How to speak Devon!

 

•  It’s the way  people in Devon say their R’s.

Although I spent my  youth in the West Country,   amongst  strong local accents, I lost  my local dialect when I went to University and worked around the country.

Now back in Devon, I hope it will return when I talk to my friends.

I spoke to a  lovely  lady  on the  bus to Brixham, and she had the most wonderful soft and rolling  devon accent. Her roots were Plymouth, where  she was born and raised  with two sisters, still  alive . And as she’d only moved around locally, I guess the devon accent  had stayed with her.

Origins of the accent

A west country accent  was spoken throughout most of England  in  Elizabethan times.

Prior to that, there  was a tremendous Saxon influence upon  the dialect. Saxons originated in Northern Germany.  We know there was movement  of Saxons  to Britain. May be partly with the march of  the Romans.

Once in Britain, the Saxons  gained control of Wessex, holding it from the Vikings.  And so their speech resisted any  Danish influence.

Today there is still  the  Saxon or  Northern German  remnants in the Devon Dialect. Devonians say  “I be”, meaning “I am” –  which is the same construction as in german.

 

A strong Devon accent  can be like a foreign language   and there is definitely a commonality with  people on the  East Coast  of America – again both pronounce their Rs the same way. Again, It’s thought to be due to migration  to America. Many were  poor farming folk and labourers.

People wrote of a labourer in the early 1900s from the west country sounding like gold  prospectors and cowboys in westerns.

Who speaks Devon?

Preservers of the  Devon accent  are special people – often generations in rural communities who have lived in the same village all their  lives.  Family  members, farmers , fishing communities –  who again work pretty much in isolation.  The fishermen of Beer even have their own unique dialect between themselves.

In Devon, accents are pocketed in  communities, North to South and East to West in Devon , all skirting Dartmoor in the centre of the county.  The distances  and the moors probably made it difficult to mingle with other towns in previous centuries. And  so  colloquial  languages thrived.

The accent gets diluted through the younger generations  – influenced by TV and media, travel, living away from home.    So it’s  important more than ever to preserve people speaking it and record it . Its like a badge  of honour for them!

 

We do know that  if an accent stands out in a school playground, particularly for early years children,  then children quickly  change how they  speak to fit in and pick it up.

 

Great Devon voices to listen  to are the   naturalist and wildlife expert, Johnny Kingdom and “Hagrid” from Harry Potter if you are keen!

A few Devon pointers–

To speak like a Devon Local    its firstly about how you pronounce  your  R’s –   Rhoticity. – strongly  sounding the R after vowels –  to say ‘worker’ , pronounce  ‘wuurrker’

(When  people wanted to speak  poshly, they tried to   “drop their R’s”)

Slowing down the speaking and extending vowel sounds-  “tourism” becomes “ter-ism”.

S  is pronounced as z       so ‘Somerset”  becomes “zummerzet”

Use “be” –  Devonians say “He be”  instead of “he is”

Also  say “her” in place of “she” and “him”   instead of “he”

Use special words  like “dreckly”  for “directly”

Drop letters at the end of the word   – lose the g– “going”  becomes “goin”,  and lose the h –  “hand” becomes “and”

And L’s can get dropped  if near the end of the word –  so “gold”  is pronounced “goad”

 

There are lots of Devon locals with lovely Devon lilts hidden away .

And I’m keen to look for them!