Local accents

[rogerzilla]

Paul O'Grady (or Lily Savage, even more so) had the definitive Birkenhead accent.

 

[stephec]

Lancastrians have 436 words for rain and none for sunny weather.

A Yorkshireman is just a soft Lancastrian who ran away over the other side of the hill as he didn't like a bit of rain. 😂

 

[Venod]

A Yorkshireman is just a soft Lancastrian who ran away over the other side of the hill as he didn't like a bit of rain

I love this Lancs v Yorkshire banter, I sold a frame to a bloke from Barnoldswick who was distraught when I called him a Lanc, he still insisted he was a Yorkshireman.
The rain, as a child we would holiday in Blackpool often going by bus, I always remember Todmorden as a wet dark depressing place, I don't know if it was in Yorks or Lancs then but it was always wet.
But Tod is now a favourite of mine along with Hebden Bridge.

 

[classic33]

I love this Lancs v Yorkshire banter, I sold a frame to a bloke from Barnoldswick who was distraught when I called him a Lanc, he still insisted he was a Yorkshireman.
The rain, as a child we would holiday in Blackpool often going by bus, I always remember Todmorden as a wet dark depressing place, I don't know if it was in Yorks or Lancs then but it was always wet.
But Tod is now a favourite of mine along with Hebden Bridge.

Pre April Fool's Day 1974 it'd 'ave bin both.

 

[iandg]

My eldest was born in Stafford, spent early school years in the West Midlands and then we moved to Stornoway when he was 8. As a student in Glasgow he was interviewed by police (a dead body in the next door flat) and the PC (a linguistics graduate) said straight away "Outer Hebrides with a hint of Brummy"

 

[PK99]

Am I right in saying this fellow has a very strong Chorley accent? 🤔

Yep!

Charli

 

[PK99]

A Yorkshireman is just a soft Lancastrian who ran away over the other side of the hill as he didn't like a bit of rain. 😂

When I went up for the Grand Depart of the TDF riding over from Preston (Thanks again @ColinJ for the route), there were lots of proud Yorkshire Lads wearing T-Shirts "Yorkshire Born, Yorkshire Bred" clearly having been sold these by canny entrepreneurial Lancastrians as there were clearly unaware of the second part "Yorkshire Born, Yorkshire Bred. Strong in th'arm, thick in th'ead"

 

[ColinJ]

I don't think that I have much of an accent but @Ian H correctly identified a hint of 'Midlands' when I met him for a Devon forum ride. I spent 20 years living in Coventry.

Funnily enough, I didn't notice the Coventry accent when I lived there, but whenever I go back now it sounds to me like most people there have a mild Birmingham accent.

Some friends in Coventry told me that 30+ years in West Yorkshire have given me a very slight Yorkshire accent but I can't hear any trace of it when I listen to recordings of me speaking.

 

[Drago]

Cov is only 30 miles or so from here, but in that distance it goes from plastic Cockerney (or local yokel, for the few left here - its a proper turnip accent but not many sounding like it now) to the diet Yam Yam of Coventry that marks the outer fringes of the west midst twang.

 

[rogerzilla]

The local Oxford accent, the one you'll hear at OUFC games rather than in the city centre coffee shops, is quite "yokel", and not all that different from Swindon's.

Swindon's sole dialect contribution seems to be "big old" as an adjective for anything large or impressive, regardless of its age.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

In Wirral, on the Wirral [peninsula]

Exactly - the Wirral is a peninsula - hence on
like with an island
you wouldn;t say you lived "in the Isle of WHite" or "in Skye"

Hence you live On the Wirral


extra point - one boring rainy day when I was a teenager I traced a continuous line of water from the Dee to the Mersey using canals and rivers
Hence, it is impossible to leave the Wirral without passing over water which makes The Wirral an Island
in a way
it did go quite way into Cheshire

Yea Gods I must have been bored!

 

[Jody]

Exactly - the Wirral is a peninsula - hence on
like with an island
you wouldn;t say you lived "in the Isle of WHite" or "in Skye"

Hence you live On the Wirral

I always wondered why people in that area said they were on the wirral.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

I always wondered why people in that area said they were on the wirral.

To be reasonable - which reduces the humerous and argumentative potential so I normally avoid it
It is complicated by Wirral being an administrative district as well as a peninsular
and the district boundaried do not match the geographic boundaries

so being On the Wirral covers much more ground than being In the Wirral administrative area

but where is the fun in that

when I was little the peninsular was split between Cheshire, Birkenhead, Wallasey - and I think there was another small district somewhere on the Mersey coast - not sure where

but Wirral was the peninsular -hence always ON
IN made no sense

Then - in 1971 (?) we got dumped into the new Merseyside - much to my Mum's annoyance - she had always lived in Cheshire!

anyway - then Wirral became 2 things


bit like taking half the Isle of White and saying RIght the people on the Western bit are still The Isle of WHite
but the Eastern part are now in Hampshire
so then you can be IN the Isle of white - or IN Hampshite but still ON the Isle of WHite


Hope that is clear


the exam will be on Tuesday

 

[Dave 123]

In Wirral, on the Wirral [peninsula]

Load of sh*te mate!!

 

[winjim]

Exactly - the Wirral is a peninsula - hence on
like with an island
you wouldn;t say you lived "in the Isle of WHite" or "in Skye"

Just as you can drop 'peninsula' from The Wirral, you can drop 'Isle of' from Skye but nobody ever refers to just 'Wight'. Except the shipping area I suppose.