Comments on the Portsmouth dialect in response our article published last year continue to role in. Alun writes from Dubai ...

I lived in Alverstoke and went to school in Southsea until I was eighteen in 1982 and I worked in Portsmouth for most of the 1990s. I see myself as a member of the Alverstocracy, rather than a pure Portsmouthian, or "Pompey-oite." However I do have fond memories of my times spent on "the old mud-flats"

Place Names

Where I grew up, Alverstoke was a part of Gosport, Gods Port, Our Haven, Turk Town or even Turk Tain when pronounced by those folk over the water. Southsea, where I went to school and based much of my socialising was called Sarfsee.

I had arranged to meet with some others in a pub called the Mucky Duck. It does of course not exist and is in fact the White or Woite Swan. I just remember the "Mud-larks" referred to earlier, that would dive into the sea to retrieve coins, although this must have been 30 or so years ago.

Language

Being a naval city, references to the "skates" are many. I remember hearing Pompey "Slappers" or young ladies telling naval personal that "I aint no skate-bait mate." Another sentence that a Portsmouthian might utter in reference to an evening's entertainment could be "Oi goes eight on a Froiday noite, Oi 'as noine points, gets in a foite, Oi loikes it Oi dooes, its noice." There are references to "going dain tain on the saith dain for half a crane." I think Southdown was a bus service and half a crown is something to do with pre-decimal currency.

Conclusion

In Dubai I do occasionally hear the familiar Portsmouthian brogue and it is always a pleasure to exchange pleasantries about how the Pompey Football team are doing – pretty well I think in the 2002-2003 season.

Does anybody really know where the nickname Pompey comes from? I have heard that it is something to do with Bombay, meaning beautiful city or the Roman Emperor, but have never been given an authoritative answer.