if you said ‘come here’ or ‘go away’ they would
know exactly what they’d got to do; 0:32:57 when you stone hedgy [ɛʤi] you put the stones up look it up
in there edgeways with with a stone wall there all put flat one on top of the other; 0:49:08 and we had an
helicopter [ən ɛlɪkɒptɚ] come and land in the basically in the just out in the front garden more or less;
0:59:09 I can see him now fore he’d go to bed sometimes he’d sit down and he’d have a an apple pasty
and he’d eat an whole apple pasty [ən oːl apɫ̩ paːsti] fore he went to bed; 1:00:30 one day it happened
[apənd] the van didn’t turn up; 1:05:26 when you got home [oːm] in the night or when the inspector come
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and seen mother in the day uh you’d get a good hiding [əɪdɪn] when you come home [oːm] her’d thrash
your legs; 1:09:07 and we had no rehearsals [ɹiɚːsəɫz] no nothing and I compèred)
hypercorrect H (0:09:25 they wouldn’t understand [hʌndɚstand] what we were saying (no) and probably
the Yorkshire accent we probably didn’t understand what they (that’s right) we had to keep our ears open
to understand what they were saying)
LIQUIDS
R
approximant R (0:04:34 things’ve changed and that’s why I think we’ve lost the Devonshire dialect
because everybody [ɛvɹɪbɒdi] now is being the children [ʧɪɫdɹən] are all bussed to one area [ɛːɹɪə] and
they’re all speaking the same; 1:10:55 don’t see a paring hook [pɛɚɹɪnʌk] well I got three [θɹiː] home I
got three [θɹiː] scythes home (yeah) but I mean they never get used, do they?; 1:09:07 and we had no
rehearsals [ɹiɚːsəɫz] no nothing and I compèred)
L
clear onset L (0:45:29 and and it was Saturday afternoon and the blizzard [blɪzɚd] come in I can
remember I was out getting trying to get some logs [lɒgz] and one thing and another; 0:47:23 all through
that winter we only lost [lɑst] one and it was there and that bullock [bʌlək] died near the cottage at Two
Bridges; 0:53:29 and this used to be from the first week in April until the last [laːst] week in September)
dark coda L (0:04:34 things’ve changed and that’s why I think we’ve lost the Devonshire dialect because
everybody now is being the children [ʧɪɫdɹən] are all bussed to one area and they’re all [ɔːɫ] speaking
the same; 0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and helped [ɛɫpt] father turn them out that was
one of my job when I was a boy eight nine years old [oːɫd] and when they was brought home had to help
[ɛɫp] pack them in the shed and (yes) put them in the fire and the put the old [oːɫd] trivet in the thing in
the kettle [kɛdɫ̩] (yeah) and put en over the peat fire and very often you had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted
of peat; 1:09:07 and we had no rehearsals [ɹiɚːsəɫz] no nothing and I compèred)
syllabic L with lateral release (0:17:12 (Dave here has a certainly different accent than what I’ve got I
mean to me I speak reasonably clear but he Dave is a real Dartmoor accent) yeah, he’s middle [mɪdɫ̩] of
Dartmoor; 1:07:17 behind the organ there would be a big bar sticking out big handle [ændɫ̩] and there’d
be a little [lɪdɫ̩] lead weight with a red line; 1:12:36 well my grandfather would expect his boys to do
seventy bale seventy bundles [bʌndɫ̩z] a day)
GLIDES
yod with D (0:06:57 and I think one of the things happened with it when you found these teachers new
teachers coming to the school they tried to educate [ɛdjuːkeːt] you and learn you what they used to say
was the Queen’s English)
frequent yod dropping with N, T (e.g. 0:03:20 it never gets broken because I remember at one stage
going to Newquay [nʏːki] after I was married and there was a man down there who had a notice up
outside Newquay [nʏːki] station said he could tell where everybody came from by their lingo in in the
area; 0:06:57 and I think one of the things happened with it when you found these teachers new [nʏː]
teachers coming to the school they tried to educate you and learn you what they used to say was the
Queen’s English; 0:21:56 this is what in in a sense pulled away a little bit of the kind of Devonshire
dialect away from some of the younger ones because they were sitting with all these newcomers
[nʏːkʌmɚz] who come down and they’d got a different lingo again; 0:31:46 and one of the things with
horses horses knew [nʏː] what you were talking about if you said ‘come here’ or ‘go away’ they would
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know exactly what they’d got to do; 0:57:45 and there was always well I’d say various bits of meat always
a bit of stew [stʏː])
zero yod (0:00:43 I managed a farm for about ten twelve years um television engineer mainly and kept a
few [fʏː] bullocks and one thing and another; 0:06:23 just after the war and people who came down the
army were billeted the Forty-Eighth Div was there and they also had evacuees came down on the train
and they were put in various homes and they they were came from London and quite a few [fʏː] came
from the Birmingham area; 0:18:01 well well I think it’s just uh the area you were in and the people
around and the, you see, you developed that in a community [kəmʏːnəti] it’s uh like a community
[kəmʏːnəti] accent uh village life; 0:20:59 and and you’d go out and have a few [fʏː] pints and you could
make your way down to the down to the dance; 0:21:20 and after a few [fʏː] pints you wasn’t worried
what it sounded like anyway; 0:29:10 “how be, my beauty?” [əʏ biː maː bʏːdi] (“how be” and “beauty”,
yeah) (yeah) that’s a that’s a (yeah) Devonshire thing (yeah); 0:56:14 that one would go home ’cause I’d
never have time to s… peel a orange banana I’d eat but there used to [ʏːstə] be a pasty and a banana;
1:00:39 we had some corned beef and then for afters us had sweet biscuits with some jam but us wasn’t so
curious about what was in that there tin after that; 1:06:59 he was a bit of an organist and I used [ʏːst] to
pump Okehampton Ch… ’cause he used to [ʏːstə] play the organ at Okehampton Church; 1:09:29 then
there was somebody with a recitation then we had somebody who sang a few [fʏː] songs to a guitar)
yod coalescence (0:07:47 during [ʤʊɚɹɪn] the war when I was a boy uh us used to have the Land Army
come on the farm doing various jobs, you know, teddy picking and all that and I used to have to take the
basket of tea up to them; 1:33:43 you used to salt your pork [sɒɫʧə pɔ˞ːk])
ELISION
prepositions
frequent of reduction (e.g. 0:02:20 well I used to deal with a lot of [ə] people uh down at Morwellham
and uh I think the first reaction you got from half of the holiday-makers soon as they heard you they’d go
round the back going, “ah uh eh uh oh” and you used to get these sort of [ə] comments; 0:07:34 we get
them on the council we we get them in every facet of [ə] life and they are trying to teach us the way to
speak but if you be Devon you still speak Devon; 0:08:57 you were being paid about four shillings a day
for working all day picking up a load of [ə] spuds; 0:14:08 now we call down here around the door the
‘jamb’ they call it the ‘durn’ uh I mean that’s just one end of [ə] Devon to the other so it it but within
within Dartmoor there’s many many different ones (in Dartmoor the ‘door jamb’ or ‘door arch’ is called
a ‘prentice’) that’s right well ‘prentice’ or ‘jamb’, yeah; 0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up
and helped father turn them out that was one of [ə] my job when I was a boy eight nine years old and
when they was brought home had to help pack them in the shed and (yes) put them in the fire and the put
the old trivet in the thing in the kettle (yeah) and put en over the peat fire and very often you had uh
smoky tea that uh it tasted of [ə] peat; 0:31:00 if you was out with the binder and you had a steep field
(yeah) you’d go up ‘leary’ (yeah) which meant they were empty you weren’t cutting of [ə] them (yeah,
exactly, no) and also when it come to dinner time you was feeling a bit ‘leary’ (leary) and it was time to
go in and have some dinner (dinner that’s right); 0:31:46 and one of [ə] the things with horses horses
knew what you were talking about if you said ‘come here’ or ‘go away’ they would know exactly what
they’d got to do; 0:41:16 and you’d be invited round for a cup of [ə] tea and that would be called a
‘frawsy’; 0:58:27 us used to take dinner um used to take bit of [ə] saffron cake and a teddy oggy; 1:22:25
another thing you don’t see them growing now is mangolds, do ye, (no) see used to grow hundreds of [ə]
mangolds, didn’t them?)
