British accents
...he word "man" for both men and women, as in "howay man" (c'mon you). • Geordie also has a large amount of vocabulary not seen in other English dialects. Words still in common use today include "canny" for "pleasant", "gadgie" for "man", "hyem" for "home", "divn't" for "don't", "bairn" and "grandbairn" for "child" and "grandchild", "hacky" for "dirty", and "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. In recent times, it appears to have become fashionable to have a Geordie accent, with much more heard on media elsewhere in the country than previously. For example, the commentators on the UK edition of Big Brother have a Geordie accent. The accent was also popularised by the humorous comic magazine Viz, where the accent itself is often conveyed phonetically by unusual spellings within the comic strips. Viz magazine itself was founded on Tyneside by a couple of Geordie lads. Glaswegian Glasgow people have a unique sense of humour, and strong loyalty to their own city. The Glasgow Patter is a brand of local humorous Scots dialect which is hilarious to those who understand it, usually only natives of the city. Billy Connolly has done a lot to make Glaswegian humour accessible to the rest of the world but, inevitably, it loses something in translation. In fact Glaswegian is a rich and vital living dialect which gives a true reflection of the city with all its virtues and its unattractive features. It is more than an alternative pronunciation; words also change their meaning eg "away" can mean "leaving" as in A'm awa, an instruction to stop being a nuisance as in awa wi ye, or drunk as in he's awa wi it. Canna means "can't", Canny means "careful". Pieces refers to "snacks", normally slices of bread. Then there are words that appear to have no obvious relationship to standard English, words like coupon which means "face". An example of the dialect which comes from an anonymous lament by a housing scheme resident for the remembered joys of life in the city before being rehoused in one of the "deserts with windows" that were the schemes: :whaur's the weans that yince played in the street, :wi a jaurie, a peerie an gird wi a cleat, :can they still codge a hudgie or dreep aff the dyke, :play haunch cuddy haunch, kick the can an the like? Scouse Scouse is the accent or dialect of English found in the northern English city of Liverpool and adjoining urban areas of Lancashire and the Wirral region of Cheshire. The Liverpool accent is highly distinctive, and wholly different from the accents used in neighbouring regions of Lancashire and Cheshire. The word Scouse was originally a variation of lobscouse (probably from the north German sailor's dish Labscaus), the name of a traditional dish of mutton stew mixed with hardtack eaten by sailors. Lobscouser became a slang name for a sailor. As a port city, Liverpool became known for this dish. The word Scouser came to refer to a native of Liverpool, the city where they ate scouse, and Scouse referred also to the pronunciations and usages of that speech community. Debates about details continue, but some of the details are fascinating, for instance the fact that in Norway today Lapp Skews (not all that far from labscouse) are stewed strips of reindeer meat. The characteristic features of the accent of the region include: • A fast, highly inflected manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England. • The final letters of many words are often lost: i.e. 'get' becomes 'gerr', 'all' becomes 'orr'. • The tongue tends to be swallowed, cutting off nasal passages and making it sound as if the speaker has a cold. Can some one tell me if there is a better "definition" of a Scouser? S is for Sardonic sense of humour C is for Comedian born and Bred O is for Only supports one soccer team (but has two to choose from!) U is for Unswerving love for all things Liverpool S is for Scouse eater E is for Eulogizes Liverpool at every opportunity R is for Rejoices in a good argument West Country The West Country Accent is the name generally given to the group of English accents used by the indigenous population of the south west of England, popularly known as the West Country. This is the region centred on the counties of Devon (Devun), Cornwall (Corrnwahll), Somerset (Zummerzet), parts of Gloucestershire (Glahstershire) and Dorset (Darrzut). Immigration to the towns from other regions means that the accents are now only commonly encountered in rural areas. Origins: Until the 19th century the West Country and its dialects were largely protected from outside influences due to its relative geographical isolation. The West Country dialects derive not from a corrupted form of modern English, but reflect the historical origins of the English language and its historical pronunciation. Much of it was derived from Old English and its Saxon roots. It is thought that the various local dialects may reflect the territories of various Saxon clans (who had their own dialects of Saxon), while the progress of their occupation explains the greater dominance of a more Germanic accent in the earlier and more heavily occupied eastern parts of the region, while the slower and lower density Saxon infiltration into Devon enabled more of a Celtic accent to be retained. Characteristics: The characteristic f...