The Norfolk Dialect

[Treffie]

In the county of Norfolk certain placenames are pronounced differently to the way they are spelled. The following list – taken from an 1883 original list of place names from A Glossary of Dialectal Place-Nomenclature by Robert Charles Hope – gives many examples of Norfolk placenames at variance with their usual spelling* – and their pronunciation.

Aldborough - Orlbur

Aumser - Arnmer

Bashingham - Bazyngame

Bawderswell - Bardsell/Bordsell

Bircham - Barchm

Bixton - Bixn

Caldecote - Corket

Carsington - Carsun

Colveston - Colstun

Costessey - Cossy

Grundisbury - Gunsbro

Halesworth - Harsler

Happisburgh - Hazebro

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From here

[Allenson]

Interesting stuff. I looked up a few more videos with a Norfolk/East Anglian accent after hearing this fellow you posted. There is no doubt in my mind that this eastern English way of speaking is a forbearer of the way old timers still talk here in New England. I'm not talking about that foul Boston accent heard nowadays--that's a more recent development. But if you listen to old timers from Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont, you'd hear some striking similarities. It stands to reason as East Anglia was a major contributor to the peopling of colonial New England. I have some from ancestors from Norfolk myself. I've actually never heard this Norfolk accent before till now.

The one that really jumped out at me was the " i " vowel in words like five and drive which rendered like " oi ". The very same thing is spoken here.

"I'ma gon' take a droive down route foive".

[Beorn]

Cheap imitations of the West Country in the East

[Treffie]

The one that really jumped out at me was the " i " vowel in words like five and drive which rendered like " oi ". The very same thing is spoken here.

"I'ma gon' take a droive down route foive".

I'm constantly taking the mick out of one of my colleagues from Cardiff (Kairdiff) who uses `oi` instead of `i`. It's quite a common phenomenon in the UK.