[Dixielandjazz] T'ain't or Tain't or Taint. Definitely notOKOM

[David Richoux]

Hi all,

as some might remember, my little sister is very active on a English 
Usage group. I sent her the
"yur, thees aint never bin no wur, ast?" and she quickly came back with 
this:

> It *could* be thick dialect from the north of England. There are 
> places that still use forms of thee/thou for you (informally, among 
> themselves). There are also places that use "youse" for you-plural, 
> you-all, so maybe that's what the "thees" is. Or it could be a 
> contraction for "thee has". That would make the grammar a bit off, but 
> we don't know your correspondent wrote this perfectly accurately. And 
> the final "ast" could be something like "hast" and stand for "have" or 
> in this case, "have you."
>
> The first "yur", drop the R and it's more like "yuh."
>
> So my *guess* is
>
>    "Yeah, you haven't ever been anywhere, have you."

That was without knowing the nationality or location of Patrick... ;-)

Dave Richoux

> On Jan 13, 2005, at 8:57 AM, PATRICK LADD wrote:
>
>> There seems to be an inordinate amount of interest in this. Is it 
>> quiet out there at the moment?
>>
>> So I reply,
>> Why zur, `tis Witshire. Like what proper Englishmen do speek" Acker 
>> Bilk talks like that. He is from  Somerset actually but only just 
>> across the border.
>> . I also add these other gems.
>>
>> `Ox un over yer then, ut?"
>>
>> This is a call made by a football (soccer) player who wishes a team 
>> member to pass the ball to him.
>> Literally. `Kick the ball to me then, if you please`
>>
>> Or..
>> Thee castn`t see as good thee cust, cast?`
>>
>> Translation. `You cannot see as well as you once could, can you?`
>>
>> Unfortunately there are few left now who understand the old dialect 
>> `Cus they all bin and got posh see, enum?
>>
>> Cheers
>>
>> Pat