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When I was a lad in the 1960s we used to have an annual visit from a group of aunts from the Mid-Notts and Derbyshire border area, places like Kirkby, Selston and Underwood. Their accents always fascinated me, especially (if my memory isn't playing tricks) the use of two syllables where I would use one. So, for example, they would rhyme "here" and "there" when they spoke as hee-yer and thee-yer and "book" would not just be boook but boo-uk. "No" could often be no-wer. Does anyone else remember this and is it still used in broad accents in the area?

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I remember words being spoken like that,still do from some of the older folk, not so much out here but certainly around North Notts, Worksop,Kirkby, Retford and such,

Oh welcome to the site Charlbury, lets hear more of your stories

 

Rog

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  • 2 weeks later...

I love accents . Even in nearby villages it can change. Here theres a variety of dialects some I understand and some I get the gist but others forget it. The dialects here are also written dialects not just written how you think it should be written. We live in Piemonte and I have problems understanding some who speak at an incredible speed. Sicilian I have no problems .

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The true locals here speak Occitan which I'm completely unable to get my head (or tongue) round. Fortunately, they also speak French. There are also subdialects of Occitan - Maritime, Niçard, Monegasque and more.

 

I've learned only recently that Occitan is quite similar to the language of Northern Italy so, nonna and I may be struggling with similar accents!

 

Going back to my roots, my native language is Hucknall and when I lived there it was easy to distinguish the language of the different areas of the town. When I moved to Nottingham proper, my fine tuning of localities diminished but I was still able to separate Hucknall from Bulwell, Basford. Mansfield and so on. My skill of south of the Trent wasn't so discriminating but I could easily separate Bread and lard island (W Bridgford: all fur and no knickers from others).

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Jonab if the dialect is similar to Piemontese I'm not surprised you can't get your head round it.  Wonder what part of N Italy.? Our next doors neighbour was True piemontese and she would always speak to me in her dialect. I continued to tell her I didnt understand but it made no difference. I have a few phrases that I understand but for the life of me I can't say them.

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My goodness Jonab no wonder you can't understand it. Listening carefully it sounds like a mix of languages ...I'll have to listen to it again.  :Shock:

Yes the tendency is a bit Piemontese and theres Italian words that are very clearly recognisable. I don't speak French but understand a little ( BIL lives in Grenoble so do hear it spoken frequently) but if I listen to it carefully maybe I would be able to understand. The subtitles wouldn't help me.

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I've got carried away trying to locate the area where Occitan is spoken and quite surprisingly its spoken very near to us and as far afield as Calabria in the south of Italy. Its also spoken in Monaco and Liguria. Theres a video of a town called Guardia in Calabria that have had an Occitan week with all the national costumes etc . Very intersting. It is a mix of spanish, french piemontese and if I remember well Rumanian.

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