Norwich Male
Aged 88 | Born 1926
Full Kit
About the Speaker
"I was brought up by working class parents. I went to a state school. I was in the army during World War II. I then worked as a painter and decorator. I am a Christian, but can’t get to church because of mobility."
Preview Clip
This kit contains all the elements of a full Accent Kit
£10.00
About Norwich
Located in Norfolk, the only county in the UK (for now!) with no motorways, Norwich is a rural city. A centre for the wool trade throughout the middle ages, the city has known historical influence from a Dutch fishing and trading community. Norfolk is coastal and, as noted by Noel Coward, ‘very flat’. This is perfect for arable land but also makes it very vulnerable to the sea .
The modern accent of Norfolk and Norwich has been catalogued by Allen Smethurst, Charles Dickens and David Copperfield. Norfolk accents have an unusual feature were they completely drop the ‘YOO’ or YOD’ in words with a GOOSE vowel. This is a feature commonly heard in North American accents in words such as ‘duty’ (dooty) and ‘new’ (noo), but in Norfolk you will also hear it in words such as ‘beautiful’ (bootiful), ‘computer’ (compooter) and ‘future’ (footure).
As Norfolk is relatively cut off from the rest of the country, some of the local accents and dialects have retained many features of older English accents and dialects. For information on the dialect see John Trudgills excellent website www.norfolkdialect.com