how to speak Dezbru

The language of Desborough is something newcomers find difficult at times. We started the ball rolling in mid-2002 and we've had several e-mails on the subject. The original comments and the responses generated are given below.

The first things to strike the newcomer to Desborough about the local language are:

The common term of address when speaking to others is "me duck." This is common to much of Northamptonshire and we welcome any ideas about how this term originated.

If asked, "How's the old boy?" or someone speaks about the "old boy," it's unsafe to assume this means someone elderly. More often than not, it will refer to the youngest boy in a family. But, of course, the old boy may have been the youngest and now be old, so it could be someone old. In truth, you never really know and you'll have to look for other clues

No one ever seems to go to anywhere; they just goo. "I'm gooing Kettering"; "I've been school"; "We went school together."

	You may come across someone who tells you they went down the jitty. It was an alley.
	and if I'm not, shan't and aren't going to then, "I int, shint and innagonna do it."

And what about those names? Is half the population of Desborough really made up of Coes, Panters and Cricks? Where did they all come from and when?

When I first moved to Desborough 15 years ago, I was amazed by the strange sounds everyone seemed to be making to each other: 'ooiik oih rooiigh oooik awrrroooiigh' and so on. This translates as all words which contain the 'igh' sound, such as 'right', 'alright', 'bright', 'Mike' etc etc.
Strange thing is, I just CANNOT replicate this sound with my mouth...I guess you can only do this if you were born in Desborough
Rich Jones

We've received the following by e-mail from Arthur Manning to set the record straight:

Having visited your site for the first time I found it very interesting, well done. One piece which caught my eye was Desborough language, having read it I had to send you a reply, sorry.

Ter oowevver rit thu pairg on ow ter tawk Dezbru, ee got it rung fer er start orf. Dezbru az unny got wun e ann it dawnt ev enny ‘r’s on th end. Ee musta gon skoowl up Roll, an wot append ter th Marlers, thairz undrudz on em, an dawnt ferget orl er yer Yummuns eethur. Th Koes an Kriks orl startid orf wen th railrowd woz bilt thru Dezbru, they thawt it wer gooin up ter Roll. Wen it dorned on em it wer gooin ter Rushtun insted, the lot on em chukked th job up and kamped owt up the Plens. Yuw reed abairt th istory ov railrowd ingineerin an it sez ow nubdy cud werk owt ow the werk got kwicker arter Dezbru. Wee cud tell um, them Koes an Kriks wer oldin um bak. Wee endid up wuss orf cuz er that lot, wee got wun er them Koes on th Kairnsul, sez it orl dunnit. If wun er them Kriks manigiz ter get imself elektid weel end up twind wi Roll insted ov Larnstine. Weer iz Larnstine ennyway, iz it neer Brairbruk?

Az fer them Panterz, tairnt enny serprize thairz tunz on um, orl th old boys reckun it were them oo tawt rabitz ow ter dew it. Dawnt blairm me, om unny tellin yer wot I erd, meks yer wunder tho dunnit. An anuther wun yer got rung, it shud bee; I airnt, cairnt, shairnt an wunt. Ar yer shoor yoor infermairshunz not bein nobbled, yer best bet iz ter chek owt ooz tellin yer orl ov this lowd ov old kobblers. Wunt serprize mee wun bit if yer fairned owt it orl cumms from up Roll, thay kent spel fer toffy.

This iz th edditid virshhun so yer kan reed it proply, if yer wont sum proppa Dezbru giv us wun ov them e-males an weel sea wot wee kan do. By the way, I have quite a few friends who reside in Rothwell, or did have!!!

There's more from Arfer

Richard Fitzpatrick writes to say "Ain't lived in Dezbrer (commonly known as the centre of the universe) fer a foo year, but still talk the lingo." And he offers the following: Schladder - as in "schladder goo Doctor's Tuesday."..

hi ive just moved to desborough from kent and i have never heard anyone speak like arther did so i dont have a clue what he is going on about...could you please explain...and why do they call people ducks?

Lets not forget what a Desborough worker would do at lunchtime... He "guz um, ets is dinna and teks is dug for a woark"!

A Desborough woman with an unborn child will most definitely be "Avin a bearby" and once born, a Desborough "bearby" never cries... It can however be heard "roarin"!

Desborough people don't seem to just go to another place, they "goo up" or "goo darn" as in "goo up the club" or "goo down the street". Likewise they'd "goo up Rowell" (or Bunnuck as it has been referred to in the past), or "goo darn Rowell Brook"... Occasionally they may "goo uv-ver" the fields to reach such places!

Last of all on the night of November 5th, many Desborough people will celebrate "bunfire" night!

That's it fur-nar

Regards Steve Vincent

Re yerow terspeak Desbro, as i'm arf Ar Tarner and arf Arbro I can anser y question re jitty anme duck.

Jitty is fer the Ol Danish 'Gate' (pronounced jitty) meaning entrance/road. Me duck is the ol Danish for 'good mornin' - 'om tag' pronounced m'dac'. Both on em are EastMidlands wudz from the area o the 5 boro's(Danelaw). I a ours o fun spying the reaction from the newfolk in Arbro -specially the women wen i call em duck and the reaction its gets.

Other wudz are traipsing, cob, kent think on any moor at mo - but me grandad Page (clicker an steward at the works) also said 'clisming' meaning a theif! I en eard it since he died though!

Pagey (Arbro boy!) Sorry!

We said we'd love to have more contributions and now we've had the following:

First visit to your site and very nostalgic to witness your attempts to recreate th desbru sound. It never got the accolade of a dialect as that would have elevated it and made it acceptable to the establishment.
A note to Arfer. Is'nt it "airnt, wunt, shairnt and airntagunna", well thats as I remember it.
The point is it was never written, and people remember differently. there is no right and wrong and some of my best friends came from roll.
Interested in Pageys comments from Arbrer. I was mates with Arthur P, nicknamed Oler, from Union St. and his dad was the steward of the Working Mens Club on Victoria St. for a time. Same family?
Final hello to Steven Vincent. Its your long lost Uncle John this end.

I now live in Norfolk and the local vernacular would call all this a load of owld squit, and no doubt to a local Ive got this wrong as well.

John and Cherry Vincent

Dezber dialect is especially interesting as it is the most north westerly of East Anglian and is back to back with Midlands variants over the hill in Market Harborough (Arbrer). The people here face South East linguistically and the people there face North and West, there is a dialect boundary between us.
I first recoiled at hearing "I shen't be doctors woil Friday" but like every other dialect of every other language anywhere in the world, it's speakers are capable of expressing every nuance of meaning that exists (though non-native speakers won't be able to hear them all - especially males who hear fewer tones than females anyway).

Robert Orr