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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


BBC Voices Recordings

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



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).



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).



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.



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)



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



beef; 1:00:39 we had some corned beef and then for afters us had sweet biscuits [bɪskəts] with


<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



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



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)



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]



(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



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)



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



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)



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.



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



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


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



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



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?)



with reduction (1:00:39 we had some corned beef and then for afters us had sweet biscuits with [wɪ]


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



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



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



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



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



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



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)



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



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



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



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


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)



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



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



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



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,



“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

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