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with reduction (1:00:39 we had some corned beef and then for afters us had sweet biscuits with [wɪ]
some jam but us wasn’t so curious about what was in that there tin after that)
negation frequent secondary contraction (e.g. 0:09:25 they wouldn’t understand what we were saying (no) and
probably the Yorkshire accent we probably didn’t [dɪn] understand what they (that’s right) we had to
keep our ears open to understand what they were saying; 0:12:07 you see people go to Dartmoor and they
look at the gorse out in full flower and they say, “oh, isn’t that lovely?” [ɪn aʔ lʌvli] and I say, “what do
you mean that ‘furze’?” (yeah) and there’s also a a bird that lives on Dartmoor we call them the ‘furze-
hacker’ and if you if you talk to people that are bird-watchers they don’t know what you’re talking about;
0:13:52 but there are so many different things (yeah) I mean you’re talking to us now about about the
furze and that (yeah) it’s like I mean there’d be the ferns and the bracken well we call them ‘ferns’, isn’t
[ɪn] it? (that’s right, ‘ferns’); 0:32:17 I used to go out stone-walling with my father sometimes and uh
you’d be out there and uh he’d say, “I well just want a little uh stone just to a little trigger to put in
under” (yeah) and you’d give him a stone “no, that isn’t [ɪn] no good, boy, I only want a nabby-grabby”
(‘navvy-graffy’ that’s right, ‘navvy-graffy’); 0:45:50 so he gets up the road and before matey left the van
the van was just about covered but when they uncovered the van about three weeks later there wasn’t a
[wɒn̩ə] bit of meat left in hin; 0:59:21 down in the Cornish mine if a pasty if he fell out the bag on top of
the mine shaft and he didn’t break he wasn’t [wɒn] no if he broke he wasn’t [wɒn] no good; 1:11:32
they’d used to do the outside round, didn’t [dɪn] them, like that (yeah) fore the binder come in (yeah) then
the binder would come in and then you’d be you had your sheaves but the outside row uh round you’d
you’d cut by hand but uh and then tie and stack stack stook of sheaves; 1:22:25 another thing you don’t
see them growing now is mangolds, do ye, (no) see used to grow hundreds of mangolds, didn’t [dɪn]
them?; 1:36:11 early in the morning horses was all done up they was out cutting grass (yeah, that’s right)
you daren’t speak to your farmer he “hasn’t [ant] got time to talk to thee, boy, I got to get on”; 1:39:18 I
mean I can remember one old lady in Okehampton who died uh not so many years ago and her’d only
been her hadn’t been [am bɪn] Plymouth since the war)
simplification word final consonant cluster reduction (0:00:11 uh I’m a farmer I’m farming all my life and um lived at
Buckland-in-the-Moor and with my parents and when they’ve died I’ve taken over the farm and uh and I
expect [spɛk] that I shall b… stay there until I die; 0:09:25 they wouldn’t [wʏdn̟] understand what we
were saying (no) and probably the Yorkshire accent we probably didn’t [dɪn] understand what they
(that’s right) we had to keep our ears open to understand what they were saying; 0:12:07 you see people
go to Dartmoor and they look at the gorse out in full flower and they say, “oh, isn’t that lovely?” [ɪn aʔ
lʌvli] and I say, “what do you mean that ‘furze’?” (yeah) and there’s also a a bird that lives on Dartmoor
we call them the ‘furze-hacker’ and if you if you talk to people that are bird-watchers they don’t know
what you’re talking about; 0:13:21 and he said he said, “you want to [wɒnə] keep that, dad, ’cause they’ll
be worth some money later on and uh that is true but you a lot of it a lot of it is fading away because no
one doesn’t want it and no one doesn’t know anything about it; 0:13:52 but there are so many different
things (yeah) I mean you’re talking to us now about about the furze and that (yeah) it’s like I mean
there’d be the ferns and the bracken well we call them ‘ferns’, isn’t it? [ɪnɪt] (that’s right, ‘ferns’);
0:21:20 and after a few pints you wasn’t [wɒdn̩] worried what it sounded like anyway; 0:21:56 this is
what in in a sense pulled away a little bit of the kind of Devonshire dialect [dəɪəlɛk] away from some of
the younger ones because they were sitting with all these newcomers who come down and they’d got a
different lingo again; 0:29:43 and ‘how’s tricks’ was another thing they used to use and I I think all these,
yeah, and the these things stuck in your mind [mɔɪn]; 0:30:46 when they used to plough with the horses I
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think ‘way fore’ was to the left [lɛf] (yeah) and ‘back fore’ was to the right (yeah); 0:32:17 I used to go
out stone-walling with my father sometimes and uh you’d be out there and uh he’d say, “I well just want a
little uh stone just to a little trigger to put in under” (yeah) and you’d give him a stone “no, that isn’t no
good, boy, [ðad en noː gʏd bʌɪ] I only want a nabby-grabby” (‘navvy-graffy’ that’s right, ‘navvy-graffy’);
; 0:40:01 when my sister came home her had to take her clothes [klouz] off and her had to put a barras-
apron on; 0:45:36 but one of the funniest things the butcher van was in Okehampton village and he
decided he’d just got in the village and he decided he couldn’t [kʏdn]̩ deliver no more meat so matey tried
to get back up Yelverton, see; 0:45:50 so he gets up the road and before matey left the van the van was
just about covered but when they uncovered the van about three weeks later there wasn’t a [wɒn̩ə] bit of
meat left in hin; 0:48:58 uh but she was bad overnight and I rang the doctor as I said in the morning and
he couldn’t [kʏdn]̩ do nothing council said they couldn’t [kʏdnn]̩ do nothing; 0:59:09 I can see him now
fore he’d go to bed sometimes he’d sit down [sɪdəʏn] and he’d have a an apple pasty and he’d eat an
whole apple pasty fore he went to bed; 0:59:21 down in the Cornish mine if a pasty if he fell out the bag
on top of the mine shaft and he didn’t break he wasn’t [wɒn] no if he broke he wasn’t [wɒn] no good;
1:00:30 one day it happened the van didn’t [dɪdn̩] turn up; 1:02:34 when there was a baby born they used
to s… they used to say that that, “missus so-and-so her’ve had a baby her have had a child” [ʧɪəɫ] […]
(now it’s modern it’s a ‘sprog’ now but that used be a ‘child’ [ʧɪəɫ] then); 1:04:16 school inspector,
weren’t he, [wʌni̩ː] (yeah) he used to come and see the register and if you were, you know, if there were
several absent they’d want to [wɒnə] know why; 1:06:11 you should’ve been in school and you went [wɛn]
away and done something else from what you were supposed to’ve been doing; 1:11:32 they’d used to do
the outside round, didn’t them, [dɪnəm] like that (yeah) fore the binder come in (yeah) then the binder
would come in and then you’d be you had your sheaves but the outside row uh round you’d you’d cut by
hand but uh and then tie and stack stack stook of sheaves; 1:12:22 you’d twist it around the stick what
you had in your hand and you’d twist en around and make a sort of a bow and then you stick hin under
so’s he couldn’t flip back and that’s how it was done there weren’t [wʌn] no string in they days; 1:15:16
the farmers in those days if you was making hay this side the valley and the weather was bit catchy and
you could see somebody old Tommy Caw or somebody the other side the valley who was, you know,
struggling a bit and he he he’d (you’d go and help) you’d if you finished yours you wouldn’t [wʏdn̩] go
home everybody would turn to and go and help Tommy Caw but today everybody’s for theirsels really;
1:22:25 another thing you don’t see them growing now is mangolds, do ye, (no) see used to grow
hundreds of mangolds, didn’t them? [dɪnəm]; 1:22:39 this was uh on uh Radio Devon one day about
mangold ‘M’ ‘A’ ‘N’ ‘G’ ‘L’ ‘E’ but that wasn’t [wɒdn̩] the right way of spelling mangolds ‘M’ ‘A’ ‘N’
‘G’ ‘O’ ‘L’ ‘D’; 1:25:40 my wife was the captain of the ladies’ team and course when I went in her said it
wasn’t [wɒn] fair her said ’cause her said, “Cyril here’s ambidextrous he can he can bat whichever one”
course I made the highest score for the gents and us won the match; 1:23:00 during the war I registered
to join the army but I wasn’t [wɒn] allowed to because I was working on the farm; 1:23:18 and we kept
