BBC Radio 4 - Open Country - 29 January 2005

Home

Explore the BBC

Text only
BBC Homepage
BBC Radio

Radio 4

Programmes

Podcast

Schedule

Presenters

News

Drama

Comedy

Science

Religion|Ethics

History

Factual

Messageboards

Radio 4 Tickets

Radio 4 Help

About the BBC

Contact Us

Help

Like this page?
Send it to a friend!

BBC Radio 4 - 92 to 94 FM and 198 Long Wave

Listen to Digital Radio, Digital TV and Online

OPEN COUNTRY

MISSED A PROGRAMME?
Go to the Listen Again page


	PROGRAMME INFO

	Saturday 6.10-6.35am Repeated Thursday 1.30-2.00pm


	From Shetland to the Scilly Isles, Open Country travels the UK in search of the stories, the people and the wildlife that make our countryside such a vibrant place. Each week we visit a new area to hear how local people are growing the crops, protecting the environment, maintaining the traditions and cooking the food that makes their corner of rural Britain unique. Email: [email protected] Postal address: Open Country, BBC Radio 4, Birmingham, B5 7QQ.


	LISTEN AGAIN


	Listen to Open Country for 29 January 2005


	PRESENTERS

	HELEN MARK and RICHARD URIDGE



	More about Helen Mark




	More about Richard Uridge


	PROGRAMME DETAILS

	Saturday 29 January 2005
Richard Uridge meets poet Katrina Porteous, shepherd and dialect poet Alan Wood and ex-miner Raymond Reid to talk about language and the rich dialects of the north. The dialects of Northumberland have their foundations firmly rooted in Old English Anglo-Saxon, with huge influences from Scandanavia. Language springs from the life of the people who use it, evolving, influenced by their work, pastimes and surroundings. Fishing villages along the coast will have words that are not recognised by the farming community less than ten miles away. The mining dialect of Pitmatic came from words used by the men down the pit. It too uses words that will not be understood by the fishing villages - it's an ongoing easily observable example of how language grows and changes. It also demonstrates graphically the ties of language and place as Pitmatic is restricted to very specific areas of the Northumberland coast. Raymond Reid met Richard outside the last deep coal mine in Northumberland. Ellington extends six miles under the North sea and the geological problems that it created has led to it closure. Raymond reads one of his poems in dialect and tells us of life down the pit. He demonstrates how words were forged from the working life of the miners and uses one or two vivid examples of Pitmatic. Northumberland Language Society Katrina Porteous lives in the village of Beadnell. Like all the fishing villages dotted up the coast, Beadnell relies as much on tourism as fishing. She uses the rich, almost visual sound of the language in her poetry and gives a good example of how sound and meaning are bound together. Katrina asks Richard to guess the meaning of a word just from its sound. Short, sharp words, for example, often have a quick, fleet meaning - words with more syllables slow down the sound of the word its meaning reflects a slower movement. Katrina tells Richard of the complexity of language, how it's used to bind communities together. Katrina Porteous Alan Wood has worked on the land all his life. He too is a dialect poet and takes Richard inland to the Coquet Valley. Known as the last wilderness in England, the Coquet Valley lies on the edge of the Cheviot hills. Alan tells tales of the people who have lived and worked in the valley, of his great-grandfather and the stories he handed down: of highwaymen and medieval burials all connected to the landscape. Email Open Country: [email protected] The BBC is not responsible for external web sites

	RELATED LINKS BBC Holiday Category BBC Country file