For an appreciation of the way that the Kent dialect was spoken it is probably best to turn to the Introduction of Parish and Shaw’s The Dictionary of the Kentish Dialect and Provincialisms in use in the county of Kent (1888), part of which is reproduced below.
Their introduction then goes on to make some interesting comments on the nature of Kentish folk, their attitude to ‘others’ and the ‘pollution’ of the dialect by the proximity to London.
Almost every East Kent man has one or two special words of his own, which he has invented, and these become very puzzling to those who do not know the secret of their origin; and as he dislikes the intrusion of any words beyond the range of his own vocabulary, he is apt to show his resentment by taking so little trouble to pronounce them correctly, that they generally become distorted beyond all recognition, “Broad titus”, for instance, would not easily be understood to mean bronchitis.
The East Kent man is, moreover, not fond of strangers, he calls any new-comers into the village “furriners”, and pronounces their names as he pleases. These peculiarities of speech and temper all tend to add to the difficulty of understanding the language in which the Kentish people express themselves.
The true dialect of Kent is now found only in the Eastern portion of the County, and especially in the Weald. It has been affected by many influences, most of all, of course, by its geographical position, though it seems strange that so few French words have found their way across the narrow streak of sea which separates it from France.
The purity of the dialect diminishes in proportion to the proximity to London of the district in which it is spoken. It may be said that the dialectical sewage of the Metropolis finds its way down the river and is deposited on the southern bank of the Thames, as far as the limits of Gravesend Reach, whence it seems to overflow and saturate the neighbouring district. The language in which Samuel Weller, Senior and Junior, express themselves in the pages of the Pickwick Papers, affords an excellent specimen of what the Kentish dialect is, when it is brought under the full influence of this saturation.
In further posts I aim to show how some of this Kentish accent and pronunciation was preserved in works of verse, fiction and documentation.
Kenticisms 