[kɛp] en going all during the war and I used to and then the uh agricultural party gived us a binder to go
around and cut the farmer’s corn all the way around; 1:27:00 if we said ‘coochy’ isn’t that [ɪnðat]
somebody that’s soft? (yeah) (yeah) (no, you mean ‘cushy’ more ‘cushy’, isn’t it? [ɪnɪt]); 1:29:40 I don’t
think the door ever hardly opened really ’cause you would you wouldn’t’ve [wʏdn̩ə] went [wɛn] in there;
1:28:58 that was the best room in the house the front room (yeah) (front room) and that was kept [kɛp] for
Sundays more or less (that’s right) and and the fire wasn’t [wɒn] light… lighted there unless it was
Sundays; 1:29:59 up to the time I le… we left Lake we didn’t [dɪdn̩] have any electric; 1:31:54 ’cause I
can remember doing homework from Grammar School sitting there and thinking to self, “Christ, bloody
lights going up and down” and in the end it was far better to light the old Aladdin [ði oʊ əladɪn] the old
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paraffin lamp; 1:39:18 I mean I can remember one old lady in Okehampton who died uh not so many
years ago and her’d only been her hadn’t been [am bɪn] Plymouth since the war)
word medial consonant cluster reduction (0:31:46 and one of the things with horses horses knew what
you were talking about if you said ‘come here’ or ‘go away’ they would know exactly [zakli] what they’d
got to do)
word initial syllable reduction (0:00:11 uh I’m a farmer I’m farming all my life and um lived at
Buckland-in-the-Moor and with my parents and when they’ve died I’ve taken over the farm and uh and I
expect [spɛk] that I shall b… stay there until I die; 0:29:24 one of the other phrases you always uh hear
people talking about is, “where be going?” (yeah) “what’s on today then?” [wɒts ɑn ɛɪ ðɛn] (that’s
right) yeah and, you know, all these things stick to ye; 0:30:20 because he used to say, “up the road here
about [bəʏt] two gun-shots go way fore and then about another two gun-shots and go back fore” and now
they all um, you know, they’m they’re completely and utterly lost and you’d have to stand then and do a
bit of a bit of bit of interpretation, like, you know; 0:31:46 and one of the things with horses horses knew
what you were talking about if you said ‘come here’ or ‘go away’ they would know exactly [zakli] what
they’d got to do; 1:03:29 we used to come home and if someone was expecting a baby and we’d make a
statement well we would have a clip beside [səɪd] the ear (yeah) so you you’d got to be a little bit careful;
1:06:21 Art that’s it and his boy lives up Princetown and he’s a electrician [lɛktɹɪʃən] (yes, that’s
Christopher) Christopher that’s right; 1:07:09 (what’s that called then ‘pumping the organ’ did you have
a ...?) well just pumping the organ uh you see the organs had no electric [lɛktɹɪk] at the church; 1:14:28
and father was in the war gone and there was just me and mother home, see, until we had evacuees
[vakjuiːz]; 1:22:25 another [nʌðɚ] thing you don’t see them growing now is mangolds, do ye, (no) see
used to grow hundreds of mangolds, didn’t them?; 1:29:59 up to the time I le... we left Lake we didn’t
have any electric [lɛktɹɪk])
syllable deletion (0:02:51 as I said North Devon is perhaps [pɹaps] one different one again and uh the
whole of Devon there are many many different accents; 21:31 a lot of people don’t realise but a lot of the
buildings were uh taken over by the military [mələtɹei]; 0:29:15 and if you know John Germon3 he’ll say,
“oh my beauty see ye directly” [siː iː ʤɹɛkli]; 1:16:53 (is is that Devon thing?) ‘catchy’ (yeah) I suppose
it is really [əɪ spoːz tɪz ɹɪəli]; 1:18:07 I can remember the first time I saw the aurora borealis (um I
remember seeing that) and that was a terrific [tɹɪfɪk] sight)
definite article reduction (0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and helped father turn them
out that was one of my job when I was a boy eight nine years old and when they was brought home I had
to help pack them in the shed and (yes) put them in the fire and the put the old [ðoːɫd] trivet in the thing
in the kettle (yeah) and put en over the peat fire and very often you had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted of
peat; 0:44:33 course there was nobody from Devon going to put in a reply but somebody up Kent and he
got the names of the people that was on the horse [ðɔ˞ːs] wrong)
frequent it reduction (e.g. 0:25:21 I got a friend Raymond who is quite broad Devon and he’ll say,
“Christ, that’s drixey”, you know, it is [tɪz] it is [tɪz] falling to pieces; 0:28:12 this was against my
sister’s grain about, “why should he be allowed out and I‘ve got to come home I don’t think it is fair,” [əɪ
doːnt θɪŋk tɪz fɛɚ] her used to say; 0:31:00 if you was out with the binder and you had a steep field
(yeah) you’d go up ‘leary’ (yeah) which meant they were empty you weren’t cutting of them (yeah,
exactly, no) and also when it come to dinner time you was feeling a bit ‘leary’ (leary) and it was [twəz]
time to go in and have some dinner (dinner that’s right); 0:37:29 you know, your pushy was used a lot
your pushbike was used a a lot I mean you’d go down or mother’d send you down to Horrabridge to get
some meat or summat and it was [twəz] all on your pushbike; 0:43:34 it’s like when I went to Buckland
how Widecombe was spelt was spelt spelt ‘W’ ‘I’ ‘double D’ ‘I’ ‘C’ ‘O’ ‘M’ ‘B’ ‘E’ I think that was right
but now it is [tɪz] ‘Widecombe’ (yeah) ‘W’ ‘I’ ‘D’ ‘E’ ‘C’ ‘O’ ‘M’ ‘B’ why?; 1:16:53 (is is that Devon
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thing?) ‘catchy’ (yeah) I suppose it is really [əɪ spoːz tɪz ɹɪəli]; 1:18:16 another thing that when it was
catchy weather uh, you know, you get uh sunshine and showers and then you get a nice bright uh period
and father used to say, “oh the sun’s come out, boy, that’ll soon quail it up” [ðaɫ sʏːŋ k̟wɛɪɫtʌp]; 1:28:58
that was the best room in the house the front room (yeah) (front room) and that was kept for Sundays
more or less (that’s right) and and the fire wasn’t light… lighted there unless it was [twəz] Sundays;
1:22:04 and then it would [twʏd] bide there for about oh a fortnight perhaps till it was [twəz] dry it all
depends how ripe it was [twəz] when you cut it; 1:27:37 (yeah, well ‘raining heavily’ we’d say we’d
‘lashing down’ it’s really, you know, well ‘lashing down’) (yeah, ‘heavy rain’) yeah, also, “it is lashing
down cats and dogs” [tɪz lɛɪʃɪn dəʏn kats ən dʌgz] (yeah, yeah); 1:29:00 and that was kept for Sundays
more or less (that’s right) and and the fire wasn’t light… lighted there unless it was [twəz] Sundays;
1:31:39 it was [twəz] all direct current then, mind, it was [twəz] not a alternating current; 1:31:54 ’cause
I can remember doing homework from Grammar School sitting there and thinking to self, “Christ, bloody
lights going up and down” and in the end it was [twəz] far better to light the old Aladdin the old paraffin
lamp)
J-deletion (0:12:31 we talk about tools you use on farms we talk about a ‘visgy’ (yeah) and they look at
ye [ðɛɪ lʏk ət iː] and say, (“what’s that?”) “oh, what’s a ‘visgy’ where did that come from?” and this is
this is what it’s all about we are proud of it we know what we’re talking about it’s a bit of bad luck that
they don’t (what is it?) (digger) (yes) (a digger) that’s right (also known as a ‘two-bill’) (yeah) that’s
right that’s right, you see, you got a ‘visgy’ and you got a ‘maddock’; 0:25:05 and you’re going along in
your car and you pass them in a narrow road and they look at ye a bit strange [ðɛɪ lʏk ət iː ə bɪt stɹeːnʒ]
these people and I say, “Christ, he’s staring like a bloody conger”; 0:29:15 and if you know John
Germon3 he’ll say, “oh my beauty see ye directly” [siː iː ʤɹɛkli]; 0:29:24 one of the other phrases you
always uh hear people talking about is, “where be going?” (yeah) “what’s on today then?” (that’s right)
yeah and, you know, all these things stick to ye [stɪk tu iː]; 0:55:13 so he said, “you’m all right you sound
Devonshire by what I know about ye” [jʏ səʏnd dɛbm̩ʃɚ bɪ wɑd əɪ noː əbəʏd iː]; 1:22:25 another thing
you don’t see them growing now is mangolds, do ye, [du iː] (no) see used to grow hundreds of mangolds,
didn’t them?)
