British Dialects

8/2/2019 British Dialects

1/49

Yerevan State University

Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures

Department of English Language

YEAR PAPER

Theme:

Peculiarities of British Dialects

Written byMghdsyan Meline

Student of the group 4

Research Adviser

Petoyan Tatev


2/49

Yerevan 2012

INTRODUCTIONLanguage is the most important means of human being. Many peoples on the Earth have no means

of representing their speech in the form of writing. In fact, some authorities estimate that there are

more than two thousand languages in the world which have never been reduced to writing. Writing,

therefore, must be considered a secondary manifestation of language. Likewise, other such

representations and devices exist, some rather crude and some more elaborate; gesture, facial

expressions, code signals, weather- vanes, and road signs are among them. The variety of languages

is as great as variety of the peoples. Some languages have much in common they belong to one

family, other languages differ much and it seems that they have nothing in common but the thing

that brings together all of them is that people use it to communicate with each other. One and the

same language may differ in different regions of the country. The most widespread reason is the

influence of the other cultures. Such form of a language which is spoken only in one area, with

words or grammar that are slightly different from other forms of the same language is called the

dialect1. Dialects are such varieties of a language that contrast in pronunciation, grammatical

patterns, and vocabulary and that are associated with geographic area and social class. The two

main types of dialects are the geographical dialect-spoken by people of the same area or locality

and the social dialect-used by people of the same social class, educational level, or occupational

group. The development of dialect variations clearly shows that language is continually evolving.

Sometimes, when varieties of a language change to the point that they are mutually

incomprehensible, the dialects become languages in their own rights. This was the case with Latin,

various dialects of which evolved into French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and their

various dialects. Although the term "dialect" is used popularly to refer to vernacular (i.e., non-

standard) language varieties, linguists use the term in a neutral sense to refer to any variety -

vernacular or standard. Years of sociolinguistic research have shown that dialects are merely

different from each other. Our aim is to show this difference.

There are 2.5 thousand of languages, if not to take in consideration the distinctions between

dialects. If we take dialects as separate languages their number will amount to 5 thousands. The

whole amount of population in the world already has past 5 billions of people, it means that onaverage there is one language (or dialect) to million of people. Its impossible to learn all of them.

1 Dictionary of contemporary English, Longman

2


3/49

For implementation of contacts between nations and states there are such people as interpreters.

English language is the most prevalent and universally recognized. 402 million people all over the

world speak English. It is widely spoken on six continents. In the British Isles, North America and

Australia, where English is spoken as the primary language, the English-speaking population is

fairly stable. In Africa, the Indian subcontinent and South-east Asia, where English is used as a

secondary language, its future is uncertain. English speakers fall into three groups: those who have

inherited it as their native language, those who have acquired it as their second language in a

society that is largely bilingual, and those who have learned it as a necessary medium of their

education or profession. In the entire world, one person in seven now belongs to one of these

groups.

Almost every language has different variants of pronunciation thats why its no wonder that

there are: British, American, Australian or Canadian English. The linguistic variations of one and

the same language differ from its dialects. These variations of English already are independent

languages but its dialects will never become independent.

The reason why we have chosen this theme is that of enlargement of our knowledge of

English language, of penetration in its historical past. These materials will help us to evaluate and

understand the peculiarities of foundation and development of this language, its dialects and

accents. Our aims are:

to examine the most prevalent British dialects;

to compare their lexis (the word stock of the dialect), grammar and phonetics with those of

Standard English ones, and to clarify what is the difference between them;

to show the peculiarities of British dialects;

The subject of British dialects is very topical nowadays because the English language develops and

changes and the dialects are forgotten. New words constantly replace the old ones. The old

generations sometimes cant understand the young because of the distinctions in their speech; their

language is the same but the words are different.

Our work will consist of 2 chapters. The 1st part will include mostly the theory, i.e. the

history and development of the English language because its very important for us to know the

prerequisites of the appearing of the dialects. Also in this chapter we will examine the concept of

dialect in general, the difference between standard dialects and non-standard dialects, between the

dialect and the accent. We will trace how a variety of speech (on the example of Moldovan) was

deliberately changed to serve political purposes. Also here we will examine what dialects exist in

England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

3


4/49

The second chapter of our work we will dedicate to the analysis of British dialects (using

the comparative and statistical methods) and to their peculiarities more minutely.

Dialects of English language have some divergences from rules of pronunciation and

grammar. The learning of these divergences will help to understand the dialects better. We will

know how the meaning of words was formed and developed. As all languages change over time

and vary according to place and social domain we should ascertain why it happens. There is such

point of view that dialects - is a "vulgar speech" that is used by uneducated strata of society.

However this statement is wrong because the literary norm is formed on the bases of one or more

local dialects and linguistic features of any local dialect are determined by strict historical

regularities. For profound understanding of etymology, history and theory of English language we

should study territorial dialects.

Henry Sweet predicted in 1877 that within a century, American English, Australian English

and British English would be mutually unintelligible, but it may be the case that increased world-

wide communication through television, the Internet, or globalization has reduced the tendency to

regionalisation. This can result either with some variations becoming extinct (as, for instance,

apartment has been gradually displacing flat in much of the world) or that wide variations are

accepted as "perfectly good English" everywhere.

In addition to its use in English-speaking countries, English is used as a technical language

around the world, in medicine, computer science, air traffic control, and many other areas.

Like all languages, English is constantly changing. Some changes spread out to cover the

whole country; others spread only so far, leading to dialect differences between areas. The spread

of changes may be caused by physical barriers to communications. The Fens is one such important

boundary, with pronunciation in Norfolk of laugh /la:f/ and butter /bt/, and in Lincolnshire of

/lf/ and /bt/. The Norfolk pronunciations are newer forms which never made it across the Fens

into Lincolnshire. Language change can sometimes be explained by external factors e.g. the

wholesale adoption into English of many French words following the Norman Conquest of England

in 1066. If we look far enough back in time, we can see that the impulse for change in language has

led to the growth of different languages. 2000 years ago, the following languages were all part of

the same language: Swedish, Dutch, Norwegian, Icelandic, German, English. We now call these the

Germanic language family, and they are descended from a common ancestor of which we have no

records. In spite of common ancestor an English speaker cannot understand Dutch or Norwegian

without studying them. 1000 years ago they probably could. The same applies to English. The

English language was brought to Britain by Germanic-speaking invaders about 1500 years ago.

4


5/49

Over the intervening centuries the language has changed enormously with the result that the Old

English or Anglo-Saxon as written by King Alfred is no longer comprehensible to the Englishes,

and the Middle English of Geoffrey Chaucer is by no means easy to read and even harder if they

just hear it.

The main peculiarity of British English is that in contrast to other languages it has always

been, and continues to be, a language of dialects. "There are no really sharp dialect boundaries in

England, and dialects certainly do not coincide with counties. Yorkshire Dialect, for instance, does

not suddenly change dramatically into Durham Dialect as you cross the County Durham boundary.

Indeed, the dialects of northern Yorkshire are much more like those of County Durham than they

are like those of southern Yorkshire. Dialects form a continuum, and are very much a matter of

more-or-less rather than either / or. There is really no such thing as an entirely separate, self-

contained dialect.2" (Trudgill 1990: 6) Wherever one goes in England or elsewhere in Britain, there

are very obvious differences between the ways in which people speak in different places. It is so

with the words used, with the grammar or the way in which words are organized, and very

noticeably with pronunciation or dialect. Everyone in Britain seems to be aware of this variety to

some extent, and most of them take this diversity for granted much of the time. Paradoxically,

variation in dialect, and especially in pronunciation, is a subject about which most people when

pressed, and many people without requiring any invitation, are quite prepared to express an

opinion. Stop anyone in the street and ask what their words is, for example, for the soft shoe that is

worn when playing sports, or what their opinion is of a Geordie or a Brummie or a Cockney dialect,

and you can almost guarantee an interested and an interesting response.

There are four major divisions of dialects in Britain: Northern English, Midlands English,

Southern English and Scottish English and in this work well try to analyse them. Well distinguish

between their vocabulary, grammar and phonetics.

The rich variety of dialects in England can in large measure be attributed to the simple fact

that English has been spoken in the country for upwards of 1,500 years. Even in North America,

where English has been in use for some 400 years, there has been insufficient time for

fragmentation of the language to occur on the scale to which it has occurred in England, although

many regional varieties have transplanted to the New World. Yet it is not the time-scale alone that

has resulted in such a wealth of dialect. Language, like a culture, is always changing, becoming the

property of succeeding generations who alter it to suit their own purposes. To understand the

dialect situation in England we must look not only at the number of years that the language has

2 Trudgill, P. (1990) The dialects of England, Oxford: Blackwell.

5


6/49

existed there but also at what has taken place with regard to the language during those years. Forces

may have acted, and indeed have acted, to suppress the trend towards dialectal development. That

these forces were weaker than the forces working for the growth of dialect is an important feature

of the history of the language at various stages of its evolution.

