| Each year in advance of the annual dinnner of The Society of Dorset Men, the King/Queen was sent a telegram. In 1950, the telegram ran as follows: | ||
To His Majesty King Jarge,
Oonce more, the Zociety o' Darset Men, voregather'd round
their vestive bwoard at th' Darchester Hotel vor their Yearly Junket,
d' zend Yer Most Graishus Majesty their dootiful greetins and
expression of unswerven loyalty an' devotion. May Yer Majesty
be zpared to us vor many years as our pattern an' guide.
I d' bide, vor all time,
Yer Vaithful Zarvint and Counsellor,
|
||
| The dialect as spoken fell into disuse during the 20th century, though there remain today older folk who can render it well. It is in the work of William Barnes that the dialect is best preserved in writing both in his poetry and his grammar and glossary of the Dorset Dialect. |
There is a very fine double CD recording of the spoken dialect,
by renowned Dorset man Tim Laycock and others, pictured right, which is available
for purchase please visit the shop
Also see the Contents. See The Year Clock poem. |
| Dialect | modern |
| a'ra | ever a |
| avroze | frozen |
| agean | again, against |
| aggy | to gather eggs |
| aish | the ash |
| al's | all this |
| anigh | near to |
| any-when | at any time |
| a-stooded | sunk into the ground |
| athirt | across |
| avore | before |
| ax | to ask |
| backhouse | outhouse |
| bad | synonym for ill |
| ballyrag | to scold |
| bandylags | crooked legs |
| bankrout | bankrupt |
| batch | hillock |
| beas' | beast |
| baven | a faggot of untrimmed branches |
| becall | to deride |
| beens | because |
| beknown | known about |
| bibber | shiver with cold |
| bide | dwell |
| biddle | beetle |
| bird-kippy | to keep birds from the corn |
| bissen | bist not |
| bit-an'-drap | a meal |
| blather | an uproar |
| blether | to bleat |
| blooth | blossom |
| blue-vinny | blue-mouldy (a cheese) |
| bottom | steadfastness |
| boys'-love | the herb southernwood |
| brags | boasting |
| brassen | made of brass |
| bremble | bramble |
| breze | to press down |
| bruckly | brittle |
| bundle | to bound quickly |
| busgins | short gaiters |
| bumbye | bye-and-bye |
| caddle | muddle |
| call hwome | announcement of the banns |
| cradlehood | infancy |
| chockvul | replete |
| clim' | to climb |
| car' | to carry |
| cas'n | canst not |
| chammer | chamber |
| chaw | to chew |
| chetterlings/chittlens | entrails of a pig |
| chippols | young onions |
| chimley | chimney |
| chimp | to break the shoots off potatoes |
| cider ring | cider press |
| clacker | a rattle |
| clavy | mantelpiece |
| clipse | to clasp |
| clote | yellow water lily |
| cockle | to tangle |
| coll | to embrace |
| cowlease | an unmown field |
| count | to guess |
| crips | crisp |
| croopy | to stoop |
| crousty | ill-humoured |
| cubby-hole | a snug place for a child |
| culver | wood pigeon |
| curdle | curl (as in hair) |
| cwoffer | coffer |
| dabster | an expert |
| dadder | to bewilder |
| drawlatcheten | lazy |
| dewbit | the first meal of the morning |
| dirn | the sidepost of a doorway |
| dap | to bound |
| dead-alive | apathetic |
| didden | did not |
| dousty | dusty |
| dout | extinguish |
| drashel | threshold |
| drong | narrow passage |
| drow | to throw |
| drinky | intoxicated |
| duckish | dull, dark |
| eale | ale |
| easement | relief |
| effets | newts |
| ees | yes |
| elem | elm |
| empt | to empty |
| emmets | ants |
| eth | earth |
| evenen | evening |
| faddle | a bundle |
| fall | autumn |
| fantod | a fuss |
| feacen | faces |
| fess | proud |
| figgety-pudden | plum pudding |
| flummocks | to frighten |
| footy | insignificant |
| footling | beneath contempt |
| furmenty | frumenty (sweet spiced porridge from hulled wheat) |
| gad | a stake |
| gawk | to gape |
| gear | tackle, utensil |
| geate | gate |
| gi'e | to give |
| gi'e out | give way, renounce |
| gifts | white spots on finger nails |
| gil' cup | buttercup |
| girt | great |
| goocoo | cuckoo |
| goo wi | to court |
| Granfer | Grandfather |
| Grammer | Grandma |
| gwain | going |
| gwains-on | riotous behaviour |
| haggler | itinerant dealer |
| hag-rod | bewitched |
| handy | approximate |
| han'-pat | ready at hand |
