Jane Elizabeth Carr (nee Summerbell) was born in December 1884 and attended Holy Trinity Church School from the age of 3. She was 14 when she she became a pupil-teacher and she taught at Holy Trinity until the late 1940s. During her childhood and her years as a teacher she recorded the words and phrases South Shields bairns and their parents used. She then wrote these words on scraps of paper and in 1961 she wrote them up in an exercise book. Some of these words and phrases will undoubtedly predate the 1880s. Her love for the local dialect is enormous and she laments the erosion of the local dialect. She uses the pseudonym “Telly-Pie-Tit”, a lost phrase we know only as “Tell-Tale-Tit”, probably to reflect the fact she is secretly recording the lads’ and lasses’ words and phrases from a bygone era and telling us the readers.
Glossary and Sundry Sayings
Words heard while attending Holy Trinity Schools, South Shields. Dialect was then freely spoken, by the working classes. Before the B.B.C. Before speech training specialists. Standard English has dealt provincialism a mortal wound.
No claim is made that any word is unique to the district. Dialect is in phonetic spelling. The list is not complete. Add where you can, as the commonest of words are not included.
| English | Provincialism |
| A | |
| All | Arl |
| Alone | Alyen |
| A packet of certain articles, symbolising good wishes, given to a new baby | Armiss |
| Topsy-turvy | Arsey-varsy |
| Behind (adverb) | Ahint |
| B | |
| Food carried by workman; as a refreshing snack | Bait |
| A shilling | A bob |
| An attack | A boot, = a fainting boot |
| A contest | A boxing boot |
| Throw along (bowl) | Bool |
| Talk with no real purpose | Blatha |
| Broken pieces of earthern ware used to decorate babby hooses | Boodies |
| Belch | Bowk |
| A piercing cold wind | A bleacha |
| A blister | A bleb |
| Fresh from the maker | Bran-new |
| A turkey cock | A bubbly-jock |
| A broom | A buzzom |
| Repeatedly shouting, in a contemptuous manner | Bully rag |
| Beating | Byestin |
| Bread and hot milk | Boily |
| C | |
| A kindly person having the quality of being pleasing | Canny-body |
| Excel | Cap (verb) |
| Borrower | Cadja |
| A thoughtless, excitable person | Cape-flee-away |
| Every-thing. All | The whole caboodlum |
| A silver coin worth five shillings | A cart-wheel |
| Jaws | Chaffs |
| Bread | Chuck (noun) |
| Throw | Chuck (verb) |
| Urine | Chemmerley |
| Gluttinous toffee | Claggum |
| Adhere | Clag |
| Bother | Clart (verb) |
| Wet mud. Mire | Clarts (noun) |
| Left-handed | Coo-pard |
| Idle – gossip | Clish-clash |
| Nervous motion of the bowels | Cobbly-wabbles or Colly-wablles |
| Over-turn | Cowp |
| Turn a somersault | Cowp ya creels |
| Come along. Sit down | How way! Crack ya huf |
| A chat | A bit crack |
| A joker | A crampa |
| All ingredients mixed up | A crowdy main |
| A donkey | A cuddy |
| A lady-bird | A cushy-coo-lady |
| D | |
| The half-penny ferry | The hapny dodja |
| Bend down quickly | Dook |
| Tremble | Dotha |
| Tall feather like grasses | Dortharie Ducks |
| Dark and lonely | Dowly |
| A stupid person | A Dulbat |
| Collide | Dunsh |
| Physical decline | Dwinin’ |
| Unable to speak | Dum foonded |
| E | |
| To encourage | Egg on |
| To last; until each get a fair share | Eek out |
| Hard rubbin | Elba grease |
| Intended | Ettled |
| F | |
| A flat cake made with dough that has but once risen. | A Fadge |
| A contempuous name for a female | A Faggot |
| Troubled | Fashed |
| Further forward | Fatha enwis |
| Thoughtless | Feckless |
| Weak | Femma |
| Put right. Repair. | Fettle (verb) |
| How are you? | What fettle? |
| A Noisy comical person | Fiz-gig |
| Face | Fiz-zog |
| Amazed | Flabba-ghasted |
