Tin Tin Tin
Posted By Judith on 24th November 2016
You could be forgiven for thinking that this is going to be about a well known fictional sleuth, or perhaps a famous Hollywood canine whose name I mis-spelled, (after all the ‘R’ and ‘T’ are next to each other on the keyboard) but you’d be wrong on both counts.
You may have gathered by now I’m a proud Yorkshire lass and even after 18 years in Lincolnshire I haven’t lost my accent, or so people tell me. I doubt I ever will and the differences in regional accents and vocabulary continue to interest me.
In fact last December I wrote a short piece which touched on this very subject through the example of a tuna salad sandwich.
Further to that story, not only do we Yorkshire folk call ‘a spade a spade’ but we also call a teacake with currants in it a ‘currant teacake’!! Regular readers will also know we didn’t go with the weatherboard for the garage, parachute or larch!!
If you want to understand what on earth I’m talking about in that last paragraph you’ll have to read the piece in question which you can find here.
However I digress. The other day, being at a loose end, I was aimlessly surfing the internet when I came upon a list of Yorkshire sayings. Browsing through it one entry caught my eye. At first it made me scratch my head and then it made me smile.
I’m sure most people are aware of the common Yorkshire sayings:
‘Eee by gum’ for example or ‘Put t’wood in’t th’ole’.
A couple which might be less well known but which are two of my favourites are ‘Muck hook’ (pronounced hooook) and ‘Keep t’band in’t nick’. Translations available upon request.
Which brings me to ‘Tin tin tin’. When I first saw it I was puzzled and it took quite a while for the penny to drop. Indeed now that it has I’m not even sure it’s a bona fide Yorkshire saying, more likely the product of someones mischievous sense of humour.
I think it was the way the words were written that put me off the scent initially. If I write it like this does it become any clearer?
‘T’int in’t tin’
No? I’ll have a go at putting it in a sentence using my best Queen’s English.
“That packet of chocolate Hob-nobs I was saving for a special occasion don’t seem to be in the biscuit tin”
I think ‘Tin tin tin’ is much more fun!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.