Late last evening I was happily designing my business cards online when ‘LastsongIheard’ posted a comment for for me. As Vin sat writing a new poem I was giggling in the background as songs from childhood were brought up as we commented back and forth.
Vin looked up and asked me what I was laughing at which was interspersed with the occasional “OH NO!”s After I had finished the cards, we started to pack up as it was getting late and the clock was gleaming 1.30am at us. I told him about some of the songs I had been laughing at… He looked blank, never heard of them so I found Jilted John which was a very politically incorrect group in the 1970′s back in the UK… I can’t repeat what he said here other than a few @*^#’s and “You guys bought that!”… Well no I didn’t but a lot did and sang happily along at the time to ‘Gordon is a Moron”!
But it did make me think as their accents are quite strong and how people here had a problem understanding me for a while until I slowed down and made an effort to enunciate properly… kind of… That is until people annoy me lol!
I thought about accents and how well know the American accent is and how easily it is to differentiate between states but in England it varies from town to town.
I have spent a lot of time, energy and patience to make sure my book is grammatically correct in true English other than I tilted the accents slightly so as not to lose people but who says what is truly grammatically correct? In my world that would be Oxford English but in real life? The one people live everyday? That’s a different story…
I remembered an old folk song my father used to sing to me. It now is classed as the Yorkshire Anthem. I showed it to Vin when we met. It took him a little while to figure it out, for me it’s a plain as the nose on my face! Though he didn’t understand a word I said when I bumped into a Yorkshire-man from Bradford and slipped into my ‘old ways’. He said I was talking a different language!
Today I found it again and for all the poets and writers out there have fun with this and think of it in a “Monty Python’ accent! 
On Ilka Moor Baht ‘at
Wheear ‘as ta bin sin ah saw thee, (Where have you been since we last met?)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at?! (On Ilkley Moor without a hat)
Wheear ‘as ta bin sin ah saw thee? (Where have you been since we last met?)
Wheear ‘as ta bin sin ah saw thee? (Where have you been since we last met?)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at?! (On Ilkley Moor without a hat)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at?! (On Ilkley Moor without a hat)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at?!(On Ilkley Moor without a hat)
Tha’s been a cooartin’ Mary Jane (Oh – so you have been “seeing” a young lady called Mary Jane)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Tha’s been a cooartin’ Mary Jane
Tha’s been a cooartin’ Mary Jane
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Tha’s bahn t’catch thi deeath o’cowd (You are going to catch a cold that will kill you)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Tha’s bahn t’catch thi deeath o’cowd
Tha’s bahn t’catch thi deeath o’cowd
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then we shall ha’ to bury thee (Then we will have to bury you)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then we shall ha’ to bury thee
Then we shall ha’ to bury thee
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then t’worms ‘ll cum and eat thee oop (Then the worms will eat your slowly decaying body)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then t’worms ‘ll cum and eat thee oop
Then t’worms ‘ll cum and eat thee oop
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then ducks ‘ll cum and eat oop t’worms (Then the worms will be eaten by ducks)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then ducks ‘ll cum and eat oop t’worms
Then ducks ‘ll cum and eat oop t’worms
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then we shall go an’ ate oop ducks (Then we will eat the ducks)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then we shall go an’ ate oop ducks
Then we shall go an’ ate oop ducks
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then we shall all ‘ave etten thee (So we will end up by indirect means – eating you)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
Then we shall all ‘ave etten thee
Then we shall all ‘ave etten thee
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
[The last verse was added some time later to the original.]
That’s wheer we get us oahn back (That means we will get our own back)
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
That’s wheer we get us oahn back
That’s wheer we get us oahn back
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
On Ilkla Moor baht ‘at
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