Yorkshire Words

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Some miscellany from God's Own County:

Here is the traditional Yorkshire flag with the red rose of Yorkshire on a light-blue background. This flag was very evident on national and international television during the  Tour de France 2014 Grand Départ of 2014 and the 'Tour de Yorkshire' 2017 bicycle races, which included Penistone and surrounding areas (see Tour de Yorks 2017). It was also the first time that all of the main roads had been maintained to the best condition.

With such an onslaught of mass and social media, the traditional style of local Yorkshire dialect is on its way out but a large number of local people in their seventies and beyond can easily understand and converse in the thickest of local dialects. Anyone younger is quite baffled.

This Yorkshire language page was inspired by remarks on Facebook, then I thought it would be a good page on its own. Some of these words aren't exclusively Yorkshire but many are in common use in our South Yorkshire region. I have mostly picked those that I have heard of (or think that I have).

Back Top Yorkshire Words
From various sources and you will still hear most of these in the Penistone area, although there are variations in pronunciation as you stray to any distance from our oasis of civilisation. Some of these are in common use elsewhere. Yorkshire dialect words are often employed in a playful sense; perhaps for gently poking fun at each other, and that is your starting point here. It would be silly and likely to be offensive to assume the worst interpretations. The Yorkshire characteristic is one of stoicism, hardiness, wit and not to a suffer ignore fools gladly.

Abide - Suffer. "I can't abide him" = "He's insufferable"
Aboon - Same as Abide
Addle - Earn, and 'Addled' can mean 'Confused'
Afeared - Afraid
Agait or Agate - To go or to start doing something. "Come on, get agait!"
Allicker - Vinegar
Allus - Always. Every time

Ay-peth - A halfpennyworth, something of small value, such as "You daft apeth!" when you did somethin silly.
Appen - Happen = Perhaps, but Yorkshire usually finds leading aitches to be superfluous, as the French do with word endings
Appens as mebbe - Perhaps as maybe = It might happen
Ard On - Same as 'fast on' or fast asleep, a term in decline as it might be misinterpreted
Armuch! - "How Much?" Always an exclamation with a rising inflection, oft heard in the Co-op. Rrhetorical question for an overpriced item
Arse over tit - He fell over; a rude way to describe an unplanned somersault
Ar lass - Wife or girlfriend. In Yorkshire, the singer R Kelly sounds like "Our Kelly" = a close relative called Kelly. 'Our so-and-so' is common in Yorkshire for family members
Ayup or Eyup - Very common word of flexible purpose. Can denote mild surprise, acknowlegement or greeting. Like 'Hello' used in surprise or 'What's this?'

Bab or Cack - A child's word for faeces
Babbiwark - Child's play or childish behaviour. 'That vandalism was just babbiwark'
Back-end - Autumn or as the weather grows more winterish, 'It feels like t' back end'
Badly - Unwell
Bahn - Leaving - "I'm bahn ooam" = "I'm going home"
Bairn - Child, as said in Scotland, which might otherwise be called an "Ankle-biter"

Band - String or twine much used by farmers. A rough sort of string might be "Airy band"
Barmpot - Not right in the head = 'Loopy' or just a bit dotty
Be Reyt - The Yorkshire answer to everything, no matter how bad: 'It will be alright'
Bits - What some call 'scraps' at the chip shop. Left over fried batter scrapings (delicious and crunchy)
Blagging - Blackberry-picking. Not many people do this activity in modern times.
Bleb - Blister
Bletherin' - Jabbering, idle talking
Bog - Crude term for lavatory, suggesting a swamp-like sanitary condition

Bray - To bash. "Thee watch it or ah'll bray thi!" = "Be careful or I might hit you"
Brew - A mashing of Tea to drink. "I've put t' kettle on for a brew" and quite likely to be a cup of Yorkshire Tea (which might not be grown in Yorkshire)
Britches - Trousers, presumably from the old word 'breeches'
Broddle - To poke something or make holes, possibly using a bradawl.
Brussen - Someone arrogant or bullying in demeanour. "Yon's a brussen bugger" = "He is an arrogant fellow"
Bugger - Playfully derogative yet innocuous term to imply mild daftness, "Ya daft bugger." Quite different from the other and more offensive meaning
Bugger All - Nothing (and again, nothing to do with personal predilections)

