Posted by Peter Hyland on January 04, 2016 at 06:53:22 user Peter_H.
In The Times (UK) today, it is reported that a University of Buckingham research paper claims that 200 lines of dialogue in Coots in the North are an important capture of a Norfolk dialect which is now largely lost, particularly the phraseology, e.g. “be cutting up that loaf”, “fare to rain”, “chimley” and “he ain’t got a head on him no better’n a squashed frog”. However, an Honorary Professor, one Prof. Trudgill, disagrees and says that AR’s rendition of the dialect is “rather poor”.
The Times seems to support AR, saying in its third leader that “Arthur Ransome was no gaumless dickup and he wasn’t nonnacking neither”, and that he wrote down what he heard. Hear hear - I don’t think we should take much notice of “Honorary Professors” – whatever they are.
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