How regional dialects are spreading around the UK thanks to Facebook and Twitter
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 1:06 AM on 3rd September 2010
Age-old regional dialects from around the country are undergoing a resurgence and spreading like wildfire thanks to the likes of Twitter and Facebook.
Language experts have found the increased speed at which people communicate on social networking sites means they are more likely to lapse into colloquialisms.
And the rapid rise of social media and instant messaging in recent years has seen such regional phrases spread swiftly from one end of Britain to the other.
Now they are quickly being adopted by people hundreds of miles from where they originated.
As a result words such as 'bootiful', 'lush' and 'andsome' have crept into our everyday lingo in recent years.
TOP REGIONAL WORDS
Norfolk - 'bootiful' (beautiful/great), bishey-barnee-bee' (ladybird), 'mardle' (talk), 'putting on parts' (misbehaving), 'squit' (rubbish)
Cornwall - 'andsome' (lovely/good - handsome without the 'h'), 'dreckly' as in 'directly' (I'll do it dreckly)
Liverpool - 'boss' (good),'scran' (food), 'busies' (police)
Aberdeen - 'ken' (know), 'bairns' (babies)
Newcastle - 'canny/mint' (good), 'ket' (sweets), 'raggies' (chavs)
Manchester - 'mint' (v good), 'mardy' (moody)
Midlands - 'cob' (bread roll), 'pikelets' (crumpets), 'gitty' (alley)
Leeds - 'in a boo' (in a mood)
Hull - 'tret' (treat)
Southampton - 'nipper' (affectionate term, for anyone aged 0 to 100).
Northern Ireland - 'Away on!' (you're kidding!)
Glasgow - 'wean' (child), 'awayyego' (no way!), 'geeze' (give)
Wales - 'lush', 'tidy' (very nice, attractive)
London - 'pukka' , 'sick', 'bangin' (v good),'whack' (rubbish), 'butters' (ugly)
Birmingham - 'taraabit' (goodbye), 'babby' (baby), 'donnies' (hands)
Bristol - 'gert lush' (very nice), 'keener' (someone who works too hard), 'mind' (do you know what I mean?)
Nottingham - 'gizza glegg/gizza gozz' (may I see that?), 'twitchell' (alleyway)
Back in the 80s the term 'bootiful', only used in Norfolk, became a national phenomena thanks to major TV campaigns from Bernard Matthews Farms and as a result is widely used across the UK to this day.
Now social media is having the same effect TV campaigns had in encouraging the spread of regional phrases.
It's not uncommon to hear a northerner utter words such as 'lush' or 'tidy' - Welsh terms for attractive, or to catch southerners describing something good as 'mint', a term coined in Manchester.
Dr Eric Schleef, lecturer in English Sociolinguistics at The University of Manchester, said: 'Dialects were traditionally passed on relatively slowly through spoken language.
'But social changes such as the speed of modern communication mean they are spreading much faster than they would have.
'Twitter, Facebook and texting all encourage speed and immediacy of understanding, meaning users type as they speak, using slang, dialect respellings and colloquialisms.
'The result is we are all becoming exposed to words we may not have otherwise encountered, while absorbing them into everyday speech.'
Dr Schleef said the UK's rich landscape of regional accents and dialects is evidence of society's continuity and change, local history and day-to-day lives.
As a result, the English language continues to evolve as a colourful and expressive language.
...
Read more:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... z0ySZKuw2v