Tarnport4d ago
I was urging someone younger today to really appreciate the regional accents of the old folks around them, because after tv and other media spread, accents started to die and our generation will pretty much live to see the end of them. I've already outlived many I remember personally. I miss them - perhaps especially the ones that at the time I considered bumpkin.
Show threadLionelB4d ago

@Tarnport

My grandparents on one side had clear echoes of Norse, which had lasted a thousand years.

German ethnologists studied the accents of British prisoners of war in World War 1. Their recordings are a treasure trove of what existed before the homogenisation.

Show threadTarnport
@lionelb this is remarkable stuff. Thank you for sharing it. 1000 years is a long time in language! Amazing.
Mar 18 at 6:15pmWeb
Show threadLionelB4d ago

@Tarnport

Going back to this morning, a water mill channel is called a mill race in many parts of the UK but in the south-west it is called a mill leat. Leat being Norse for race. Odd because the Scandinavian influence was mainly on the East coast.

Show threadTarnport4d ago

@lionelb that's so cool! And so clear.

I will have to sort my photos and post some of the mill and its "leat", which were both charming beyond reason. I went twice.