L-deletion (0:47:23 all through that winter we only [oːni] lost one and it was there and that bullock died
near the cottage at Two Bridges; 1:29:29 and the ‘front room’ as you said Dave said you only [oːni] went
in there Sundays; 1:39:18 I mean I can remember one old lady in Okehampton who died uh not so many
years ago and her’d only [oːni] been her hadn’t been Plymouth since the war)
frequent TH-deletion (e.g. 0:07:34 we get them [əm] on the council we we get them [əm] in every facet of
life and they are trying to teach us the way to speak but if you be Devon you still speak Devon; 0:08:14
they all spoke completely different than us [kəmpliːtli dɪfɹənt ən ʌs] and I used to be fascinated to listen
to them [əm]; 0:12:07 you see people go to Dartmoor and they look at the gorse out in full flower and
they say, “oh, isn’t that lovely?” [ɪn aʔ lʌvli] and I say, “what do you mean that ‘furze’?” (yeah) and
there’s also a a bird that lives on Dartmoor we call them the ‘furze-hacker’ and if you if you talk to
people that are bird-watchers they don’t know what you’re talking about; 0:12:59 and when you look
around there’s all sorts of things [ɚːz ɔːɫ sɔ˞ːts ə θɪŋz] that we got in in farming; 0:13:07 I turned out a
shed the other day and my son was looking at it and he said, “look at all these old tools you got here,
dad” and he said, “there’s carpenting tools here [ɚːz kɑ˞ːpəntɪn tʏːɫz jɚː] old spokeshaves (that’s right)
and things for shaving wheel fellies” and all that sort of thing; 0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually
went up and helped father turn them [əm] out that was one of my job when I was a boy eight nine years
old and when they was brought home had to help pack them [əm] in the shed and (yes) put them [əm] in
the fire and the put the old trivet in the thing in the kettle (yeah) and put en over the peat fire and very
often you had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted of peat; 0:29:43 and ‘how’s tricks’ was another thing they
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used to use [ənʌðɚ θɪŋ ɛɪ jʏːstə jʏːz] and I I think all these, yeah, and the these things stuck in your mind;
0:37:20 I mean I meant to say you was leaving home here half past seven in the morning to get to school
and now look at them [əm] today I mean they don’t leave leave home till half past eight to get to school
for nine, do them? [əm] (no); 0:45:29 and and it was Saturday afternoon and the blizzard come in I can
remember I was out getting trying to get some logs and one thing and another [wɒn ʰɪŋ ən ənʌðɚ];
0:51:49 and I used to paunch my rabbits, clean them [əm] out and then uh put them [əm] on a stick over
my shoulder and off I would start to go home; 0:54:07 and he said, “I’ll start en up a minute” my dear
how however people lived in a tank like that [ləɪk at] I don’t know; 0:54:32 I was there [əɪ wəz ɚː]
ploughing a field right beside the camp and this here American bloke came in; 1:11:32 they’d used to do
the outside round, didn’t them, [əm] like that (yeah) fore the binder come in (yeah) then the binder would
come in and then you’d be you had your sheaves but the outside row uh round you’d you’d cut by hand
but uh and then tie and stack stack stook of sheaves; 1:22:25 another thing you don’t see them [əm]
growing now is mangolds, do ye, (no) see used to grow hundreds of mangolds, didn’t them? [əm]; 1:20:32
and he put all three of them [əm] together and he drilled a hole through the top of them [əm] and he put
this here great big metal crook through and twisted it; 1:39:12 you take old Billy Butler and then all them
who used to work on the farms and they never moved out of the village, did them? [əm])
V-deletion with have (1:06:11 you should’ve [ʃʏdə] been in school and you went away and done
something else from what you were supposed to’ve been doing [spoːst tʏə bɪn dʏːɪn]; 1:29:40 I don’t
think the door ever hardly opened really ’cause you would you wouldn’t’ve [wʏdn̩ə] went in there)
LIAISON
linking R (0:13:21 and he said he said, “you want to keep that, dad, ’cause they’ll be worth some money
later on” [leːdɚɹ ɒn] and uh that is true but you a lot of it a lot of it is fading away because no one
doesn’t want it and no one doesn’t know anything about it; 0:18:01 well well I think it’s just uh the area
you were in [wəɹ ɪn] and the people around and the, you see, you developed that in a community it’s uh
like a community accent uh village life; 0:26:52 um there was uh an old lady um had a farm near us [nɪɚɹ
ʌs] with uh two spinster daughters; 0:38:23 you know, if mother thought that we ought to have a, you
know, a new winter coat something like that as a child well very often it used to be done so that we would
wear it [wɛɚɹ ɪt] to harvest festival)
zero linking R (0:47:23 all through that winter we only lost one and it was there and [ðɛː ən] that bullock
died near the cottage at Two Bridges)
zero intrusive R (0:04:34 things’ve changed and that’s why I think we’ve lost the Devonshire dialect
because everybody now is being the children are all bussed to one area and [ɛːɹɪə ən] they’re all
speaking the same)
SUBSTITUTION
Z to D with negative (0:21:20 and after a few pints you wasn’t [wɒdn̩] worried what it sounded like
anyway; 1:22:39 this was uh on uh Radio Devon one day about mangold ‘M’ ‘A’ ‘N’ ‘G’ ‘L’ ‘E’ but that
wasn’t [wɒdn̩] the right way of spelling mangolds ‘M’ ‘A’ ‘N’ ‘G’ ‘O’ ‘L’ ‘D’)
metathesis (1:25:40 my wife was the captain of the ladies’ team and course when I went in her said it
wasn’t fair her said ’cause her said, “Cyril here’s ambidextrous [ambɪdɛstɹɪks] he can he can bat
whichever one” course I made the highest score for the gents and us won the match)
EPENTHESIS
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J-onglide (0:13:07 I turned out a shed the other day and my son was looking at it and he said, “look at all
these old tools you got here, dad” and he said, “there’s carpenting tools here [jɚː] old spokeshaves
(that’s right) and things for shaving wheel fellies” and all that sort of thing; 0:30:20 because he used to
say, “up the road here [jɚː] about two gun-shots go way fore and then about another two gun-shots and
go back fore” and now they all um, you know, they’m they’re completely and utterly lost and you’d have
to stand then and do a bit of a bit of bit of interpretation, like, you know; 0:37:20 I mean I meant to say
you was leaving home here [jɚː] half past seven in the morning to get to school and now look at them
today I mean they don’t leave leave home till half past eight to get to school for nine, do them? (no);
1:20:06 and he made these here [ðiːz jɚː] wooden triangles (oh yeah) to put up with three poles (I
remember, yeah, I remember))
W-onglide (0:38:54 Sunday mornings I used to have to walk Sampford Church for Sunday school Sunday
afternoons I’d be expected to walk Okehampton Church [woːkamtn̩ ʧɚːʧ] for Sunday school; 0:45:36 but
one of the funniest things the butcher van was in Okehampton [woːkamtən] village and he decided he’d
just got in the village and he decided he couldn’t deliver no more meat so matey tried to get back up
Yelverton, see)
+/- VOICE
frequent fricative voicing (e.g. 0:02:20 well I used to deal with a lot of people uh down at Morwellham
and uh I think [ðɪŋk] the first reaction you got from half of the holiday-makers soon as they heard you
they’d go round the back going, “ah uh eh uh oh” and you used to get these sort of comments; 08:35
there was also a thing that they formed [vɔ˞ːmd] in the war called the Devon and Emergency Land Army
if you can remember; 0:13:07 I turned out a shed the other day and me son was looking at it and he said,
“look at all these old tools you got here, dad” and he said, “there’s carpenting tools here old
spokeshaves (that’s right) and things for shaving wheel fellies” [vɛliːz] and all that sort of thing; 0:13:52
but there are so many different things (yeah) I mean you’re talking to us now about about the furze [vʌz]
and that (yeah) it’s like I mean there’d be the ferns and the bracken well we call them ‘ferns’, [vɪɚnz]
isn’t it? (that’s right, ‘ferns’ [vɪɚnz]); 0:29:50 down our way there was one that I can always remember
my wife’s uncle used to use farming-wise he never referred to ‘left’ or ‘right’ always ‘way fore’ [wɛɪvɚː]
or ‘back fore’; 0:30:20 because he used to say, [zɛɪ] “up the road here about two gun-shots go way fore
and then about another two gun-shots and go back fore” and now they all um, you know, they’m they’re
completely and utterly lost and you’d have to stand then and do a bit of a bit of bit of interpretation, like,
you know; 0:31:00 if you was out with the binder and you had a steep field [vɪəɫd] (yeah) you’d go up
‘leary’ (yeah) which meant they were empty you weren’t cutting of them (yeah, exactly, no) and also when
it come to dinner time you was feeling [viːlɪn] a bit ‘leary’ (leary) and it was time to go in and have some
dinner (dinner that’s right); 0:40:58 but he always kept his tea drinkers on in case he was out invited out
in the night when he went church again invited out to tea somewhere [zʌmwɚː]; 0:43:14 they go on
about, “I’m feeling fitty” [əɪm fiːlɪn vedi] and all this, don’t they?; 1:05:26 when you got home in the
night or when the inspector come and seen mother in the day uh you’d get a good hiding when you come
home her’d thrash [dɹɛɪʃ] your legs; 1:09:29 then there was somebody with a recitation [ɹɛzətɛɪʃən] then
we had somebody who sang a few songs to a guitar; 1:10:55 don’t see a paring hook well I got three
home I got three scythes [zɔɪðz] home (yeah) but I mean they never get used, do they?; 1:32:15 if you had
the wick too high it used to soot [zʏt] up the glass (that’s right, yeah))
WEAK-STRONG CONTRAST
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vowel reduction
weak definite article + vowel (1:23:00 during the war I registered to join the army [ðə ɑ˞ːmi] but I
wasn’t allowed to because I was working on the farm)
vowel strengthening
word final vowel strengthening (0:33:07 and father used to say, “take a maddock [madɪk] and don’t
forget to ram it in tight, boy, it ain’t no good if you don’t do that”; 1:11:49 in in the winter when us was
