The Yorkshire Dialect

'Yorkshire' Translator
Humorous translator: http://www.whoohoo.co.uk/ - the Yorkshire 'Chicken Run' one. Not accurate, as the Wallace and Gromit cartoons are set in Lancashire, not Yorkshire.

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

This line from the Yorkshire anthem 'Ilkley Moor' should read, of course:
"Wheear as t'a bin sin ah saw thee?" (there are some regional variations in Yorkshire dialect)

Tha Knows
'Nowt' (from 'naught') is pronounced more like 'knowt' than the usual 'nout' which southern imitators use. I have never heard 'ee bah gum' said in any natural way in Yorkshire but we do like to say ayup ('hey up') at every opportunity; as a universal greeting ("Ayup Dave, arrs tha doin?") or a mild expletive of surprise. We always avoid aitches if we can, they have been proved to be superfluous as word beginnings. Trust me ;~)

There's an anecdote about two Yorkshiremen in Denmark who needed somewhere to stay overnight. They had trouble making themselves understood and in exasperation lapsed into Yorkshire dialect but when they said that they wanted to 'lig out fo't neet', they were fully understood. Danish people know about 'lig' and 'neet'. They also know about another Yorkshire word - 'laiking' (like kids playing) and I once saw a photo of a Danish sign describing a children's play area, using that word. Not too surprising as they invaded us all those centuries ago. In local slang, 'laikin' often means 'skiving off work' - taking time off work for no good reason.

It is very odd when southern actors doing a Yorkshire accent can't do the 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 - "pu' the ke'ew on" or "ave you go' a new mo'ah?"

It crosses my mind how well Yorkshire words would work with text messages. 'Or8' is an accurate way to pronounce 'Alreight' (nobody says alreet). 'Look here' would, of course, be 'Cthi' and 'our lass' = 'Rlass'. The name of singer R Kelly always sounds like someone's sister, as in 'our Kelly'.

Hava a look at Denby Dale Council's Pronunciations page.

Call it 'Dinner'
It's still reasonable to call it 'dinner' instead of 'lunch', which came to us through national broadcasting. It does not fit well in Yorkshire to move 'dinner' into the evening. Besides all the usual arguments about creeping southernisation of northern English, there is an etymological reason:

din·ner n.

1
  • The chief meal of the day, eaten in the evening or at midday.
  • A banquet or formal meal in honour of a person or event.
  • The food prepared for either of these meals.
2         A full-course meal served at a fixed price; table d'hôte.

[Middle English - diner, morning meal, from Old French disner, diner, to dine, morning meal]

So if your main meal is at dinnertime, that would be around noon and it would feel right to call it dinner. Think 'school dinners' and 'dinner ladies', etc. A French friend sent this dictionary link: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=dinner (the page has changed slightly over time).

Suitspeak
Here's something for those who need their fix of gobbledygook - and for those who don't. The suits pepper their prattling with pretentious synonyms, such as 'Vision' and 'Mission' as though divine inspiration was involved.

Links
A few language and Yorkshire-related links. The first one is a very fine example of the Barnsley dialect. Any of the older miners would have spoken as in these examples.

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