There are no sharp distinctions between dialects but the style that people use to

communicate is different. Some dialects, for instance, are known for the ability of their speakers to

conduct conversations containing quickfire wit and repartee e.g. Merseyside and Cockney. In

others, such as East Anglia, slower speech styles and more sardonic wit is appreciated. This leads

to stereotyping of speakers as having certain characteristics. Cockneys are valued in London as

amusing, but seen in East Anglia as arrogant and dominant; whilst East Anglians are perceived as

taciturn and unfriendly by Londoners.

I. General notions of British dialects

In order to understand the nature and origin of conditions prevailing in dialects today we

must learn to understand the circumstances which fostered them. And first of all we want to start

from history of the English language.

English is descended from the language spoken by the Germanic tribes (the Frisians, Angles,

Saxons, and Jutes) that migrated to the land that would become known as England. According to

the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, around 449 AD, Vortigern, King of the British Isles, issued an

invitation to the "Angle kin" (Angles, led by Hengest and Horsa) to help him against the Picts. In

return, the Angles were granted lands in the southeast. Further aid was sought, and in response

"came men of Ald Seaxum of Anglum of Iotum" (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes). The Chronicle

6


7/49

documents the subsequent influx of "settlers" who eventually established seven kingdoms:

Northumbria, Mercia, East Anglia, Kent, Essex, Sussex, and Wessex.

These Germanic invaders dominated the original Celtic-speaking inhabitants, the languages

of whom survived largely in Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Ireland. The dialects spoken by these

invaders formed what would be called Old English which was a very similar language to modern

Frisian which was also strongly influenced by yet another Germanic dialect, Old Norse, spoken by

Viking invaders who settled mainly in the North-East. English, England, and East Anglia are

derived from words referring to the Angles: Englisc, Angelcynn, and Englaland.

For the 300 years following the Norman Conquest in 1066, the Kings of England spoke only

French. A large number of French words were assimilated into Old English, which also lost most of

its inflections, the result being Middle English. Around the year 1500, the Great Vowel Shift

transformed Middle English to Modern English.

Modern English began its rise around the time of William Shakespeare. Some scholars

divide early Modern English and late Modern English at around 1800, in concert with British

conquest of much of the rest of the world, as the influence of native languages affected English

enormously.

Increasing democratization of society in the XIX century, together with improved

communications, began the slow process of exposing everyone to the rich variety of regional

dialects existing in the country. On the other hand, the same developments spread the powerful

influence of the standard form of the language, and progress in education, in the professions, and in

society continued to depend on the possession of an acceptable accent and a grasp of the "correct"

grammar and vocabulary. In the course of time the British Broadcasting Corporation would come

to select its announcers and newsreaders on considerations of accent which went far beyond the

dictates of intelligibility.

Yet with their roots firmly fixed in the history of the language, the dialects of England have

persisted through the generations. Whatever was useful in each new age has been added to local

speech as well as to the standard "supra-dialect": Scandinavian and French words through invasion;

Classical and Romance words in the Renaissance; words from many other languages through

colonization and trade; continuous changes in pronunciation.

Thus English belongs to the western sub-branch of the Germanic branch of the Indo-

European family of languages. The closest undoubted living relatives of English are Scots and

Frisian. Frisian is a language spoken by approximately half a million people in the Dutch province

of Friesland, in nearby areas of Germany, and on a few islands in the North Sea.

After Scots and Frisian, the next closest relative is the modern Low Saxon language of the

eastern Netherlands and northern Germany. Other less closely related living languages include

Dutch, Afrikaans, German and the Scandinavian languages. English speakers understand many

French words, as English absorbed a tremendous amount of vocabulary from the Norman language

after the Norman conquest and from French in further centuries; as a result, a substantial part of

7


8/49

English vocabulary is quite close to the French, with some minor spelling differences (word

endings, use of old French spellings, etc.), as well as occasional differences in meaning.

Unlike other languages English is analytic (i.e., relatively uninflected). Over thousands of

years English has lost most of its inflexions, while other European languages have retained more of

theirs. Indeed, English is the only European language in which adjectives have no distinctive

endings, except for determiners and endings denoting degrees of comparison. Another

characteristic is flexibility of functions. This means that one word can function as various parts of

speech in different contexts (ex: the word "walk" can be used both as a noun and a verb). Another

feature is openness of vocabulary that allows English to admit words freely from other languages

and to create compounds and derivatives. English is a strongly stressed language with 4 degrees of

stress: primary, secondary, tertiary and weak. A change in stress can change the meaning of a

sentence or a phrase. In comparison with other languages English stress is less predictable.

The English vocabulary has changed continually over more than 1,500 years of

development. The most nearly complete dictionary of the language, the Oxford English Dictionary,

contains more than 600,000 words, including obsolete forms and variant spellings. It has been

estimated, however, that the present English vocabulary consists of more than 1 million words,

including slang and dialect expressions and scientific and technical terms, many of which only

came into use after the middle of the XX century. The vocabulary is approximately half Germanic

(Old English and Scandinavian) and half Italic or Romance (French and Latin), with copious

borrowings from Greek in science and borrowings from many other languages. The English

adopted the 23-letter Latin alphabet, to which they added the letters W, J, V. For the most part

English spelling is based on that of the XV century. Pronunciation, however, has changed greatly

since then. During the XVII and XVIII centuries fixed spellings were adopted, although there have

been a few changes since that time. Numerous attempts have been made to reform English spelling,

many during the XX century. The English vocabulary is more extensive than that of any other

language in the world, although some other languagesChinese, for examplehave a word-

building capacity equal to that of English.

I.1. Dialect

In order to begin the classification of British dialects we should clarify what the dialect is.

A dialect (from the Greek word ) is a variant, or variety, of a language spoken in a

certain geographical area. The number of speakers, and the area itself, can be of arbitrary size. It

follows that a dialect for a larger area can contain plenty of sub-dialects, which in its turn can

contain dialects of yet smaller areas, etc. A dialect is a complete system of verbal communication

(oral but not necessarily written), with its own vocabulary, grammar, and syntax. Two dialects that

share enough similarities may be said to belong to the same language (or two dialects of one

language). We may distinguish betweenstandard dialects and non-standard dialects.

Astandard dialector standardized dialect (or "standard language") is a dialect that is supported by

institutions. Such institutional support may include government recognition or designation;

8


9/49

presentation as being the "correct" form of a language in schools; published grammars, dictionaries,

and textbooks that set forth a "correct" spoken and written form; and an extensive formal literature

that employs that dialect (prose, poetry, non-fiction, etc.). There may be multiple standard dialects

associated with a language. For example, Standard American English, Standard British

English, and Standard Indian English, may all be said to be standard dialects of the English

language.

A non-standard dialect, like a standard dialect, has a complete vocabulary, grammar, and

syntax, but is not the beneficiary of institutional support. For example, Black English Vernacular

may be said to be a non-standard dialect of the English language.

The concept dialect is distinguished from sociolect, which is a variety of a language spoken

by a certain social stratum, from standard language, which is standardized for public performance

(e.g. written standard), and from jargon and slang which are characterized by differences invocabulary (or lexicon according to linguist jargon). Varieties, such as dialects, idiolects and

sociolects, can be distinguished not only by their vocabulary, but also by differences in grammar,

phonology and prosody.

Now lets try to find out what is the difference between the dialect and the language. There are

no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing languages from dialects, although a number of

paradigms exist, which render sometimes contradictory results. The exact distinction is therefore a

subjective one, dependent on the user's frame of reference.Language varieties are often called

dialects rather than languages solely because they are not (or not recognized as) literary languages,

because the speakers of the given language do not have a state of their own, or because their

language lacks prestige. Anthropological linguists define dialect as the specific form of a language

used by a speech community. In other words, the difference between language and dialect is the

difference between the abstract or general and the concrete and particular. From this perspective, no

one speaks a "language," everyone speaks a dialect of a language. Those who identify a particular

dialect as the "standard" or "proper" version of a language are in fact using these terms to express a

social distinction. Often, the standard language is close to the sociolect of the elite class. In groups

where prestige standards play less important roles, "dialect" may simply be used to refer to subtle

regional variations in linguistic practices that are considered mutually intelligible, playing an

important role to place strangers, carrying the message of wherefrom a stranger originates (which

quarter or district in a town, which village in a rural setting, or which province of a country); thus

there are many apparent "dialects" of Navajo and Apache, for example, geographically widespread

North American indigenous languages, by which the linguist simply means that there are many

subtle variations among speakers who largely understand each other and recognize that they are

each speaking "the same way" in a general sense.

