BBC VOICES RECORDINGS
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Title:
Cowley, Oxfordshire
Shelfmark:
C1190/27/02
Recording date:
08.03.2005
Speakers:
Reid, Pamela, b. 1954 Jamaica; female; care worker (father b. Jamaica, carpenter; mother b. Jamaica, care
worker)
Smith, Gary, b. 1966 Cowley; male; chef/DJ (father b. Jamaica, carpenter; mother b. Jamaica, care
worker)
Smith, Icolyn, b. 1905 Jamaica; female (father b. Jamaica, farmer; mother b. Jamaica, housewife)
Two generations of an Oxford family with roots in Jamaica.
PLEASE NOTE: this recording is still awaiting full linguistic description (i.e.
phonological, grammatical and spontaneous lexical items).
A summary of the specific lexis elicited by the interviewer is given below.
ELICITED LEXIS
x
see Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (2009)
see Dictionary of the Scots Language (online edition)
●
see Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage (1996)
∆
see New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006)
«
see Roger’s Profanisaurus: The Magna Farta (2007)
◊
see Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010)
♦
see Urban Dictionary (online)
⌂
no previous source (with this sense) identified
†
pleased
tired
unwell
hot
cold
happy; chuffed (suggested by interviewer)
shattered (suggested by interviewer); whacked (suggested by interviewer, used); mashed◊
(Jamaican); tired
poorly (suggested by interviewer); not feeling so good; mash up●, mashed up● (Jamaican);
not feeling very well
very warm; boiling; roasting hot; hot
chilly; freezing (of extreme cold)
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BBC Voices Recordings
annoyed
vexed (used within family); puffed up●1; upset; vex (used in Jamaica)
throw
fling (“fling me the ball” used in Jamaica); throw; chuck (suggested by interviewer, used of
gentle throw); sling (suggested by interviewer)
play truant mitch (suggested by interviewer as used in Ireland); skive; swerve∆2 (“Merv/Merv the
swerve”3 heard used in prison of someone avoiding work); they’ve taken the day off;
hiding⌂ (“hiding from school” used in Jamaica)
sleep
nap (suggested by interviewer, used); get some zeds∆; going to bed; sleep
play a game play a game
hit hard
whack, thump (suggested by interviewer); hit hard; give it a slap; give it a whack (heard
used by others); hit (“hit it hard”)
clothes
trousers
child’s shoe
garms∆ (heard used); clothes; gear (suggested by interviewer, not used); clothes
(“remember to put my jazzy top in” of e.g. packing for trip)
pants (suggested by interviewer); kegs« (heard used); trousers; breeks (heard used by
Scottish speakers)
plimsolls; pumps (“go and get your pumps on” used by wife from Birmingham); trainers;
crepe soles● (used as child in Jamaica); gutties† (suggested by interviewer as used in
Ireland, not known)
mother
Miss Brown (i.e. maiden name used by own children/grandchildren of self in preference to
“mum”, thought to be common convention in Jamaica); mum (of own mother to others);
mummy (used when very young); mother (of someone else’s mother)
gmother
grandmother; granny (suggested by interviewer, not used)
m partner
hubby (suggested by interviewer); “him over there” (suggested jokingly as used by wife of
self); Gaz (i.e. by name used by wife); husband; boyfriend; my man (“he’s my man”)
friend
friends (of close friend); colleagues (of work colleague); mates (of acquaintance); buddy
(“that’s my buddy” used in Jamaica)
gfather
grandfather (also of great-grandfather); budu⌂ (used of/to own grandfather)
forgot name thingy; Mister So-and-So (“you know that man”); my man deh4 (“you know who I’m talking
about my man my man deh”); what’s-his-name; thingummyjig∆, oojah-ma-flip∆ (suggested
by interviewer)
kit of tools tool-kit; tool-box
trendy
chav (“you’re just a chav” used negatively of “wannabe … trying to look the part but you
can’t afford it”); ghetto fabulous∆, blinging (“that guy’s blinging over there” used
positively of someone “looking the part”); he/she look sharp (used in Jamaica); she look
dandy (used in Jamaica of young female)
f partner
(not discussed)
baby
baby; sprog (suggested by interviewer); rug-rat (heard used)
rain heavily chucking it down∆; raining cats and dogs (used by older speakers); pouring down
(suggested by interviewer); raining heavy; raining; heavy rain; pelting down (suggested by
interviewer); tipping down; buckets (“bucketing down”)
1
Dictionary of Caribbean English (1996) includes ‘puff up your face’ in this sense.
New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) includes ‘swerve’ meaning ‘to avoid someone or
something’ but not in sense of ‘to play truant’.
3
Nickname of Welsh rugby union international Thomas Mervyn Davies (1946-2012).
4
See Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage (1996) for spelling conventions of markedly dialectal/Creole pronunciations, e.g.
<deh> = ‘there’.
2
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BBC Voices Recordings
toilet
walkway
long seat
run water
main room
rain lightly
toilet (used at work, prompted amusement when used in USA); loo (suggested by
interviewer, rarely used); bathroom (used when in USA); latrine (used in Jamaica in past)
alley; short cut (used in Jamaica of “little alleyway”)
settee; sofa (suggested by interviewer, not used)
brook; stream
living-room; lounge, family room, sitting-room (suggested by interviewer, not used)
dew (“dew rain” used in Jamaica and England); spitting (suggested by interviewer);
drizzling; miserable
rich
left-handed
loaded; wealthy; rich
cack-handed (suggested by interviewer, heard used of someone “with two left feet” i.e.
‘uncoordinated’); left-handed
unattractive hugly♦ (also used of unattractive personality/behaviour); not very good-looking; warm⌂
(“they’re a bit warm” used with friends of person whose face is “so hot it’s melting”)
lack money short of cash; broke; skint (suggested by interviewer, heard used); ain’t got the money; no
cash
drunk
out of their head; as drunk as a skunk∆ (heard used); drunk; drunken
pregnant
breeding (used in Jamaica, disliked); expecting (used in Jamaica); pregnant; with child; bun
in the oven (suggested by interviewer)
attractive
nice-looking; hot; good-looking; fit (suggested by interviewer, heard used by prison
inmates/teenagers/schoolmates in past); handsome (of male)
insane
mad like shad5, mad as a shad6 (“girl you mad like a shad” used by mother, thought to
describe frenzied movement of ‘shad’ [= type of fish] when caught in net, “you’re acting
like a mad shad” used frequently to children); got mental health problem (of person with
medical/psychological condition); crazy (of insane behaviour); a head-the-ball (suggested
by interviewer as used by Irish mother)
moody
got a face on◊ (suggested by interviewer); miserable; a face like a bulldog chewing a
wasp∆7/sucking a lemon◊8; sour-faced; wrong side of the bedx9 (“you’ve come out of the
wrong side of the bed this morning”)
© Robinson, Herring, Gilbert
Voices of the UK, 2009-2012
A British Library project funded by The Leverhulme Trust
5
Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) includes several examples of ‘MAD AS A …’ in this sense and includes citation with
‘mad like shad’.
6
Jamaican Acronyms (http://www.jamaicans.com/speakja/patoisarticle/jcan_short.shtml) records ‘MAS’ as acronym for
‘mad as shad’.
7
New Partridge Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English (2006) includes ‘face like a bulldog chewing a wasp’
meaning ‘ugly’ but not in this sense.
8
Green’s Dictionary of Slang (2010) includes ‘suck lemons’ meaning ‘to sulk’.
9
Brewer’s Dictionary of Phrase & Fable (2009) includes ‘to get out of bed on the wrong side’ in this sense.
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