Ilkley Moor
I'm going to tell of Yorkshire's own anthem and, by association, relate a little about the Yorkshire accent.
On Ilkley Moor Baht 'At is a light-hearted, Yorkshire dialect folk song written in the middle-to-late 19th Century. Allegedly composed by members of a church choir on an outing to the named location, it uses the tune of the Methodist hymn, Cranbrook (unsurprising as Methodism and Wesleyanism were socially and culturally significant movements in England as the Industrial Revolution burgeoned, especially in the north).
Now only associated in Britain with this unofficial Yorkshire anthem, I understand that it still serves in the US as tune for other songs and hymns. Incidentally, Cranbrook was also used in Yorkshire as a setting for the Christmas carol While Shepherds Watched—as was Old Foster, an early 19th Century tune by John Foster of my Yorkshire home village of High Green (there are commercial recordings of the latter setting but I've never come across any of the former, except as the "Yorkshire Anthem"). Cranbrook and Old Foster were, and are, used almost exclusively by informal, traditional, local carollers at Yuletide and can be heard in rural pubs in my home county at that time of year.
As noisy youngsters, On Ilkley Moor Baht 'At was amongst songs that we sang as we were transported on school buses. Our modern variant punctuated the song with nonsensical six-syllable interjections during appropriate spaces between verse and chorus or chorus and verse, one being "...Where the ducks play football". Strange what one remembers.
Even as a Yorkshireman, I had quite a few years under my belt before I had full grasp of what the lyric even meant! I suppose it's not all that surprising: as kids my brother and I were discouraged from speaking in dialect or with a strong accent, which was dismissed as "thee-ing and tha-ing" (ie using 'thee' and 'thou' in conversation, something which was still quite common in urban as well as rural areas of the West Riding). Now, of course, it's nearly gone (thanks to exposure to mass broadcast media) and we all find its loss regrettable.
Also common when I was young, relatives were always referred to possessively. So, when referring to my brother, Len, he would have been "our Len". Add to that practice the local accent and my cousin Elaine became not just "our Elaine" but "Ar Elaine". Confused for some time as a very small child, I thought her name was actually "Arrelaine".
A number of other sayings confused me for the same reason. When, during a genuinely light-hearted conversation, my mother asked if I'd rather my father was "balderunder'sod" I had no idea what she was talking about (she was asking if I preferred my father bald or dead—"under the sod"). Similarly, when a relative told me that "yervtoomucherwhatcatlickeditsarswi'" I was dumbfounded. Having been cheeky I'd actually been told I had too much to say, but the expression employed was "you've too much of what the cat licked its arse with," ie there was too much tongue being employed. My (entirely incorrect) take-out from what she'd said was that, coming from a Nonconformist background, she was in some way—in saying "Catlick"—having a pop at me for being brought up Catholic!
Once I'd been at school for a while, I naturally became used to the cadences and expressions, but I marvel still that a small place like Great Britain can accommodate so many regional accents. My original home village is equidistant—eight miles—from both the city of Sheffield and the town of Barnsley. 16 Miles apart, Sheffield and Barnsley had quite different accents, the former flattening vowels somewhat and the latter inflating them into a much-relished roundness. In fact, that's just the example to use: A Sheffielder would say "rahnd" for "round", a Barnsleyite would say "rownnd".
My favourite joke (yes, I actually have one!) relies on the confusion created by the differing accents of Yorkshire and so-called Received Pronunciation (sometimes referred to as BBC English—increasingly a misnomer as regional accents are not just welcomed at the Corporation, now, but indulged to the point of exaggeration). Perhaps fortunately, the joke works only when spoken, and then only if the Yorkshire accent is familiar.
Anyway, here are the words to the Yorkshire anthem:
|
On Ilkley Moor Baht 'At Wheear 'asta bin since ah saw thee, Chorus: Tha's bin a-coortin' Mary Jane Chorus Tha's bahnd t'catch thi deeath o'cowd Chorus Then we shall 'ave to bury thee Chorus Then 'worms'll cum and eyt thee oop Chorus Then 'ducks'll cum and eyt oop 'worms Chorus Then we shall gu an' eyt oop ducks Chorus Then we shall all 'ave etten thee On Ilkley Moor baht 'at! (...Where the ducks play football). |
Translation being:
Where have you been since I saw you |
Quite an unsentimental "Circle of Life" ditty that somehow didn't make it into The Lion King!
As you can see, "baht" is the colloquial expression for "without". It might be better rendered as "bar't", meaning "without (the)", bar being used in the sense of exclusion, as in the expressions "it's all over bar (except) the shouting", "bar none" (with no exception), etc.