I have a new Punternet review
from a gent who certainly enjoyed my stockings, suspenders and my highest of heels!

Thank you kind Sir, It was a pleasure.

x

…. was often the answer from the ol’ boys of Kent when asked what they had or were having for lunch or dinner that day!

You hear a lot in rural hostelries including some intriguing local dialect.
Being a country loving Wench, local dialect is something that fascinates me along with regional accents and is something that should be held dear and not forgotten although sadly it is disappearing rapidly or has gone completely from some areas. Regional accents not so long ago were something to be ashamed of or associated with being uneducated. I had no chance, at school we were made to speak “The Queens English” which snuffs out any chance of holding onto the diverse, colourful parlance of local dialects. Since leaving school (many moons ago) I try not to use the way I was taught to speak (unless I’m annoyed on the phone!) and a few times I have been told by gents my voicemail sounds “posh” but quite recently I was intrigued (and slightly pleased) to hear from a lovely chap that he thought I had a slight Kentish accent ……. ooooh arrrrgh, visions of a roll in the hay spring to mind!

During stints as a (very) buxom serving wench in the depths of Kent I used to love chatting to the older people and listening to their stories which were often intermingled with some unusual sayings and expressions. Indeed while still a student (and very green) I used to help out at a pub that was frequented by farmers and a lot of older country people and became surprised at the amount of people that would disappear to “Turn the bike round.” One particular evening after numerous turnings around of the bikes I asked the Landlord why so many older men came to the pub on their bikes and why they kept going outside to turn them round, he looked at me blankly for a moment this was followed by a good chuckle, he then explained to me that it was an old Kentish expression for having a pee!!

A prominent speech characteristic in the old Kentish way of speaking to use ‘d’ for ‘th’. There’s an old saying that goes ‘By dis, dat, den, yew can tell de Kentish men’
You was pronounced as ye, ‘ee or yew. The ‘h’ was also silent – hog was ‘og, hood ‘ood. W at the start of a word was often suppressed, thus wood was ‘ood. D on the end was dropped so pond was pon’. V was sometimes converted into w – weal for veal, wery for very. Charles Dickens often used Kentish dialect words and the language of the Medway towns in his novels. An example is in Pickwick Papers, where Mr Weller comments: ‘Be wery careful o’ vidders all your life’.

Sadly the accent is dying out rapidly and it’s only the very old people in Kent who still have the lovely accent or the offspring of farming families. I might start a petitition to bring it back.
Back to the “Bread and Pull it”, two schools of thought here, maybe the “Pull it” is relating to just having bread to eat and pulling it (apart.) or possibly pull it as in Pullett a young hen, bread and chicken.
I tend to believe the former.
This site is good, just click and listen to recordings of old long lost dialect in your region.

http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/

x

 

 

… and most certainly eating it!

Thank you dear ”M” ~  are you hinting that you would like me to go down on bended knee(s) next time?!
x