out hedging uh cut off a hazel hedge or or ash used to tie it up in faggots [fagɪts])
LEXICALLY SPECIFIC VARIATION
again(st) (0:02:51 as I said North Devon is perhaps one different one again [əgeːn] and uh the whole of
Devon there are many many different accents; 0:28:12 this was against [əgɛnst] my sister’s grain about
“why should he be allowed out and I‘ve got to come home I don’t think it is fair,” her used to say;
0:39:03 and then in the evening you’d get home and mother would say, “I think I’ll go evensong” and
then you’d start again Okehampton church again [əgeːn] and then they wonder why we don’t go church
today)
(be)cause (0:13:21 and he said he said, “you want to keep that, dad, ’cause [kʌz] they’ll be worth some
money later on” and uh that is true but you a lot of it a lot of it is fading away because [bɪkʌz] no one
doesn’t want it and no one doesn’t know anything about it; 0:36:14 if you go back go back in the fifties
how many households had cars we didn’t because [bɪkʌz] most of us had bone-shakers)
chimney (1:13:30 I remember when us lived down Lamerton when I was a boy down there in an old
farmhouse down Rattaford it was an open chimney [ʧɪmlei] and you used to have these great big logs in
there and you had uh what they used to call brandise uh hanged on these here chimney [ʧɪmlei] crooks
(yeah) (yeah) and all that sort of thing (yeah) and have the fire going underneath there)
Devon, seven (0:03:00 I think he uh brought up with a Devon [dɛbm̩] accent and living with my
grandparents and my father which they were true Devon [dɛbm̩] and uh I followed the accent; 0:07:34 we
get them on the council we we get them in every facet of life and they are trying to teach us the way to
speak but if you be Devon [dɛbm̩] you still speak Devon [dɛbm̩]; 0:37:20 I mean I meant to say you was
leaving home here half past seven [haːf paːs sɛbm̩] in the morning to get to school and now look at them
today I mean they don’t leave leave home till half past eight to get to school for nine, do them? (no);
1:12:36 well my grandfather would expect his boys to do seventy [sɛmti] bale seventy [sɛmti] bundles a
day)
Dittisham (1:31:04 Tommy Caw out Dittisham [dɪtsm̩] every Saturday after… every Saturday morning
used to come with two or three bags two-hundred weight bags of of oats or summat to crush and us used
to set the wheel going)
often (0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and helped father turn them out that was one of my
job when I was a boy eight nine years old and when they was brought home I had to help pack them in the
shed and (yes) put them in the fire and the put the old trivet in the thing in the kettle (yeah) and put en
over the peat fire and very often [ɑfən] you had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted of peat; 0:38:23 you know,
if mother thought that we ought to have a, you know, a new winter coat something like that as a child well
very often [ɑftən] it used to be done so that we would wear it to harvest festival)
Widecombe (0:43:34 it’s like when I went to Buckland how Widecombe [wɪdɪkʌm] was spelt was spelt
spelt ‘W’ ‘I’ ‘double D’ ‘I’ ‘C’ ‘O’ ‘M’ ‘B’ ‘E’ I think that was right but now it is ‘Widecombe’
[waɪdkəm] (yeah) ‘W’ ‘I’ ‘D’ ‘E’ ‘C’ ‘O’ ‘M’ ‘B’ why?; 0:44:22 on yesterday’s Daily Mirror7 was one of
they pieces on the inside wanted to know what uh Widecombe Fair [wɪdɪkʌm fɛɚ] was all about)
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GRAMMAR
DETERMINERS
definite article reduction (0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and helped father turn them
out that was one of my job when I was a boy eight nine years old and when they was brought home I had
to help pack them in the shed and (yes) put them in the fire and the put th’ old trivet in the thing in the
kettle (yeah) and put en over the peat fire and very often you had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted of peat;
0:44:33 course there was nobody from Devon gonna put in a reply but somebody up Kent and he got the
names of the people that was on th’ horse wrong)
zero definite article (0:48:58 uh but she was bad overnight and I rang the doctor as I said in the morning
and he couldn’t do nothing _ council said they couldn’t do nothing)
a for an (0:56:14 that one would go home ’cause I’d never have time to s… peel a orange banana I’d eat
but there used to be a pasty and a banana; 1:06:21 Art that’s it and his boy lives up Princetown and he’s
a electrician (yes, that’s Christopher) Christopher that’s right; 1:31:39 ’twas all direct current then,
mind, ’twas not a alternating current)
zero indefinite article (1:11:32 they’d used to do the outside round, didn’t them, like that (yeah) fore the
binder come in (yeah) then the binder would come in and then you’d be you had your sheaves but the
outside row uh round you’d you’d cut by hand but uh and then tie and stack stack _ stook of sheaves;
1:15:16 the farmers in those days if you was making hay this side the valley and the weather was _ bit
catchy and you could see somebody old Tommy Caw or somebody the other side the valley who was, you
know, struggling a bit and he he he’d (you’d go and help) you’d if you finished yours you wouldn’t go
home everybody would turn to and go and help Tommy Caw but today everybody’s for theirsels really)
demonstrative them (0:20:57 father and them went away in the war and mother was in charge)
demonstrative they (0:44:22 on yesterday’s Daily Mirror7 was one of they pieces on the inside wanted to
know what uh Widecombe Fair was all about; 0:57:15 but in the winter time she used to do sheep’s head
broth and all they sort of things; 1:12:22 you’d twist it around the stick what you had in your hand and
you’d twist en around and make a sort of a bow and then you stick hin under so’s he couldn’t flip back
and that’s how it was done there weren’t no string in they days)
frequent demonstrative + here~there (e.g. 0:37:53 there was britches and leggings for men and (that’s
right) and uh heavy shoes for girls there was none of this here kind of modern kind of high heels and
stiletto heels; 0:38:05 the girls had to be dressed up proper with none of this here going like they travel
around now because their they their they would took parent fathers and mothers would have took the law
into their own hands; 0:54:32 I was there ploughing a field right beside the camp and this here American
bloke came in; 1:00:11 us had these here two big pa… uh tins of biscuits, you know, like you buy now
(yeah) big tins of biscuits come and some tins of corned beef; 1:00:39 we had some corned beef and then
for afters us had sweet biscuits with some jam but us wasn’t so curious about what was in that there tin
after that; 1:13:30 I remember when us lived down Lamerton when I was a boy down there in an old
farmhouse down Rattaford it was an open chimlay and you used to have these great big logs in there and
you had uh what they used to call brandise uh hanged on these here chimlay crooks (yeah) (yeah) and all
that sort of thing (yeah) and have the fire going underneath there; 1:20:06 and he made these here
wooden triangles (oh yeah) to put up with three poles (I remember, yeah, I remember); 1:20:32 and he
put all three of them together and he drilled a hole through the top of them and he put this here great big
metal crook through and twisted it)
NOUNS
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zero plural (0:08:44 from about eleven year old I suppose you would be picked up of a Saturday morning
and taken maybe to well farms all over the area to pick up spuds; 0:23:29 and of course not only them you
had the the Yanks were living around for well what two year nearly; 0:27:46 my mother died when I was
about fourteen fifteen year old I didn’t have a mother after that; 0:39:23 and then when you got up there
mother would say after church if it was a nice evening us’d go for a walk round Gypsy’s Rock that would
add a couple of another couple of mile to it; 0:53:00 we used to have to be up at six o’clock in the
morning with about forty gallon of milk in churns; 1:08:36 we did a concert in Okehampton about four
year ago)
PRONOUNS
plural subject us (0:59:55 dinner was cooked down at Heathfield and sent up to North Bovey in big
insulated containers (that’s right) and us boys used to have to go down and carry it up)
2nd p thee, ye (0:03:33 so I went over and kind of tried to talk posh and he looked at me and he said,
“what part of Devon do thee come from then, boy?”; 0:12:31 we talk about tools you use on farms we talk
about a ‘visgy’ (yeah) and they look at ye and say, (“what’s that?”) “oh, what’s a ‘visgy’ where did that
come from?” and this is this is what it’s all about we are proud of it we know what we’re talking about
it’s a bit of bad luck that they don’t (what is it?) (digger) (yes) (a digger) that’s right (also known as a
‘two-bill’) (yeah) that’s right that’s right, you see, you got a ‘visgy’ and you got a ‘maddock’; 0:25:05
and you’re going along in your car and you pass them in a narrow road and they look at ye a bit strange
these people and I say, “Christ, he’s staring like a bloody conger”; 0:29:15 and if you know John
Germon3 he’ll say, “oh my beauty see ye directly”; 0:29:24 one of the other phrases you always uh hear
people talking about is, “where be going?” (yeah) “what’s on today then?” (that’s right) yeah and, you
know, all these things stick to ye; 0:55:13 so he said, “you’m all right you sound Devonshire by what I
know about ye”; 1:22:25 another thing you don’t see them growing now is mangolds, do ye, (no) see used
to grow hundreds of mangolds, didn’t them?; 1:36:11 early in the morning horses was all done up they
was out cutting grass (yeah, that’s right) you daren’t speak to your farmer he “hasn’t got time to talk to
thee, boy, I gotta get on”)
gendered pronoun (0:40:16 a barras-apron was something that was made out of kind of the stuff that
you made uh sacks out for corn and you put it over your neck with a piece of cord and you had to put him
[= ‘barras-apron’] on around the back and you tied it around in the front; 0:59:21 down in the Cornish
mine if a pasty if he [ = ‘pasty’] fell out the bag on top of the mine shaft and he [ = ‘pasty’] didn’t break