9


10/49

Modern day linguistics knows that the status of language is not solely determined by linguistic

criteria, but it is also the result of a historical and political development.

Political factors

Max Weinreich3 has provided this definition: "A language is a dialect with an army and a navy".

However, this also leads to inconsistencies and controversies, as political frontiers do not neatly

follow lines of linguistic usage or comprehensibility. Depending on political realities and

ideologies, the classification of speech varieties as dialects or languages and their relationship to

other varieties of speech can be controversial and the verdicts inconsistent.

There have been cases of a variety of speech being deliberately altered to serve political

purposes. The example is Moldovan. No such language existed before 1945, and most non-

Moldovan linguists remain sceptical about its classification. After the Soviet Union annexed the

Romanian province of Bessarabia and renamed it Moldavia, Romanian, a Romance language, wastransposed into the Cyrillic alphabet and numerous Slavic words were imported into the language,

in an attempt to weaken any sense of shared national identity with Romania. After Moldavia won

its independence in 1991 (and changed its name to Moldova), it reverted to a modified Latin

alphabet as a rejection of the perceived political connotations of the Cyrillic alphabet. In 1996,

however, the Moldovan parliament, citing fears of "Romanian expansionism," rejected a proposal

from President Mircea Snegur to change the name of the language back to Romanian, and in 2003 a

Romanian-Moldovan dictionary was published, purporting to show that the two countries speak

different languages. Linguists of the Romanian Academy reacted by declaring that all the

Moldovan words were also Romanian words. Even in Moldova, the head of the Academy of

Sciences' Institute of Linguistics, Ion Brbu, described the dictionary as a politically motivated

"absurdity".

I.2. British Dialects

The size of the British Isles often leads people to assume that the language spoken in its countries

of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland is somewhat homogeneous and first time visitors are often

surprised to find that they have difficulty in understanding the accents and dialects of certain

regions. Even within the country of England alone there is great diversity of dialect both regionally

and socially. The term "British English", when used by British speakers, often refers to the written

Standard English and the sociolect known as Received Pronunciation (RP). The written Standard

English dates back to the early XVI century in its current form. It is primarily based on dialects

from the South East of England and is used by newspapers and official publications. RP is the most

extended and socially accepted pronunciation (accent) which is used by educated people in London

and the South of England. A possible reason for this phenomenon is the support for its use by the

3 In 1945 the Yiddisch linguist Max Weinreich formulated the much quoted metaphor in "YIVO and the problems of

our time," _Yivo-bleter_, 1945, vol. 25, no. 1, p. 13.

10


11/49

most prestigious public schools (Winchester, Eton, Harrow, Rugby, etc.) and the old universities

(Oxford, Cambridge). It should be emphasized that only 3-5 % of the population of England speak

RP. RP is also known as Queens English or BBC English.

Standard English is considered to be the model for educated people but what is it exactly

nobody knows. There are many approaches to the understanding of what the Standard English is:1. Some lexicologists considerStandard English as the official language of Great Britain taught at

schools and universities, used by the press, the radio and the television and spoken by educated

people. It may be defined as that form of English which is current and literary, substantially

uniform and recognized as acceptable wherever English is spoken or understood. Its vocabulary is

contrasted to dialect words or dialectisms belonging to various local dialects. Local dialects are

varieties of the English language peculiar to some districts and having no normalized literary form.

Regional varieties possessing a literary form are called variants. Dialects are said to undergo rapid

changes under the pressure of Standard English taught at schools and the speech habits cultivated

by radio, television and cinema.

2. According to P. Trudgill4Standard English is not "a language" in any meaningful sense of this

term. He says that SEis less than a language because its only one variety of English among many.

3. There is also another point of view that SEhas nothing to do with pronunciation also. It is widely

agreed that while all RP speakers also speak Standard English, the reverse is not the case. But RP is

standardized accent of English and not SEitself.

To sum up all aforesaid wed like to emphasize that at least most British sociolinguists are agreed,

that Standard English is a dialect. As we mentioned above SEis just one variety of English. It is a

sub-variety of English. Sub-varieties of languages are usually referred to as dialects, and languages

are often described as consisting of dialects.

The development of dialects in Britain we can trace from the ancient times. The various

Germanic tribes (Angles, Saxons, and Jutes) who invaded Britain after 437 AD brought with them

their own dialects of West Germanic. These formed the basis for the appearance of later dialect

areas. The language itself, as spoken by these people after they arrived in Britain, is sometimes

called Anglo-Saxon but nowadays more usually Old English. The submergence of the various

British Celtic languages (of which Welsh is the only modern survivor) also lead to innovations in

British English. The Viking invasions resulted in more Norse influence in the north than in the

south, thereby contributing another layer to the existing dialects. Moreover, the Norman French

invaders influenced the south more than the north, which came to be more conservative

linguistically. The Great Vowel Shift of the 1500's didn't affect northern English dialects, which

came to be called Scots English. Because of the long history of dialect creation in the English

4Hughes, A. and Trudgill, P. (1996) English Accents and Dialects: An Introduction to Social and RegionalVarieties of British English, Third Edition, London: Arnold.

11


12/49

speaking areas of Great Britain, there are more dialects of English in Britain than in America,

Canada, and Australia combined.

In spite of the fact that Great Britain is not such a big country there is a great variety of

different dialects on its territory. During the centuries, English language has changed enormously in

different ways in every part of Great Britain. Nowadays it is almost impossible to find out how

many dialects exist in England and classify them because they change gradually from one part of

the country to another creating a kind of "continuum". Significant changes in dialect

(pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary) may occur within one region.

The four major divisions are normally classified as:

Southern English dialects

Midlands English dialects

Northern English dialects

Scottish English and the closely related dialects ofScots and Ulster Scots (varieties of Scotsspoken in Ulster).

There is alsoHiberno-English (English as spoken in Ireland) and the form of English used in

Wales. The various English dialects differ in the words they have borrowed from other languages.

The Scottish and Northern dialects include many words originally borrowed from Old Norse; the

Scottish dialects include words borrowed from Scots and Scottish Gaelic. Hiberno-English includes

words derived from Irish.

There are many differences between the various British dialects. These can be a major

obstacle to understanding between people from different areas. However, modern communicationsand mass media have reduced these differences significantly. In addition, speakers of very different

dialects may modify their pronunciation and vocabulary, towards Standard English.

The classification of modern British dialects presents serious difficulties as their boundaries are

instable.

England

Northern English

Northumberland (Geordie, Pitmatic)

Durham (Mackem)

Cumbrian

Yorkshire

Lancashire

Merseyside (Scouse)

Midlands English

East

Derbyshire

Nottingham

Lincolnshire

12


13/49

Leicestershire

West

Black Country (Yam Yam)

Birmingham (Brummie)

East Anglia

Norfolk (Broad Norfolk)

Southern English

Estuary English

Cockney (London)

Somerset

Devon

Cornwall

Scotland

Scottish English (Scots)

Highland English

Wales

Wenglish

Pembrokeshire

Northern Ireland

Mid Ulster English

Hiberno-English

On the map below we can discern dialects and languages on the territory of British Isles.

13


14/49

This map shows only some dialects; lets say "the most popular". As to the languages we can say

with confidence that the United Kingdom has no official language. English is the main language

and the de facto official language, spoken monolingually by an estimated 95% of the UK

population.

However, some nations and regions of the UK want to speak and to promote their own

languages. In Wales, English and Welsh are both widely used by officialdom, and Irish and Ulster

Scots enjoy limited use alongside English in Northern Ireland, mainly in publicly commissioned

translations. Additionally, the Western Isles region of Scotland has a policy to promote Scottish

Gaelic.

Under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which is not legally

enforceable, the UK Government has committed itself to the promotion of certain linguistic

traditions. Welsh, Scottish Gaelic and Cornish are to be developed in Wales, Scotland and

14


15/49

Cornwall respectively. Other native languages afforded such protection include Irish in Northern

Ireland, Scots in Scotland and Northern Ireland, officially known as "Ulster Scots" or "Ullans" in

Northern Ireland but in the speech of users simply as "Scotch" or "Scots", and British Sign

Language.

Nevertheless lets return to the dialects. The conservatism is one of the main features of themodern English territorial dialects. Some deviations from literary standard mostly are conditioned

not on evolution but on its absence: many linguistic phenomena from different periods of the

language history are preserved in dialects.