Cack-'anded - Left-handed or clumsy. Might be applied to a disasterous DiY job.
Call - To bad-mouth someone, rhymes with 'Hall'
Callin' - Having a natter or gossip like the old ladies gathered on street corners. This 'Call' rhymes with 'Pal'
Chabbies - Children
Chelpin' - Jabbering, talking
Chuddy - A modern term for Chewing Gum (noun)

Chuffed - Well-pleased
Claht - Cloth or clothing. An old saying "Cast ne'er a claht, till May be out" = Don't put on your summer clothes until after May.
Cloth ears - Hard of hearing or tone-deaf
Chip-oyl - The "Chip hole" = Fish and Chip shop and not what the produce is fried in, which in Penistone is beef fat.
Coil-oyl - The "Coal Hole" a Coal cellar or outhouse made for storing coal (not many of those around now)
Cronk - To squat down, perhaps to relieve oneself of a 'number two' in an emergency
Crozzled - Singed or burnt, typically about cooked food but could also mean sunburnt

Dateless - Gormless or vacant-minded
Deead - Dead, pronounced as "dee-ed"
Dinner - In Yorkshire, always at dinnertime, Noon to 2pm. Still an active term locally for this time of day, as with school dinners.
Dee-Dars - Sheffield people, mildly derogative term from their supposed reputation of pronouncing 'Thee' and 'Tha' as 'Dee' and 'Da'
Dolly Blue - Archaic term for a little porous bag of blue colouring used to whiten hand-washed clothes. No longer to be had
Dolly Peg - Obsolete device to stir up hand-washed clothing in a Dolly Tub. Something like a three-legged stool on a long stick.
Dooer-oyl - Doorway, pronounced "doo-er"and the 'oyl' is the door frame .
Dottle - Tar-like residue in the bottom of a tobacco pipe after use

Ee'en - Eyes, an old Yorkshire word
Eeard tell - Had heard it said, 'Eee-erd' is a diphthong.
Eck - Hell, a mild swearword, "Like eck he did!" or "Did he eckers like!" = No. he didn't
Er Inside - The wife, like 'er indoors which was used in a popular tv comedy.

Faffing - Dithering or procrastinating - "Stop faffin' abaht"
Fettle - Mend, tidy up. Can be good health as in "He's in fine fettle'
Flaid - Afraid of
Flummoxed - Baffled or confused

Foisty - Musty or mouldy smell
Frame - To shape up, as in "Frame thi sen, lad" = Sort yourself out
Frozzed - Frozen, suffering from the cold
Flags - Paving stones
Flaggy - That deep part of the River Don on the bend between the viaduct and the Cricket Club, "In t' flaggy"
Flower - Mild term of endearment for all females

Gander - To see, "Have a gander at this" which might really be Cockney rhyming slang
Gawp - To vacantly stare with an open mouth
Gi' o'er - 'Stop doing that' as an irate "Will tha Gi-o'er?" the soft 'G' pronounced as ghee = "Give over doing that"
Gid - Past tense of give = Gave. Heard around Barnsley, not Penistone.
Gip - Two pronunciations, hard 'G' as "Jip" = Pain, soft 'G' = to vomit
Glims - Spectacles

Goz - Spittle, saliva
Goosegogs or Goosegobs - Gooseberries
Growler - A proper-sized Pork pie
Gumption - Common sense

Havey-Quavey - Unsure what to do, "I'm havey-quavey about buying that shed" = 'I can't decide about buying that shed'
Jiggered - Exhausted, very tired
Kali - Sherbet, pronounced as Kay-Lie
Kecks - Trousers, also 'underkecks' for 'underwear' and btw, in this country 'pants' always means an under garment
Koo - Cow, similar to German 'Kuh' from which it might derive via the Friesian tongue

