Is it Yoppul? The Fate of Island Speech
A sound installation about an Island dialect. With photography by Tobias Penner.
Isle of Wight 2017
Is it Yoppul? The Fate of Island Speech is a deeply personal exploration into the disappearance of an Island’s unique dialect.
I was born on the Isle of Wight. My accent, once full of Island words, could now be described as ordinarily Southern. Greater mobility, better education and improved access to information - whilst worthy of celebration - have tended to make places more uniform and erode cultural differences (1). Dialect words are handed down through the generations, but over time, younger generations are using standard English words in their place.
A sound recording captures the dialect in action across four generations of my Island family. Accompanying photographs depict scenes of Island words in action.
Featured Words
Anywhen – anytime or place, a recent variation of somewhen
Asprawl – sprawling
Butt – a small enclosure of land generally near the house
Cham – to chew
Chimbley – chimney
Daffydowndillies – daffodils
Drillen – dripping with sweat
Firk – a continual state of fuss or fidget; also to scratch
Gallybagger – scarecrow
Harpen – to talk continually on one subject
Jipper – juice or syrup of anything, pudding, meat or pie
Kurn – to turn from flower to fruit
Lewth – a sheltered spot from the wind
Mallishag – a large caterpillar, generally found in cabbage
Nammet – refreshment traditionally taken during the harvest
at four in the afternoon, consisting of bread or cheese and a
pint of strong beer
Overner – a non-native Island visitor
Pincherwig – earwig
Prenly – presently
Queal – to coil or curl up, to queal in, to go to bed
Roke – steam from boiling water
Somewhen – some time or place
Shute – a narrow road
Up tip – to overset
Varm – to clean, varm out, to clean out
Yoppul – useless talk
Zammer – to loiter, lazy
1 Kwon, M. (2002) One Place After Another: Site-specific Art and Locational Identity. USA: MIT Press