Map from Pictures of England5

County Key: Yorks = Yorkshire, Wars = Warwickshire, Leics = Leicestershire, Mancs =

Manchester, Lancs = Lancashire, Derbys = Derbyshire, Staffs = Staffordshire, Notts =

Nottinghamshire, Shrops = Shropshire, Northants = Northamptonshire, Herefs = Herefordshire,

Worcs = Worcestershire, Bucks = Buckinghamshire, Beds = Bedfordshire, Cambs =

Cambridgeshire, Herts = Hertfordshire.

5http://www.picturesofengland.com

15


16/49

II. The classification of British dialects according to their location

In this chapter we want to classify the British dialects according to places where they are spoken,

i.e. England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The dialects of England differ sharply from all

other dialects. Why is it that people in different parts of the country speak differently? Trudgill

(1994:5-7) thinks that English is constantly changing, and that different changes take place indifferent parts of the country, or the spread of changes will be halted by barriers to communication

such as countryside which is difficult to cross.

1. ENGLAND

As England is a big country, the dialects there seize 3 territories: Northern, Midlands and South. In

these territories the dialects are spoken differently because of the influence of different languages

and cultures. Linguists agree that about 900 English words of Scandinavian origin, including get,

hit, leg, low, root, skin, same, want and wrong. It is impossible to prove that these words could

not have existed in the ancient English language long before the Scandinavian invasion. While

most people in Central England say "boy and girl," a huge northern area uses "lad and lass." This

area coincides with the distribution of "lug" instead of 'ear,' etc. The words lad, lass and lug and

similar basic dialectal words are the last remnants of a sunken language, the peaks of an iceberg

that was not originally English in its vocabulary. It indicates that the majority of the speakers of

their core area once consisted of foreigners, whether Picts, Goths or Scandinavians.

1.1. Northern English

Various names have been proposed for the speech of the industrial North of England: 'Geordie',

'Pitmatic', 'Durham English', 'Mackem', 'Cumbrian', 'Scouse', etc. All Northern English seems a

truer echo of Old English (Anglo-Saxon) than Southern English - especially in its vowel sounds. It

retains a great number of Norse-based words than Southern English, but shares with it an admixture

of words derived from Norman-French in the feudal era. Like every other dialect, the speech of the

North has interacted with 'Standard English', with increasing convergence in recent centuries.

Northern English dialects include such counties as: Northumberland, Durham, Cumbria, North

Yorkshire, South Yorkshire, Lancashire, Manchester, East Yorkshire, West Yorkshire, Lancashire,Merseyside, Cheshire. The counties of northern England are not far from the Scottish border, so the

influence of Scottish English is noticeable, though there are of course many features only of

northern English regions. The Northern dialect closely resembles the southern-most Scottish

dialects. It retains many old Scandinavian words, such as bairn [b n ] for 'child'. The most

outstanding version is Geordie, the dialect of the North East and namely of the Newcastle area. It

has much in common with Mackem the dialect of Durham. The term "Mackem" is used to

describe someone native to the city of Sunderland (an industrial city and port in the English county

of Tyne and Wear). Alternatives include 'Makem' or 'Mak'em'. The term was coined by shipyard

workers in the XIX century in Newcastle to describe their Wearside counterparts. The Geordies

16


17/49

would 'Take' the ship to be fitted out that the Mackems 'Made', hence 'Mackem and Tackem'

("make them" and "take them"). The term came into increasing use during the late 1980s and early

1990s, partly due to the labelling of Sunderland people as 'Mackems' by 'Geordies' and partly by

Sunderland people themselves who did not want to be identified as Geordies.

GEORDIE

Geordie is a term used to describe a person originating from Tyneside (the city Newcastle-upon-

Tyne and its surrounding area) and the former coal mining areas of northern County Durham and

the dialect spoken by such people. The villages around Newcastle, until recently depending largely

on the coal industry, are home to many of the broader dialect speakers. There are a number of rival

theories to explain how the term came about, though all accept that it derives from a familiar

diminutive form of the name "George". In recent times Geordie has also started to mean a

supporter of Newcastle United football club no matter where their origin often including peoplefrom well outside the traditional area. This movement is opposed by traditional geordies however

both due to their wanting to seem unique and the fact that many of them are supporters of the rival

football club Sunderland.

The word "Geordie" is said to date from the early XVIII century, when Newcastle people

declared support for the English kings George I and II, in opposition to the rest of the population of

Northumberland, who supported the Scottish Jacobite rebellions. Although the name is localised to

the Newcastle area, the dialect here merges gradually into the Northumbrian and Scottish dialects

to the north and to a lesser extent into Durham and Yorkshire varieties to the south. Geordie

derives much less influence from French and Latin than does Standard English, being substantially

Angle and Viking in origin.

The relationship between the local dialect and Standard English, like in other parts of Britain,

has not always been comfortable. Non-standard pronunciation and grammatical forms have been

widely proscribed in school classes, and speakers of the dialect themselves will often express a

view that their language is substandard or bad. Until very recently, there has been no educated role

model on radio or television, and many people from the area feel that they are discriminated against

on the basis of the way they speak.

An alternative (and more likely) explanation for the name is that local miners used

"Geordie" safety lamps designed by George Stephenson, rather than the "Davy Lamps" designed by

Humphry Davy which were used in other mining communities. This is the version that is generally

preferred by the Geordies themselves.

Distinctively Geordie words are more than 80 % Angle in origin, compared to Standard

English, where the figure is less than 30 %. Modern English words by comparison are

predominantly of Latin origin because modern English derives from the dialects of southern

17


18/49

England which were continuously influenced by the Latin and Norman French favoured by the

educated classes of Oxford, Cambridge and London.

Geordie words should not be seen as sloppy pronunciation or a poor use of language, as they

are in fact of great antiquity. Indeed many old words and phrases commonly used in the old works

of Chaucer and Shakespeare which are no longer used in other parts of Britain have survived as

common usage in the North East. Many educated Geordies, especially in the urban area, have a

wider degree of competence in both standard and non-standard speech so that, depending on

context; they have a range of forms at their disposal. Generally, the more informal the context, the

greater the number of dialect features. There are also signs of a growing pride in the distinctive

nature of the dialect, with Geordie dictionaries, versions of bible stories and so on, appearing on the

market. There are also bumper stickers with humorous messages such asDivn't dunsh us, I'm a

Geordie! ,

6

! (Don't bump into me, I'm a Geordie!).Vocabulary.

People in the North-east believe that a lot of Geordie words come from "Scandinavian". There is a

strong link with the language of the Anglo-Saxon immigrants of the first millennium, particularly

those from the Angle areas of what is now southern Denmark. Words such as lop , -

'flea, louse or its egg' ("The penny lop was the local cinema which was full of people with fleas"7),

hoppings - 'fairground', ket - 'rubbish' and worm -

'monster' ("the name given to the legendary monsters described in so many ballads. The LambtonWorm is the best known. But there was the Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heugh near Bamburgh,

and the "Dragon-Worm" of Sockburn in Durham") have been suggested as Anglo-Saxon survivals.

Invaders from further north, known popularly as "Vikings", probably had a greater influence on the

language further south in Durham and Yorkshire. Geordie language is, in fact, quite closely allied

to Lowland Scottish, although the exact etymology of many words of the area is still not fully

understood.

Varnigh is in common use, meaning 'almost' - , or 'very nearly' . Other

dialect words such aspenker - - 'marble' andplodge 'wade through mud, wade in water

with bare feet' may have an onomatopoeic element, while a Romani origin has been suggested for

some words such asgadgie -'chap' and baari- 'excellent' - .

Geordie also has a large amount of vocabulary not seen in other English dialects. Words

still in common use today include canny for 'pleasant' ("an embodiment of all that is

kindly, good, and gentle. The highest compliment that can be paid to any person is to say that he or

she is canny"), hyem, yearmfor 'home' - (Im gannin hyem - 'Im going home'), divn't

(divvent) for 'don't', hacky for 'dirty' (Hacky-dorty - 'very dirty' ), and

6 7 Frank Graham (1998) The New Geordie Dictionary

18


19/49

howay meaning something like 'Come on!' ! or 'Well done' ! When a Geordie

uses the word larn for 'teach' - , it is not a misuse of the English word 'learn'; the word is

derived from the Anglo Saxon word 'laeran', meaning 'to teach'.

Some words do appear to have currency further north into the Scottish Lowlands. These are:

bonny'pretty' , (is usually used like canny to describe character as well as

looks.A bonny bairn - 'a good looking child' .A bonny singer - 'an accomplished

singer' ), burn 'stream' /, muckle 'very' - , cuddy 'small

horse, donkey' / (He's a greet sackless cuddy - 'He's a big stupid

donkey'), spuggy 'sparrow' - , hadaway 'go away/begone' ! or 'you're kidding'

!, sackless 'stupid, useless' /, cushat'wood pigeon'

.

