{"id":35049,"date":"2017-02-16T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.smglanguages.com\/blog-it\/uncategorized\/great-british-dialects"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:07:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T13:07:49","slug":"great-british-dialects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.smglanguages.com\/en\/great-british-dialects\/","title":{"rendered":"Great British Dialects"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Although Britain is a small country, it has many <strong>regional dialects<\/strong> and different accents. Foreign visitors arriving in the port of Liverpool, the Devonshire moors or the Scots highlands may find that the English they learned at school has not prepared them for the <strong>many varieties of English<\/strong>. Perhaps this is because these dialects receive little attention in the media and are rarely recorded by lexicographers. This article explores some of the main British dialects and their history.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">When the <strong>Vikings<\/strong> invaded England in the 9th Century, they left their mark on Yorkshire. Yorkshire dialect words can still be compared to Scandinavian languages as shown in the examples illustrated below.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>Yorkshire<\/strong> \u00a0 \u00a0 <strong>English<\/strong> \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<strong> \u00a0Old norse word<\/strong><br \/>\nlaik \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0to play \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 leika<br \/>\nhappen \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 perhaps \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 happ<br \/>\nnay \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0no \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 nei<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">West Country dialects encompass the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Somerset and Wiltshire. The south of England was influenced by both <strong>Germanic and Celtic languages<\/strong>. Words which differ from other regions include \u2018dreckly\u2019 from \u2018directly\u2019 meaning soon but with less urgency and \u2018grockle\u2019 which means tourist or visitor. The verbs also change. Instead of \u2018I am\u2019, \u2018you are\u2019 and \u2018he is\u2019, some people in the West Country still use \u2018I be\u2019, \u2018thee bist\u2019 and \u2018he be\u2019. This dialect appears in literature, famously in Shakespeare\u2019s <em>King Lear<\/em>, and more extensively in the works of Dorset-born <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hardysociety.org\/index.php\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Thomas Hardy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Geordie is one of the best-loved British dialects according to a recent survey. \u2018Marra\u2019 meaning \u2018mate\u2019 and \u2018hinny\u2019 meaning woman are just a couple of examples of this colourful local tongue. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Geordie\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Geordie<\/a> is so unique because it has been <strong>influenced by many other dialects<\/strong> over time including Germanic languages from Viking settlers, Irish, Scots and Welsh. There are a number of theories about the etymology of the word \u2018Geordie\u2019 but the most probable is that it derived from George, a very common name among the coal miners in the North East of England. Other notable accents of the North include Scouse from the Liverpool area, Manc from Manchester and Scots, mentioned in our <a title=\"CROESO I BRYDAIN\" href=\"https:\/\/www.smglanguages.com\/croeso-i-brydain\/?lang=en\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">previous article<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Midlands dialect is also linked to the language of the working classes spoken in the <strong>pottery mills<\/strong> in Staffordshire and the <strong>mining communities<\/strong> in Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. It originates from Anglo-Saxon Old English. Words such as \u2018nesh\u2019 meaning cold and \u2018mardy\u2019 meaning grumpy as well as some charming idiomatic phrases including \u2018it\u2019s a bit black o\u2019er Bill\u2019s mothers\u2019 which indicates rain is forecast. The typical greeting in Derby and the surrounding area is \u2018Ey up mi Duck\u2019 which derives from the Saxon word \u2018Ducas\u2019, a term of respect also at the root of the English word \u2018Duke\u2019. The writer <strong>D.H. Lawrence<\/strong> uses Midlands dialect in his work <em>Sons and Lovers<\/em> about the coal mining communities in Nottingham. The <strong>West Midlands most famous dialect is Brummie<\/strong> which is the term for the dialect spoken in Birmingham. Striking differences include \u2018You\u2019 pronounced as \u2018yow\u2019 and \u2018right\u2019 as \u2018roight\u2019. \u2018Tara-a-bit\u2019 is a common Brummie phrase for see you later.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Perhaps the most famous English dialect is<strong> Cockney which is spoken in areas of East London<\/strong>. One of the first references to Cockney is in Chaucer\u2019s <em>The Reeves Tale.<\/em> Typical Cockney features include the use of \u2018ain\u2019t\u2019, double negatives and \u2018me\u2019 instead of \u2018my\u2019. Cockney Rhyming Slang is also intrinsic to London culture and traditions. Phrases such as \u2018apples and pears\u2019 meaning stairs and \u2018bacon and eggs\u2019 meaning legs have been added to in recent years with the introduction of \u2018Adrian Mole\u2019 for \u2018dole\u2019. This dialect particularly\u00a0<strong>emphasises the richness of Britain\u2019s regional dialects<\/strong> and how they are linked with our literature and culture.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Regional dialects are a <strong>challenge in the translation world<\/strong>. \u00a0Translators often come across words and phrases in dialect when translating literary texts and film scripts. This poses the problem of whether these dialects need to be translated into an <strong>equivalent dialect in the target language<\/strong> or the standard language.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In order to approach dialect translations, we must first consider the reason why the author has chosen to write in dialect. This may be for a <strong>variety of purposes<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">1. Comic technique<br \/>\n2. To represent social and cultural divides<br \/>\n3. To immerse the reader in the locale of the language<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Our <strong>native-speaking translators<\/strong> have a thorough knowledge of their country\u2019s slang and dialects and are able to consult other staff in our worldwide offices when researching slang used in the source texts. For more information on our language services visit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smglanguages.com\/?lang=es\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">www.smglanguages.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Although Britain is a small country, it has many regional dialects and different accents. Foreign visitors arriving in the port<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[206,203],"class_list":["post-35049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-english-language","tag-languages"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Great British Dialects - SMG Languages<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Although Britain is a small country, it has many regional dialects and different accents. 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