Sheffield dialect/accent

[RIZRAT]

"Shut thi gob" "Reyt" "tharavvinalaff" :hihi:

[davyjones]

ha ha it doesent translate to paper well does it

what people also need to remember is the differance between north and south sheffield, because us northeners arnt dee dars

iv got to admit i love our accent it really gets alot of good coments when i travel to other countries iv taught countless SE Asians some of our used words, iv also been told by many english speaking people that i sound as though im speaking a differant language:)

[willybite]

Hello everyone,

 

I know there are a couple of threads on Sheffield accent/dialect but this is a little different as I have some specific questions... Some of them may seem a bit naive so set me straight as you can:

 

• Do locals still use 'tha' or 'thou' or 'thee' instead of 'you'? Which would you say was more accurate for Sheffield?
  
• Is the word 'the' missed out all the time or just sometimes? In some threads on this post I've seen it written t' - which is more accurate for the Sheffield accent? To miss it out completely or to use the t'?
  
• I'm struggling with contractions - things like wasn't, didn't, wouldn't? How would you attempt to spell these to approximate a Sheffield accent?
  
• Finally, is it 'jinnel', 'jennel' or 'gennel' for a passageway between houses?!?
  

 

Just so you all know: I'm new to this forum - it's probably obvious that I'm not from Sheffield though I've visited a few times. A while ago for some reason, I decided to write a story set in Sheffield. This turned out to be more ambitious than I realised as I tried to write it all from the point of view of a local... I'm worried that the voice telling the story won't be convincing enough.

 

I've avoided spelling general words differently to the conventional English spelling because I want the story to be quite easy to read. But answers to the questions above might allow me to suggest a flavour of the accent...

 

Any help much appreciated :-)

ctk

 

hiya i can maybe help you. wasn't= warn't.didn't = dint.wouldn't = wunt,will not = wain't. turned out= terndaart .should not = shunt ,cannot =carnt, thee and thou , no say dee and daar eg daar nows nowt dee. tek dee ook darnt rooerd make of it what you want= sithy meck it aart thesen.

on another thread i said would true sheffielders be said to be bi - lingual.

Edited November 7, 2009 by willybite

[Cat86]

ha ha it doesent translate to paper well does it

what people also need to remember is the differance between north and south sheffield, because us northeners arnt dee dars

 

No it doesnt look great on paper. Just reading some of the posts on here made me smile especially the one about closing door..

I'd say it that way

 

Full Monty on channel 4 now.. Attempting Sheffield Accents

[cd1965]

I can speak the "proper" Sheffield..and can read it fairly well..but it IS difficult to read for an outsider....Have you read Fred Pass' books...Weerz me dad? and Weerz me mam? They are excellent and all done in Sheffield Speak. Maybe if you read them you will get a really good idea about what the people of Sheffield would like to read.

 

If your book (or article) is meant for a wider audience maybe you should rethink about the way its wrote. I also feel that the example you posted is a mixture of Sheffield and English i.e. you are not consistent in the use of Sheffield Speak.....either choose one or the other!

 

And yeah I think all us true Sheffielders ARE bi-lingual

[Steve70]

hiya i can maybe help you. wasn't= warn't.didn't = dint.wouldn't = wunt,will not = wain't. turned out= terndaart .should not = shunt ,cannot =carnt, thee and thou , no say dee and daar eg daar nows nowt dee. tek dee ook darnt rooerd make of it what you want= sithy meck it aart thesen.

on another thread i said would true sheffielders be said to be bi - lingual.

 

I think that the above is ok except for could not, i would be more inclined to say for example instead of ' you carn't do that' = 'tha cun't do that' but it can sound a little rude.

 

There is an old joke don't know if any one knows it but it goes like this;

 

Two gentlemen on a train travelling from London to some where up north, the train stops in Sheffield so one of the gents gets off to buy some sweets, when he gets back on the train his mate asks 'where are we' the gent replies 'I think were in China' ' What makes you think that' asks his mate, to which the gent answers 'because i have just over heard two women talking and one said to the other - whu wo shi wiy wo shi wi er sen..

 

( who was she with, was she by her self)

[maggyirene]

hiii the thing is it does sound funny from different parts of yorkshire .... but id say putwoodinoil for shut the door .or shuttdooa. i used to get told off for speaking slang when i was younger.lol but i still do it now if i feel that way out ....

[deedar]

Yes an example would be, tha not gooin up theer ar tha? Or tha not 'avin that.

 

Tha'd av to be at least 36 inches 'igh t' gu on this ride.

I'd say that as "Thy ass ter be at least 36" 'igh ter goo on this ride" but I'm old school Baby.

[catabolickid]

Thanks to everyone who responded to this thread. It was closed by the moderators who thought my question answered - however they kindly re-opened it when I asked so I could thank and respond to some of you individually. And, besides, I have some further questions :-)

 

Digsy and Omar Khatib kindly re-transcribed the transcript of part of an interview I posted. Hope it didn't take too long. It's useful to see a more phonetic version of the excerpt. Only toploader is right - I did want to avoid spelling words differently...

 

It's interesting that people from the North generally spell in this way when they want to capture the accent. People in the South never spell the word "grass" as "graahhss" even though that'd be a more accurate way of portraying the accent - the implication is that Southerners are the only people who know how to talk "properly", which just isn't true. That's why I wanted to avoid variant spellings. I didn't want to portray Sheffielders as not being able to speak properly, especially as I'm not from Sheffield!

 

To take an example from Omar Khatib's transcript: I think there are multiple ways of saying the word "post". Sheffielders might well say something like "poo-erst" but the natives of Surrey say something like "pohst" phoenetically - both pronunciations look different to the spelling, but normally we wouldn't bother varying the spelling for the person who lives in South.

 

I'd be interested to hear if you have any thoughts on this. Are Sheffielders proud of variant spellings perhaps? Should a story told by someone in the Sheffield accent/dialect be written in this way? Perhaps this is all political correctness on my part gone too far!

 

ctk

[Impecunious]

Nobody in the history of Sheffield, has ever said "thou"......ever.

 

hehehehe!!!! I'm just trying to image some broad yorkshire bloke saying thou!! I think I would pay good money to see that!