Other typical Geordie words are also found further south, and appear to be part of a generalNorthern English lexicon: aye 'yes' (why aye - 'of course' - ),gob 'mouth' - ,give

over 'stop it' !, chuffed'happy' - , wisht 'be quiet' !, nowt

'nothing' - , nigh on 'nearly' - , na 'no' - .

The following words can be considered truly Geordie words:pet'term of address for

females' (e.g. "thanks, pet"), bullets 'sweets' (so called from the shape of a bullet. The

best known are black bullets. A black bullet consists of a dark brown peppermint flavoured

spherical boiled sweet. They contain only 3 ingredient's: sugar, glucose and peppermint oil), marra

'friend, mate' /, bait 'food' (bait-poke orbait-can - 'a metal container to carry

food to work'), lowp 'to jump' - , ten o'clock 'morning snack'

/ (He' ye had yor ten o'clock yit?),get'stupid person' , netty

'toilet/lavatory' /, cree '(bird) cage' , hoy 'throw'

/ (to hoy a stone - 'to throw a stone'), deek'see, look at' / ,

dunsh 'push, bump' //, toon 'Newcastle' - ,gannin

'going', weees 'who is' - , ooot'out' // -, the neet'tonight'

, morrer'tomorow' (see yer the morrer- 'see you tomorrow') . In

Newcastle there are such common phrases and greetings:

Hoo ye gannin? orHoo's ya fettle? 'How are you?' ?

Champion. 'Very good, very well'

Bonny day the day. 'It's nice weather'

Whey aye, man. 'That's right' -

Give ower, y'a kiddin. 'Come on, you're joking' , !

Hadaway man. 'I'm still not convinced'

Ya taakin shite. 'I really disagree with that'

19


20/49

Tara now, pet. 'Goodbye (to female)' ()

Wee's yon slapper? 'Who's the young lady?' (derogatory) ?

Grammar.

Probably the most noticeable feature of Geordie grammar is a confusing difference in pronoun

forms. The term us is used to indicate a singular 'me' - , while the plural form for 'us' is wu

or even wuz. Sogive us itmeans 'give me it' ( ) andgive wu itmeans 'give us it'

( ). Yee means 'you' - , Geordies useyouse for plural 'you' (.), me for

'my' /. 'Our/my' (/) is pronounced wor. Typical members of the family thus

include: wor lass my 'wife' , wor kid'my younger brother' , wor

fatha 'my father' , etc.

The plural formyous is also in use, and possibly appeared due to influence from the large

influx of Irish people to Tyneside in the second half of the nineteenth century.The negative form of the verb "to do" is divventinstead of "don't" and there are distinctive

past tense forms of verbs such as tell (telt), forget - (forgetten) and put

(putten).

For example:

I telt you to give us a one, but you've forgetten. If you divvent give us it noo, I'm gannin

yearm. ('I told you to give me one, but you've forgotten' - ,

. 'If you don't give me it now, I'm going home' ,

).

The example above also shows the common combination 'give me one' as ingive us a one.

In many cases, what is the simple past form in Standard English is also used as a participle

in the Geordie variety. For example, in Standard English you say 'I took' but 'I have taken' and 'I

went', but 'I have gone'. However, in broad Geordie,I've took one andHe's never went there may

be used. This feature has long been stigmatised as "bad English" but it is actually a consistent part

of the grammar.

Another notable grammatical feature is a combination of certain words such as 'might' and

'could' which are not allowed together in most standard varieties. It is possible to say, for example:

He might could come tomorrow .

Often, quantity expressions such asfive year( ) and ten pound( ) are

used without a plural -s.

A common feature is the use of the word man to indicate rather more than reference to a

male person. For example, inye cannet, man 'you really can't' ( ),

the word man acts as a final particle emphasising the impossibility of the action. Another finalparticle marhas a similar function of emphasis, as in it's cowld the day, mar'it is really cold today'

20


21/49

( ), while the end of the sentence as in who says, like? orit's not my fault,

like may request or provide exemplification.

Another difference from Standard English in the grammar is that butcan occur at the end of

a sentence. For example:

It'll be dark, but You might could lose it, but

Also, the object pronoun can be used at the end of a sentence for emphasis:

I really love chips me

I cannet understand it, me

Phonetics.

In Geordie most consonant sounds are similar to those of Standard English. The most notable

exception is the famous "burr" or uvularrsound, roughly similar to the French pronunciation of

"r". This is by no means universal on Tyneside, but more common in mining communities further

north. It has received a lot of interest from linguists, although its use appears to be declining today.

Unlike many English dialects, initial "h" is not dropped from the beginning of words, but word-

final -ing is usually pronounced as -in.

The most notable feature of the consonants occurs in the sounds in the middle of words like

"bottle". In Geordie, the t sound is not replaced completely. Rather, it is half replaced so that there's

a glottal stop and the t pronounced at the same time. There may also be a "v" sound inserted in

some sequences, such asgive it tiv us - 'give it to me' ( ) orA sez tiv im - 'I said to him'

.

It is the vowel sounds that really give Geordie speech its distinctive character. On the end of

words "er" becomes "a" ("father" is pronounced "fatha", both "a" sounds as []). Many [a]

sounds become more like [e]: "hev" for "have". Double vowels are often pronounced separately:

"boat" becomes "boh-ut". Some words acquire extra vowels ("growel" for "growl", "cannet" for

"can't"). The "or" sound in words like "talk" becomes "aa", while "er" sounds in words like

"work" becomes "or". The "oo" in words like "cook", "book" or "look" becomes "uu". Like other

northern dialects, the u vowels tend to be short, so that the vowel sounds in the words 'foot' and

'bus' are the same. Final vowels are usually given rather greater stress than in Standard English, so

that words like "fighter" and "mother" sound like "faita" and "mutha". Some vowels involve the

combination of two different vowels, such as those in "eight" and "throat" which sound more like

"ee-ut" and "throw-ut". These are the real shibboleths of Geordie speakers. There are some more

extreme variants too, for example, 'take' may be pronounced tekand 'face'fyes. The vowel in 'town'

is typically pronounced toon. Fanatical followers of Newcastle United Football Club are well

21


22/49

known as the Toon Army. Similarly, 'brown', 'about', 'pound' and so on are pronounced broon,

abootandpoond.

The position of the vowels as in the Standard English "shore" and "bird" is rather more

complex. There are two separate Geordie vowels equivalent to the "shore" vowel in Standard

English. Words spelled with an "l" such as "walk" are pronounced with a distinctive lengthened a

sound usually written "waak" in dialect writing. Those without "l" such as "board" are roughly

the same as Standard English. The standard "bird" vowel is usually rendered as the sound in

"chalk", so that "heard" becomes indistinguishable from "hoard" and "bird" from "board". This

sound confusion is the basis for a well-known Geordie joke:

Workman visiting doctor:Me leg's bad, man, can ye give us a sick note?

Doctor:Can you walk?Workman:Work? Y'a kiddin' man, A cannet even waak!

Also in Geordie, 'blow' becomes blaa and 'cold' cowld, but in other words such as 'flow' and

'slow' the vowels are not changed in the same way.

A number of words are said to have pronunciation indicating a possible survival from earlier

periods of English, such asgan 'go', lang'long' (), aks 'ask' (/) and

deed'died' (). The word 'can't' is usually pronounced cannet.

Intonation patterns in Geordie are quite distinctive, with a rising intonation at the end of

declarative sentences (statements), but the issue is complex and no definitive studies have been

done.

YORKSHIRE

Yorkshire is still England's biggest county. Once it was the heart of the Danelaw, the Viking

kingdom in Britain. To this day, the lexicon of dialect speakers in the North and East Ridings of

Yorkshire retains many words that derive from Old Norse. Scandinavian influence on the language

does not stop with the end of the Danelaw, however: in the 19th and 20th centuries maritime trade

and commerce in the North Sea and the Baltic brought many Danes, Norwegians and Swedes to

ports like Hull and Newcastle. The West Riding also has a large corpus of words of Old Norse

origin. The Norwegian influence is stronger here, whereas Danish is more influential in the East

Riding - there are more "Norwegian" forms than the "Danish" of, say, the East Riding. There is a

historical explanation in the trade routes from Dublin, via the north-west coast of England, over the

Pennine uplands to York, capital of the Danelaw. We see an illustration of this in the place-name

22


23/49

ending -thwaite, of Norwegian origin, which is common in West Yorkshire, Lancashire and the

Lake District, but rare east of the Pennines, where the Danish cognate -thorpe is far more common.

