How To Talk Like A Local: From Cockney To Geordie, A National Companion

How To Talk Like A Local: From Cockney To Geordie, A National Companion

If you were a Londoner visiting Cornwall would you know how to recognise an angleditch? And if you were from the West Country and took a trip up to Scotland, would you be bewildered if someone described you as crabbit? And what if you left your native Belfast for Yorkshire, would you understand if someone called you an offcomedun? How to Talk Like a Local is an entertaining guide that gathers together and explains hundreds of local words that you would never find in an ordinary dictionary. From dardledumdue, which means day-dreamer in East Anglia, through forkin robins, the Yorkshire term for earwigs, to clemt, a Lancashire word that means hungry, it covers the enormously rich variety of words that pepper the English language. Not only does it pick out unique and unusal local words, it also draws together the dozens of phrases from all over the country that mean the same thing, such as pally-jukered, cuddy-wifter and corrie-fisted for left-handed, and obzocky, butters and maftin for ugly. In addition, it digs down to uncover the origins of these words, tracing their routes into the language. Many terms meaning left-handed, for example, are related to the Kerr family of Ferniehirst Castle in Scotland, who preferred left-handed warriors. And many seemingly new coinages have been around for centuries, such as chav, which derives from a Romany word meaning child, or scouse, which probably comes from labskause, a Scandinavian word for stew. If you're intrigued by these colourful words and phrases, if you're interested in how English is really spoken, or even if you want to discover how our language has evolved over the years, How to Talk Like a Local will prove irresistible - and enlightening - reading.