Laikin' - (Old Norse = Playing. To Laik often means to skive off work; 'playing' as opposed to working)
Lamp - To hit or assault - "I lamped him one"
Lig - Lay down, from the same Danish word of the same meaning
Lip - "Giving it some lip" = to answer back or to be argumentative
Loopy - A bit daft or "not right in t' ead"
Love - Some to call everyone "Love" as a friendly word, whether male or female, but not so much locally

Maungy - Contrary, moody and sullen and typically used for a sulky child, pronounced "Mawnjee"
Mardy - Sulking or whingey like "Maungy" but possibly more bad-tempered
Manky - Dirty or Infected
Mind Thysen - "Be careful" and don't do anything wrong

Monk On - Sullen or moody, "He's got t' Monk on" pronounced as in 'sunk'
Muckment - Soil or dirt, but worse-sounding and implying disarray
Mullock - A proper mess. "Tha's mullocked that up" possibly derived from 'Mulwarked'
Mun - 'Must' as in "Tha mun get thissen reight" = "You need to make improvements to yourself"
Munt - Opposite of must, "Tha munt do that"
Mythering - Harrassing or bothering, "Gi o'er mytherin' that dog" = "Give up bothering that dog". Can also mean crabby, weepy or cantankerous, "What's that bairn mytherin' about?"

Nah Then - Gap filler phrase to get your attention = 'So' and not much else. Like Ayup, it can be a greeting or used to depict mild surprise
Nark - Annoy
Natter - Grumble or talk, "Having a natter" can just be an idle chat
Neb - The peak or the front part of a cap
Neet - Night, same sound as in feet.

Nesh - Over-sensitive to cold, mildly derogitary implying one's own resilience. "Tha's nesh"= "You are (too) sensitive to the cold" (compared against the traditionally strong Yorkshire constitution)
Nipper - Child. "Ahr nip" might mean "My young brother" using the royal 'our' in the singular
Nivver - Never
Nobbut - "Only". Naught but.
Nowt - "Not aught" = Naught, nothing. Always an 'awe' or 'O' sound locally but like 'Out' in other parts of Yorkshire. Television actors always get it wrong.

Ockering - 'Hesitating to begin', not a familiar term locally. "It's ockering to slart" = "It's trying to rain" or, in North Yorks, 'Ossing'
Os - An equine quadruped without its aitch
Ossing - Starting to happen, unfamiliar term in the local dialect but North Yorks has "Ossing to slart" = "Starting to rain"
Ovver or Ower - Over, O'er using a short 'o' as in pot
Owt - From 'Aught' = Anything. Similar to 'Nowt' it is an 'O' sound and never locally pronounced as 'out'
Oyl - Any aperture or hole, such as doorway, mouth, storage place (it can even mean a lubricant)

Palaver - Goings on or empty talk. Much ado about nothing much
Parky - Chilly, see also 'Nesh' for how it affects the non-Tykes
Peffin' - Coughing. Sometimes said as "Peffin' and coughin" which both mean the same but with more emphasis
Peggy Tub - An old name for a galvanised washing tub, always agitated by a 'posser'
Peys - Peas. sounds like 'weighs' and the natural companion of a hearty growler, as in 'Pie and peys'
Picking up - Improved health after an illness
Pike - To watch something. Likely to be a Dee-dah word.

