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We’re open for collecting one million dialect words.

Like our page and help us make word history.

🗣️💚

#TalkDialect #1MillionWords taken in England by @talk.dialect

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6 months ago

Our new Word of the Week is 👆

Any further comments and clues to what 🤖 has randomly selected from our #Buckinghamshire Dialect Dictionary is most welcome 🤗

🕵🏾‍♂️Detective Emmanuel is one of our researchers and was instrumental in finding a lot of dialect words (geographic and social) for our pilot study case in Buckinghamshire earlier this year.

Full report coming out soon…

Have a wonderful week from all of us at Talk Dialect 🗣️💚

#Dialect #Words #Accent
Become a Dialect Detective 🕵️‍♀️
www.talkdialect.co.uk taken in Buckinghamshire by @talk.dialect

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a day ago

Brilliant interview with the indefatigable Jean Scott-Smith as the National Dialect Festival kicks off this weekend 💪

Jean told the BBC there is also "one word above all that defines Cumbrian dialect" - "scrow" which means "an untidy mess".

You can read the full article here:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwdd8ez19vy2o

If you have any words for our Cumberland Dialect Dictionary please add them here: https://talk-dialect-live-map.replit.app/?add=1

#Cumbria #Cumberland
#Dialect #Words #Accent taken in Cumbria by @talk.dialect

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2 days ago

As someone very interested in my #mitochondria I wanted to share this lovely little story from the paper last week.

Jonanathan The #Tortoise is 194 years old and has been a contemporary of #CharlesDarwin and #QueenVictoria

In short it says to protect your mitochondria live slowly and avoid stress 🐢 taken in St Helena Island by @talk.dialect

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7 days ago

#GrasmereDialectPlays were a cultural sensation of early 20th-century Lakeland, bridging the gap between local folk traditions and national amateur theatre.

The tradition began in 1893 when #CharlotteFletcher, daughter of Grasmere’s rector, produced an initial dialect performance.

Following Fletcher's departure, the mantle was taken up by #EleanorSimpson supported by her sisters, Eleanor turned what had been an occasional village entertainment into an annual institution that ran almost continuously from 1900 to 1937.

Between those years, a repertoire of 14 plays was staged in rotation — nine of which Eleanor wrote herself.

Eleanor's chief passion was preserving the Westmorland dialect which chimes a beautiful chord with our current mission today:

🗣️ Linguistic precision: Eleanor consulted older native speakers to meticulously correct scripts and pronunciations.
🗣️ Hyper-local casting: Performers had to be genuine Grasmere villagers. Moving even just over the Dunmail Raise pass into neighbouring Langdale was considered disqualifying, ensuring the speech remained unadulterated.
🗣️ Folklife on stage: The plots were lighthearted romantic comedies packed with village courtships and marriage proposals, intertwined with depictions of local rites such as #rushbearing, #sheepclipping, and #paceegging

Their runaway popularity led directly to the development of the purpose-built #GrasmereVillageHall, where they were staged annually.

The annual dialect tradition ended around 1937 on the eve of the Second World War.

Although the village hall continued as a home for drama, forming the basis for the modern #GrasmerePlayers in 1949, the original dialect plays faded into archives at #AllanBank, the #ArmittMuseum, and #Wordsworth #Grasmere

In recent years, researchers and the #LakelandDialectSociety have begun transcribing and resurrecting Eleanor Rawnsley's scripts.

And on Saturday 10th October scenes from the original plays are being performed by members of the society.

For further information contact sue_wilkinson_2000@yahoo.com taken in Grasmere by @talk.dialect

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18 days ago

Our new WOTW dictionary entry has just dropped and it is…

The Talk Dialect Word of the Week is randomly chosen by our very own Aibot 🤖

The dictionaries are people led and people powered 💪

So get add your favourite dialect language words, sayings and phrases in for a chance for them to be selected as our WOTW.

Thanks for and on behalf of all contributors,
The Talk Dialect Team 🗣️💚

#Middlesex #TheBattleOfCableStreet taken in Middlesex by @talk.dialect

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22 days ago

Cumberland Day is **24 September** every year!

It marks the baptism date of John Peel the huntsman celebrated in the folk song "D'ye Ken John Peel", not the Radio One disc jockey and champion of the brilliant bands 😆

Our John Peel was a Cumberland huntsman, born at Park End near Caldbeck around 1776 — baptised 24 September 1777.

He was one of thirteen children of William Peel, a local yeoman farmer.

In 1797 he married Mary White — reportedly eloping to Gretna Green — and they had several children together.

He spent much of his life hunting, mostly on foot, and ran his own pack of hounds; he racked up considerable debts along the way, which friends helped pay off later in life.

He owes his lasting fame entirely to a song.

Around 1824, his friend John Woodcock Graves wrote "D'ye Ken John Peel", Cumberland dialect for "Do you know John Peel?" — setting new words to an old lullaby tune.

It was first sung locally, and reportedly Graves told Peel that night, "you'll be sung when we are both run to earth."

The song stayed a local favorite until 1869, when the choirmaster of Carlisle Cathedral wrote new music for it, which pushed it to national and eventually international fame — inns were even named after his hounds Ranter, Ruby, Bellman, and others appear in the lyrics.

