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A
FOND WELCOME TO YOU – OVER A DECADE LATER!
DUNT
TIME FLY WHEN YEW’RE DEWIN’ SUFFIN’ USEFUL!
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| KEITH
SKIPPER MBE, DL, FOUNDER OF FOND |
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It
seems like only yesterday when a FOND dream started to come
true with a passionate meeting in Yaxham Village Hall. In
fact, it is over a decade since a band of enthusiasts decided
it was high time to put our dialect fight on an official footing.
I
accepted the role of chairman with pride and optimism and
noted in my diary for Sunday, October 3rd, 1999: “A day
for celebration. A day I hope future generations will salute
with gratitude.”
Friends
Of Norfolk Dialect is now a highly-regarded and flourishing
organisation as the battle continues to preserve and promote
such a vital strand of our cultural heritage. There have even
been examples of television, radio and theatre drama producers
trying that little bit harder to get the sound right –
but there are still many acres to plough in this field of
enlightenment.
FOND
must carry on pointing out that Norfolk is not a strange little
place in darkest Mummerzet,
wedged somewhere between Devon and Dorset. And there are enough
members of the acting profession with proud Norfolk roots
to spread the message in places where it really counts.
Links
with the Norfolk
Record Office and local schools are growing stronger while
social gatherings, known famously as FOND-dews, are staged
successfully in all parts of the county. Current chairman
Norman Hart and his hardworking committee can look forward
to even wider support.
FOND
president Peter
Trudgill, an internationally renowned linguistics expert,
waves the flag colourfully and defiantly for his native Norfolk.
We have some leading local citizens on board as vice-presidents,
including Sir
Timothy Colman, a former Lord Lieutenant of the County.
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The
Merry Mawkin, our regular newsletter crammed with features
both light-hearted and serious, is the perfect platform from
which to help spread that true message of defiance. Don’t
be shy. Have your say.
I
recall a good old Norfolk boy coming up for a quick mardle
after that historic get-together in October, 1999. He has
since gone to the Great Norfolk Snug in the Sky, but his words
live on along the fertile furrows cultivated by FOND and its
supporters.
He
said: “I hope yew lot ent a’gorn ter sit abowt clackin’
when there’s helluva lot more ter be done. Yew’re
gotta dew suffin’ ter mearke a diffrunce.”
I
think we’ve taken his homely advice to heart.
Keith
Skipper MBE, DL, Founder of FOND
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