[Vwoolf] FW: "Mrs. Dalloway" crux

[Caroline Webb]

This makes me wonder about the actual sound of “kyar.”  I always vaguely heard it as “car” with an inserted semivowel (like “piazza”), but I suppose it must be meant to rhyme with “liar.”  That would fit with the notion that Watkiss is parodying the upper classes who produce things like Prime Ministers—and ride in cars.

Caroline

From: Vwoolf <vwoolf-bounces+caroline.webb=newcastle.edu.au at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf-bounces+caroline.webb=newcastle.edu.au at lists.osu.edu>> On Behalf Of Jeremy Hawthorn via Vwoolf
Sent: Monday, 23 November 2020 6:22 AM
To: vwoolf at lists.osu.edu<mailto:vwoolf at lists.osu.edu>
Subject: Re: [Vwoolf] "Mrs. Dalloway" crux


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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