Sussex dialect
| Sussex | |
|---|---|
| Native to | England |
| Region | Sussex |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | None |
The Sussex dialect is a dialect that was once widely spoken by those living in the historic county of Sussex in southern England. Much of the distinctive vocabulary of the Sussex dialect has now died out, although a few words remain in common usage and some individuals still speak with the traditional Sussex accent.
The Sussex dialect is a subset of the Southern English dialect group. Historically, there were three main variants to the dialect: west Sussex (west of Shoreham and the river Adur), mid Sussex (between the Adur and Hastings) and east Sussex (from Hastings eastwards). There were also differences between downland and Wealden communities. In particular, the people of the Weald were thought to have the most impenetrable accents. The Sussex dialect shows remarkable continuity: the three main dialect areas reflect the historic county's history. The west and mid dialect areas reflect the ancient division of Sussex between East and West, which until the creation of the rape of Bramber in the 11th century lay along the river Adur. The eastern dialect area reflects the unique history of the Hastings area, which was home to the kingdom of the Haestingas until the 8th century.
Sussex dialect words have their sources in many historic languages including Anglo-Saxon,Old Dutch, Old Welsh , with a dash of 14th-century French, and a little Scandinavian. Many words are thought to have derived from Sussex's fishermen and their links with fishermen from the coasts of France and the Netherlands.
Below is a set of features of pronunciation in the dialect used across Sussex:
In the 19th century, William Durrant Cooper found that the people in eastern parts of Sussex spoke many words with a French accent. For instance, the word day was pronounced dee, and mercy as in the French merci. In Rye, the word bonnet was pronounced bunnet and Mermaid Street was pronounced Maremaid Street.
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