Folklore: translations from 'the Yorkshire'

Subject: Folklore: translations from 'the Yorkshire'
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 10:48 AM

Recently I read some mysteries by English author Marjorie Eccles. She grew up in Yorkshire, and her stories are mostly set there. I'm setting out some language I, an American, found interesting for the Mudcat's explanation and enjoyment.

[on eating chocolates] …another cracknel! She never learned, they were always the ones that were left.

    What's a cracknel? In America, we dread the raspberry jellies.
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The original [wall] paint, magnolia from top to bottom.

    I see references to magnolia paint quite often. Surely it's not the sickly pink-purple of the flower on a magnolia tree, is it?
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It was a long time since Rumsden Garth had seen such activity.

    I thought Garth was a Welsh masculine name.
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'Come in and have a cup of tea while I tell you. I've just mashed.'

    Is she cooking potatoes?
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the best fish and chips anywhere in the northern union

    Hmm, I've heard of the union of Scotland and England, but what's the northern union?
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…the cushions, which she insisted in leaving quatri-cornered along the sofa.

       quatri-cornered?
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A quaggy four and half acres, overgrown with sycamore...

    quaggy?
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Scotty was a slummocky type, not one of CID's finest.

    slummocky?
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A kitchen pinger on the table…

    The 'pinger' is self-explanatory. Such a cute name for timer. We've taken to using it at our house.
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He was huffed she'd gone off without leaving him a message..

huffed?

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from 'the Yorkshire'
From: IanC
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 11:44 AM

Cracknel = hard toffee
magnolia is an off-white shade very commonly used as chepa paint for walls throughout the UK. Not particularly Yorkshire
Garth (Home Close in Southern England) is a small enclosure close to the farmhouse where baby or sick animals (sometimes pigs) are kept
mashing = brewing / stewing. In the rest of England it is used for the 1st process in making beer
The Northern Union is another term for Rugby League and, by association, where this is played (as opposed to Rugby Union)
Quaggy = boggy (from normal English "Quagmire" = bog
slummocky = messy or untidy
huffed is just the [verb/past tense] of huff in use throughout UK ("she went off in a huffed").

:-)

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from 'the Yorkshire'
From: IanC
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 11:46 AM

a huff !!!

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from 'the Yorkshire'
From: theleveller
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 11:59 AM

I'd go along with Ian on everything except cracknel. That's a type of praline made from hard toffee and nuts, a bit like peanut brittle but with smaller bits of nuts. In chocolates it's crushed and mixed in with the chocolate.

The magnolia flower isn't always pink - I have one that's a delicate off-white, which is what the paint colour is.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from 'the Yorkshire'
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 12:48 PM

I would think 'quatri-cornered' cushions were arranged in a row with the corners top and bottom to make diamond shapes, rather than lined up with the sides parallel, or just thrown haphazardly (like mine).

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from 'the Yorkshire'
From: Willa
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 01:14 PM

He was annoyed (huffed)

I've just mashed. I've put the tea (nowadays it might be teabags!)in the pot and it's brewing for a few moments.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from 'the Yorkshire'
From: GUEST, topsie
Date: 17 Feb 14 - 01:26 PM

To go off 'in a huff' is used in the US - witness Groucho Marx: 'in a minute and a huff'.

Subject: RE: Folklore: translations from 'the Yorkshire'
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 18 Feb 14 - 01:11 PM

Thanks, all.

Ian, I never thought of the northern union in connection with sports. It's interesting that it's Rugby.

I'm chuffed to hear about huffed.

Garth - so Garth Brooks, the famous country singer, is named for the animal nursery? I wonder if he knows.

Yesterday I was reading an archeology book that defined the toft, the garth and the croft. I never did understand exactly what the toft was.
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