he [ = ‘pasty’] wasn’t no if he broke he [ = ‘pasty’] wasn’t no good; 1:12:22 you’d twist it around the
stick what you had in your hand and you’d twist en around and make a sort of a bow and then you stick
hin under so’s he [= ‘faggot’] couldn’t flip back and that’s how it was done there weren’t no string in
they days)
historic en*, hin (0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and helped father turn them out that
was one of my job when I was a boy eight nine years old and when they was brought home had to help
pack them in the shed and (yes) put them in the fire and the put the old trivet in the thing in the kettle
(yeah) and put en over the peat fire and very often you had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted of peat; 0:31:41
if you had to load up you had to put a front horse in (yes, that’s right) to help to pull en in; 0:50:59 if
anybody in the district lost all their chickens they’d soon be claiming anyhow I caught this ferret took en
home; 0:54:07 and he said, “I’ll start en up a minute” my dear how however people lived in a tank like
that I don’t know; 0:59:28 I know a chap who used to drive a steam-roller and he used to be able to put a
pasty and he’d bring a pasty if his wife made en would trig and hold a steam-roller; 1:12:22 you’d twist
it around the stick what you had in your hand and you’d twist en around and make a sort of a bow and
then you stick hin under so’s he couldn’t flip back and that’s how it was done there weren’t no string in
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they days; 1:23:18 and we kept en going all during the war and I used to and then the uh agricultural
party gived us a binder to go around and cut the farmer’s corn all the way around)
frequent pronoun exchange (e.g. 0:06:53 her said it’ve always stuck with our family ever since; 0:28:12
this was against my sister’s grain about “why should he be allowed out and I‘ve gotta come home I don’t
think ’tis fair,” her used to say; 0:33:34 my kids stared to learn to ride ponies, like, and that and us got an
old Dartmoor pony and her’s broken in ’cause they had ponies and and um stuck a maid on them one day
and uh course the pony started to buck and that and instead of sort of saying ‘grip tight’ he used to say,
“cream your knees, mate, cream your knees”, you know; 0:37:20 I mean I meant to say you was leaving
home here half past seven in the morning to get to school and now look at them today I mean they don’t
leave leave home till half past eight to get to school for nine, do them? (no); 0:39:23 and then when you
got up there mother would say after church if it was a nice evening us’d go for a walk round Gypsy’s
Rock that would add a couple of another couple of mile to it; 0:40:01 when my sister came home her had
to take her clothes off and her had to put a barras-apron on; 0:58:27 us used to take dinner um used to
take bit of saffron cake and a teddy oggy; 1:00:11 us had these here two big pa… uh tins of biscuits, you
know, like you buy now (yeah) big tins of biscuits come and some tins of corned beef; 1:00:39 we had
some corned beef and then for afters us had sweet biscuits with some jam but us wasn’t so curious about
what was in that there tin after that; 1:02:34 when there was a baby born they used to s… they used to say
that that, “missus so-and-so her’ve had a baby her have had a chield” […] (now it’s modern ’tis a
‘sprog’ now but that used be a ‘chield’ then); 1:05:26 when you got home in the night or when the
inspector come and seen mother in the day uh you’d get a good hiding when you come home her’d thrash
your legs; 1:11:32 they’d used to do the outside round, didn’t them, like that (yeah) fore the binder come
in (yeah) then the binder would come in and then you’d be you had your sheaves but the outside row uh
round you’d you’d cut by hand but uh and then tie and stack stack stook of sheaves; 1:11:49 in in the
winter when us was out hedging uh cut off a hazel hedge or or ash used to tie it up in faggots; 1:13:30 I
remember when us lived down Lamerton when I was a boy down there in an old farmhouse down
Rattaford it was an open chimlay and you used to have these great big logs in there and you had uh what
they used to call brandise uh hanged on these here chimlay crooks (yeah) (yeah) and all that sort of thing
(yeah) and have the fire going underneath there; 1:22:11 also another thing us used to grow but don’t
hear about it now us used to mix the wheat and the barley and the oats together you used to try and get
the same varieties and we’d dry it at the same time and us used to call it ‘dredge’ corn (that’s right, yeah
‘dredge’ corn never hear of it; 1:22:25 another thing you don’t see them growing now is mangolds, do ye,
(no) see used to grow hundreds of mangolds, didn’t them?; 1:25:40 me wife was the captain of the ladies’
team and course when I went in her said it wasn’t fair her said ’cause her said, “Cyril here’s
ambidextrous he can he can bat whichever one” course I made the highest score for the gents and us won
the match; 1:33:13 and also us used to have a safe what they call a safe (yeah) what they call a ‘safe’
(meat safe) meat safe; 1:31:04 Tommy Caw out Dittisham every Saturday after… every Saturday morning
used to come with two or three bags two-hundred weight bags of of oats or summat to crush and us used
to set the wheel going; 1:39:12 you take old Billy Butler and then all them who used to work on the farms
and they never moved out of the village, did them?; 1:39:18 I mean I can remember one old lady in
Okehampton who died uh not so many years ago and her’d only been her hadn’t been Plymouth since the
war)
frequent possessive me (e.g. 0:00:11 uh I’m a farmer I’m farming all me life and um lived at Buckland-
in-the-Moor and with my parents and when they’ve died I’ve taken over the farm and uh and I expect that
I shall b… stay there until I die; 0:03:00 I think he uh brought up with a Devon accent and living with me
grandparents and me father which they were true Devon and uh I followed the accent; 0:28:04 I could
bring me sister home ’cause dad said she’d got to be home by nine o’clock or you never know who’s
about; 0:29:50 down our way there was one that I can always remember me wife’s uncle used to use
farming-wise he never referred to ‘left’ or ‘right’ always ‘way fore’ or ‘back fore’; 0:51:06 and I used to
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go off Saturday mornings with I had me nets and I had a little terrier dog called Tiny real tiny terrier;
0:51:49 and I used to paunch me rabbits clean them out and then uh put them on a stick over me shoulder
and off I would start to go home; 1:25:40 me wife was the captain of the ladies’ team and course when I
went in her said it wasn’t fair her said ’cause her said, “Cyril here’s ambidextrous he can he can bat
whichever one” course I made the highest score for the gents and us won the match)
regularised reflexive (1:15:16 the farmers in those days if you was making hay this side the valley and
the weather was bit catchy and you could see somebody old Tommy Caw or somebody the other side the
valley who was, you know, struggling a bit and he he he’d (you’d go and help) you’d if you finished yours
you wouldn’t go home everybody would turn to and go and help Tommy Caw but today everybody’s for
theirsels really)
alternative reflexive with <-sel> (0:20:02 father lived at Yelverton mother lived at Meavy so he just said,
“oh you’re very you’re like mysel” he said, “I come from Maristow”; 1:15:16 the farmers in those days if
you was making hay this side the valley and the weather was bit catchy and you could see somebody old
Tommy Caw or somebody the other side the valley who was, you know, struggling a bit and he he he’d
(you’d go and help) you’d if you finished yours you wouldn’t go home everybody would turn to and go
and help Tommy Caw but today everybody’s for theirsels really)
unbound reflexive (0:20:02 father lived at Yelverton mother lived at Meavy so he just said, “oh you’re
very you’re like mysel” he said, “I come from Maristow”; 0:18:45 well in my village there’s only myself
and one other person who was there in nineteen-forty-six and most of the other people are newcomers)
relative what (1:12:22 you’d twist it around the stick what you had in your hand and you’d twist en
around and make a sort of a bow and then you stick hin under so’s he couldn’t flip back and that’s how it
was done there weren’t no string in they days)
zero relative (0:06:23 just after the war and people who came down the army were billeted the Forty-
Eighth Div was there and they also had evacuees _ came down on the train and they were put in various
homes and they they were came from London and quite a few came from the Birmingham area; 0:06:57
and I think one of the things _ happened with it when you found these teachers new teachers coming to
the school they tried to educate you and learn you what they used to say was the Queen’s English;
0:26:52 um there was uh an old lady um _ had a farm near us with uh two spinster daughters; 0:59:28 I
know a chap who used to drive a steam-roller and he used to be able to put a pasty and he’d bring a pasty
_ if his wife made en would trig and hold a steam-roller)
VERBS
present
be – am generalisation (0:27:19 another thing we used to say when to um children is uh, “where do you
think you’m going?” (yeah, “where be going?”); 0:30:20 because he used to say, “up the road here
about two gun-shots go way fore and then about another two gun-shots and go back fore” and now they
all um, you know, they’m they’re completely and utterly lost and you’d have to stand then and do a bit of
a bit of bit of interpretation, like, you know; 0:55:13 so he said, “you’m all right you sound Devonshire by
what I know about ye”)
be generalisation (0:07:34 we get them on the council we we get them in every facet of life and they are
trying to teach us the way to speak but if you be Devon you still speak Devon; 0:27:19 another thing we
used to say when to um children is uh, “where do you think you’m going?” (yeah, “where be going?”);
0:29:10 “how be, my beauty?” (“how be” and “beauty”, yeah) (yeah) that’s a that’s a (yeah) Devonshire
