Suffolk Accent from 1905

Standard Suffolk vocabulary and numerals for comparison with other languages


The East Anglian accents, those of Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex, were fairly similar. For example, in most other accents the "h" at the beginning of words such as "hand" or "house" had been silent since medieval times. In East Anglia the "h" survived. In Suffolk, vowels were often broken into diphthongs, "bread" being pronounced "bray-ad", for example.

There has never been a standard spelling for English dialects and accents, apart from the International Phonetic Alphabet. An explanation of the alphabet I have used to spell the words is given at the bottom of this page.

1. brother    brother                    
2. sister    sister                    
3. sunn    son                    
4. dahter    daughter                    
5. father    father                    
6. mother    mother        1. Sunndy    Sunday          
          2. Munndy    Monday          
1. spring    spring        3. Toozdy    Tuesday          
2. summer    summer        4. Wannzdy    Wednesday          
3.           5. Thahzdy    Thursday          
4. winter    winter        6. Froidy    Friday          
          7. Sadderdy    Saturday          
1. hoss    horse                    
2.           1. tow-an    town          
3. cat    cat        2. village    village          
4. cay-oo    cow        3.             
5. bull    bull        4.             
6. payg    pig        5. bridge    bridge          
7. ship    sheep        6. house    house          
8.           7. garden    garden          
9. mouse    mouse        8. chuttch    church          
10. budd    bird        9. school    school        1. one    one
11. goose    goose        10.           2. tew    two
12.                     3. three    three
                    4. four    four
1. bray-ad    bread        1. black    black        5. foiv    five
2. opple    apple        2. woit    white        6. six    six
3.           3. blue    blue        7. savven    seven
4.           4. gray-an    green        8. eye-at    eight
5.           5.           9. noin    nine
6.           6. red    red        10. tan    ten
7. milk    milk                  11. lavven    eleven
8. butter    butter        1. t’ say    to see        12. twelve    twelve
9. chay-az    cheese        2. t’ hare    to hear        13. tharteen    thirteen
10. water    water        3. t’ ate    to eat        20. twenty    twenty
11. woin    wine        4.           30.   
12. beer    beer        5.           100. hundred    hundred
                      
1.           1. nime    name        1. hand    hand
2. say-a    sea        2. t’ roit    to write        2. foot    foot
3.           3. book    book        3. heart    heart
4.           4. t’ spay-ak    to speak        4. blood    blood
5. ow-d    old        5. day    day        5. hid    head
6. noo    new        6. noit    night        6. eye    eye
7. ship    ship        7. week    week        7. air    ear
8. train    train        8. month    month        8. tooth    tooth
9. buss    bus        9. year    year        9. hay-a    hair
10.           10. ’n    and        10. t’ slay-ap    to sleep
                      
                    1. sunn    sun
                    2. moon    moon
                    3. star    star
                    4. wind    wind
                    5. rain    rain
                    6. snow    snow
                    7. oice    ice
1. cow-d    cold        1. hot    hot        8. fire    fire
2.           2. big    large        9. stoon    stone
3. thenn    thin        3.           10.   
4.           4. sway-at    sweet          
                      
1.           1.           1. deaf    deaf
2. tong    tongue        2. t’ buy    to buy        2.   
3. wudd    word        3. t’ sit    to sit        3. full    full
4.           4. t’ ray-ad    to read        4. young    young
5. flar    flower        5.           5. good    good
6.           6. door    door        6. king    king


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SPELLING AND PRONUNCIATION
  1. Words displayed here in Standard English were pronounced in a slightly old fashioned version of today's UK Received Pronunciation.

  2. Words displayed with non-standard spellings are approximately phonetic.

  3. "th" is the "th" of "thin"; "dh" is the "th" of "then"

  4. "h" after a vowel lengthens it; a double consonant after a vowel shortens it, e.g. "pahst" vs "passt", the Southern and Northern pronunciations of "past"

  5. In Received Pronunciation the final "r" is usually silent, but in many of the accents it was pronounced.

  6. In the West of England this "r" was pronounced at the top of the mouth and is shown as "-er " as in "mudhdher " (mother with a short vowel)

  7. In the North East of England the final "r" was pronounced further back in the mouth and is shown as "-eR " as in "mudheR " (mother with the "u" sound in "full")

  8. The "-or-" sound of UK Received Pronunciation "fork", "cautious" and "call" is represented by "-or-", with the "r" silent.

  9. The "-er-" sound of UK Received Pronunciation "first", "fur" and "certain" is represented by "-er-", with the "r" silent.


The location of Suffolk


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I wanted to share with you why I think Christianity is such a great religion. A person who lives to 70 has a life of 613,200 hours. Christianity promises that the next life will be in ideal surroundings with friendly, happy people. There will be perfect health and no crime. Of course you’re free to reject it.

Isn’t it worth, though, spending at least part of one of your 613,200 hours just checking it out. Then if you reject it, at least you’ll have made an informed decision. Is it just possible that your world view could be wrong and Christianity might actually be true? Where would that leave you if you choose to turn down the offer of eternal life?


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