Kentish dialect
Encyclopedia
The Kentish dialect
combines many features of other speech patterns, particularly those of East Anglia
, The Southern Counties and London
. Although there are audio
examples available on the British Library
website and BBC
sources, its most distinctive features are in the lexicon rather than in pronunciation. As Estuary English
is considered to be spreading in the area since at least 1984, some debate has emerged as to whether it is replacing local dialects in Kent
, Essex
and Sussex
.
books pertain to Kentish Dialect, as the author who lived at Higham
familiar with the mudflats near to Rochester, and created a comic character Sam Weller who spoke the local accent, principally Kentish with strong London influences. The character name of "Miss Havisham" sounds like the small town on the Rochester/Canterbury road, Faversham
.
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
combines many features of other speech patterns, particularly those of East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, The Southern Counties and London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Although there are audio
Sound
Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations.-Propagation of...
examples available on the British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
website and BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
sources, its most distinctive features are in the lexicon rather than in pronunciation. As Estuary English
Estuary English
Estuary English is a dialect of English widely spoken in South East England, especially along the River Thames and its estuary. Phonetician John C. Wells defines Estuary English as "Standard English spoken with the accent of the southeast of England"...
is considered to be spreading in the area since at least 1984, some debate has emerged as to whether it is replacing local dialects in Kent
Kent
Kent is a county in southeast England, and is one of the home counties. It borders East Sussex, Surrey and Greater London and has a defined boundary with Essex in the middle of the Thames Estuary. The ceremonial county boundaries of Kent include the shire county of Kent and the unitary borough of...
, Essex
Essex dialect
The Essex dialect is rapidly disappearing variation of East Anglian English and is now mainly confined to the middle, north and the east of Essex. It shares vast similarities with both Suffolk and Norfolk dialects, with its own peculiarities...
and Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
.
Pronunciation
- Yod-coalescence, i.e., the use of the affricates similar to /dʒ/ and /tʃ/ instead of the clusters /dj/ and /tj/ in words like dune and tune. This is a common feature of Estuarine English speech patterns.
- DiphthongDiphthongA diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel...
shifts, e.g., the diphthong in words like I becomes [ɑɪ] or [ɒɪ]. A good example would be the word take. - A lengthened [æ]. This appears often before voiced consonants such as in ladder.
- Loss of dental fricatives in many words. In this dialect father is pronounced with a /d/.
- H-dropping, i.e., Dropping [h] in stressed words (e.g. [æʔ] for hat). This is thought to have first started amongst Londoners some 300–400 years ago.
- The sound (iː) replaced by (I), for instance the word "seen" pronounced as "sin."
Examples of the Kentish Dialect
The pattern of speech in some of DickensCharles Dickens
Charles John Huffam Dickens was an English novelist, generally considered the greatest of the Victorian period. Dickens enjoyed a wider popularity and fame than had any previous author during his lifetime, and he remains popular, having been responsible for some of English literature's most iconic...
books pertain to Kentish Dialect, as the author who lived at Higham
Higham, Kent
Higham is a small village bordering the Hoo Peninsula, in Kent, between Gravesend and Rochester. The civil parish of Higham is in Gravesham district and as at the 2001 UK Census, had a population of 3,938.-History:...
familiar with the mudflats near to Rochester, and created a comic character Sam Weller who spoke the local accent, principally Kentish with strong London influences. The character name of "Miss Havisham" sounds like the small town on the Rochester/Canterbury road, Faversham
Faversham
Faversham is a market town and civil parish in the Swale borough of Kent, England. The parish of Faversham grew up around an ancient sea port on Faversham Creek and was the birthplace of the explosives industry in England.-History:...
.
Dialect words and phrases
The Kentish dialect appears to have been very colourful in the past, with many interesting agricultural words appearing. Many of these seem to have disappeared in the modern age:- Alleycumfee - a non-existent place.
- Better-most - the best, something superior
- Dabster, a dab hand - somebody very skilled at something
- Fanteeg - to be flustered
- Ha'ant - "Haven't." For example, "Ha'ant yew sin 'im yet?"
- Jawsy - a chatterbox
- March-men - people from the borders of two counties
- 'Od Rabbit It! - a blasphemous utterance
- Ringle - to put a ring in a pig's nose
- Scithers - scissors (clippers may have been "clithers.")
- Twinge - an earwig
- Wrongtake - to misunderstand
- Yarping - to complain, applied to children
External links
Links to Charles Dickens and Kent:- http://www.information-britain.co.uk/culturedetail.php?id=26
- http://lang.nagoya-u.ac.jp/~matsuoka/CD-Kent.html