MATLOCK LUNCHEON CLUB FEBRUARY MEETINGTALKIN’ PROPER

Graham Sellors, the speaker and Elaine Lovell, Chair of the Club

The title of this month’s talk at Matlock Luncheon Club was “Talkin` Proper” by Graham Sellors. Graham spent 25 years working for ITV as a writer and producer of educational television programmes. He subsequently tutored on script writing courses and more recently he has written community plays for Wirksworth where he now lives.

Graham grew up in the North Derbyshire pit village of Clay Cross. He spent time with his grandmother and remembered hearing the miners setting off to work, ‘snap’ tins banging as they walked down the cobbled ‘ginnels’. The members delighted in being reminded of Derbyshire words such as ‘wittle’ meaning to worry, ‘tassies’ for marbles and ‘nesh’ for feeling cold. He used the pronouns ‘thee, ‘tha’ and ‘thi’ to his friends at school but never to adults. Everyone understood the rules of the village dialect.

Graham explained that Standard English was developed by William Caxton. This was a commercial decision as he wanted to sell his publications in all corners of the country but there were five variations of dialect and he couldn’t afford to print different versions. He based the standards on the London dialect and set spelling rules. Received pronunciation is also based on educated speech in southern England which means that local variations are in danger of dying out.

We really enjoyed Graham’s anecdotes from across the country including North East of England, Birmingham and the Black Country. He told us he had ‘flitted’ many times, learning new dialects along the way. Many people stopped to chat to him afterwards. We all went home well and truly ‘podged’ (full) after a delicious meal and a stimulating talk.

A friend once asked me, “Do you like eating out? And do you like meeting new people and listening to interesting speakers?” I replied “Yes” to all the questions and she invited me to Matlock Luncheon Club as her guest. I enjoyed it so much that I joined which is why I am now writing this report about our latest meeting. So if you like good food, meeting new people and listening to interesting speakers then contact: secretary@ matlocklunceonclub. co.uk. We’d love to hear from you.