Plague - To annoy. "Will tha gi' o'er plaguing t' young 'un?" = 'Will you stop annoying the child?'
Poised - Kicked, "He poised 'is dog" = 'He kicked his dog'
Posser - A holed copper cone on a long handle as a device for stirring hand-washed clothes in a 'Dolly Tub'
Pot-shelf - Facial expression of a truculent child with the lower lip pushed out, same as "He's got t' lip out"
Puther - Smoke or fumes

Radged - Tired or feeling ragged
Reyt or Reight - 'Right' as in "It'll be reyt" = "Things will work out for the best.' Pronounced like number eight locally, and never "Reet" Another trip-up word for actors.
Rive - To tear or rip out
Rooer - 'Roar' = a tearful cry, "She wa' rooering like a bairn"
Rum 'n - A dubious, untrustworthy or dubious character, "Yon's a reight rum 'un"

Sam - Gather up ('to sam'). "He sammed up his winnings" said around Huddersfield
Sen - 'Self' as in "Do it thi sen" = "Do it yourself"
Shat - Well-used slang for Skelmanthorpe, often heard in the West Riding
Side Up - Tidy up, "Are you going to side them dishes?" = 'Are you going to clear the table of dishes?'
Siling - Raining heavily, sounds like 'tile' as in "It's siling it dahn" = "It is raining cats and dogs"
Sithi - "See thee" or 'Look you' and take notice

Skeg - Have a look at, "Take a skeg at this"
Skive - Bunk off work, playing instead of doing what you are paid to do
Slart - To splash. "It's slarting it down" = 'It's raining'
Smidge or Smidgen - A small amount
Smittle - To spread disease, typically by coughing and sneezing. Or to have one, "She's smittled with a cold"
Snap - Food, 'Snap-bag' = Worker's packed lunch. Snap is a common term, especially around Barnsley
Sneck - Catch on a door-latch, colloquially can refer to a nose

Snotty - A self-important person, perhaps looking down their nose
Sod-all - Nothing, usually said with a disappointed voice
Spanish - Liquorice, from its supposed country of origin. Used to be a common term locally for liquorice
Spahs - Sweets. Pronounced with a hard ess, something like 'sparse' = spice = sweets
Spaw - Spa such as Gunthwaite Spa, which has claimed salubrious waters to take, always on the first Sunday of May, 'Spaw Sunday'
Spooin - Spoon but as a diphthong
Spugs - Sparrows

Squitters - Diarrhoea, possibly an onomatopoeic term (!)
Stalled - Fed up or disappointed, "I'm reight stalled over looising me dog"
Starved - Hungry or cold
Stoup - A post in the ground, possibly as a hitching post of old. Pronounced 'stoop' and there was one near Matthew Gap
Summat - 'Something' a common word. "It's summat and nowt" = 'It's neither one thing nor another'
Sup - What's up? as in "Sup with thi?" = 'What is up with you' or 'what is wrong'

T' - Shortening of the definite article with a glottal stop. No actor from outside Yorkshire can master it, and certainly not the Tour de Yorkshire signwriters.
Teea - What it says on the packet. Pronounced with a diphthong, as in "tee-a"
Teaming - Pouring a liquid, "It's teeming it down" = 'It is raining' (or even snowing)
T'owd lass - Mother or possibly the wife = 'The old lass'
Thack - Thatch, with a hard 'th' but now an obsolete word
Tha or Thar - You, "Tha munt do that!" = 'You must not do that' and 'Thee' would not work here. 'Thee tha and thi' are all used differently
Tha Nooes - 'You know' (or 'knows' really) pronounced 'noo-es'
Thee - You, single or plural, as in "What about thee?" = 'What about you?' but 'What about tha?' might also work
Thi - Possesive 'Your' such as "Whear's thi coit?" = 'Where is your coat?'

Thin Wind - Lazy sort of cold wind that goes through rather than around. "That wind's a bit thin"
Thissen - Yourself, emphasis on 'sen' = 'Self'
Thrang - Busy or thronged with people
Threap - Argue, probably in North Yorks and not heard locally. Pronounced 'three-ep'
Throstle - Song thrush
Twonk - Idiot, and this might even be an Australian word
Tyke - Someone from God's Own County, probably used more often in N Yorks, such as in The Dalesman magazine.

