[Vwoolf] "Mrs. Dalloway" crux

[Jeremy Hawthorn]

Various colleagues in my (English) department suggest that this is 
English Black Country (i.e. Midlands - which would chime with 
Birmingham). If you are of my generation or near it, Stuart, you might 
remember a young Brummie girl who became famous on TV in the 60s because 
of her thick dialect. According to Wiki:

"Janice Nicholls was a former office clerk from the English Midlands who 
became famous for the catchphrase "Oi'll give it foive" [ = I'll give it 
five] which she said with a strong Black Country accent on the TV show 
'Thank Your Lucky Stars.'"

That would match the "Proime" but I'm less sure about "kyar."

Jeremy H

On 22.11.2020 17:53, Stuart N. Clarke via Vwoolf wrote:
> Edgar J. Watkiss, with his roll of lead piping round his arm, said 
> audibly, humorously of course: "The Proime Minister's kyar."
> Leaving aside the ramifications and peculiarities of his name, what is 
> his accent?  This has subconsciously bothered me for years.  It has 
> been suggested that it is Irish. “Proime” sounds Southern Irish; 
> alternatively, very Birmingham to me.  Is “kyar” Irish?   It doesn’t 
> sound like any accent I can readily think of.
> Woolf wrote in “Memories of a Working Women’s Guild” (1930):
> “to deride ladies and to imitate, as some of the speakers did,
> their mincing speech and little knowledge of what it pleases them to
> call ‘reality’ is not merely bad manners, but it gives away the whole
> purpose of the Congress, for if it is better to be a working woman
> by all means let them remain so and not claim their right to undergo
> the contamination of wealth and comfort.”  (E5 182)
> If he says it “humorously”, then is he perhaps parodying upper-class 
> speech?
> Stuart
>
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