The project was led by an Austrian academic with a genuine interest in the subject, and a sound recordist who had the aspiration of creating a museum of sound. The state funded the project, and whilst it wasn't explicitly stated, I assume it meant the army. I know from other programmes and reading that the Germans were meticulous, and very clever in the way they interrogated prisoners, over a long period, and mined the resulting records for all manner of useful intelligence. I couldn't help thinking of the two Vulgarian spies in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang trying to mimic Britisher eccents*.
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| This introduced me to the very methodical and intelligent way British troops were interrogated. WWI is not one of my periods but when Dr Duffy covers something, I just have to read it. |
There's also a lot about how accents and dialects have changed (and stayed the same in some cases), and there's a clip where members one close modern family in the Macclesfield*** area have three different ways of saying 'here'.
Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b007gltc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ywg03b574oQ&feature=youtu.be
* I also cannot help thinking that the reason the upper class (and royal) Briton used pronounce short As as Es, was because so many of them had German families. Oddly the programme also showed how in some parts of the south, rural folk pronounced 'S' as a Zed (not just in 'Zomerset') and F as V ('I'm a varmer'). Pretty German no?
** 'down dock' seemed more usual than 'on the docks' if I remember correctly.
*** In Cheshire, but only 15 miles to the south of Manchester.
Very interesting.
ReplyDeleteIt’s well worth watching Jonathan. It’d be interesting to see whether you have difficulty understanding the various British accents on the programme. Historical and current. And indeed whether any of the older or more rural accents strike a chord from an American point of view.
Delete"Down the docks" was the term used in the East End of London as well, often as the source of items being offered for sale informally and at a remarkably low price.
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DeleteWe used to benefit from regular gifts of fish from my old man’s firm. Legitimate, not hooky stuff. For years after he retired and even after he died, the gaffer used to visit and drop stuff off at the house. Excellent quality stuff. As a result I am still hyper-critical of haddock which never seems to match the quality standard of those times.
Regarding the term for the location, there was no definite article, and no plural for some reason. A dialectical difference, or just laziness on our part?
Very interesting, where I am now in Hertford the older (50+) original inhabitants have a defined regional accent everyone else are speaking estuary English, which I have no problem with but it just shows how fast an accent can entirely change.
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Based on nothing more than my impression, it seems for the under 30s, Estuary English is being replaced by that adaptation from Jamaican patois amongst young people. A toned down ‘Road Man’ accent. Anyone know what I mean? And is there a name for it?
DeleteI watched the programme on Youtube - fascinating - thanks for this. I am a bit perplexed - when the expert went to Cricklade, I thought she actually played the recording of the man from Macclesfield (unless the Germans had them all reading the same texts) - if I'm right, it's hardly surprising they didn't recognise his voice!
ReplyDeleteThere was mention of the contributors sounding frightened - without in any way wishing to diminish what was done, they were at the very least going to sound stilted - same as they would have been if required to read something out at Sunday school, or any other formal situation. I guess the presence of armed enemy soldiers might have contributed to this, but the recorded samples were bound to sound a bit forced. Anyone reciting a local classic folk-poem would also have learned it with the regional distortions, too. In the local folk club here in Haddington, Scotland, members will occasionally read traditional poems and monologues, and they are expected to use an appropriate accent, which they would not use normally.
This is very interesting stuff - thanks for the link. I thought the presenter did well (for the most part) to avoid coming across as patronising.
There used to be a saying that if you got three agricultural workers - one each from Yorkshire, Aberdeenshire and Friesland, and gave them a few beers, within an hour or so they would understand each other perfectly - there are some dialects which are older and more widespread than the "official" languages which replaced them!
You’re probably right Tony. There’s going to be an element of performance about it and even in ‘standard’ English traditional folk songs often have archaic phraseology. I figured that the nerves of the Tommies was down to what they thought their mates would do to them for collaborating with the dastardly Hun, but maybe it was worth it for some decent grub.
DeleteThe beer drinking farm workers idea sounds like a hypothesis that needs to be tested.
Thanks for this, very interesting indeed! Quite a few of the recordings are now available on-line to listen to, at the British Library Sound Archive website. Just been listening to an Essex man who's father was from Suffolk, and might have sounded a bit like my grandfather!
ReplyDeleteALSO your comments about the docks are interesting, as my partner is related to Oscar Cleve, who had a firm on Grimsby fish docks, I believe - does that name ring a bell?
I didn’t know that about the sound recordings. I’ll have to look it up. Thanks for the heads up David.
DeleteI don’t know of Oscar Cleve, but then I wasn’t very well informed. Looking at the map it’s in the next street over from the firm where my dad worked in King Edward St. They had one of the few remaining proper smoking chimneys. KES is now home to the rather splendid Docks Beers brewery and tap room located in an old chapel.
Thanks, yes I see them on Google maps. It's a small world.
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