A good friend of mine worked in a large book store for many years. One day a lady came into the store and asked her “Hev yew got any books on bear maykin?”.
Naturally and understandably, she was kindly escorted to the arts and crafts section of the store, where the lady was shown some lovely books about how to make cuddly toys. i.e. Teddy bears and so on. The store had a fine selection of such books. “Here you go madame. Are these what you are looking for?”
The customer looked at the book store assistant quite puzzled.
“No dear. I wunt a book on bear mayking….. As’in points a bear!”
The penny dropped and she was duly shown the home brewery books for making pints of beer.
This got me thinking about some of the Suffolk words that to the untrained ear (or even the trained ear for that matter) could be construed for something else. Here are some examples of words that don’t always mean what you think they mean (depending on the context):
| Suffolk | English |
| Bear | Beer |
| Bin | Been |
| Bor | Boy (not Boar) |
| Rum | Peculiar |
| Bang | A type of cheese |
| Bargain | A quantity (not referring to the value) |
| Beavers | A 4pm snack |
| Blob | Blunt and rounded |
| Brew | Edge of a ditch |
| Coach | Baby’s pram |
| Dew | Do |
| Fairly | A lot |
| Flash | To trim (a hedge) |
| Jacob | Large toad |
| Muddled | Tired |
| Proper | Excellent / Exact |
So be aware! What you think you are hearing may not always be what is being said…