Vocabulary.

Trudgill8 remarks on the prodigious variation in vocabulary arising from both the historical

settlement patterns of the various European invaders and the later linguistic changes following

settlement.

The examples below are from the lexicon of Yorkshire dialect speakers.

Nouns

Attercop: spider (Old English "poisonous spider")

Backend: autumn -

Bairn: child - (Also used in Scotland and Northumberland)

Blaeberry: bilberry -

Blain/blen: sore/swelling/boil // (Old English)

Dale: valley ,

Foss, force: waterfalls, rapids ,

Goodies/spice: sweets ,

Gowk: cuckoo -

Kelter/kelterment: junk/rubbish/litter /

Kittling: kitten - Lug/tab: ear -

Nowt: nothing (Rhymes with "stout" or "coat". Literally "Naught")

Owt: anything - (Rhymes with "stout" or "coat". Literally "Aught")

Urchin: hedgehog - (this sense is preserved in sea-urchin).

Varmint: vermin ()/ (Old form surviving in America and

Yorkshire)

Yam: home - (Compare modern Norwegian hjem, sounded as "yem".)

Yat: gate -

Yatstead: threshold

Yoon: oven -

Pronouns

Nay: no

Verbs

Addle: to earn - (From Old English via Old Norse)

Ban: to curse, to swear


23


24/49

Dee: to die -

Lap: to cover/wrap up - /

Laik/lark: to play/laze / (Old Norse)

Mash: to brew, as in tea or beer /

Putten: past tense of the verb to put-

Puther: to make clouds of smoke or dust /

Rick, reek: smoke, to smoke , /

Sile: to rain heavily

Skell: To tip or spill - // (Old Norse)

Thoil/thole: to tolerate/put up with/stand/bear - /// (Old

English)

AdjectivesBackendish: autumnal

Blake: sallow, yellow , , (usually in relation to someone's

complexion)

Cat Hawed: drunk (pronounced "cattored")

Gloppened, glottened: astonished, surprised, flabbergasted , ,

Mafted: very hot or breathless ,

Nesh: weak, feeble , , (Old English)

Nithered: (past participle) cold/shivering - / (Old Norse)

Slape: slippery -

Wick: lively , (Relates to quick, originally meaning "alive")

Forms like maftedand nitheredcome from verbs that have passed out of use.

Adverb

Appen: perhaps , (like Shakespeare's haply)

Some words in Yorkshire dialect at first sight seem to be Standard English but, as Kellett9

points out, "they do not mean what they appear to mean". He gives the following examples:

Flags - not banners to be waved, but paving stones ,

Gang- not a group of people, but the verb to go , ""

Real- a description of something good or outstanding, not genuine -

,

Starved- relating to feeling cold rather than a state of hunger ,

9 Kellett, A. (1992) Basic Broad Yorkshire, Revised Edition, Otley: Smith Settle.

24


25/49

Sharp - used in the sense of quickly rather than having a point or edge ,

Right- employed not only to indicate direction but as an intensifier in the sense of very

, ""

Yorkshire dialect is rich in idiomatic expressions. The following examples are taken from

Kellett:

Allus at t last push up - always at the last moment

Nobbut a mention - just a small amount

Its nut jannock- its not fair

e wor ard on - he was fast asleep

Livin tally / ower t brush - living together as man and wife but not married

Tek a good likeness - be very photogenic

It caps owt- it beats everything

Goin dahn t nick- ill and not going to get better

A reight gooid sooart- a really kind person /

Ah wor fair starved- I really was cold

Grammar.

All the following examples of Yorkshire dialect grammar are taken from Arnold Kelletts "Basic

Broad Yorkshire"10. The text below contains only a small example of basic grammar and it does not

include all the varieties of form and construction.

Verbs

Present tense

The following examples show verb formation together with examples of personal pronouns.

to laik (play)

Ah/Aw (I) laik Wer/wi (We) laik

Tha/Thoo (You) laiks Yer/Yo(u) (You) laik

e (He) laiks Thet/ther/the (They) laik

Shoo/sher/sh (She) laiks

Future tense

Indicated by bahn or off ti. For example:

Ahm bahn ter side them pots es off ti shut t yat

10 Kellett, A. (1992) Basic Broad Yorkshire, Revised Edition, Otley: Smith Settle.

25


26/49

Im going to put those dishes away Hes going to shut the gate

Past Tense

Some of the participles used in the formation of the past tense are a retention of earlier forms of

English: gat/getten Got frozen frozen

fahned/fan/fun Found putten put

Negatives

Nut and nooan are the equivalents of not Yorkshire speech:

Thooll nut finnd owt Ahm nooan bahn yonder

Youll not find anything Im not going there

Double negatives are quite common in dialect:

e nivver said nowt neeaways ti neean on em

He never said anything at all to anybody

Possessive pronouns

Possessive pronouns do not differ greatly from those of Standard English:

mi/ma my mine/mahne mine

thi/thy your thine yours

is his is his

er her ers hers

wer/ahr our ahrs ours

oor our oors ours

yer your yours yours ther their theirs theirs

Plurals

Plural forms are not normally used when referring to periods of time or to quantities:

six pund two week owd

six pounds two weeks old

Plurals of some nouns exist in their older form. For example:

childer children () hosen stockings ()

26


27/49

spice sweets () shoon/shooin shoes ()

Prepositions

Some prepositions differ very much from those of Standard English:

aboon above (, ) behunt/behint behind (, )afooar before (, ) fra/frev from (, )

baht without () ter/tul/tiv to (, )

Demonstrative Adjectives

When used in dialect the demonstratives (that, this) are normally accompanied by theeare (there)

orere (here):

that theeare pig this ere cannle

that pig this candle

Phonetics.

Trudgill11 considers that one of the most important features of this dialect is the fact that such words

as long, wrong,strong, etc are pronounced with a short instead of an , (i.e.Lang, wrang,

strang, etc.) and thatfind, blind, etc. are realized with a short (finnd, blinnd, etc.). Such

pronunciations, he says, link back to the original Anglo-Saxon realizations. Similarly, the

employment of a monophthong (i.e. a pure vowel) by Northern speakers in such words as house,

out, and cow (i.e. hoos, ootand coo) is the retention of the original medieval pronunciation.Trudgill further observes that, in some areas of the North, a modified version of the Anglo-Saxon

long is preserved in such words as home andstone, their pronunciations being

hee-am and stee-an. Likewise,spoon,fool, etc. are realized as spee-oon,fee-ool, and so on.

Other important features of Yorkshire dialect are: -ing which is pronounced as -in'

(e.g. walkin', talkin', etc.); the use of the short (as in cat) in words like bath and dance; and

the dropping of word-initial (e.g. 'appy, 'orrible, etc.).

Kellett remarks that the er sound is modified so that thirst, for example, becomes thustor

thost.

Diphthongs

aa thus naame (roughly nay-em) for name

ooa (roughly oo-er) so that words such asfloor, doorand afore becomeflooar, dooarand

afooar

ow as in browt, owtand nowt(i.e. brought, anythingand nothing). The realization of this

sound is not equivalent to the Standard English pronunciation ofnow but more like aw-oo oi

used in such words as coit, throitand 'oil(i.e. coat, throatand hole)

eea appears in words like again, death andstreet(pronounced ageean, deeath and streeat)


27


28/49

SCOUSE

Scouse is the dialect of English found in the northern English city of Liverpool and adjoining urban

areas of Lancashire and the Wirral region of Cheshire. "The Beatles" made this dialect famous. The

adopted Merseysider and language expert Fritz Spiegl once described the Liverpool dialect as "one-

third Irish, one-third Welsh and one-third catarrh".

The dialect of Merseyside is highly distinctive, and wholly different from those of

neighbouring regions of Lancashire and Cheshire. The word Scouse was originally a variation of

lobscouse -the name of a traditional dish of mutton stew mixed with hardtack eaten by sailors.

The influence of immigrants from Ireland, Wales, the Isle of Man, Scotland, other parts of

northern England, and the Caribbean in the XVIII and XIX centuries was very strong.

The characteristic features of Scouse are:

A fast, highly inflected manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typicalof most of northern England.

The final letters of many words are often lost in a glottal stop: 'get' becomesgerr

The tongue tends to be swallowed, cutting off nasal passages and making it sound as if the

speaker has a cold.

Irish influences include the pronunciation of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' and the plural of 'you' as

'yous'. The pronunciation of 'th' as 'd'('there' becomes dere), and the 'ere' sound in 'there' as 'urr',

are encountered in Northern Ireland. The dropping of the 'g' sound at the end of 'ing', hence 'doing'

becomes 'doin'is also commonplace in Dublin. There are also idioms shared with Hiberno-

English, such as "I know where you're at" ("I know who you are").

