Wuthering Heights Reading Group

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Ive finished chapter 3 too. Do you have a glossary of the more obscure terms such as ‘laiking’ (one of Joseph’s)

A quick tangent into the local dialect...

I've not read any Bronte for a very long time, and relatively little; but from memory, I would say that the eye dialect is pretty good, given the limitations of orthography and that the dialect will have changed somewhat since the book was written. I live about 5 miles or so from Haworth, and at one time, on the street in Thornton where the sisters and Branwell were born; I've lived around the accent and dialect for about thirty years now.

Although the T+apostrophe is the idiomatic way of writing the glottal stops in Yorkshire dialect, the "t" is rarely pronounced in this part of Yorkshire (there are relatively few places where it is); it's usually elided to leave just the glottal stop. People trying to imitate a Yorkshire accent get this wrong a lot, and often tend to emphasis the T's; much to the annoyance of Tykes (born and bred Yorkshire folk).

It's been a while since I've heard On Ilkla Moor Baht'at; it was a common campfire song back in my caving days. It's considered something of a cliche over here; no Yorkshire brass band would dare do a concert without it! I rather like that it's such a dark song; cannibalism by proxy!

Translation: Baht'at = without a hat. (for "bah", think "I like them all bar this one.")
Translation: Laikin = not working, having a day off, idling around.

I'm already a bit committed to other books at the moment, but I'll keep an eye on the thread, and if there's any other local dialect etc. that interests anyone, feel free to ask. There are quite a few Yorkshire dialect dictionaries on-line too, but I've never found one that stands out as particularly definitive; even today the dialect is very noticeably different in areas separated by only a few miles. Here particularly, the dialect is quite a mongrel, as it was an area that saw a huge influx of people from elsewhere to work in the mills during the Industrial Revolution, particularly from neighbouring Lancashire and from Ireland.

Tha's med a reet champyun thread. Ah'm bahn fo' t'neet, 'appen ah'll sithee on t'neks login.
Translation: You've made a very good [right champion] thread. I'm off for the night, maybe I'll see you on the next login.)

Delightful!

Doubly delightful! My relatives resided in Haworth and Otley at that time, and I'm fascinated by the slight derivations in dialect across West Yorks. Please join us in any conversation, whether or not you'd like to read along!

It's so nice to hear from you again Trogluddite! It's been a few months!

Is

I'm currently on chapter 4 also, and really enjoying it! Although i'm glad to know that i'm not the only one having trouble with the dialects, the story is very gripping!

Joseph says certain words very Scottish—in a “stane” vs “stone” sense.

There’s lots of “air” pronunciations, too.

There no evidence of the “x” phoneme (the “ch” pronunciation in “loch), though.

Was the Yorkshire dialect more Scottish in the old days?

(Scots-English, not Scots-Gaelic)

Great explanation. Clarifies things. "West Yorkshire dialect has much in common with Lowland Scots."

I'm on chapter 4, but am still mulling over the passage in chapter 1 (I suppose we all have different pagination) where after Lockwood says, "I bestow my own attributes over-liberally on [Heathcliff], he goes on to say, "Let me hope my constitution is almost peculiar: my dear mother used to say I should never have a comfortable home..." Lockwood introduces early in the novel one of the themes Isabella mentioned: nature vs. nurture. For me, WH has always been the examplar of this conflict, and Heathcliff, among all the characters, is only the tip of the iceberg. But, perhaps because there is the possibility that he is all/part gypsy or of other darker-skinned lineage, Heathcliff would have been, for Brontë's contemporaries, something more fierce to be reckoned with where nature and nurture are concerned, much as Bertha Mason from Jane Eyre.

Yes, Nelly refers to him as "it" and tells Lockwood that Earnshaw had "inqured for its owner"! I'll look for Isabella's comment that you mention.