Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
What’s the meaning of this?
How well do you know your Kentish words? Are ‘DFLS’ (down from London) to blame for the loss of the Kentish accent? Is a woodlouse a ‘cheesebug’ or a ‘monkey pea’? Find out more about our unique dialect and then take our quiz to find out how well you know
There is no such thing as a Kent dialect or accent,” socio-linguist Dr David Hornsby boldly claims. Over time the Estuary English accent has swept across the county and the view is we don’t speak too differently to Londoners or people from Essex. People might be quick to blame ‘DFLS’ for infiltrating the Garden but if you go out to the villages, of England - but the senior you are likely to hear Kentish lecturer of traits. “There is English language QUESTION 1 not much grammatical and linguistics at difference, the University of whether you’re Kent rebuffs these from Kent, Essex claims. or even Northamptonshire,” “If you’re in a he says. city it is bound to “But you do get happen and people were complaining different words and you can about this 100 years get disagreements about vocabulary.” ago,” he says. “London is QUESTION 2 He explains how changing and give he does an experiment it another 40 years with his and we will pick up students from the what it is doing. county where he “You walk asks them how around places like they say “woodlouse”. Canterbury and Herne Bay, you There are a range of will hear a lot of things that used answers, including cheesebugs, to be London - like monkey peas ‘H’ dropping and QUESTION 3 and peabugs - and it ‘L’ vocalisation.” does cause quite the In fact, there are debate. still some examples On the north Kent of different coast, a crab is a dialects in Kent ponger, pung or a and the diversity punger - but in Folkestone is greater than it is called you might think. a heaver.
Dr Hornsby admits the county In Thanet, the word for an ant is absorbing cockney features - is pismire. In Aylesham, they say “jitty” for an alleyway. But that form has died out But Dr Hornsby is more interested and people will now say bo-v-er in pronunciation under the influence features in Kent and QUESTION 4 of London. how mining communities in the county have Also, the letter held on to Kentish “v” would traits. be replaced He explains how with a “w” such Aylesham’s history as as wery a mining village meant those in instead of very. pits across the whole country “What interests me is not the were encouraged to Kent dialect, move to east Kent to QUESTION 5 rather the diversity work in the 1920s and in Kent,” Dr 30s. Hornsby adds. People in the village “You can pick use a short “a”. up a number of For example, the features in settled way they say “grass” and eastern rhymes with “mass” rather than Kent which are different to “glass”. In other places in Kent the rest of the county - but not the long “a” is common. everybody will QUESTION 6 have them. But what about the “The more west of the county? isolated you There are one or two are, the more traditional features likely you are which have died out to keep traditional since the 1970s. features In the Weald, or even invent “weather”, “bother” and
“rather” would be “wea-d-er”,
“bo-d-er” and “ra-d-er”. new ones.”