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obvious door which said ‘Yer Tiz’ - so I went ‘The wartime austerity, of course, affected
through the door and there sure enough, all classes and everybody had to give up
’twas!.
something. Many upper-class people gave
The cryptic West Country style was also
up not only letters but whole syllables. A
obvious on the side of a mobile hot food
good example is ‘pahtickully’ as in ‘I like
outlet, or chip van, with a sign which read
wine and I’m pahtickully fond of claret’
simply ‘Yer be burgers’.
This divide is also a development of
and many of them use the word in this
comparatively modern times, since in
form still although the ’lar’ they dropped
past centuries a man would grow up
has been available again for years’.
and live his life in one locality where he
So, despite the B.B.C’s best endeavour
would understand, and be understood
under the ex-Cameronian Lord Reith in
by, everyone around him. But modern
the post-war years, the lost consonant of
transportation allowed people to travel far England was never found and restored to
and often and broadcasting brought the its rightful place, and the folks in Southern
wider world into the homes of those who
England whether picking a fight, (wot you
didn’t venture far.
on abaht?) chatting to neighbours (weally
And here, not for the first time, did a
noice pepow) or relaxing with a drink (Oi’ll
Cameronian play a vital role since the man
‘ave a li’ a ‘ow) will continue to consider
who effectively created the B.B.C. and set
what they don’t have an accent at all!
the standards in spoken communication
for generations was Sir John Reith, who had
G.F.
been Transport Officer in the Cameronians
in the first World War. What Sir John
wanted, and got, was clarity. So what the
B.B.C. audience heard, ‘received English’
was almost universally understood by the
Corned Beef with everything
listening audience.
At home of course they still spoke in
Whenever we heard the duty bugler play
their own accents and didn’t try to copy
‘Come to the Cookhouse Door Boys’ we
what they heard on the ‘wireless’ . Why
picked up our utensils and plates, knowing
would this be so? Well it could all be,
that we would not care about the food we
as a friend with an academic interest in were about to eat: there was no chance
linguistics suggests, entirely flippantly, a we would enjoy eating it. As wartime
result of the war!
children brought up on dried eggs, Spam
‘During the war, as some people
and mousetrap cheese, we were not used
remember, there were shortages of all sorts
to lavish food but had some idea how
of things and we had to do without. In
wholesome food should taste. At nights,
Scotland we went without our tea, or rather
whenever we could afford it, we ordered
our ’t’ and when things got better, or be’er,
afterwards we never went back to using it’
NAAFI suppers to retain some pleasure in
‘Down South’ he suggests, ‘or rather
eating. We could not avoid noticing the
‘Dahn Sarf’ as they say, they had little else
board displaying the large amount paid
to swallow, so they took to swallowing
each month from the NAAFI to the PRI.
their consonants. After the war the practice
As we queued, we noticed the vapour
persisted and this led in time to the lost
coming from three large, joined receptacles
consonant of England. An early casualty labelled WASH - RINSE - STERILIZE to
was ’r’ and over the years ’l’ almost remind us of the order in which we should
disappeared.’
wash our plates and cutlery. Alas! - this was
‘A good example of the way words suffered
largely ignored. Three containers of water
in those austere times is the round device
soon had the appearance of smelly, dark
on which our vehicles run, known in the
looking hot water. The cook sergeants,
South East as a ‘weow’. Indeed my earliest
looking like catering misfits, had the look
encounter with the lost consonant came
in the army when our M.T. instructor
of good mess members. My lasting memory
introduced a lecture on military transport
is of what I called Dalmatian potatoes:
by saying ‘Terday, gennomen, we are doing’
boiled potatoes carelessly peeled, left with
the jeep - Nah the jeep, as you will see,
most of the black eyes, mixed with tinned
has foive weows. Foah roud weos and a
milk and margarine to make a glue like
steerin’ weow’. The sound of his voice has
substance which left the serving spoon
remained with me ever since’. with reluctance and then wanted to stick
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