Open Writing

This is a version of parts of the Gospels retold in Yorkshire dialect. The county of broad acres has a whole range of dialects, but I have chosen to write in the one that is still understood by the greatest number, namely that of the West Riding. From long experience in the Yorkshire Dialect Society I know that readers in the North and East Ridings will be able to adapt to it very easily. Partly for their benefit, but mainly for those readers whose knowledge of dialect is rusty, I have added a glossary.

Even the West Riding has variations in dialect and, to be specific, I have written this in the dialect I knew as a boy in the Pennine village of Wibsey, just south of Bradford, on the fringe of Wilfred Pickles territory. Some of the material included here was, in fact, read on television by Wilfred, who wonderfully brought out new shades of meaning with his rich Yorkshire tones. I have also read some of this myself on local radio and to various audiences, as a result of which there have been many requests for a version in print.

This kind of 'broad Yorkshire' is, alas, rarely heard today, and even Yorkshire folk, let alone off-comed-uns, may find themselves looking up words in the glossary. Yet, although no longer in everyday use, this dialect — with its quaint vocabulary and idiomatic turns of phrase — is still understood and loved. Like other members of the Yorkshire Dialect Society, which celebrated its centenary in 1997, I enjoy writing and speaking in what is fast becoming a kind of dead language, surviving only as Yorkshire accent and intonation. So at least this is an attempt to pin it down, while it is still remembered and cherished. Ideally, of course, the following pages should be read aloud — by an authentic Yorkshire speaker. And this means not only using the right accent, but also the right intonation or 'tune'. So much meaning can be conveyed in dialect by, for example, the rising tone in 'Aye?' or the lower tone of'Nay!'.

I must emphasise that this is not a 'translation' of the Gospel stories into Yorkshire dialect, but a retelling of them by a homely old Yorkshireman who has a sense of humour, as well as a love of his Lord — rather like some of the old-style West Riding preachers I remember as a lad. Though the style is light and bright, with touches of humour and humanity, this is by no means a gimmick or a send-up of the Gospels, but a serious attempt to bring out the meaning of familiar passages, looking at them afresh, from an unfamiliar angle.

Rather than attempting to cover everything in the Gospels, I have selected what I hope is a balance between narrative and teaching, using not only passages ideal for retelling in dialect, but also the more difficult and sensitive parts concerning the Last Week. I felt I had to include the latter to give a sense of completeness and to reflect what was so important to the Gospel writers. As a general framework I have used the Synoptic Gospels, and tried to blend and harmonise wherever necessary. The material is presented in roughly chronological order, and is intended to be read through in sequence, rather than dipped into.

The narrator, for all his earthy Yorkshire speech, is not as naive as he may sound, and has done his exegetical homework. He knows, for example, as most people do not, that the original Greek in the Lord's Prayer does not say 'Deliver us from evil' but 'from the Evil One', ie from the Devil. So he is absolutely right to refer at this point to 'Owd Nick'. Other ideas expressed here, which may strike the reader as novel, are supported by biblical scholarship, and the writer's own experience of teaching and preaching the New Testament for many years, as well as a memorable visit to Israel to see the real Gospel background.

Finally, if anyone should think it irreverent or gimmicky to retell the Gospels in 'broad Yorkshire', I would point out that Jesus and the disciples spoke in a 'northern' dialect — that of the Galilee area. We know this from the story of Peter in Jerusalem, cursing and swearing and denying that he even knew Jesus. He was recognised as one of the disciples by his Galilean speech (Mark 14:70). Indeed, if we had been able to listen to Jesus and the disciples speaking, I am sure it would have sounded not in the least like the equivalent of the Standard English and Received Pronunciation associated with the capital city, but like the robust provincial speech of ordinary working folk.

Though Jesus was uniquely eloquent and poetic, there is no doubt that most of what he said was in simple, local speech, as is evident from his immense popularity with the crowds. He was, after all, no ordinary rabbi or teacher, but one who had spent most of his thirty years working as a carpenter. In other words, I cannot think of Jesus as a man who 'talked posh', but as a speaker at home in the language of fishermen and farmers, rather as we hear Jesus speak in the York Mystery Plays.

So dialect — and especially Yorkshire dialect — might even have the advantage over Standard English in that here and there it can actually give us an authentic whiff of the Gospels. If this book helps anyone towards new insights into the life and teaching of Jesus, and encourages people to read the New Testament for themselves — in any version — then its publication will have been amply justified.

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GLOSSARY

Words with an unusual spelling because of the way they are pronounced have mostly not been included in the glossary. For example: those with a short vowel in Yorkshire dialect {finnd, blinnd, watter, mak, tak, oppen, etc). An apostrophe is used to indicate the short vowel in the' ('they', pronounced like 'the') and sh' for 'she'.

Then there are words with a 'ew' sound instead of an 'oo' in parts of the old West Riding (frewt, neew, Jeew, etc). Other common West Riding vowels are 'ah' instead of'ow' {abaht, aht, dahn, 'ahse, etc), 'ee' instead of'igh' (breet, neet, leet, etc), and the 'ey' sound in reight, preych, teych, etc.

Note that nowt, owt, browt, etc in most parts of the West Riding are pronounced, not to rhyme with 'now', but have the dip-thong 'aw-oo'. Double vowels occur in such words as agee-an, 'ee-ad, goo-id and afoo-are. There are also other, more subtle, differences from Standard English, which are not easily conveyed in spelling. The word for 'the', for example, is written as t', but is mostly pronounced only as a glottal stop.

