Surrey dialect

Surrey
Native to England
Region Surrey
Language codes
ISO 639-3
Glottolog None
Surrey shown within England

The Surrey dialect is a dialect of the English language that was once widely spoken by those living in the historic county of Surrey in southern England. The distinctive vocabulary of the Surrey dialect has now almost entirely died out and only few individuals still speak with a local Surrey accent.

The Surrey dialect is a subset of the Southern English dialect group. It was recorded by Granville Leveson Gower (1838–1895) during the 1870s and first published by him in A Glossary of Surrey Words in 1893. The dialect has been described as being spoken beyond the bounds of the traditional borders of Surrey in western Kent and parts of northern Sussex.[1]

Gower was first made aware of the dialect after reading a letter in a local newspaper. Following that, and after his own enquiries, he expressed a fear that improved transport and the spread of education would cause such local dialects to disappear and be forgotten despite the fact that, in his words, "Old customs, old beliefs, old prejudices die hard in the soil of England".[2]

Proverbs

The county was noted for its many agricultural proverbs. Some of the distinctive Surrey proverbs collected by Gower include:

A backward spring is thought to indicate a fruitful season ; the common people have this proverb : —

The prejudice against a new moon on a Saturday found expression in the following doggrel: —

Dialect syntax

Dialect words

"Certain words are invariably mispronounced. It may be well to give a list of some of them : — Acrost for across; agoo for ago; batcheldor for bachelor; brownchitis (or sometime brown titus) for bronchitis; chimley or chimbley for chimney; crowner for coroner; crowner's quest for coroner's inquest; curosity and curous for curiosity and curious ; death for deaf; disgest for digest, and indisgestion for indigestion; gownd for gown; scholard for scholar; nevvy for nephew; non-plush'd for non-plussed; refuge for refuse; quid for cud, " chewing the quid; "sarment for sermon; varmint for vermin; sloop for slope; spartacles for spectacles; spavin for spasms. I knew an old woman who was constantly suffering from "the windy spavin;" taters for potatoes; wunstfor once; wuts for oats, etc., etc."[3]

References

  1. Davis, Graeme, Dictionary of Surrey English (2007), p.30
  2. Gower, Granville, A Glossery of Surrey Words, (1893), Oxford University Press
  3. Gower, Granville, A Glossery of Surrey Words, (1893), Oxford University Press
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