TWL: Salty Talk
Ahoy there Shipmates,
Speaking of Nautispeak, I'm fascinated by eastern North American shore accents. Boatyard Tom, a fellow I met here in Florida, had a very rare accent. It was southern, but it was sprinkled with hints of salt. Words like "like" came out "loike". "Shore" sounded like "shoa-er". There were traces of salt cod mixed with his grits and barbequed pork. When I asked him where he was raised, he answered, "On an oiland off Sawth Caroloina."
So I suppose that the fishing folks who settled the eastern shore came mostly from families who fished for a living in some part of the British Isles with this accent, and once they hit North America, they must have spread fairly quickly in a thin line along the coast, as far north as maybe Newfoundland, and as far south as the Carolinas. Maybe they even got as far south as Florida? I think I've heard traces of the accent in the speach of older swamp-dwellers from the Everglades. Then their speach got influenced by folks who lived inland, and more recently, by that great homogenizer, television.
Are there similar speach patterns in other countries? For example in Australia, is there a fishing culture along the coast? And do people in rural areas along the coast speak slightly differently from folks inland? What about in South Africa or New Zealand?
Paul Browne
Geezer Boatworks
Head Geezer,
You bring back fond memories of Harkers Island - Downeast. I was
advised by a Harkers Islander to run the inlet at "hoi toid"...Hackney
with a Southern accent.
The following memories would be better in dialect but you'll get the
idea...
I was trying to get back aboard, but the tide had changed and my boat
was a couple feet from the dock. A local Harkers Islander suggested I
could make it two jumps.
We had the fiberglass sailboat up on a Harkers Island railway. One of
the workers seeing the now exposed smooth fair lines of the boat below
the water, commented that any respectable barnacle would jump two feet
out of the water to attach himself to that hull.
As my wife labored with a sanding block to remove the old bottom
paint, I was advised, "That gal ain't no slow leak".
I was in the shop one day, watching those boys build a 60' shrimping
trawler. The boss, Gilliken, was standing about 10 feet from the
almost completed hull, advising a worker where to put the waterline. I
asked Mr. Gilliken how he knew where the waterline should be. He said
he could just see it on the yet to be painted wooden planking. "C'mon"
I said, "no one can do that. Let me see the plans." Gilliken reached
over to the wall and handed me a 4 foot piece of 2X6, implying that
the working plans for this boat had been drawn in pencil on a piece of
scrap wood. I still don't believe him, but there wasn't a single
blueprint of drawing in the entire shop.
Gillikens planer was powered by a 283 Chevy engine and a big belt.
I watched one of the men hammer a screw into a plank with one swift
blow - putting the head flush without any trace of impact on the wood.
Appalled, I asked Gilliken what that slot in the screw was for. He
replied, "That's only for getting 'em out."
I watched Gilliken finish up work on a teak sailboat taffrail that
had been battered by the dock in a storm. He had just finished bolting
down a new section and needed a bung to cover the nut. I expected him
to 'turn' this 2 1/2" bung for a precise fit, or at least use some
kind of plug cutter. But no, he grabbed a block of teak and worked it
with his pocket knife for a watertight fit and a prefect grain match.
I gotta get back there one of these days.
Nick in Spartanburg, SC
----- Original Message -----
From: paul@browne.net
To: trawler-world-list@samurai.com
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 11:43 AM
Subject: TWL: Salty Talk
Ahoy there Shipmates,
Speaking of Nautispeak, I'm fascinated by eastern North American
shore accents. Boatyard Tom, a fellow I met here in Florida, had a
very rare accent. It was southern, but it was sprinkled with hints of
salt. Words like "like" came out "loike". "Shore" sounded like
"shoa-er". There were traces of salt cod mixed with his grits and
barbequed pork. When I asked him where he was raised, he answered,
"On an oiland off Sawth Caroloina."
Paul,
Aint ya herd. All them feriners got strang akcents.
docmoss
Are there similar speach patterns in other countries? For example in
Australia, is there a fishing culture along the coast? And do people in
rural areas along the coast speak slightly differently from folks inland?
What about in South Africa or New Zealand?
Paul Browne
Geezer Boatworks
You guys just keep talkin' and I'm gonna get around to gitin' away from this
computer sometime tomorrow. This is just a wonderful conversation.
keepitup,
docmoss
Paul, Nautispeak is really quite fascinating. Do you know of any
literature/books one could obtain to learn at least the rudiments
thereof?
There is an excellent book on the history of imigration from the UK to
North Am which delineates specific and quite varried speech patterns and
customs of various areas of England which were brought over and established
in defined areas of settlement of the East Coast . Many of these patterns
have been preserved in isolated rural areas - including fishing villages
along the coast .- it is an academic tome of 900 pages - but quite
facinating .. You might enjoy it ...
Albion's Seed : Four British Folkways in America , David Hackett Fischer
, Oxford Univ. Press, ISBN #
0-19-506905-6
All the Best
Ken
m/v Mrs. Hudson
paul@browne.net writes:
Speaking of Nautispeak, I'm fascinated by eastern North American
shore accents.
Paul, Nautispeak is really quite fascinating. Do you know of any
literature/books one could obtain to learn at least the rudiments
thereof? Or is the only way to move for some time to someplace like a
Newfoundland fishing outpost? I live in Toronto, pronounced "Trana"
and the natives here have their own dialect of English but
Nautispeak it ain't....
George of Scaramouche1, wintering in Lake Ontario, Canada
Are there similar speach patterns in other countries? For example in
Australia, is there a fishing culture along the coast? And do people in
rural areas along the coast speak slightly differently from folks inland?
What about in South Africa or New Zealand?
Hi Paul.
Most of Australia's population is along the coast...the East coast at that!
The rest of the place is pretty dry, but we love it.
Whilst there are a number of fishing communities all along the coastline,
there are no particular accent or dialectic differences to speak of.
There are local idiosyncrasies, but these do not seem to be related to a
particular endeavour or pursuit.
As you have pointed out US TV has had an impact on our young people (and
some of us older guys too) but essentially in the context of simple
adjectives: Biker versus Bikey for a motorbike rider is a simple example.
Meanwhile we share great advantages...like Trawler World List!!
Cheers
Glenn
Port Phillip, Australia.