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Local & Dialect Words

rynner2

rynner2

Gone But Not Forgotten
(ACCOUNT RETIRED)
Joined
Aug 7, 2001
Messages
54,636
I have lived in the westcountry (on and off) since the 60's, but I have never heard this term before:
Brigade warns over swaling season
Devon's fire service is reminding people to be aware the swaling season has started in parts of the county.
The controlled burning of the moor is a traditional land management technique which is used to control overgrowth on parts of Dartmoor.

Swaling is a particularly common sight in March but stops at the end of the month, when the nesting season starts.

Farmers are also being warned to make sure they are aware of the rules of burning vegetation.

The emergency service says all of the rules and regulations on burning can be found on its website.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/devon/6459791.stm
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Hmmmmm...

'Swale' as a verb doesn't appear among the definitions given on a quick Web search:

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/swale

... which only turns up 'swale' as a noun denoting:

1. a low place in a tract of land, usually moister and often having ranker vegetation than the adjacent higher land.

2. a valleylike intersection of two slopes in a piece of land.

... which in turn makes me wonder if this could be the basis for older folks in my home area (southern Appalachians) referring to such a low area or sub-valley-sized depression as a 'sway' ...
 
But I do find an online entry for the (IMHO) probably-related 'swealing' ...

Swealing

Sweal \Sweal\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Swealed; p. pr. & vb. n. Swealing.] [OE. swelen to burn, AS. swelan; akin to G. schwelen to burn slowly, schw["u]l sultry, Icel. sv[ae]la a thick smoke.] To melt and run down, as the tallow of a candle; to waste away without feeding the flame. (Written also swale.) --Sir W. Scott.
 
Being Dorset born and Dorset bred, (strong in arm and thick in 'ed). I can say that I think I have heard that term before. I certainly recognised it. I thought that stubble burning was illegal now though.

I can't read,
and I can't write,
but that don't really matter,
I do come from Dorset,
and I can drive a tractor.

The BBC were doing a thing where they were logging all the dialect words as now a lot of them are dying off. I never say 'where's it to' now.

Where be thik ther black bird to?
I be a'ter 'ee
He be up yon............
.........................

*wanders of over the fields with a piece of corn sticking out of her mouth and a smock on*
 
liveinabin1 said:
Being Dorset born and Dorset bred, (strong in arm and thick in 'ed). I can say that I think I have heard that term before. I certainly recognised it.
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Yeah, I've heard it in Somerset, too, though it sounds more like "swelling" there.
liveinabin1 said:
... I never say 'where's it to' now.
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That turn of phrase is still alive and well in Bristol. The accent is softening though, and the dialect is slowly receding. The Vicky Pollards of this world are a dying breed.

Discuss if this is a good thing or not.
 
I'm from Somerset, and I still say 'where's it to?' - or put 'to' at the end of questions, on occasion. Another word used in the area where I grew up (but AFAIK isn't used all that much) is 'hapse'. This is dialect verb meaning 'to close a door, especially one that's ajar'. AFAIK it's derived from 'haepse', an OE word for a door latch.
 
I've lived in Berkshire for most of my life, but my mum's from Nottingham, so we have some odd dialect words from there. The trouble is, often we don't realise they're peculiar dialect words, and assume that everyone knows what they mean. A fine example is pobbies. In our family, it has come to mean breakfast cereal (I think it was originally a word for bits of bread in milk or something). We only discovered that most people have no idea what it means when my sister went off to uni in Exeter, and told her housemates she needed pobbies when they were out shopping, and just got a blank look from them all.

Much of the Berkshire dialect, and accent, has died off now, as the entire county is becoming almost a suburb of London. I've got a couple of books from the 1890s that give some examples of the proper Berkshire tongue, but I think there are now very few people who'd have the faintest idea what they meant. Probably one of the best known Berkshire dialect words is cheeselog, which is a lovely word for a woodlouse (something my mum calls a piggy beetle).
 
