As I was outside the other day trying to detach myself from the sticky stuff, Much drily remarked, 'she'll be there while next Tuesday'. SO I need to explain the Yorkshire use of 'while', as it was explained to me many years ago.
'While' is used for 'until'. 'I'm working while six today', or 'he won't be back while Thursday'. 'you can tell 'im while t'cows come 'ome, 'e won't listen'. (Yorkshire tends to drop its aitches, too, except, strangely for 'haitch' when they add one.).
I was told the following story about the Yorkshire town we first moved to, but I've heard it about other places in the country, too. Long long ago, when they first introduced traffic lights, a sign was put up which read, 'wait here while light is red'. After a week as an accident blackspot with the local pedestrians traumatised, they changed it. 'Wait here until light is green.'
5 comments:
That's fascinating... and rather funny... I never heard of the word used that way before.
They also say 'now then' as if they're about to tell you something, but it's just a way of greeting you in passing, like 'good morning' or 'hi!'. Confusing at first. One of my favourite Yorkshire words is snicket, or snickelway, which is a back lane, a short cut.
And Yorkshire is rightly famous for its food. I have to be careful. I could get seriously immense, living here.
Snickelway! Spelled "snickleway" it's used in Franny Billingsley's amazing book CHIME... the book is historical fantasy set in English swamplands.
Sounds as if it might be my kind of book! I'll look out for it.
Sounds as if it might be my kind of book! I'll look out for it.
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