busker

Oop 't Eikley Moor bah t'at

My Yorkshire grandmother had the most delightful soft regional accent but the tradesmen who called were incomprehensible to me.

I answered the door one day to an "Ayup, lad - got 'ny joomble?" for which I had to summon Gan Gan to translate. The burly northerner, complete with horse and cart piled high with scrap iron was a "Rag and Bone Man" and he was asking if we had any jumble.

Despite his Cambridge honed tones, Dad could do an ace imitation of God's own vowels and I always wished I'd acquired that particular voice.

It's not too late: help is at hand in this splendid and witty Dialect Dictionary.