Yorkshire slang

[TheEarl]

Following the discussion of rhyming slang, thought I'd share this article from today's Telegraph with you.

Guide helps GPs treat a noggling in the lugoil

Seven Austrian family doctors who came to England to help overcome a shortage of GPs are being issued with a pocket guide to South Yorkshire dialect to help them in their new jobs.

The four men and three women are fluent in English, but have been bewildered by some of the language used by their new patients in the Doncaster and Barnsley areas.

Expressions such as "manky" for an illness or infection or the anatomical expressions "lugoil" for an ear and "fissog" for the face are unlikely to have been encountered in Viennese society or surgeries.

...

Dr Lis Rodgers, a GP from Barnburgh, near Doncaster, said "They told me that they needed more lessons in English as they couldn't understand what th patients were saying.

"They didn't understand that 'boobs' meant breasts and 'gone off their legs' was an expression for somebody not feeling well. As for 'mardy,' meaning a whinger, they hadn't a clue."

...

"When patients start talking about their 'privates,' the doctors think they mean their houses, because the Austrians have learned literal English."

Among the expressions translated are 'popped his clogs' for a death, 'jiggered' for exhausted, and 'champion' for feeling good. The greeting of 'Ay up' for hello is also explained.

A host of anatomical terms are set out for a person's 'bits', including 'doofer,' 'sparrow,' 'widgy,' and 'Uncle Sam' for penis and 'floo' and 'tuppence' for vagina.

'Noggling' is defined as an indescribable chronic pain, and 'boggles' is a nasal discharge.




Gauche: Please tell me you've never referred to your "widgy."

The Earl

 

[Guest]

Gauche: Please tell me you've never referred to your "widgy."

Eyup! I want an answer to that.

Perdita

 

[Guest]

Is that like the kiddie version of a widget?

 

[Guest]

Is that like the kiddie version of a widget?

LMAO. Awk, now he'll never answer the question.

Mrs. Batty

 

[oggbashan]

Didn't see this thread, so started another one.

It is a slightly different version of the report.

Og

 

[gauchecritic]

No The, it's a parent to kids euphamism and my parents used widgy.

A common admonition to young daughters bound for a night on the town is: Keep your hand on your tuppence. (two pence)

A yorkshire joke.

There's this bloke fishing off 'coast of Brid and he sees another bloke in a boat close on, splashing and reaching in 'sea, skriking and barfing about his mate.

So this bloke shouts over and asks "What's up?" and 'other bloke shouts "Me mate. Me mate's fell in 'watter"

So this bloke dives straight in and swims as far down as he can but can't see ote. He comes up next to 'other bloke and says "I can see your mate anyweer. Wor he big or little or wot?"

So this bloke, holding his thumb and finger inches apart says: "It were about this big and fell out of me sandwich."





Skriking = shouting or crying out
Barfing = crying
Watter = water
Mate = meat


EL should get that one first reading.

Gauche

 

[English Lady]

I got that one Gauche...startled my husband by giggling out loud at it.


I tried to read it to'im but I didn't get the accent quite right. *L*

 

[human_male]

I was born in Sheffield but I'd be just as lost since we left when I was ten. Although I remember fondly "byyyyyyy-eck!"

What I'd like to know is what the smeg is a levie? There's a line in an Iron Maiden song "when I was a lad I used to be able to pick up five levies on the end of a shovel." or shuval

 

[human_male]

Oh and "nowt" ie nothing. Or "owt" ie anything.

 

[OhMissScarlett]

I was born in Sheffield but I'd be just as lost since we left when I was ten. Although I remember fondly "byyyyyyy-eck!"

What I'd like to know is what the smeg is a levie? There's a line in an Iron Maiden song "when I was a lad I used to be able to pick up five levies on the end of a shovel." or shuval

Since it's Iron Maiden, there's no telling. Maybe he's singing about groupies. Though he'd have to have an awfully big "shuval" to hold five people.

 

[human_male]

Since it's Iron Maiden, there's no telling. Maybe he's singing about groupies. Though he'd have to have an awfully big "shuval" to hold five people.

I should have said that the song (The Sheriff of Huddersfield) is all about being a Yorkshire man.

"I'm a Yorkshire man, I can take it. I used to be able to pick up five levies on the end of a shoval."

 

[OhMissScarlett]

Oh, well that changes everything. I would know the song, but I was too busy back then listening to The Smiths and wearing black.

 

[human_male]

Since it's Iron Maiden, there's no telling. Maybe he's singing about groupies. Though he'd have to have an awfully big "shuval" to hold five people.

This is getting the ole imagination fired up

 

[patrick1]

Hello from Yorkshire too (no I don't usually own up to this).

This is five 'navvies' on the end of a shovel, meaning five strong building workers probably from Ireland, their name deriving I believe from the fact that Irish immigrants (like my own great-great grandfather) came from Ireland to work on the 'navigations' or canals of northern and midlands England.

The song is about the band's co-manager Rod Smallwood. I knew Rod at university. He was straightforward, unaffected, had terrible personal hygiene, was bafflingly successful with women despite treating them terribly (or that's how I remember it) and obviously wasn't going to get anywhere in life. Naturally, he's now a millionaire living in LA, or was at the last count.

patrick

 

[human_male]

Hello from Yorkshire too (no I don't usually own up to this).

This is five 'navvies' on the end of a shovel, meaning five strong building workers probably from Ireland, their name deriving I believe from the fact that Irish immigrants (like my own great-great grandfather) came from Ireland to work on the 'navigations' or canals of northern and midlands England.

The song is about the band's co-manager Rod Smallwood. I knew Rod at university. He was straightforward, unaffected, had terrible personal hygiene, was bafflingly successful with women despite treating them terribly (or that's how I remember it) and obviously wasn't going to get anywhere in life. Naturally, he's now a millionaire living in LA, or was at the last count.

patrick

Thanks, that's interesting. I always wondered about it.