Umpteen - Many or several
Undercrackers - Underwear or more precisely a man's underpants, usually to be avoided in word and essence
Us - It can mean 'us', 'ours' or 'me' like the 'Royal We' as in "What abaht us?" meaning either 'What about me?' or 'What about us?'
Utch - Snuggle or move up, "Utch up" = 'Snuggle up closer' and sometimes heard as "Scutch up"

Wang - To throw. They have 'wellie wanging' contests somewher but not here.
War - 'Worse' and pronounced as a traditional pirate might say 'far' as in "War na owt" = 'Worse than anything'
Wazzock - Mildly derogitary term for a fool. "Yon's a wazzock"
Whee-er - 'Where' with the diphthong
While - 'Until' but can mean 'During' as in the section below on this very subject

Whittle - Kid being mardy. Or the more traditional hacking away at a piece of wood with a knife.
Wellie - Making an effort, "Gi it some wellie" = "Put some effort into it" or 'drive faster' as in 'put your foot down'
Wick - Can mean infested as in "Wick wi fleas" = 'crawling with fleas' but can also mean lively or sharp-witted
Wood - In one sense means a door as in "Put t' wood int oyl!" = 'Close the door' because it is cold with the door open. The doorway is considered to be a hole of sorts.
Wooden Overcoit - Coffin or 'wooden overcoat' which suggests a New York Mafia influence

Yorky - Yorkshire pudding. 'Small' is about 5½ inch diameter and anything smaller is a joke, while 'Full-sized' is a starter with potatoes, veg and gravy and completely fills the plate.
Yon - Yonder or 'over there' such as "Yon bugger" as a playful term for the person over there

Page Notes:

An interesting, if unfathomable, 'Dialect of the Huddersfield Region' can be found on the Huddersfield Exposed website. It is not quite the dialect of our area but not far removed from it. One oddity of Huddersfield dialect is pronouncing 'Love' as "Lov" rather than "Luv". Also a List of Publications at the same site, some of which are free and can be downloaded others are links to buy local books.

Back Top How to 'Write Good'
From the interweb, some tips:

  1. Avoid alliteration always.
  2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
  3. The passive voice is to be avoided.
  4. Avoid cliches like the plague.
  5. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
  6. Writers should never generalise.
  7. Seven. Be consistent.
  8. Don't use more words than necessary. It is highly superfluous.
  9. Be more or less specific.
  10. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.

Back Top Snap
Typical Yorkshire food. 'Snap' is a good old Yorkshire word which was mostly used for the contents of a 'snap bag' or a worker's packed lunch. Every Barnsley miner had a snap bag and it might have been something like a khaki canvas gas mask bag from the Second World War. No longer seen now but all of the once-common Army Surplus shops had that sort of bag for sale.

Tea has to be a proper mashing of Yorkshire Tea and served very strong with two tea bags in a big mug.

Back Top Our FlagWhile/Until
A story in a national newspaper referred to the word 'while' causing confusion at Barnsley town centre railway crossing. The sign said: "Do not cross the tracks while the lights are on." In the Barnsley dialect, 'while' had the opposite meaning as in "Do not cross the tracks until the lights are on."

The Yorkshire dialect was strongly influenced by Scandinavian invaders, although it has similarities with 'Low German' or Friesian. There was an anecdote in The Dalesman magazine about two Yorkshiremen needing overnight lodgings when visiting a Danish town. They had trouble being understood.

When, in exasperation, they lapsed into the Yorkshire dialect and wanted to 'Lig out fo't neet' (= lay down for the night), they were fully understood. Danish people know about 'lig' and 'neet'. Another example in the same magazine was a picture showing a children's recreation site in Denmark. A word similar to 'Laiking' was used on the sign to signify the playing area.

A 'Yorkshire' Translator
From: Whoohoo - the Yorkshire 'Chicken Run' translator. Not an accurate name as the Wallace and Gromit cartoons were set in Lancashire, not Yorkshire. It was near enough for the southerners. The translator is fun but is not accurate. I tried this line from 'Ilkley Moor':

I puts in - "Where have you been since I last saw you?"
I gets out - "Wheear 'ev theur bin sin ah last saw theur?"

