Sheffield dialect/accent

[rubydazzler]

To me, "clarty" describes foodstuffs that plaster themselves to the inside of your mouth, like caramel.

I agree with that ... and soggy bread and cakes.

 

Mud can be clarty as well, when your boots get all clarted up with it. Same thing really ...

[Impecunious]

I agree with that ... and soggy bread and cakes.

 

Mud can be clarty as well, when your boots get all clarted up with it. Same thing really ...

 

I agree with the mud bit but not sure I'd call soggy breadcakes clarty!!!

[rubydazzler]

I agree with the mud bit but not sure I'd call soggy breadcakes clarty!!!

Don't look at me gone out! Bread, scones, cakes, when they're all chewy and soggy and stick to the roof of your mouth, they're clarty, deffo!

 

Woserface, the tv cook, Delia Thingy, she says 'claggy' same difference

[Cool_Jerk]

in the interviews I listened to I don't hear the 't' - except maybe a silent one like a glottal stop or a small gulp. But transcribed it comes out as 'On right' and 'On left', for me.

 

Exactly, it's just a glottal stop. As when a Cockney pronounces 'Bottle' without voicing the 'tt'.

 

Or when kids all over the country (inspired, no doubt, by Eastenders) pronounce 'Party' without voicing the 't'.

[HarmOKnee]

Exactly, it's just a glottal stop. As when a Cockney pronounces 'Bottle' without voicing the 'tt'.

 

Or when kids all over the country (inspired, no doubt, by Eastenders) pronounce 'Party' without voicing the 't'.

 

Yep that's right!

 

How would the OP write a glottal stop?

[HarmOKnee]

That probably reight lad! I think it's died out a bit nowadays. I remember a kid I went to schol with in the 70s used to call News at Ten "Nyoize at 10"

 

oh I never went to school, i went to skosh:hihi:

 

i'm not a lad btw

[catabolickid]

Yep that's right!

 

How would the OP write a glottal stop?

 

 

Now I sort of feel like I'm getting somewhere, even though in a way I've come full-circle.

 

When I started writing and transcribing from interviews I didn't know what to put between 'on' and 'right' in 'on right' - so I put:

 

on '- right

 

And I did have a character from London who actually said 'Let's have a bottle', which by the same rule became:

 

let's have a bo'-le

 

This got really messy as you can imagine and I took them all out... Perhaps I should've left them in. Or perhaps there's a better way of representing a glottal stop (using a standard character; so not the standard IPA symbol for it)...

 

ctk

[rubydazzler]

Isn't it more like ... "ont right" The 't' is added to the end of the previous word? "'Ee went out tut pub". "Our kid stuck 'is 'ead threwt railings" Still not sure how you'd indicate it for people who have no idea of how Sheffeldish sounds though

 

btw, did you listen to the link I found? What did you think?

[cdtiman]

oh I never went to school, i went to skosh:hihi:

 

i'm not a lad btw

 

otha shure it wernt a skoil

[chillicat]

Exactly, it's just a glottal stop. As when a Cockney pronounces 'Bottle' without voicing the 'tt'.

 

Or when kids all over the country (inspired, no doubt, by Eastenders) pronounce 'Party' without voicing the 't'.

 

I think this is the key here. In Sheffield, "the" is abbreviated to a glottal stop, unlike in Lancashire where it's abbreviated to a t sound. However, "to" is abbreviated to t in Sheffield. So in "I'm going t' pub" the t' is an abbreviation of "to" and the word "the" is shortened to a glottal stop before the word "pub".

 

Also, the Sheffield accent tends to minimise stops and position vowels centrally in the mouth. That's why you get wou'n't for "wouldn't", strange diphthongs (combinations of vowel sounds) - like in skoyle (school) and doo-er (door). It also accounts for my absolute favourite: the way that the -y sound at the end of some words gets flattened to -eh. At my son's school assembly, the ritual response to the Headteacher's greeting is "Good morning Ms So-and-So, good morning ev'reh-bodeh" :-)

 

I guess the dilemma for the OP is an authentic rendering of the accent in the text versus readability. Emily Bronte and Irvine Walsh are both writers who have tried to be authentic in their portrayal of Yorkshire and Edinburgh accents respectively. I really enjoy reading these, but I know it puts some people off.

 

I grew up in Chapeltown, which sits on the borders of Sheffield, Barnsley and Rotherham, and I think that Chapeltown has a distinctly recognisable accent because of this. I agree with a previous comment that Barnsley is "broader" than Sheffield, but it would be interesting to define it further.

 

Great topic!