Leena Pasanen visited Suffolk in the summers of 1971-1972 and 1975. Professor Harold Orton from the University
of Leeds instructed her in fieldwork, and she was further assisted by George Evart Evans, a local author of such works as
Ask the Fellows Who Cut the Hay and The Farm and the Village. Evans helped her choose her informants
and was also present in a couple of interviews. Unfortunately, Leena Pasanen passed away before she could share her fieldwork notes,
so that the information on her informants is based solely on what is given by themselves in the interviews.
According to Kirsti Peitsara (1996: 285), the few studies conducted in the
area had focused on the neighbouring county of Norfolk, and Suffolk had received relatively little interest in dialect studies. This is
reflected also in the SED study, in which Norfolk is represented with over twice the number of localities compared to Suffolk.
Pasanen visited localities in the central and eastern parts of Suffolk, and they triple the number of localities
visited by the SED fieldworkers (see map below).
Research on the Pasanen Suffolk Corpus has been made by Kirsti Peitsara (e.g. Peitsara 1985a,
1987, 1988, 1996).
J.W. from Snape. Recorded in 1972. Age, sex: 68, male. Occupation: Boatman. Description: J.W. tells about his trade and the wages in the old days.
Oh, when I was a boatman I used to get ten bob a day. = And if you done paintin' you got a shillin' a hour.
And hah = an' i- = an' if you = an' the yachtsman that time o' day, I think, the skippers got three pound a week an' the mates
got two poun'. 'At was about our wages, about the price then...
Download the sound clip by right-clicking here and choosing Save As
from the menu. MP3 2:13 2,01mb.
Sample #2
Suffolk Punch horses
S.H. from Lavenham. Recorded in 1975. Age, sex: 86, male. Occupation: Horseman. Description: S.W. tells about farmwork in his younger days.
Oh, when I was startin' work, I went down to a farm with a little ol' pony, Tumble we used to call 'm. And = 'at
was one, you know, like the biggins what the big horses was in, but this was a little ol' pony, Tumble. And = 'at 's what
I used to had to job about with. An' all we kids had to go over a cockfiel' to the main farm...
Download the sound clip by right-clicking here and choosing Save As
from the menu. MP3 1:37 1,47mb.