Finally, some of the words which might look like corruptions, such as oft (often), ax (ask), telled (told), starvin' (cold), learn (teach) and the omission of the possesive (eg. Jesus coit) are simply earlier forms and usages which have been retained in dialect.

addle - to earn
afooare - before
agate - occupied, busy (with)
'ah - how
allus - always
apiece - each
'appen - perhaps
'at - that
at-after - afterwards
'awf - half
awn - own
awn - to recognise
'awporth - halfpenny-worth
ax - to ask
back-end - autumn, late on (in year)
badly - ill
bahn - going
baht - without
bairn - child
bar - except
barm-pot - mad, silly person (lit 'yeast jar')
bate - to lessen, slacken off
bawl - to shout
belong - to own, be connected with
bi Gow - by God!
bide - to bear, to stand (some¬thing)
blether - bladder, balloon
blether-'eead - fool
blew in - to squander
brass - money
bray - to hit, beat, hammer
browt - brought
brussen - bursting
buck up - to cheer up, enliven, hurry
bust - to burst
by Gum! - my word!, fancy that!, etc
cahr - to keep, sit (back),cower
cap - to surprise, astonish, beat
cawf - calf
cham'er - upstairs room, bedroom
champion - excellent,outstanding
childer - children
chozzen - chosen
chuffed - pleased
chunter - to grumble, mutteretc
claht - to hit
claht - cloth
claht-'eead fool (lit 'cloth-head')
clemmed - parched, dry (with thirst)
coit - coat
cop - to catch
'cos - because
dee - to die
dither - to tremble
doff - to take off
dowter - daughter
doy - dear (to a child)
drahndid - drowned
dursn't - daren't
'earken - to listen (to)
'eart-sluffened - heartbroken
ee(n) - eye(s)
ee! - (exclamation of surprise, wonder, etc)
'ersen - herself
ey up! - Look out!, What's this?, etc
eyt - to eat
fast - stuck, inhibited
fettle - put right, deal with, clean, etc
flaid - frightened
flaysome - terrifying, dreadful
flummoxed - bewildered,confused
fowk - people
frame thissen - Get a move on, pull yourself together, get organised, etc
fratch - to argue, quarrel
fresh - drunk
fret - to worry
full up - ready to weep
fullock - rush
fust - first
gat - got
gaum - heed, attention
gawp to gape, stare
getten - got (past participle)
gob - mouth
Gow - euphemism for 'God'
grand - splendid, etc
Gum euphemism for God (cf by Gum!)
gurt - great
hahiwer - however
hengment - euphemism for 'hell'
hooin - (see yooin)
hummer - euphemism for 'hell'
'igg - temper
'ippins - nappy, swaddling clothes
'issen - himself ivver ever
jannock - fair, honorable
jooarum - great number, crowd
lad - boy, son
laithe - barn
lap - to wrap
lass - girl, daughter
latt - lath
learn - to teach (as well as 'learn')
leet-gi'en - fickle, promiscuous
loss - to lose
lig - to lie, lay
lug - ear
lug-'oile - ear-hole
mad - angry
mawk - surly or unfriendlyperson (lit 'maggot')
mawk - to sulk
mend - to get better
meyt - meat
middin - rubbish heap
middlin' - average
missen - myself
mistal - cowshed
moither - to fluster, overwhelm
mooak - donkey
mullockin' - messing (about)
mun - must
na then - all right then, etc
nah then - well then, etc
nawpins - money cadged or dishonestly obtained
nawther - neither
nay - no (when emphasising contradiction)
ner - than
nicely - well (in health)
nip-screw - miser, mean person
nithered - very cold (of person)
nobbut - only
nooan - not, none
nowt - nothing
'od (to) hold
off-comed-un - person from elsewhere
'oile - hole
on - of (eg 'two on 'em')
onny - any
onnyrooad - anyway
'ooin - to harass, hurt, etc
'oss - horse
owerseer - man in charge
owd - old
Owd Nick - the Devil
owt - anything
owt - ought
pawse - to kick pine to be hungry, long (for) pitcher large jug posser-'eead posser-head - (of washing implement)
reckon - to pretend, claim,imagine, think
reight - right; very
rive - to tear
rooar to weep (noisily)
sackless - ineffectual, weak and silly
sam up - to pick up
scrat - to scratch
seeamin'ly - apparently
sewted - pleased (with) shakked - shaken; ('i bits) mad, crazy
silin' - pouring (down)
sin' - since
sither! - look (here)!
shrike - to shriek
slack-set-up - careless, casual
sodger - soldier
speyk - to speak
speyk - saying
stalled - tired, fed up
starvin' - feeling very cold
summat - something
sup - drink
ta'en - taken
tak to take
teem to pour
ter - to, too
termorn - tomorrow
thersens - themselves
think on - to remember
thissen - youself
thoil - to be willing to give or spend
thowt - thought
threeap - to argue, complain
throit - throat
throng - busy, crowded
thru - from
traipse - to walk wearily
tret - treated
triwit - iron stand for pan, etc
tul - to (esp before certain vowels) two-a-thri several (following
'a')
'ummer - (see hummer)
'ug - to carry
wahr - worse
wed - to marry; married
weean't - won't
wer - our
wer' - were
wor - was
whisht! - silence!
yon, yond - that, those