Now most of you know about my passion for old buildings. This one is a tithe barn with roosts. It is just across the road from me and is part of a farm that's a listed building. The site on which the farm stands is an ancient heritage site as there has been a manor there since the Norman times. You can still see the medieval field layouts in the ground markings. We suspect our evening pipistrelle bats roost in or near the barn.
So, on todays lesson lol
This involves the words bist and bay. You can clearly see the link with old german. Bist is usually used as meaning are you as in Bist thee gooin ter town? ie are you going to town? How bist thee ma mon? How are you my good man?
Bay is nothing to do with horses. It usually means aren't you or isn't it. eg Yow bay gooin theer am yow? You aren't going there are you?
A classic Black Country statement using this is shown below
That bay a bay bin it?
That's not a bay window is it?
Now you have bin, bay and bist you can start to practice. I'll leave you with another word or werd - bostin' A term of high praise!
More next Friday.
5 comments:
Nell - I've bin followin' yo for weeks now. Bostin' - ar ay eard that fer a long toime.
Sorry - I was born and brought up in Brownhills which is almost Black Country. My grandparents, uncles, neighbours all talked a bit like this.
Never forget my (18 month old) daughter saying 'bye' at my Gran's house. The neighbour curled a lip in horror because she hadn't said ta-ra. My gran replied: "Oh, she's from Lichfield!"
I wonder if 'bay' is related to 'baint' (ie Cornish version)?
In Norfolk, they say "ont" instead of "won't" - and then there are all the interesting words such as "bishy-barna-bee" (if you guess this I'll send you a copy of my August Med *g*)
Lovely pic of the tithe barn. You and me both with the buildings. We have a Tudor barn near us - but it's nowhere near as spectacular as the tithe barn. And I bet the local maps of that area are fascinating. (I could be a bad influence on you, here *g*)
Lol, if I remember correctly a bishy-barna-bee is a ladybird. Phillipa, I howled with laughter at this as everyone here as you know says tara-a-bit!
Am impressed, Nell: the derivation is from Bishop Bonner's cottage, which was one of the few buildings to escape the Dereham fire (obviously "ladybird ladybird fly away home, your house is on fire..." etc). And Bishop Bonner was allegedly a butcher who condemned a lot of "heretics" to death (or was just doing his job, depending on which source you believe...)
Book in post next week :o)
Hugs, Kate! I remembered reading that as a child so of course I had to go check - can't resist a challenge. I love words and the origin of them is fascinating. Regional dialects should be celebrated.
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