PETER TRUDGILL
HOW NOT TO MAKE NORFOLK PEOPLE CROSS: PART I
ONCE AGAIN there has been a TV drama series set in Norfolk, and once again local people have been protesting, rightly, about the low standard of competence in speaking the local accent achieved by the actors. It was good to see the beautiful Norfolk scenery, but some of the actors in Stephen Fry’s Kingdom did not seem as if they were even trying to reproduce the Norfolk accent. Others did appear to be doing their best, even though they fell well short of what we would have liked.
So, in a spirit of gratitude to those who did try - and the respect for our area their effort implied - I now offer, for those actors who are prepared to try even harder in any forthcoming Norfolk-based drama, an educational check-list to be kept about their persons and consulted before every rehearsal and every take.
Here, in this issue of The Merry Mawkin, they will find the first, elementary lesson, with further more advanced instruction to appear in the next issue.
LESSON ONE
1 Basic Level - or how not to sound as if you come from somewhere else:
A: Do not pronounce an r unless it is followed by a vowel. Pronounce the r as you normally would in words like rat and carry. But do not EVER pronounce the r in words like cart, bird, fort, beard, dared, muttered. This makes you sound as if you have some kind of West Country accent, and it’s what leads to the perfectly justified accusations in letters to the EDP (that’s the Eastern Daily Press in case you didn’t make its acquaintance during your visits to the county) that all that you are doing is speaking ‘Mummerset’.
B: Do pronounce the short a vowel in words like cat, bad, man as you normally would, and not with a fake West Country accent which makes bad sound like ‘bahd’. Norfolk people, as near enough as makes no difference, pronounce bad in the same way that Londoners and other people in the southeast of England do.
C: Do not turn l’s into vowels in the way that Londoners do. Norfolk people do not pronounce milk like ‘miook’ or pail like ‘pay-oo’.
2. Introductory Level - how to start sounding just little bit like you do come from Norfolk.
A: Try and pronounce words like here, beer, clear, dear, fear the same as hair, bare, Clare, dare, fare. Believe it or not, this is what we do. (Note for advanced and/or adventurous learners: this also applies to words like idea, diarrhoea, vehicle, creosote)
B: Try and pronounce words like garden, path, half, cart with a vowel in the front of the mouth rather like Australians do. Avoid the vowel sound in the back of the mouth that is associated with posh accents, Cockney and South African English. And of course, do not put an r in words like garden, cart. (And especially not in words like ,i>path - then you will sound like Eddy Grundy.)
Good luck with Lesson One! Next time:
Intermediate and Advanced Levels - how to sound even more like you come from Norfolk, with an exciting and special section on the Norfolk long o.