It should, of course, have read:
"Wheear as t'a bin sin ah saw thee?" (there are some regional variations in Yorkshire dialect)

And Another Thing ...
While we are about it, one personal annoyance is bad spellings and punctuation, such as the Denby Dale hairdresser's sign for Studio's instead of Studios, which is a single studio anyway, althere there are plenty of hairdressers in Denby Dale. Slightly less annoying is street signs because we always expect council sign-writers to be illiterate anyway, so we get St Johns Wood (in London) instead of St John's Wood. That is not as bad as signage at Penistone railway station when two signs for Huddersfield were both spelled wrongly, and in two different ways. They soon replaced them.

A local event poster might have 'Penistone Church' meaning either the actual church or football club, although the context would provide a hint. Another common one is Complimentary versus Complementary, such as a Wedding Fair with freebies. I added this pedantic line to a Cubley Hall Wedding Fayre in the Events List:

... Free admission. Upon arrival, complementary reception drink and canapés (not 'complimentary' unless you are just saying nice things, See Merriam-Webster and ThoughtCo).
However, new dictionaries have surrendered to the common illiteracy and, whilst still explaining differences, suggest that either word can be used for either meaning.

Back Top Common Yorkshire Sayings
Which you will often find in our district. Yorkshire dialect and pronunciation varies from place to place. Huddersfield people say 'Lov' and 'Tong' for love and tongue. Sheffield is on the edge of Yorkshire and you might hear 'dee' for you. They are called 'Dee-dahs' for that reason. Some of the subtleties of pronunciation have become lost now in the third decade of this century but it was possible to discern between the Penistone and Denby dale dialects some decades ago.

Now everyone speaks fluent 'Estuary English' and replaces mid-word tees with glottal stops. The word 'Britain' is now often heard as "Bri'-n" and 'bottle' is "bo'-l" even on BBC Radio4's 'Today' programme. The worst accent can be found in the Commons, where you might hear 'Politics' pronounced with heavy glottal stops as "Poli'-icks" (shudder!).

Back Top Tha Knows
'Nowt' (from 'naught') is pronounced more like 'knowt' than the usual 'nout' which imitators use. I have never, ever heard 'ee bah gum' said in normal conversation in Yorkshire but we do say ayup ('hey up') at every opportunity. It can be a universal greeting ("Ayup Dave, arrs tha doin?") or a mild exclamation of surprise. Aitches have been proved to be superfluous at the beginning of all words. Trust me ;~)

It is very odd when (mostly) southern actors doing a Yorkshire accent can't do a convincing glottal stop. They will say "going to pub" rather than "going to't pub", when the same interruption in sound is common in Estuary and Cockney English, as in "pu' the ke'ew on" = 'Put the kettle on' - or "I've go' a new mo'ah?" = 'I have got a new motorcar.'

It crosses my mind how well Yorkshire words would work with text messages. 'Or8' would accurately pronounce 'Alreight' (and never alreet). 'Look here' would, of course, be 'Cthi' and 'our lass' = 'Rlass'.

Back Top The Yorkshire Character
Some interesting remarks about Tykes, from various websites:

The Yorkshire Motto:

See all, 'ear all, say nowt.
Eyt all, sup all, pay nowt.
An' if tha 'ivver does owt for nowt,
allus do it for thissen.

The Yorkshireman's Coit o' Arms
as explained by Mr AW Pope in The Spectator:

A Flea, a Fly, a Magpie, an' a Bacon Flitch,
Is t' Yorkshireman's coit-of-arms:
An' t' reason they've choszn these things so rich
Is becoss they hev all speshal charms,
A flea will bite whoivver it can,-
An' soa, my lads, will a Yorkshireman.
A magpie can talk for a terrible span,-
An' soa an' all, can a Yorkshireman.
A flitch is no goid whol it's hung, ye'll agree,-
No more is a Yorkshireman, don't ya see?

From JN Dransfield's 'A History of the Parish of Penistone.

Back Top Yorkshire Links
A few language and Yorkshire-related links.

Back Top Home Old Saying: "Cast ne'er a claht, till May be out"