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Local & Dialect Words

I`m from a long line of Staffordians on my Dads side and his Mother always used to try and correct our poor pronounciation by say things like
"Ye munner say dunner it inner polite." :roll:

I miss her.

My Mums side of the family are Glaswegian and my Mum still says things like "Ye wee scunner,ye`ll be getting a skelpit leathering."

I did indeed get the odd skelpit leathering too when I`d been particularly horrid! :oops:
 
My parents use some words that I've never been sure if are Yorkshire dialect or just family inventions. My Dad says silin' it down to mean "raining very hard" and my Mum says calin' (where "cal" rhymes with "pal") and chelpin' to mean "gossiping/chatting".

Yer daft ha'porth (pron "ayyyperth") is another good Yorkshire one. And I can't thoil it for "I have the money to buy this item but I don't want to shell out that much on it".

And luggy for "tangled" and claggy for "sticky" and clarty for "muddy"... And a teacake definitely doesn't have fruit in it! :D
 
OK now I've heard "claggy" before and I'm about as far from Merrie Olde Englande as you can get (although almost all my neighbours are from Yorkshire).

I always assumed it was from the brand of glue.
 
LaurenChurchill said:
I always assumed it was from the brand of glue.
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That's interesting... we don't have that brand in the UK as far as I know. According to Wiki it's a mining term meaning adhesive [of a roof in a mine to which coal clings] so perhaps the brand name came from that, rather than the other way around.
 
A local Warwickshire phrase which no-one else seems to understand is....

"Oooh, I bet that came tight!"

Usually used when someone has injured themselves, or got slapped.

Another of my favourites is when it's hot and you're all sweaty, to say "I've got a bit of a dab on here".
 
luvpixie said:
I`m from a long line of Staffordians on my Dads side
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D'you mean from Stafford or Staffordshire? Or Stoke?

Where I live, we call Stoke people Clay'eads, Jug'eads or Juggers. :lol:
 
Have we mentioned that Northern/Midlands word "mardy"...
 
We pronounce it 'maaardy', with an almost Afrikaans inflection. Classy, y'know. ;)
 
levantateymira said:
My parents use some words that I've never been sure if are Yorkshire dialect or just family inventions. My Dad says silin' it down to mean "raining very hard" and my Mum says calin' (where "cal" rhymes with "pal") and chelpin' to mean "gossiping/chatting".

Yer daft ha'porth (pron "ayyyperth") is another good Yorkshire one. And I can't thoil it for "I have the money to buy this item but I don't want to shell out that much on it".

And luggy for "tangled" and claggy for "sticky" and clarty for "muddy"... And a teacake definitely doesn't have fruit in it! :D
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I've never heard, chelpin', luggy or clarty, but all the rest were very common in my youth. Cal-in' I have heard, but elsewhere and since.

Claggy is a word most often used to criticise cake in my experience - if ever you take a mouthful of cake and it somehow sucks all the moisture out of your mouth and sticks in a lump to your palate, if you can manage to talk, claggy is the word you'e looking for. :D

Thoil is a particularly useful word.

You've reminded me of something my grandmother used to say that I'd forgotten. Whenever something got dropped and rolled away or otherwise seemed to 'have a mind of it's own' she would exclaim "Eee, it's wick!". I think people can be 'wick' too, if they're prone to excessive movement, like a hyper kid. Thinking about it I expect it comes from the Old English 'cwic', meaning alive, as does quick.

And, much as I hate the whole 'breadroll debate', a teacake quite definitely does not have fruit in it! :)
 
My grandfather was from Newcastle and through use by my father I still call a jumper a gansey. My dad says this is a geordie pronunciation of Guernsey, a joke on the fact jumpers are sometimes called jerseys. Anyway, I asked a friend form Morpeth about this and he had never heard of it. Has my dad got it all wrong? Is it something my Grandfather invented? I like using it nontheless. :)

p.s. If Americans don't follow, a jumper is a sweater. I think. Sorry if I'm wrong about that or if you understand 'jumper'!
 
on moving from devon to london i became aware of a few things about my speech which i'd never considered to be 'local' before but which i was reliably and constantly informed weren't common parlance!
dusk had me proclaiming the failing light 'dimpsy', and my 'tuth'ache prompted a 'where's the dentist to?'
i'd never really felt any kind of westcountry identity until these kinds of things were pointed out.
 
levantateymira said:
And luggy for "tangled" and claggy for "sticky" and clarty for "muddy"... And a teacake definitely doesn't have fruit in it! :D
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Clarty's used in Scotland too. In fact, I believe it's a Scots word.

Claggy, I know too, but surprised no-one's been disgusting enough to mention the obvious connection to "clagnuts". Until now.
 
_Lizard23_ said:
You've reminded me of something my grandmother used to say that I'd forgotten. Whenever something got dropped and rolled away or otherwise seemed to 'have a mind of it's own' she would exclaim "Eee, it's wick!". I think people can be 'wick' too, if they're prone to excessive movement, like a hyper kid. Thinking about it I expect it comes from the Old English 'cwic', meaning alive, as does quick.
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That one I use too. Usually when talking about plants though. If I find a plant that looks dead but when you cut its stem it's still green inside then it's still wick. Used that one ever since I was little and I don't know why since none of my family use it or have ever heard of it other than from my mouth. Funny how similar the meaning is actually. :shock:

Also, just as a thought. That gives new meaning to the phrase "the quick and the dead" doesn't it.
 