Welsh influences include the distinctive rolling 'ck' sound, pronounced as in the Scots 'loch'.

The letter 'r' is rolled, similar to Scots.

Expressions include 'la' that is equal to lad , , , e.g. "Yer arright

den, la'?" ("You all right then, lad?"). The interjection 'eh!' is equivalent to 'hey!' or 'oi!' in other

parts of the UK.

There are a few features of southern dialects, e.g. using a "f" or"v" sound instead of "th",

as in "bruvver" brotherand "baf" - "bath".

The vocabulary of this dialect is quite numerous and differs from others, e.g.

Baird girlfriend, wife ,

Boss excellent ,

Blower telephone -

Burr'I . But I - ....

To buzz to ring ("Give us a buzz" - Ring me)

Carzy/crapper/bog toilet ,

Char tea

28


29/49

Cop shop police station

Do party

Gunnite good night

Last awful

Moby mobile phone

Nimps easy

Pezzie gift, present

Tirraah Good bye

Ullo Hello

Yeared? Have you heard? ?

1.2. Midlands EnglishMidlands English includes dialects of: Derbyshire, Nottingham, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Black

Country, Birmingham, Norfolk, etc.

1.2.1. East Midlands

The East Midlands is famous for its distinctive dialects from the Derbyshire drawl to Nottingham's

no-nonsense style of talking. Despite the fading of old traditions and huge shifts in how people

communicate globally, it appears that dialects are still going strong in the East Midlands. Much of

the dialects developed in rural communities and in the industrial heartlands of the region. Mining

communities in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire were renowned for their use of

dialects. At a time when regions are losing some of their traditional dialect, the East Midlands is

keen to retain its cultural identity and linguistic style. Although some words are dying out, East

Midlanders are keen to celebrate their local language. Here are some phrases of East Midlanders:

It's black uvver Bill's mother's - it looks like rain

Coggie - swimming costume

Croaker doctor -

Duck's necks - bottle of lemonade

Gorra bag on - in a bad mood

Laropped drunk -

Nesh cold -

Old cock friend, mate ,

Skants pants ,

The rally - the railway line

In Lincolnshire, local people are going back to the classroom to reclaim their linguistic roots.

Words like "sneck" (a metal hook ), "blather" (mud on clothing

29


30/49

), "dowking" (wilting vegetation ), "wozzle" (root

vegetable - ), "noggin'" (lump of land ) were dying out, but not now. Some

scientists blame tractors and modern farm machines for the demise of the Lincolnshire dialect.

When the machines replaced horses, many words and terms associated with the animals became

redundant. They also blame the moving population and "frim folk" (people from other areas

) who have come into the county. This has resulted in a mixture of voices

and the dilution of the Lincolnshire dialect.

The farmers ofDerbyshire are proud of retaining their heritage, and are keen to preserve

their local dialect. Here are some features of Derbyshire dialect:

the use of words like "thee" and "thou"

the shortening of words for more economical speech

the use of very unusual words like "scratin'" (crying - ) deriving from old Norse

or Viking

Some words and phrases of Derbyshire dialect:ganzi- pullover or sweater , ;

Gerraht! - Get out! !;gone-aht surprised ; namor- no more

, ; wang- to throw , ;

Some language experts recently declared Leicester the birthplace of modern Standard English.

Academics claim that the culturally diverse mix of settlers to the East Midland a thousand years

ago helped to shape the future of the English language. Anglo Saxons and Vikings lived side by

side, sharing their customs and languages. Today Leicester has one of the most culturally diversepopulations in the country, with Asian and Afro-Caribbean influences now filtering through. At the

City of Leicester School, the pupils of all backgrounds find themselves using Leicester dialect.

Traditional words like my yard(my house ), chuddie (pants , ),gis a

gleg (give me a look at it ), ow a ya?- (how are you? ?),

worro (hello - ), wassup? (What is going on? ?), snitch (tale teller

), oakey (an ice-cream ) are in common usage, together with new

expressions like "24/7" (, ; ,

) derived from popular culture. This is then combined with words and expressions picked

up from American culture and rap artists such as Eminem.

Nottingham is also renowned for its dialect and foreign nurses at the city's hospitals have

trouble grappling with 'Ay up mi duck' (Hello there - ) and other expressions like

"corshucan" (of course you can ). Nottinghamshire has many dialect words

heard only within its borders. Many of these words originate from close European neighbours.

During mediaeval times, Nottingham was a huge trading centre and merchants from France,

Denmark and the Low Countries set up businesses in Nottingham and foreign communities grew

around these businesses and some of their language was absorbed into the local dialect. For

example: Gizza glegg(May I see that ?); from the Danishglegg(to look-

),jitteh (an alleyway, cut-through between houses , )

30


31/49

- from the colloquial French 'jetez' (a small step, short cut ). 'Rammel'

Anglo-Saxon meaning waste from a building site ( ) - now used to mean

rubbish generally. There are many other examples of foreign words which have been adapted for

local use, but one whose origin is unable to find is 'mazzgi,' a dialect word for a domestic cat

.

1.2.2. West Midlands

There are two dialects in West Midlands: Black Country dialect and Birmingham dialect. These

dialects have much in common with Old English, many features peculiar to Old English remain

there.

BLACK COUNTRY

The dialect of the Black Country area remains perhaps one of the last examples of early English

still spoken today. The region was described as 'Black by day and red by night' by Elihu Burritt, the

American Consul to Birmingham in 1862 due to the amount of foundries, lime kilns, collieries that

went on there. It's known as the 'Black Country' due to the colour of the ground that is black

because of large quantity of coal. One of the most famous features is the 'yam yam' sound when

saying certain phrases. 'You are'is pronouncedyo'am and 'are you'is pronounced am ya. Thats

why this dialect if also called Yam Yam. The Black Country dialect has its own vocabulary as well

as grammatical differences, and quite a lot of it has similarities with Old English. It still contains

words (Thee you - , Thy - your and Thou you ) widely used by Shakespeare or

Chaucer.

Vocabulary.

Nouns

Ackidock- aqueduct

Babby baby ,

Beezum - a broom of birch; a pert young woman ;

Blether - a bladder

Breffus breakfast Cag-mag gossip

Chops/ gob mouth

Clobber clothes

Dishle - cup of tea

Dollop - large quantity (usually of food) ( )

Donny/'Ond- hand

Fai(r)ther father

Fittle - food, victuals , Flics cinema

Gob - a piece of something -

31


32/49

Lezzer- a meadow

Nuss nurse ,

Ooman woman

Opple apple

Owern - my husband, my son, my daughter (often used by women to denote member of family)

, , ( )

Puss purse

Suck sweets ,

Sussifikut certificate ,

Tai(tay) tea

Wench - girl (commonly used by parents towards daughters) -

Wum(Whum) home

Yed- head Pronouns

Aither either -

Anny(Onny) any -

Ar our

e he

im him

Nairun - none, not one

Naither neither - Yer - your

Yow you ,

Verbs

Aks(axe) to ask ,

Bamfoozle to puzzle; to bemuse ;

Bin(ben) - been, have been, are, have ("I bin" - affirmative reply to question)

Caw(cor) - cannot ("I cor goo the'er terday" I cant do there yesterday

)Coddin joking ("Goo on, yum coddin me" Go on, you joking me ,

)

Coost- could you? ?, also negative "thee coosnt" you couldt

Cost- can you ? ?, also negative "I cosn't" - I cannot

Day(day) - did not ("I day see 'im comin" I did not see him coming

)

Doe - do not (as in reply to question: "I doe" I dont ...)

Ivver-ovver hesitate

Ketch catch

Mo - must not ,

32


33/49

Mun must

Node - known ("I've nowd 'im for 'ears" Ive known him for years

)

Ood/Oot- would you/will you

Soople - to soften, make supple -

Tek to take

Tek after- to resemble -

Trussen - to trust

Adjectives

Aud(oud) old -

Chuffed pleased -

Joobus - suspicious, dubious , Lickle little -

Natty - tidy, neat ,

Noo new -

Adverb

Agen again -

Forby nearby -

Terday yesterday -

Wurse(Wuss) worse Conjunction

Lief- as soon as

Grammar.The grammar of this dialect is quite different from Standard one. They use 's'- inflexion for the first

person singular present simple:I looks, I comes, I misses, etc. For plural form of the noun they

have ending en instead of s: housen houses .

Phonetics.

