Ginnels, and snickets

[markjohnobrien]

In Sheffield in 1940s known as a jennel

East Midlands, or at least Derby/Nottingham area, they're gitties.

I beg to disagree, as a born and bred Nottingham lad, they were always known as twitchels.

Hardly: I beg to disagree even more as someone who was originally from Nottinghamshire, and had friends in Nottingham itself, it was always Jitty or Gitty (sic).

I’ve never even heard of twitchels in a Nottinghamshire context.

While twitchel may have been used in a dark, dank, corner of Nottingham that I’m unaware of, as per the example, it certainly wasn’t a universal usage in Nottingham or Nottinghamshire.

Still, thanks for your example as, again, I’ve never heard of it.

I’ve even asked my family (who have lived in Nottinghamshire all of their lives and some worked in Nottingham for 50 years, and they have never heard of the phrase either.

[TrevA]

Twitchel is a Nottingham word

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/submi ... 9/twitchel

Perhaps it’s just a Carlton thing, though I asked my wife, who’s a Woodthorpe girl and she said twitchel too, without any prompting from me.

[markjohnobrien]

Interesting: thanks for clarifying the specific areas.

[TrevA]

Mumbling nerd references both twitchel and Jitty, though the correct pronunciation would be jitteh.

https://mumblingnerd.com/2010/06/23/not ... atic-form/

[markjohnobrien]

Thanks - had a good chuckle reading the link as my young children who were born and live in Oxfordshire, and don’t have flat vowels obviously, occasionally, and episodically, call each other “Mardy”. When I interrogated them on where they had heard this, they replied “Granny in Nottinghamshire”.

Mardy means sulky or petulant.

Apologies for the thread drift but it fell within the vein of East Midlands or Nottinghamshire dialect.

[djnotts]

Twitchel is a Nottingham word

https://www.collinsdictionary.com/submi ... 9/twitchel

Perhaps it’s just a Carlton thing, though I asked my wife, who’s a Woodthorpe girl and she said twitchel too, without any prompting from me.

"My" twitchel" is in Carlton. My gf grew up in Sherwood and twitchel was common currency there.

[Rmr25]

East Midlands, or at least Derby/Nottingham area, they're gitties.

I beg to disagree, as a born and bred Nottingham lad, they were always known as twitchels.

Hardly: I beg to disagree even more as someone who was originally from Nottinghamshire, and had friends in Nottingham itself, it was always Jitty or Gitty (sic).

I’ve never even heard of twitchels in a Nottinghamshire context.

While twitchel may have been used in a dark, dank, corner of Nottingham that I’m unaware of, as per the example, it certainly wasn’t a universal usage in Nottingham or Nottinghamshire.

Still, thanks for your example as, again, I’ve never heard of it.

I’ve even asked my family (who have lived in Nottinghamshire all of their lives and some worked in Nottingham for 50 years, and they have never heard of the phrase either.

I've lived in Nottingham for over 70yrs and assure you that the term twitchell was used, as was jitty & alley.

[sjs]

Anyone from Derby? I hail from Ilkeston (about half way between Nottingham and Derby) and it was (40+ years ago!) jitty/gitty there, though I wouldn't say twitchell was completely unknown. Also, as mentioned above, mardy (and ruder variants) and many other local words were in common use.

[markjohnobrien]

Very interesting: as while I’m from Nottinghamshire, I went to secondary school in Ilkeston and never heard the phrase twitchel there either!

And what makes it even more interesting is that the school bussed in children from lots of different areas from Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire giving a cross sample of local dialect usage.

I’m getting the impression this is a distinctive Nottingham phrase, possibly used more strongly in some areas of Nottingham than others. It might also be generational in its usage.