Anything that's a bit disorganized or otherwise untidy is called 'Skew-whiff' in my famly. I have no idea if it's regional or a family thing.
 
Either "skew-whiff" is universal, or you live on my street! I'd certainly use the phrase, usually as a synonym for "awry" or "lopsided". In fact, has anyone ever said "awry", as opposed to writing it?


One of the most bizarre regional things is the names people give to bread rolls. So mundane, you'd not have thought that people would bother with having their own name for the blasted things. To me, a roll is a roll, or maybe (if I'm feeling adventurous) a bap. But people living less than 20 miles away from me call them "batches". Ridiculous, but then, we are talking about Coventry here...
 
Peripart said:
Either "skew-whiff" is universal, or you live on my street! I'd certainly use the phrase, usually as a synonym for "awry" or "lopsided". In fact, has anyone ever said "awry", as opposed to writing it?


One of the most bizarre regional things is the names people give to bread rolls. So mundane, you'd not have thought that people would bother with having their own name for the blasted things. To me, a roll is a roll, or maybe (if I'm feeling adventurous) a bap. But people living less than 20 miles away from me call them "batches". Ridiculous, but then, we are talking about Coventry here...
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They are called "cobs" if go t'other way towards Brum.
 
Peripart said:
Either "skew-whiff" is universal, or you live on my street! I'd certainly use the phrase, usually as a synonym for "awry" or "lopsided". In fact, has anyone ever said "awry", as opposed to writing it?
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"Skew-whiff" is in the dictionary, so its usage must be widespread. Many years ago, my sister said "awry" to me, but she mispronounced it "awe-ree". Hope this helps.
 
SKEW-WHIFF/skju??w?f/
Crooked, not straight, askew.

This colloquial expression dates from eighteenth-century Scots and is now mainly to be found in Britain and the Commonwealth.

You’ll think you’ve tumbled into a Vermeer with your first glimpse of a skinny townhouse so skew-whiff that it’s probably only standing by dint of being supported on either side by equally historic homes.

The Scotsman, 20 December 2008.

The off-centredness is often figurative. One writer described a pop song as having “skew-whiff charms”; others variously criticised a skew-whiff shortlist, referred to a poem’s skew-whiff irony, and shuddered at fashion’s “skew-whiff combos like puce and purple”.

The first part of the word will cause no difficulties, since it is almost certainly from askew. The second element, I am assured by those who know (though most dictionaries dodge the issue), is the same word as that meaning a light puff of air, suggesting that the thing in question has been blown off course.

A few North Americans may know the closely related skewgee or similar words with variable spellings. Here, the second part is from the Scots agee (or ajee), created from a call to a horse to move to one side.

http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-ske2.htm

I sometimes pronounce it skee-whiff.
 
Well, I never. :)

The odd thing is that it may be universal but I have never heard anyone outside of my family use it and when I have used it in front of others they have no idea what I mean. Obviously not a particularly Southern word.
 
Layla said:
Obviously not a particularly Southern word.
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Well, I've spent most of my life in southern Britain, and skew-whiff is a phrase I've known all my life, IIRC! (It sounds like something my father would have used, and when he worked laying carpets and lino it probably came in quite handy! ;) )
 
Peripart said:
To me, a roll is a roll, or maybe (if I'm feeling adventurous) a bap. But people living less than 20 miles away from me call them "batches". Ridiculous, but then, we are talking about Coventry here...
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Yep, but a bap is a floury bun/roll, it becomes a batch when it has a filling, eg a chip batch.

Strangely, when I yell "Getcher baps out!" it has nothing whatsoever to do with bread.
 
swale

you seem to have gotten beyond this discussion but in my part of the world a swale is a "stream bed" that is filled with water runoff during and after rains only (not fed by a spring.)
 
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)
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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
 
And gie's is not spelled "geeze". As in "Gie's a break".
 
I always thought that 'gawp' was a particularly Lancashire word, and always amuses me. I have also been struck how if one was to ask for chips and gravy 'down South' I would be looked at like I had asked for custard and fish. Also my granda used to say I was 'cack handed' because I am left handed.
 
gncxx said:
And gie's is not spelled "geeze". As in "Gie's a break".
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Ah! Is there a dictionary of approved spellings for dialect words, then... ;)
 
rynner2 said:
Leeds - 'in a boo' (in a mood)
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I've never heard this one in my life and I'm proud to be a life long Loiner! Calling someone 'Mardy Pants' is something I grew up with, especially when said to a child who is unhappy about not getting their own way.

Or my personal fave - "who shit in your mouth?" :lol:
 
Spudrick68 said:
I have also been struck how if one was to ask for chips and gravy 'down South' I would be looked at like I had asked for custard and fish.
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Yeah, I remember as a young (soft Southerner) student in Sheffield, I reacted like that when buying some chips. They'd ask 'do you want gravy on that?' and I'd say 'nooo, you'll ruin perfectly good chips!'
I mean, that gravy they mixed up wasn't proper meat gravy and it just drowned the chips. Awful!

:)
 
rynner2 said:
gncxx said:
And gie's is not spelled "geeze". As in "Gie's a break".
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Ah! Is there a dictionary of approved spellings for dialect words, then... ;)
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Maybe not, but it's a pretty straightforward contraction of "give us". (So, technically, it should perhaps be "gi'e's".)
 
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