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[Sussex] Sussex words for mud







Whosh51

Member
Aug 27, 2014
89
When we was kids we would walk up a muddy twitten to school if it stuck to your boots it was claggy if it was wet but passable it was pudden.
 






jackanada

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2011
3,507
Brighton
Love a bit of Sussex dialect.

Glomping - that mud that sticks to your boots and builds up with each step.

As to why you need lots of words for mud, because it saves you having to describe each type of mud.

Other great ones:

Flutterby - butterfly
Prickleback urchin - hedgehog
Windhover - kestrel

And I really like using caterwise as an alternative to diagonally.
 












May 5, 2020
1,525
Sussex
I was going to post this on the Sussex day thread but I forgot and the next day was no longer Sussex day so I didn't bother.
I often listen to this clip,the chap speaking sounds just like my grandfather.
It's an interesting listen and he reads Kipling at the end.
 


Baldseagull

Well-known member
Jan 26, 2012
11,839
Crawley
Just had a read of the wiki page for Sussex dialect and it's quite fascinating. The farmer accent is perhaps best left in the past but we should bring some of the words back. Dumbledore for bumblebee and flittermouse for bat are both great. I also like boco for much (from the French beaucoup).

One that I hadn't realised was local is pug for mortar.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sussex_dialect

I always associated gurt for big with Somerset, chipper for happy is across the whole south isn't it?
 


Bakero

Languidly clinical
Oct 9, 2010
14,883
Almería
I always associated gurt for big with Somerset, chipper for happy is across the whole south isn't it?

Gurt lush is still popular in Bristol, though mainly in a humorous way, I think. Reckon chipper spreads further than the south. It's certainly made it as far as the Cambridge dictionary https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/chipper I just did a search for the etymology - From English dialectal kipper (“nimble; frisky”), of obscure origin. Perhaps akin to Old Norse kjapt (“briskly; impetuously”), kippa ("to snatch; pull; jerk" > Middle English kippen (“to seize”)), kipra (“to wrinkle; draw tightly”), Norwegian kjapp (“fast; brisk”), Dutch kippen (“to seize; catch; grip”).
 




Bodian

Well-known member
May 3, 2012
14,250
Cumbria
Particularly sticky mud up here in Cumbria is described as being 'clarty' (probably the equivalent of clodgy). And if caused by farming or vehicles, it's a right old 'scrow'.

Don't start me on Twittens - I have an unpublished pamphlet yet to be finished (by me) on 'names of lanes' around the country; ginnel, jinnel, lonning, cut, twitten, six-foot, and so on...
 


Worried Man Blues

Well-known member
Feb 28, 2009
7,286
Swansea
It's dark over Will's mother's. I had a Sussex accent for a while, gawn now. Sussex was famous for appalling muddy roads and they reckoned that's why Sussex girls had long legs! Darn't ask me who they were.
 


Bakero

Languidly clinical
Oct 9, 2010
14,883
Almería
It's dark over Will's mother's. I had a Sussex accent for a while, gawn now. Sussex was famous for appalling muddy roads and they reckoned that's why Sussex girls had long legs! Darn't ask me who they were.

Interesting. Apparently, in Worcestershire they say "it's a bit black over Bill's (mother's).
 










wolfie

Well-known member
Jul 19, 2003
1,694
Warwickshire
I think it was"twitten" not twitter [emoji846] The Sussex country burr still exists in these parts[emoji106]

The Twitten used to run through the Grammar School in Dyke Road when I was a pupil - think it's now something to do with crocodiles !
Up this way they're known as "jitties" (with a J)
 






Stat Brother

Well-known member
NSC Patron
Jul 11, 2003
73,888
West west west Sussex
Not heard of any of those. Mud is mud.

However, my dad (originally a Londoner) and granny (Hove, born and bred) had a range of expressions I've not heard elswhere. See if you can work out what the mean (most are threats of minor violence) and whether you have come across them:

"I'll give you a clip round the ear ole"

"You've giving my arse the ear ache"

"Don't come the old acid with me!"

"You don't know poop from clay"

"I'll give you a clip along side"

"Do you want a thick ear?"

Ah, the violent and threatening world of a childhood in Portslade in the 60s :lolol:

When confronted my a blunt kitchen knife Granny Stat would say, whilst jabbing said knife in the general direction of a small child's face:-

'look, look at this, you could ride bare arsed to Canterbury on this knife'.


Never heard anyone else on the planet ever say that.
 


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