Calling a woodlouse a 'cheeselog' is a term used by my family too. IIRC, in some parts of the US they're called 'sowbugs', which is similar to 'piggy beetle'.
 
stuneville said:
liveinabin1 said:
Being Dorset born and Dorset bred, (strong in arm and thick in 'ed). I can say that I think I have heard that term before. I certainly recognised it.
Click to expand...
Yeah, I've heard it in Somerset, too, though it sounds more like "swelling" there.
liveinabin1 said:
... I never say 'where's it to' now.
Click to expand...
That turn of phrase is still alive and well in Bristol. The accent is softening though, and the dialect is slowly receding. The Vicky Pollards of this world are a dying breed.

Discuss if this is a good thing or not.
Click to expand...

I live in East Anglia now and am married to a man from the Midlands, so my accent and dialect have nearly disappeared. On the phone to my Dad the other day I could hardly understand him! He uses old dialect words like narn for zero or none and arn for one. As in 'I ain't got narn o' them'.
 
my grandmother who'd lived in whitby all her life used to say 'etty'... but i'm b*ggered if i can remember the usage/context, it's just a funny dialect word i remember...
 
I remember when I first moved to Manchester I got very confused when buying sandwiches. Rolls come in three sizes; barms, viennas and oven bottoms.
 
American dialects get all mixed up, because we're so mobile and have so many factors smoothing out differences. I have this weird Iowa/West Texas/South Texas accent that makes me sound alien where ever I go.

The sowbug is also called the pillbug or the roly-poly. I have never, ever heard it called a wood louse!
 
a pill bug is a different thing, they look the same but a woodlouse doesn't roll up. Woodlice also tend to be a little bigger.
 
I grew up in the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, where hooded sweatshirts were commonly known as bunnyhugs. As far as I know, it's the only place in the world where they're called that. Anyone else ever encounter that name for them before?
 
liveinabin1 said:
a pill bug is a different thing, they look the same but a woodlouse doesn't roll up. Woodlice also tend to be a little bigger.
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Here in the SE we call the things that roll up woodlice.
 
Sorry my error and bad explanation. Pill bugs are a type of woodlouse. Not all woodlice can roll up.
 
Hear all, see all, say nowt, tak' all, keep all, gie nowt, and if tha ever does owt for nowt, allass do it for thysen. :)
 
'ows fettlin' shoe?

It's reet cowed ewtside. Geet lobbie 'ash on.

EDIT - can I just say that I'm really posh and I don't talk like what I've just written.
 
aar thers nowt sae queer as fowk.
It is reet cowd aartside. mi tows a frozzan. :)
 
E? Ya reckin' me sweed, lar!

*flip*

Divven't know yoos from oop norf, like? Way eye!

(I'm confusing myself now)
 
Frobush said:
E? Ya reckin' me sweed, lar!

*flip*

Divven't know yoos from oop norf, like? Way eye!

(I'm confusing myself now)
Click to expand...

aar i am that. wonder how many people have read that and dont understand a bleedin' word! haha. :lol:

Thats last bits too far north for me though. Im not quite that high up.

Well aarm reet nesh. Im jiggered an all so a might just goo an a misen a kip. :snore:
 
I'm not that far north either - mid-way between Liverpool and Manchester.

Sleep tight!
 
ta very muchly.

Ill be on here a bit longer before I sleep anyway. Just winding down.
 
Hehehe. I recognise some of those Nottingham phrases, although I didn't think they were spelt like that. My grandma used to say "Ay-up midduk", and I do say "Tarrah". And people round here do get confused when I say "Intitt", as the south seems to have been invaded by people who insist on saying "innit" (for those who need a translation into more normal language, they are both versions of "isn't it").
 
cost kick a bo' agen' a wo' an' yed it till ye bost it?

ahm geen up town o' bonk nar, sithee later duck
 
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