thing (yeah); 0:29:24 one of the other phrases you always uh hear people talking about is, “where be
going?” (yeah) “what’s on today then?” (that’s right) yeah and, you know, all these things stick to ye)
is generalisation (0:05:15 is it the latter ‘R’ (yes) that seems to’ve be rolled out more probably i… it’s I
d… I don’t it’s just that the l… the words is sort of rolled more)
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have – have generalisation (0:06:53 her said it’ve always stuck with our family ever since; 1:02:34 when
there was a baby born they used to s… they used to say that that, “missus so-and-so her’ve had a baby
her have had a chield” […] (now it’s modern ’tis a ‘sprog’ now but that used be a ‘chield’ then))
past
frequent zero past (e.g. 0:21:56 this is what in in a sense pulled away a little bit of the kind of
Devonshire dialect away from some of the younger ones because they were sitting with all these
newcomers who come down and they’d got a different lingo again; 0:31:00 if you was out with the binder
and you had a steep field (yeah) you’d go up ‘leary’ (yeah) which meant they were empty you weren’t
cutting of them (yeah, exactly, no) and also when it come to dinner time you was feeling a bit ‘leary’
(leary) and ’twas time to go in and have some dinner (dinner that’s right); 0:40:46 and he used to put his
best suit on in the morning and when he come home for dinner he used to put on a black apron; 0:45:29
and and it was Saturday afternoon and the blizzard come in I can remember I was out getting trying to
get some logs and one thing and another; 1:00:11 us had these here two big pa… uh tins of biscuits, you
know, like you buy now (yeah) big tins of biscuits come and some tins of corned beef; 1:05:26 when you
got home in the night or when the inspector come and seen mother in the day uh you’d get a good hiding
when you come home her’d thrash your legs; 1:11:32 they’d used to do the outside round, didn’t them,
like that (yeah) fore the binder come in (yeah) then the binder would come in and then you’d be you had
your sheaves but the outside row uh round you’d you’d cut by hand but uh and then tie and stack stack
stook of sheaves; 1:34:44 the law come in that you had to put the weight on and I’ve got the stamps home
now)
regularised past (0:55:00 people don’t realise, you know, what what you runned into during the war;
1:23:18 and we kept en going all during the war and I used to and then the uh agricultural party gived us
a binder to go around and cut the farmer’s corn all the way around; 1:28:58 that was the best room in the
house the front room (yeah) (front room) and that was kept for Sundays more or less (that’s right) and
and the fire wasn’t light… lighted there unless it was Sundays; 1:31:43 while the waterwheel was running
clean it was all right you’d have a fairly steady light but at times the bucket would’ve falled out the
waterwheel and then the light because the wheel was varying speed the bloody light would go up and
down up and down)
generalisation of simple past (0:38:05 the girls had to be dressed up proper with none of this here going
like they travel around now because their they their they would took parent fathers and mothers would
have took the law into their own hands; 1:29:40 I don’t think the door ever hardly opened really ’cause
you would you wouldn’t’ve went in there)
generalisation of past participle (1:05:26 when you got home in the night or when the inspector come
and seen mother in the day uh you’d get a good hiding when you come home her’d thrash your legs;
1:06:11 you should’ve been in school and you went away and done something else from what you were
supposed to’ve been doing)
be – frequent was generalisation (e.g. 0:04:08 and then I had to go to Ashburton School where there
was about three hundred children and that was quite a cultural shock for me and they was all talking in
different languages there was um children down there from London because it was just after the war;
0:15:25 uh when I was a boy I actually went up and helped father turn them out that was one of my job
when I was a boy eight nine years old and when they was brought home had to help pack them in the shed
and (yes) put them in the fire and the put the old trivet in the thing in the kettle (yeah) and put en over the
peat fire and very often you had uh smoky tea that uh it tasted of peat; 0:21:20 and after a few pints you
wadn worried what it sounded like anyway; 0:29:36 if you was going with a young lady you used to call
her ‘my lovely’; 0:31:00 if you was out with the binder and you had a steep field (yeah) you’d go up
‘leary’ (yeah) which meant they were empty you weren’t cutting of them (yeah, exactly, no) and also when
it come to dinner time you was feeling a bit ‘leary’ (leary) and ’twas time to go in and have some dinner
(dinner that’s right); 0:37:20 I mean I meant to say you was leaving home here half past seven in the
morning to get to school and now look at them today I mean they don’t leave leave home till half past
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eight to get to school for nine, do them? (no); 0:44:33 course there was nobody from Devon gonna put in
a reply but somebody up Kent and he got the names of the people that was on the horse wrong; 1:11:49 in
in the winter when us was out hedging uh cut off a hazel hedge or or ash used to tie it up in faggots;
1:13:56 if you was lucky if you went in some farmhouses they used to have beetles running around in front
of the fire (that’s right) or else you had crickets; 1:15:16 the farmers in those days if you was making hay
this side the valley and the weather was bit catchy and you could see somebody old Tommy Caw or
somebody the other side the valley who was, you know, struggling a bit and he he he’d (you’d go and
help) you’d if you finished yours you wouldn’t go home everybody would turn to and go and help Tommy
Caw but today everybody’s for theirsels really)
was-weren’t split (1:04:16 school inspector, weren’t he, (yeah) he used to come and see the register and
if you were, you know, if there were several absent they’d want to know why; 1:12:22 you’d twist it
around the stick what you had in your hand and you’d twist en around and make a sort of a bow and then
you stick hin under so’s he couldn’t flip back and that’s how it was done there weren’t no string in they
days)
compounds simple past with progressive meaning (0:30:05 and you’d be driving a tractor up the road and um he’d
be stood on the back, like you know, and perhaps a visitor would be coming along and they’d you’d pull
in for them and they’d say, “can you tell me the way to Tavistock?” like, see)
extended-now present (0:00:11 uh I’m a farmer I’m farming all my life and um lived at Buckland-in-the-
Moor and with my parents and when they’ve died I’ve taken over the farm and uh and I expect that I shall
b… stay there until I die)
double past with ought to, used to (1:11:32 they’d used to do the outside round, didn’t them, like that
(yeah) fore the binder come in (yeah) then the binder would come in and then you’d be you had your
sheaves but the outside row uh round you’d you’d cut by hand but uh and then tie and stack stack stook of
sheaves; 1:25:55 course I got in trouble when I went home, mind (yeah) ’cause I didn’t ought to have
been playing but that ’twas I they said ’twas favouritism)
frequent zero auxiliary have (e.g. 0:12:31 we talk about tools you use on farms we talk about a ‘visgy’
(yeah) and they look at ye and say, (“what’s that?”) “oh, what’s a ‘visgy’ where did that come from?”
and this is this is what it’s all about we are proud of it we know what we’re talking about it’s a bit of bad
luck that they don’t (what is it?) (digger) (yes) (a digger) that’s right (also known as a ‘two-bill’) (yeah)
that’s right that’s right, you see, you _ got a ‘visgy’ and you _ got a ‘maddock’; 0:12:59 and when you
look around there’s all sorts of things that we _ got in in farming; 0:13:07 I turned out a shed the other
day and me son was looking at it and he said, “look at all these old tools you _ got here, dad” and he
said, “there’s carpenting tools here old spokeshaves (that’s right) and things for shaving wheel fellies”
and all that sort of thing; 0:25:21 I _ got a friend Raymond who is quite broad Devon and he’ll say,
“Christ, that’s drixey”, you know, ’tis ’tis falling to pieces; 0:35:17 I mean I _ got grandkids six and five
and that; 0:41:38 it just shows a different side of the moor I would _ thought; 1:10:55 don’t see a paring
hook well I _ got three home I _ got three scythes home (yeah) but I mean they never get used, do they?;
1:26:31 and I _ got a son who funnily enough is only clicky with a knife and fork; 1:36:11 early in the
morning horses was all done up they was out cutting grass (yeah, that’s right) you daren’t speak to your
farmer he “hasn’t got time to talk to thee, boy, I _ gotta get on”)
invariant there is~was (0:04:08 and then I had to go to Ashburton School where there was about three
hundred children and that was quite a cultural shock for me and they was all talking in different
languages there was um children down there from London because it was just after the war; 0:12:59 and
when you look around there’s all sorts of things that we got in in farming; 0:14:08 now we call down here
around the door the ‘jamb’ they call it the ‘durn’ uh I mean that’s just one end of Devon to the other so it
it but within within Dartmoor there’s many many different ones (in Dartmoor the ‘door jamb’ or ‘door
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arch’ is called a ‘prentice’) that’s right well ‘prentice’ or ‘jamb’, yeah; 0:47:18 and there was more than
three hundred cows in that bunch at that time)
historic present (0:45:50 so he gets up the road and before matey left the van the van was just about
covered but when they uncovered the van about three weeks later there wasn’t a bit of meat left in hin;
0:50:49 I was coming home from school one night and uh summat rattling in the r... in the hedge so I
looks up and there’s this ferret and of course nobody would admit you’d lost a ferret)
historic perfect (0:00:11 uh I’m a farmer I’m farming all my life and um lived at Buckland-in-the-Moor
