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Dorothy Clayton
Born: 26 August 1948
Lives: Huddersfield, West Yorkshire
Time lived in area: More than 10 years
Occupation: Health service worker
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Dorothy suggests that Patois gives younger people a sense of identity - her children speak it better than she does.
Language of interview: English
Duration: 01:30 (mins/secs)
The participants were asked to describe how they spoke in their own words.
How do you describe your accent: "Speaky-spokey."
Have there been other influences on the way you speak: "Also lived in Canada for seven years."
Do you have skills in languages other than English?: Yes
Other languages: Patois
DOROTHY: I know my identity, I'm comfortable with myself, I'm not searching for something to say who I am. For a lot of the young people, language is what sort of gives them some sort of historical identity and th- that's what they key on to, that's what they're using. I think in the older people in fact they try not to use Patois if they can help it. KEITH: That's right, yeah. DOROTHY: You know so there is a contradiction there about the identity thing. ANDREW: My son cannot speak any Patois whatsoever. Three sons and none of them can speak it. Two of them can recognise it a little, one more, the older one can more than the other and they're just English, they don't know anything about Patois. INTERVIEWER: Is that a source of regret? ANDREW: It's disgusting. DOROTHY: Can't they pick it up? ANDREW: They can't, they can't, he's not picking it up, it's not working. KEITH: Not living in the environment you see, they don't come across it you see. DOROTHY: I don't know... my kids... I'd say that they're fairly privileged and we haven't lived as long as much in the black community but certainly from records their Patois is better than mine and, you know, they understand it all. They've visited Jamaica but it's from records, it's from music that they've picked up Patois and they understand it totally. ANDREW: Are you sure their Patois's better than yours? DOROTHY: Yes, they even tell me off. But can we go back to the language thing because you talk about identity and I think where language comes as identity is that you see black people and they could be from any part of the world... but as soon as a Jamaican open the mouth you know that's a Jamaican so maybe that's one way of identifying... you can always pick up that Jamaican accent and they think, "Oh, they're Jamaican" and so that's an identity thing that comes in.
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Also on Voices:Where I live:
British Library's Collect Britain:
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What do you think about your local accent?
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Elizabeth l allegedly spoke nine different languages, including Welsh, and did a number of translations.
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