Women Writers of the Mining Community (1)

Hello and welcome to our third week on the theme of women. This week is focused on written works around mining, by women. 

For today’s blog, I thought we would start off by highlighting some work carried out by Professor Natalie Braber. Braber’s main interests are in the fields of sociolinguistics and language variation, with a focus in the ‘Pit Talk’ of East Midlands coal miners.

Pit Talk of the East Midlands is a book that was written by Natalie Braber, along with Claire Ashmore and Suzy Harrison. The book can be found and purchased on all of the usual book selling sites, located by a simple google search.


I discovered that many of the terms and words they [when speaking on East Midlands dialects] used comprised a completely unique – and much overlooked – language variety, which I have since referred to as “pit talk”. SOURCE

 

Examples provided of some word, noted as ‘Pit Talk’ include  “motties” or “tallies” (the identity discs worn by miners) and the “cage” (used to refer to the lift that led to the mines). (Read More Here)

 

Pit Talk: Amazon.co.uk: Braber, Natalie: Books

 

So, with ‘Pit Talk’ in mind… Let’s av it. What are some words/terms that were popular at your pit? Share in the comments. 

Categories: News.