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<div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Greetings Woolfians,</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Interesting material here on accents. I wonder if Woolf wasn't</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">hearing something like car pronounced with an a as in cat,</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">as I think I hear in Scouse. On Watkiss though I find through</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Google that there are quite a few of them. The name would</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">seem to come from Waldhar which, as the link below holds,</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">meant people rule, which would fit well with what's already been</div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">suggested as Woolf's rationale for choosing it. <br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false">Thanks for the discussion, William (link >></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><br></div><div dir="ltr" data-setdir="false"><a href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Watkiss__;!!KGKeukY!g7YGPGEDtLEV8Df-P0H7itOQ_q6Jp0C_gL6-Tq_NhBdqYB6wMLxaGXkdLyHmbLiepg8$" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" class="">https://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Watkiss</a></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>
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On Sunday, November 22, 2020, 8:22:11 PM GMT+1, Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf <vwoolf@lists.osu.edu> wrote:
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<p>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:</p>
<p>"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.'"</p>
<p>That would match the "Proime" but I'm less sure about "kyar."</p>
<p>Jeremy H<br clear="none">
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<div class="yiv2139133416yqt5441445809" id="yiv2139133416yqt31355"><div class="yiv2139133416moz-cite-prefix">On 22.11.2020 17:53, Stuart N. Clarke
via Vwoolf wrote:<br clear="none">
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</blockquote></div></div><div class="yiv2139133416yqt5441445809" id="yiv2139133416yqt52653"><div><div dir="ltr">
<div style="FONT-SIZE:12pt;FONT-FAMILY:'Calibri';COLOR:#000000;">
<div><span style="WHITE-SPACE:normal;WORD-SPACING:0px;TEXT-TRANSFORM:none;FLOAT:none;TEXT-ALIGN:justify;ORPHANS:2;WIDOWS:2;DISPLAY:inline !important;LETTER-SPACING:normal;TEXT-INDENT:0px;text-decoration-style:initial;text-decoration-color:initial;"><font style="background-color: inherit;" face="Times New Roman"><font style="FONT-SIZE:13.6pt;BACKGROUND-COLOR:#faebd7;">Edgar
J. Watkiss, with his roll of lead piping round his
arm, said audibly, humorously of course: "The Proime
Minister's kyar."</font></font></span></div>
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<div>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. </div>
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<div>Woolf wrote in “Memories of a Working Women’s Guild”
(1930):</div>
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<div>“to deride ladies and to imitate, as some of the speakers
did,</div>
<div>their mincing speech and little knowledge of what it
pleases them to</div>
<div>call ‘reality’ is not merely bad manners, but it gives
away the whole</div>
<div>purpose of the Congress, for if it is better to be a
working woman</div>
<div>by all means let them remain so and not claim their right
to undergo</div>
<div>the contamination of wealth and comfort.” (E5 182)</div>
<div> </div>
<div>If he says it “humorously”, then is he perhaps parodying
upper-class speech?</div>
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<div>Stuart</div>
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