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examples of lexical variation in england
examples of lexical variation in england
While some slang and terminology may be found commonly across England and be well-known to foreigners, many regional terms and colloquialisms exist that may be less familiar to outsiders. Test out your knowledge of a few dialectic terms below!
what's a jitty? how about a barm?
what's a jitty? how about a barm?
A jitty is a walkway, while barm is another term for bread or a roll.
The Our Dialogs Project has collected dialectic surveys from more than 8000 participants across the UK and maps the results according to location– you can see other responses throughout England and their location in the images here.
To read more about the project and view additional language maps see here.
what does it mean to "wag off"?
what does it mean to "wag off"?
If someone “wags off” they are either not going or leaving early from work or school when they are expected to be there.
In the article “Mapping Lexical Dialect Variation in British English Using Twitter”, researchers collected and compared data from UK Twitter to more traditional language surveys and collected data from the BBC Voices project. Above you can see the concentration of responses by term for playing truant: bunk, hookey, skip, skive, and wag. To read more about this work and the implications of using social media as a form of data collection, see here.
What does it mean if you’re standing in a field of crazies? How about if someone tells you they have a “skelf in my pinkie?”
What does it mean if you’re standing in a field of crazies? How about if someone tells you they have a “skelf in my pinkie?”
Surprisingly, if you are standing in a field of crazies in Stewkley, it’s more likely that you are standing in a field of buttercups than surrounded by the mentally ill. If someone has a skelf in their pinky, they mean they have a small piece of wood stuck in their little finger.
Stuart Jeffries, a contributor at the Guardian briefly discusses the regional dialects of England and asks readers for their favorite examples in his blog post here. Read the comments to see more reader-contributed content such as the meaning of “Tappers”, “Drookit”, “Baltic,” and more.
How can “pimp + dik = bumfit” be a legitimate mathematical equation? What number does this represent?
How can “pimp + dik = bumfit” be a legitimate mathematical equation? What number does this represent?
This isn’t a lewd joke, but actually represents “10 + 5 = 15” in the Lincolnshire dialect version of an old Brythonic counting system known popularly as “Yan Tan Tethera.”
While the numbers come from languages that are long dead, they saw continued use in counting up to the 20th century and can still be heard in some areas of England today. Watch the video to learn more.
cockney rhyming sLAng
cockney rhyming sLAng
In perhaps one of the best-known dialects of England, Cockney, words can frequently be replaced by something that appears to have no correlation to the object in question. This is known as Cockney rhyming slang, where the original word may be replaced by a rhyming phrase. However, in some instances, the phrase may be shortened to the non-rhyming portion. For example, if someone tells you to “go up the apples” they mean for you to take the stairs (originally from the rhyming phrase “apples and pears”). To further complicate matters, in the “double slang” phenomena, one rhyming phrase may evolve from another and then experience it’s own shortening. A prime example of this is the term “Aris” meaning buttocks. From the original rhyming phrase “Bottle and Glass”, “bottle” was rhymed with “Aristotle” which then became shortened to “Aris.”
Now that you know a bit more about Cockney rhyming slang and how it is used, try your hand decoding this excerpt from Cockney Rhyming Slang: London’s Famous Secret Language.
Want to read more about Cockney rhyming slang? See here.
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