| A scare-crow | Flay-crar |
| An unruly giddy girl | Flighty kyet |
| Smelling of moist | Foisty |
| Sudden change of residence | Flit |
| A giggly-flighty changeable person | A Flee-bi-the-sky |
| G | |
| A pit pony | A gallowa |
| Grinning | Gairnin |
| Braces | Gallisses |
| Jersey | Gansey |
| A stand for beer barrels | A Gantry |
| A hoop | A gard |
| Lacking in courage | Gaumless |
| The round-a-bouts of noise and amusement at the fair | The Geslins |
| Big, clumsy person | Geet-owk |
| Became stubborn | Tuk the gee |
| Close your mouth; stop talking | Had ya gob |
| Persons who made diversion by disguise and entertainment | Gizas (Long i) |
| Core | Gowk |
| A large stone bottle used to hold beer | Grey-hen |
| Stare. Gaze | Glowa |
| A fright | Gliff |
| Sulks | Glumps |
| A goose-berry | Gooza |
| A dunce | A Gornyill or Gonneril |
| Initiative | Gumshin |
| Shout loudly | Golla |
| H | |
| A. Off you go | Had-a-way |
| B. Said in un belief; when a tall story has been told | Had-a-way |
| Cover up | Hap up |
| Cough and expectorate | Hark and spit |
| Dreamy wonder | Haze-gaze |
| Mischievous | Hempy |
| In confusion | Higgildy piggledy |
| Babbies napkins | Hippins |
| A swing | Hiky (long i) |
| A strong well made woman | Horse’s god-mother |
| Not level | Howden-pan-cant |
| Throw | Hoy |
| Awkward, ill mannered strong person | Hoyt, Hoyden |
| An uproar | Hillaballoo |
| Scoop out | Howk |
| Persons who scooped out bits of metal or coal from railway sidings etc | Howkas or Towsas |
| Haunches | Hunkas |
| Very dirty | Hacky |
| Hop-scotch | Hitchy dabba |
| I | |
| An icicle | Ice-shoggle |
| To put sense into another’s mind | In sense (verb) |
| J | |
| Stop talking | Had ya jar |
| Swagger | Jaister |
| Hit | Jarp |
| A moment | Jiffy |
| Crooked | Jee-why |
| Underhand tricks | Jookry-poakry |
| K | |
| Catch | Kep |
| Skin; cracked or broken | Keens |
| Simple person | Simy kite |
| Stomach | Kite |
| A catch in the breathing; caused by temper or coughing | Kink |
| A large strong box | Kist |
| Tickle | Kittle |
| A pice of wood pointed at both ends. Used to play a game; by hitting with a stick | Kitty-cat |
| Food; dry, parched, almost burnt | Kizzoned |
| L | |
| Beat. Thrash | Lace (verb) |
| Tea or coffee, with whiskey or other distilled volatile liquid mixed together | Laced drink |
| Beat soundly | Lam (verb) |
| A long wooden seat; often fixed by the side of the fire | Lang saddle |
| A good thrashing | A lathering |
| Mention | Let on |
| Depend | Lippen |
| A flea | Lop (noun) |
| Curdled. Sour | Loppared |
| Flames | Lowes |
| Forward jump | Lowp |
| Leap-frog | Lowp-the-kitty |
| Dunce | Lubbard |
| Chimney | Lum |
| M | |
| A club for money returned in bulk; paid by weekly payments | Manaj |
| A scamp. Quick in word and deed. | A marla |
| Two, of the same kind | Marras |
| To hurt severely by punishment | Marsy-cree |
| Perhaps. May be | Mebbies |
| A person whose mothers love, developed into smother love | A molly-codlin |
| A meg | A halfpenny |
| N | |
| Annoyed | Narked |
| Hit. Strike | Narp |
| Worth-less person. One who never does well | Nair-de-weel |
| Knick-knacks. Trifles | Niff-naffs |
| Fist; clenched | Neif |
| A. Drink in one gulp | Nip up |
| B. Steal quickly | (2 meanings) |
| A small child | A nippa |
| A noisy commotion | A noration |
| Naked | Nyecky Shaggy |
| Only | Nobbut |
| O | |
| Turbulent and noisy | Obstropulous |
| Arm-pit | Oxta |
| Any-thing | Owt |
| P | |
| Has a small appetite. Picks and chooses small portions of food | Parky |
| A lap-wing | Peep-weep (noun) |
| Pea-pod | Pea-swap |
| Smallest possible | Pinkie-winkie |
| Wade | Plodj |
| A small nose-gay or a single flower | Posy |
| A frog | A paddock |
