Lunnun's a long way off for Tom
SADLY, the Sussex dialect died out between the two world wars.
The only people who speak it now have learned it as an act of homage to a largely forgotten tongue.
But there is a rare book in circulation which is pure Sussex. It is charmingly called Jurney to Lunnun, Shewing the Many Difficulties He Met With, written by one Tom Cladpole.
Young Tom came from the Lewes area but decided to head for London to seek his fortune and find his sister Sal. The problem was that he couldn't read.
The first time he found a signpost he knew he was in trouble, as this piece of Sussex doggerel describes:
"Now wust ant was, I couldn't read
"De letters on de post,
"So sumtimes I went roun about,
"An otherwhile was lost."
Poor fellow. He didn't get very far. It was said that the Sussex dialect was the richest of all the Englsh dialects, containing Latin and Dutch words from the days of Roman occupation and smuggling respectively.
It is also said that there are 46 Sussex phrases in the works of Shakespeare including the word 'hugger-mugger' (Hamlet) which is Sussex for 'in secret'.
It's odd to think that if someone spoke Sussex to you today you would understand little or nothing. Yet if you were a working class Sussex person 60 years ago, you would not only have understood but been able to reply as well.
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Weather for Lewes
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: -5 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 13 mph
Wind direction: South east
