The next Delamere book, ‘Snake Hill’, mostly takes place in Suffolk. To keep things as authentic as I could, I trawled around for a dictionary of Suffolk words and phrases, and came upon:
A Glossary of Words Used in East Anglia (1895)
Author: Rye, Walter (1843-1929)
The subtitle reads, Founded on that of Forby. With Numerous Corrections and Additions. It was published for the English Dialect Society by Henry Frowde, and the version I used was transcribed by Universidad de Salamanca.
You know how I like dialect. ‘Holywell Street’ comes with Baxter’s glossary, if you ned to revise his East End expressions, but in ‘Snake Hill’, we have an East Anglian glossary. For those who may not know:
East Anglia is an area of the East of England often defined as including the counties of Norfolk, Suffolk and Cambridgeshire, with parts of Essex sometimes also included.
The name derives from the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the East Angles, a people whose name originated in Anglia (Angeln), in what is now Northern Germany. East Anglia is a predominantly rural region and contains mainly flat or low-lying and agricultural land. [Wiki]
So, ahead of publication, here are some of the words I have used in the story. I put this here so you can do some background reading before the book arrives on your Kindle or doormat later in the month.
Badly In ill health. Sometimes sadly badly.
Barley-bird The nightingale, which comes to us in the season of sowing barley.
Biddie Young chicken.
Black Shuck In English folklore, Black Shuck, Old Shuck, Old Shock or simply Shuck is the name given to a ghostly black dog.
Brank Buckwheat
Buck To spring or bound with agility.
Carre A stoat.
Clamp A mound of earth lined with straw to keep potatoes or mangold wurzel through the winter.
Clevers, or Cluvers Tussocks or tufts of coarse grass.
Closen Enclosed fields; plural of close.
Clutter Confusion, disorder.
Cob-boy One who is between boy and man.
Dere Dire, sad.
Doker A diminutive used with respect to young animals.
Duffy dow Young pigeon not fully fledged.
Fleck The down of hares or rabbits torn off by the dogs.
Flick Hare’s or rabbit’s down.
Heads and Holls Prominences and hollows tumbled confusedly together.
Hingle To snare. Poachers hingle hares and rabbits.
Hoven Swollen.
Huckle To bend down with pain.
Jug To squat, and nestle close together, as partridges at night.
Mamble To eat with seeming indifference.
Maul Clayey or marly solid, adhering to the spade or ploughshare.
Mawth-dog The phantom of a dog (in Norfolk).
Mewting The whistling of a boy without any regard or idea of time or harmony.
Mump A hop and a jump.
Nabble To gnaw.
Needles A common weed among corn.
Pin basket The youngest child in a family.
Plounce To plunge with a loud noise.
Quackle To interrupt breathing.
Ranny The shrew-mouse. (Plural, rannies.)
Ravary A violent mad fit of passion.
Roblet A young cock.
Sadly Badly Very ill.
Smouching men Smugglers (Smouch, 1) to kiss 2) to smuggle.
Smuddered Smothered. Choked to death.
Springer A youth.
Stour Stiff or stout.
Tom Poker The great bugbear and terror of naughty children, who inhabits dark closets, holes under the stairs.
Traptles The small pellets of the dung of sheep, hares, rabbits, &c.
Trunket A game at ball, played with short sticks.
Wiff/Wiffing The sudden turning of a hare when coursed. Wishly Earnestly, wishfully, with longing.