| Person, unable to stay still and quiet | A peta-waggy |
| Poke. The art of pushing or thrusting | Powk |
| Prick | Prog |
| To hit repeatedly | Pummel |
| Large, dirty feet | Geet mucky pyesties |
| Fried onions and bacon, covered with sliced potatoes, water and seasonings, then cooked 20 minutes | Pan-hagalty |
| Q | |
| £1 | A quid |
| Inquisitive | Quisy |
| R | |
| Lazy, worthless person | A rag-a-bash |
| Quarrelsome disposition of mind | Ranty-tanty |
| A furious temper | Rampage |
| To repeatedly request in a plaintive voice | Rame |
| A thougtless person | A rattle-pate |
| Became stubborn | Tuk the reest |
| Rancid | Reasty |
| Melt down | Renda doon |
| Put in order | Red up |
| Belch | Rift up |
| Vex | Rile |
| Hoarse | Roopy |
| Roll over and over | Rowly-powly |
| Peculiar person | Rumstick |
| Uproar | Ructions |
| A noise in the throat through difficulty breathing | Ruttlin |
| A person most careless with his clothing | A rive rags |
| S | |
| Simple and careless | Sackless |
| Spring onions | Scallions |
| To allow too little | Scimp |
| A squirt | A scoyta |
| Bite hard and chew well | Scranch |
| Stifle | Scumfish |
| A quarrel | A set to |
| Your own feet | Shanks’s pony |
| Hesitate or waver | Shilly-shally |
| A thick slice | A shive |
| The swing boat at the fair | A shuggy-shoe |
| A spade or shovel | A shull |
| To run away quickly | Skee-daddle |
| Strike; hit | Skelp |
| Shriek | Skrike |
| Domestic servant | A skivy |
| A policeman | A slop |
| Grab quickly and quietly | Snaffle |
| A turnip | A snadja |
| Plump; yet quick | Sonsy |
| Sorrel | Sour Dakin |
| 1. A splinter | A spelk |
| 2. A thin small person | (2 meanings) |
| Money | Spondoolicks |
| Initiative. Liveliness | Spunk |
| A stoppage | A stand-still |
| A state of agitation | A stew |
| Dirt or dust disturbed | Stoor |
| Fast motion | Streek |
| Very clean | Skimmerin |
| Slightly burnt | Set on |
| Intoxicated | Squift |
| Crisp and tasty pieces of fish batter; or thin pieces of toffee similar to brandy-snaps | Scranshuns |
| T | |
| Food that has neither body or flavour | Tack na tyest |
| Sixpence | A tanna |
| Scoff | Take off |
| Running or falling quickly, making the sound tap-tap | Tappy-lappy |
| Tempted | Ticed |
| A quarrel | Tift |
| Drunk | Tite |
| A towel | A tool |
| To pull about and make untidy | Toozle |
| Trifles | Thing-me-bobs |
| Throat | Thropple |
| A quilt | A twilt |
| String | Twine |
| An ear wig | Twitchy-bell |
| In disorder and weary | Twooded- aboot |
| Women who gathered metal from railway sidings to sell to marine store dealers | Toushers howked for tagga |
| U | |
| Not natural | Uncanny |
| Undress. Efface | Undite |
| To taunt about past events | Upcast |
| V | |
| A child prone to mischief | A varmin |
| A lead pencil | A vine |
| W | |
| To be a truant. One who absents himself from school without excuse | Play the wag |
| To beat | Wallop or wollop |
| Acid fluid rising into mouth from stomach | Watta-brash |
| A large quantity | Geet. Wak |
| An untruth | Whappa or whoppa |
| Who? | Whe? |
| Hush! | Whisht |
| Infested | Wick (verb) |
| A woman | A wife |
| Noisy talk of no importance | Windy hash |
| Make smaller by paring | Wittle doon |
| Weak; no outstanding qualities | Wishy-weshy |
| Dry and withered | Wizzened |
| Y | |
| To complain repeatedly in a whining voice | Yamma |
| A chaffinch | Yella-yowly |
| Dough made in the form of a doll using currants, raisins and lemon peel for eyes, mouth and buttons | A yull doo |
| A Yule-tide cake | A yull doo |
| Letters X and Z omitted; due to lack of knowledge of provincialism beginning with these letters. |
Sources:
Jane Elizabeth Carr (nee Summerbell)
Jeanne Bennett (Granddaughter)
Patricia Rigg (Granddaughter)
Terry Ford