Instead of initial W they usually use OO. In the closed syllable a is pronounced as [o]: apple

[opl]. Consonants in the centre of words sometimes are doubled: Tummy a snack ,

Thissen this one ,Kissa face , etc. The dropping of the 'g' sound at the end of 'ing'

is usual. Vowels are also often changed. When people greet each other they use the phrase 'Yow

awight'meaning 'you alright'.

33


34/49

BRUMMIE

Brummie (or Brummy) refers to things connected with the city of Birmingham in England:

particularly its people, known as Brummies, and their accent and dialect of the English language.

The word is derived from Brummagem (commonly shortened to Brum) which is a local name for

the city. A large number of local words and phrases exist derived from the mixture of variouscultures and dialects. Brummie should not be regarded as the only dialect of the Midlands or West

Midlands, although the term is often used by outsiders to refer to all dialects of the region. For

example, speakers from the Black Country have a dialect which is very different from Brummie in

many respects. A large number of local words and phrases exist derived from the amalgamation of

various cultures and dialects which have combined to produce an unusual but familiar voice. Some

claim that 'old' Brummie is the most likely accent that William Shakespeare would have used, at

that time Birmingham would have been in Warwickshire. Some words are simple variations of

those used elsewhere, such as mom for instead of Standard English mum, while others are uniqueto Birmingham.

The older generation sometimes use words like bab when referring to a spouseor female.

A saying that is not often heard anymore is it's lookin a bit black over bills mothers, this referred

to the prospect of rain .Keep away from the 'oss road

was often said as a warning to children who were thinking of playing on the busy tracks frequented

by horses, carts, trams and early cars ,

. Another old phrase that is sometimes used today is o'rite our kidor simply ows

it goin kidwhich is another way of asking how you are ?

You got a beak on ya en ya was a term used against someone that was nosey without reason

, . Our nip was another word

for younger brother . You talkin to me or chewin a brickwas a confrontational

term when you thought someone was being aggressive verbally (it was usually followed up with,

Cause' either way you're gonna get your teeth smashed in!') -

.He's ded yampee was a term for Scatty , . You ad your

eyefulwas used to deter someone staring in your direction for too long ,

( ) - . Got a face like a

bosted arse was a way of saying someone looked in a bad mood ,

. Giz a rockmeant 'can I have a sweet' (a rock was often used as an

alternative to sweet) ()?

Got a face as long as Livery Streetthat one was a way of saying that someone looked miserable

, (). The term bostin was sometimes used

as an alternative to brilliant - .

All these examples are still used in Birmingham but not so often as the following, which are more

recent:

O'rite - alright

Man - mate -

34


35/49

Sound/sweet/mint' excellent , ,

Outdoor- off-licence ,

Have a doss - laze about ,

Fair play - well done ,

Buzz bus -

Def it out! - Leave it alone! !

Soz- 'Sorry'

Also, many younger Brummies have adopted the Caribbean pronunciations of 'this' and 'that' - 'dis'

and 'dat'.

Phonetics.

In such combination as "al+consonant" letter l usually is not pronounced and a sounds as [o:].

1.2.3. East Anglia

East Anglia is a region of eastern England, named after one of the ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdoms.

Its boundaries are not rigidly defined, but it includes the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk, with part

or all of Cambridgeshire and Essex, and a small part of southern Lincolnshire bordering The Wash.

East Anglia has its own dialect - Norfolk, perhaps because of the fact that the impact of

Scandinavian tribes, Teutonic tribes and other early European cultures, was greater upon East

Anglia than upon the rest of England. There are aspects of the dialect that still reflect the influence

of early, dominant European languages.

NORFOLK

The Norfolk dialect, also known as Broad Norfolk, is a dialect that was once spoken by those living

in the county of Norfolk in England. Much of the distinctive vocabulary of Broad Norfolk has now

died out and only the older generations use the fullest amount, so the speech of most of Norfolk is

now more an accent than a dialect. There have been attempts to revive the Norfolk dialect. The

Friends of Norfolk Dialect (FOND) is a group which formed in 1999 with the aim of preserving

and promoting Broad Norfolk. The group campaigns for the recognition of Norfolk as a dialect, and

for the teaching of "Norfolk" in schools.

Vocabulary.

Afront- in front -

Ahind behind -

Atwin between

Bishy barney bee ladybird Bor neighbour/boy /

Dickey donkey

35


36/49

Dodman snail -

Dudder- to shiver

Gret- great, big, or significant ,

Harnser heron -

Holdyew hard! - Hang on a moment! !

Loke lane, alley ,

Lummox- clumsy or ungainly person ,

Mavish thrush -

Mawkin scarecrow ,

Mawther girl/young woman /

Old years nyte -New Year's Eve

Rum - curious, strange, funny , ,

Titty - totty - very small Warmint- varmint or vermin, troublesome person ,

Zackley - exactly -

Many words beginning with V take a W start in Norfolk - warmintand willage among them. There

are also examples of the letter being changed in the middle of the word i.e. aggravating becomes

aggraweartin (, ).

Do is characteristically used in the sense of "otherwise" ("Dont you take yours off, do youllget rheumatism") and time is used to mean "while" ("Go you and have a good wash time I git tea

ready").

Phonetics.

Norfolk is popularised as a yod-dropping dialect where /ju:-/ is pronounced /u:-/ . Other features of

Norfolk are that "here" and "hair" (and "hare") are homophones while "daze" /de:z/ and "days"

/diz/, "nose" /nu:z/ and "knows" /nuz/ are not.

In such combination as a+ndvowel is pronounced as [o:], e.g. candle [ko:ndl], land [lo:nd].

The initial "h" is dropped from the beginning of words.

1.3. Southern English

Such dialects as: Estuary English, Cockney, Somerset, Devon, Cornwall, etc. represent a group of

Southern English.

ESTUARY ENGLISH

36


37/49

"Estuary English" is a term coined in 1984 by British linguist, David Rosewarne12. It is widely

spoken in and around London and, more generally, in the southeast of England and along the river

Thames and its estuary. Most people consider EE to be a variant (accent) of Standard English that

is rapidly spreading in England. Crystal13 (1995: 327) argues, "the variety is

distinctive as a dialect not just as an accent" because apart from

pronunciation, what distinguishes EE speakers from others are grammatical

and lexical features (an essential condition for a variety to be called a dialect).

David Britain14 (2003b) calls Estuary English "a relatively new regional dialect

of the south-east of England" because of its geographical distribution.

The Sunday Times, one of Britains most famous newspapers, has described it as a dialect

existing between "Cockney and the Queen" and the Tory (Conservative) Minister of Education

condemned it as a "bastardized version of Cockney dialect".

Estuary English, as the advanced speech of the young, has been characterised by the oldergeneration as slovenly and debased.

Vocabulary.

Rosewarne sees certain lexical changes within EE pronunciation. Cheers is often used in place of

"thank you" (), but its also possible for it to mean "good-bye" ( ). The word

basically is used frequently in conversation. An increased use of Americanisms can also be seen in

EE and evidenced by such examples: There you go being used in place of the more standard "Here

you are" (, , , ) and There is acts as an invariable form of

usage in both singular and plural contexts. In addition, "sorry" () is often replaced with

excuse me and engaged, in the context of the telephone it has been replaced by the word busy.

Grammar.

Certain negative forms, such as never referring to a single occasion (I never did, No I never).

Less likely is the use of the double negative, which is still widely perceived as uneducated.

The omission of the -ly adverbial ending, as in You're turning it too slow orThey talked very

quiet for a while.

Certain prepositional uses, such asI got off of the bench orI looked out the window.

Generalization of the third person singular form (I gets out of the car), especially in narrative

style; also the generalized past tense use ofwas, as in We was walking down the road.

Some of these developments are now increasingly to be heard in the public domain, such as on the

more popular channels of the BBC, and some have even begun to penetrate into the British

12 Rosewarne, David, 1984Estuary English. Times Educational Supplement, 19 (October 1984).13

Crystal, David 1995 The Cambridge Encyclopedia of The English Language. Cambridge: CambridgeUniversity Press.14Britain, David 2003b Dialectology.

37


38/49

Establishment. Glottalization, for example, will be heard on both sides of the House of Commons,

and has been observed in the younger members of the royal family.

Phonetics.

L-vocalization, pronouncing the l-sound in certain positions almost like [w], so that "milk

bottle" becomes 'miwk bottoo', and "football" becomes 'foo'baw'. [j]-yod-dropping even before a stressed /u:/ (Chooseday Tuesday)

Glottalling, using a glottal stop [?] instead of a t-sound in certain positions, as in take it off,

quite nice . This is not the same as omitting the t-sound altogether, since "plate" [plei?] still

sounds different from "play" [plei]. Nevertheless, authors who want to show a non-standard

pronunciation by mani

British Dialects

Documents

Transcript of British Dialects