and with my parents and when they’ve died I’ve taken over the farm and uh and I expect that I shall b…
stay there until I die)
for to infinitive (1:17:12 my father’s brother lived the other side of a little stream and we used to share
two horses for to pull the grass machine)
bare infinitive (0:19:20 when girls started courting age they wouldn’t allow young men _ come in from
the next village out; 1:02:34 (when there was a baby born they used to s… they used to say that that,
“missus so-and-so her’ve had a baby her have had a chield” […]) now it’s modern ’tis a ‘sprog’ now but
that used _ be a ‘chield’ then; 1:37:36 oh I think mine is a proper Devonshire accent and I don’t think I’m
going _ change for anybody)
NEGATION
frequent multiple negation (e.g. 0:13:21 and he said he said, “you wanna keep that, dad, ’cause they’ll
be worth some money later on” and uh that is true but you a lot of it a lot of it is fading away because no
one doesn’t want it and no one doesn’t know anything about it; 0:13:38 it was a flea-catcher and nobody
didn’t know anything about that; 0:33:07 and father used to say, “take a maddock and don’t forget to ram
it in tight, boy, it ain’t no good if you don’t do that”; 0:45:36 but one of the funniest things the butcher
van was in Okehampton village and he decided he’d just got in the village and he decided he couldn’t
deliver no more meat so matey tried to get back up Yelverton, see; 0:48:58 uh but she was bad overnight
and I rang the doctor as I said in the morning and he couldn’t do nothing council said they couldn’t do
nothing; 0:53:57 he said, “it’s secret, mind, don’t say nothing”; 1:09:07 and we had no rehearsals no
nothing and I compèred; 0:59:21 down in the Cornish mine if a pasty if he fell out the bag on top of the
mine shaft and he didn’t break he wasn’t no if he broke he wasn’t no good; 1:12:22 you’d twist it around
the stick what you had in your hand and you’d twist en around and make a sort of a bow and then you
stick hin under so’s he couldn’t flip back and that’s how it was done there weren’t no string in they days)
alternative negator (0:21:20 and after a few pints you wadn* worried what it sounded like anyway;
1:22:39 this was uh on uh Radio Devon one day about mangold ‘M’ ‘A’ ‘N’ ‘G’ ‘L’ ‘E’ but that wadn* the
right way of spelling mangolds ‘M’ ‘A’ ‘N’ ‘G’ ‘O’ ‘L’ ‘D’)
alternative negator no (e.g. 1:21:04 I don’t know if it’s a Devon word or no)
ain’t for negative be (0:33:07 and father used to say, “take a maddock and don’t forget to ram it in tight,
boy, it ain’t no good if you don’t do that”)
PREPOSITIONS
deletion zero of (1:15:16 the farmers in those days if you was making hay this side _ the valley and the weather
was bit catchy and you could see somebody old Tommy Caw or somebody the other side _ the valley who
was, you know, struggling a bit and he he he’d (you’d go and help) you’d if you finished yours you
wouldn’t go home everybody would turn to and go and help Tommy Caw but today everybody’s for
theirsels really)
zero habitual to (0:38:54 Sunday mornings I used to have to walk _ Sampford Church for Sunday school,
Sunday afternoons I’d be expected to walk _ Okehampton Church for Sunday school; 0:39:03 and then in
the evening you’d get home and mother would say, “I think I’ll go_ evensong” and then you’d start again
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Okehampton church again and then they wonder why we don’t go _ church today; 0:40:58 but he always
kept his tea drinkers on in case he was out invited out in the night when he went _ church again invited
out to tea somewhere; 1:39:18 I mean I can remember one old lady in Okehampton who died uh not so
many years ago and her’d only been her hadn’t been _ Plymouth since the war)
preposition deletion – other (0:23:05 I mean I can remember one Saturday morning looking out _ the
bedroom window seeing what I’d never seen before black men; 0:44:33 course there was nobody from
Devon gonna put in a reply but somebody up _ Kent and he got the names of the people that was on th’
horse wrong; 0:59:21 down in the Cornish mine if a pasty if he fell out _ the bag on top of the mine shaft
and he didn’t break he wasn’t no if he broke he wasn’t no good; 1:06:21 Art that’s it and his boy lives up
_ Princetown and he’s a electrician (yes, that’s Christopher) Christopher that’s right; 1:10:55 don’t see a
paring hook well I got three _ home I got three scythes _ home (yeah) but I mean they never get used, do
they?; 1:13:30 I remember when us lived down _ Lamerton when I was a boy down there in an old
farmhouse down _ Rattaford it was an open chimlay and you used to have these great big logs in there
and you had uh what they used to call brandise uh hanged on these here chimlay crooks (yeah) (yeah)
and all that sort of thing (yeah) and have the fire going underneath there; 1:34:44 the law come in that
you had to put the weight on and I’ve got the stamps _ home now; 1:31:04 Tommy Caw out _ Dittisham
every Saturday after… every Saturday morning used to come with two or three bags two-hundred weight
bags of of oats or summat to crush and us used to set the wheel going)
insertion locative to (0:26:09 and mother used to refer to us if she was in the kitchen and on her own she would
look at me and say, “where’s the maidens to?” (yeah) now ‘maidens’ it’s not ‘maidens’ it was ‘maidens’)
otiose of (0:31:00 if you was out with the binder and you had a steep field (yeah) you’d go up ‘leary’
(yeah) which meant they were empty you weren’t cutting of them (yeah, exactly, no) and also when it
come to dinner time you was feeling a bit ‘leary’ (leary) and ’twas time to go in and have some dinner
(dinner that’s right))
substitution at + day of week (0:45: 20 we had uh snow at Boxing Day then it eased off)
of + time phrase (0:08:44 from about eleven year old I suppose you would be picked up of a Saturday
morning and taken maybe to well farms all over the area to pick up spuds; 0:20:48 you never had to go
very far of a Saturday night for a dance, did ye?)
ADVERBS
adverb of degree [...] as (0:02:20 well I used to deal with a lot of people uh down at Morwellham and uh
I think the first reaction you got from half of the holiday-makers _ soon as they heard you they’d go round
the back going, “ah uh eh uh oh” and you used to get these sort of comments; 1:30:47 _ far as I know,
boy, they went on their own)
unmarked manner adverb (0:38:05 the girls had to be dressed up proper with none of this here going
like they travel around now because their they their they would took parent fathers and mothers would
have took the law into their own hands)
unmarked degree modifier adverb (0:51:06 and I used to go off Saturday mornings with I had my nets
and I had a little terrier dog called Tiny real tiny terrier)
DISCOURSE
utterance final and that (0:33:34 my kids stared to learn to ride ponies, like, and that and us got an old
Dartmoor pony and her’s broken in ’cause they had ponies and and um stuck a maid on them one day
and uh course the pony started to buck and that and instead of sort of saying ‘grip tight’ he used to say,
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“cream your knees, mate, cream your knees”, you know; 0:35:17 I mean I got grandkids six and five and
that)
utterance final like (0:30:05 and you’d be driving a tractor up the road and um he’d be stood on the
back, like you know, and perhaps a visitor would be coming along and they’d you’d pull in for them and
they’d say, “can you tell me the way to Tavistock?” like, see; 0:30:20 because he used to say, “up the
road here about two gun-shots go way fore and then about another two gun-shots and go back fore” and
now they all um, you know, they’m they’re completely and utterly lost and you’d have to stand then and
do a bit of a bit of bit of interpretation, like, you know; 0:33:34 my kids stared to learn to ride ponies, like,
and that and us got an old Dartmoor pony and her’s broken in ’cause they had ponies and and um stuck a
maid on them one day and uh course the pony started to buck and that and instead of sort of saying ‘grip
tight’ he used to say, “cream your knees, mate, cream your knees”, you know; 1:09:52 I did the
compèring but I would tell one of my grandfather’s old tales, like, you know)
utterance final mind (0:51:23 and it was winter time, mind, ’cause that was the best time for rabbits
don’t forget; 0:53:57 he said, “it’s secret, mind, don’t say nothing”; 1:25:55 course I got in trouble when
I went home, mind (yeah) ’cause I didn’t ought to have been playing but that ’twas I they said ’twas
favouritism; 1:31:39 ’twas all direct current then, mind, ’twas not a alternating current)
utterance final see (0:30:05 and you’d be driving a tractor up the road and um he’d be stood on the
back, like you know, and perhaps a visitor would be coming along and they’d you’d pull in for them and
they’d say, “can you tell me the way to Tavistock?” like, see; 0:45:36 but one of the funniest things the
butcher van was in Okehampton village and he decided he’d just got in the village and he decided he
couldn’t deliver no more meat so matey tried to get back up Yelverton, see; 1:14:28 and father was in the
war gone and there was just me and mother home, see, until we had evacuees)
invariant tag (0:13:52 but there are so many different things (yeah) I mean you’re talking to us now
about about the furze and that (yeah) it’s like I mean there’d be the ferns and the bracken well we call
them ‘ferns’, isn’t it? (that’s right, ‘ferns’))
form of address, boy (0:33:07 and father used to say, “take a maddock and don’t forget to ram it in tight,
boy, it ain’t no good if you don’t do that”; 1:36:11 early in the morning horses was all done up they was
out cutting grass (yeah, that’s right) you daren’t speak to your farmer he “hasn’t got time to talk to thee,
boy, I gotta get on”; 1:30:47 far as I know, boy, they went on their own)
otiose what (0:17:12 Dave here has a certainly different accent than what I’ve got I mean to me I speak
reasonably clear but he Dave is a real Dartmoor accent (yeah, he’s middle of Dartmoor))
© Robinson, Herring, Gilbert
Voices of the UK, 2009-2012
A British Library project funded by The Leverhulme Trust