| haps | to fasten |
| hassen | hast not |
| hedlen | headlong |
| hel | to pour out |
| het | heat |
| hide | to whip |
| heth | hearth |
| hold-wi' | agree with |
| hoboo | child's name for a horse |
| hwome | home |
| jis' | just |
| joppety-joppety | nervous trepidation |
| keep | cattle feed |
| knap | knoll, rising ground |
| knot (in flower knot) | flower bed |
| laggens | leggings |
| lease | to glean after the reapers |
| leaze | field stocked through the summer |
| lerret | large boat |
| leery | hungry |
| lew or lewth | sheltered from the wind |
| limber | slender |
| lisome | cheerful |
| litter | confusion |
| litty | graceful bodily motion |
| lumpy | heavy |
| maggotty | fanciful |
| main | mighty |
| marten | a barren heifer |
| mel | to meddle |
| mid be | may be |
| miff | a slight quarrel |
| mixen | dung heap |
| mistructful | suspicious |
| nammet | noon meat, luncheon |
| near | miserly |
| nesh | tender |
| nettlens | a pig's inwards |
| nipper | small boy |
| nirrup | donkey |
| nippy | sharp |
| nit | not yet |
| nitch | a bundle of wood as large as a man can carry |
| noggerhead | blockhead |
| nu'ss | nurse |
| open | to open |
| orts | remnants of fodder |
| outstep | remote |
| overlook | to bewitch |
| overright | opposite |
| pank | to pant |
| pantiles | roof tiles |
| passon | parson |
| peart | lively |
| pease | to ooze |
| pelt | a fit of anger |
| pinsle | pimple |
| pleace | place |
| plim | to swell |
| plush | as in hedge-laying |
| pole | the nape of the neck |
| pook | cones of wheat |
| pucksy | miry |
| pummy | apple pummace from the cider-ring |
| put-up-wi' | patiently bear with |
| quag | quagmire |
| quar' | quarry |
| quob | to quiver |
| raft | to rouse oneself |
| rale | to walk |
| rafty | rancid |
| ramshackle | rickety, broken down |
| ramshacklum | good for nothing |
| randy | merry making |
| rane | to press down |
| rate | to scold |
| rathe | early |
| ray | to array, dress |
| reddick | robin |
| reaves | the ladder-like framework of a wagon |
| reed | wheat straw drawn for thatching purposes |
| reeve | to unravel |
| rig | to walk with difficulty |
| rine | rind |
| rise | to raise |
| rong | the step of a ladder |
| rowse | to scare off |
| ruff | a roof |
| sarch | to search |
| sassy | impudent |
| scram | small, awkward |
| scrimpy | shrivelled |
| scuff | to walk in a slipshod fashion |
| shacklen | loose-limbed |
| shard | a broken piece of wood or pottery |
| showl | shovel |
| shod | to shed |
| shroud | to prune the heads of timber trees |
| sight | number, quantity |
| sive | scythe |
| skew-whiff | aslant |
| skiffy | left-handed |
| skiver | skewer |
| sluck-abed | a sluggard |
| smitch | a cloud of dust |
| snags | sloe-berries |
| snoff | candle-snuff |
| soggy | saturated |
| span-new | wholly clean or new |
| spar-gads | sticks to be split into spars |
| speaker | a stake on which to carry a bundle |
| sprack | active |
| spry | lively |
| staddle | the framework of a rick |
| stud | mystified |
| taffety | fanciful |
| taffle | tangle |
| teaken | an agitation |
| teave | to struggle |
| tell | to reckon |
| tetchy | irritable |
| thick | that |
| thirtover | perverse |
| tilty | peevish |
| tinklebobs | icicles |
| tole | to allure |
| traipse | to tramp |
| trig | sound and firm |
| turmit | turnip |
| twite | to reproach |
| twanketen | melancholy |
| undercreepen | sly, hypocritical |
| unray | to undress |
| upsides-wi' | to be even with |
| urge | to retch |
| vall to | begin |
| valie | value |
| varden | farthing |
| versey | read the bible verse by verse |
| vitty | proper |
| vlinders | splinters |
| volly | to follow |
| vower | four |
| vu'z | furze |
| wag | to stir |
| wants | moles |
| werden | were not |
| werret | to worry |
| whindlen | weakly |
| whist | stye or inflammation of the eye |
| whicker | to neigh |
| whiver | to hover |
| wink | a winch or crank |
| wizzen or weazand | the windpipe |
| wopsy | wasp |
| wrack | consequences |
| yeo | ewe |
| yop | to talk rapidly |
| yoller | yellow |
| zeale | sack |
| zebn | seven |
| zew | sew or sow |
| zummat | something |
| zummerleaze | unmown grass for summer feed |
| zwail | to swagger |
| zweal | to scorch |