Peel died in 1854 and is buried at St Kentigern's Church in Caldbeck, next to his wife Mary.

Today he's remembered as something of a folk icon of Cumberland identity — which is part of why his baptism date became Cumberland Day.

#JohnPeel
#Cumberland #CumberlandDay

Public Domain Image 📸
John Peel (Mark Crombie)
Greenrigg Caldbeck Cumberland Vintage Real Photograph Postcard by @talk.dialect

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25 days ago

Seeing as it's Derbyshire Day let's take a closer look at some of the words from this a-mazing historic county 🕵️‍♀️

Derbyshire is a county with a voice of its own. From the high moors and limestone dales of the Peak District to the towns, villages and valleys below, people have been making their lives and their living here for generations.

Derbyshire dialect is full of familiar north English words and also retains character, history and very specific local knowledge.

* Ey-up — Hello; a friendly Derbyshire greeting.
* Duck — A friendly term of address, meaning something like “dear” or “mate”.
* Nesh — Sensitive to cold; someone who feels the cold easily.
* Mardy — Moody, grumpy or sulky.
* Caded — Spoilt, especially describing a child.
* Clammed — Very hungry.
* Gerrat! — “Get out!” or an expression of disbelief.
* Fuddle — A small party or social gathering.
* Ganzi — A pullover or sweater.
* Oss — To try, or to tackle something skilfully; recorded in several Derbyshire communities in the nineteenth century.

The particularly lovely one for Talk Dialect is oss — because we can trace it directly through historical Derbyshire field recordings from places including Ashford, Dore, Chesterfield and Ashover.

Talk Dialect is on a mission with our Derbyshire Dialect Dictionary to bring all these voices together — hence the Chatsworth House biscuit tin — to help make sure Derbyshire’s words are worth chatting, shared and heard for generations to come.

#Derbyshire #DerbyshireDialect
#DerbyshireDay #ChatsworthHouse taken in Chatsworth House by @talk.dialect

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a month ago

Our new WOTW has just dropped…

Sethera

Sethera is a traditional Cumberland dialect word meaning six in the old shepherds’ counting system.

The full sequence is:
yan (1)
tan (2)
tethera (3)
methera (4)
pimp (5)
sethera (6)
lethera (7)
hovera (8)
dovera (9)
dick (10)

These counting words were used by shepherds to count sheep and by knitters to count stitches.

They stud the linguistic landscape with some of our most valuable language links across the hills of northern Britain back through time to our ancestors.

Today, these words survive in regional products, folk traditions, songs, literature, and the opera #YanTanTethera

They may represent some of the oldest continuously used words in Britain, preserving echoes of ancient Brythonic speech.

Passed down orally for centuries, they have been especially open to sound changes, local pronunciations, rhyming alterations, and dialect variation, producing numerous regional forms while retaining their original counting function.

Even the ten numbers listed above have numerous variations.

And I hope this post brings forth even more 🤞🗣️💚

#Sethera
#Cumberland
#CumberlandAccent
#CumberlandDialect
#TalkDialect taken in West Cumbria by @talk.dialect

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a month ago

Event: A talk by Buckinghamshire historian David Noy.

Rather wonderfully David was one of the first people to submit an entry into our Buckinghamshire Dialect Dictionary — “What there were on it.”

The saying was about his mother and aunt in Winslow who were talking an about food. Or more to the point lack of it.

So it comes as no surprise to us, that this culturally dedicated human is giving a talk on Buckinghamshire’s First Feminist Poet: The Life and Death of Sarah Fyge Egerton (1668–1723).

The talk is supports a book a newly published book about the life of this remarkable woman from an old Winslow family.

She also lived at Shenley and Adstock, and her last poem was once on display in Winslow Church.

The talk is at 1930-2045 on Thursday 17 September 2026.

St Laurence Church, High Street, Winslow, Buckinghamshire, MK18 3AB

Pre-booking not required. Max number 30 people.

Parking on Winslow Market Square or in Greyhound Lane and Public Hall Car Parks. Check notices for fees in operation.

☎️ For further information contact David Noy 07713-641238

#DavidNoy
#SarahFygeEgerton #Winslow
#Buckinghamshire #History A talk by Buckinghamshire historian David Noy on Sarah Fyge Egerton taken in St Laurence Church, Winslow by @talk.dialect

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a month ago

Our Word of the Week has just dropped…

Please to say 🤖 has randomly chosen our Cumberland Word Keeper Eddie Wren’s word and definition for the word Girse / Gerse.

We are focusing on the Cumberland Dialect Dictionary for the next few weeks so please join us and add some favourite Cumberland words of your own 🗣️💚

Thanks and have a great week,
Nikki 🤓

#Girse #Gerse #Grasmere
#Cumberland
#CumberlandDialect taken in Grasmere, Lake District by @talk.dialect

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a month ago

Our new Word of the Week is Lēah by Ffion from Feral Therapy.

She very kindly sent us in lots of words from women and the landscape.

The Word of the Week Lēah randomly selected by our Dialect Dictionary Aibot

🤖 says Lēah is an Old English for a clearing or open space in a woodland clearing, glade, or open place in a forest.

It comes from the Proto-West Germanic lauhaz, related to Old High German loh and Old Norse ló.

These words are cognates—they descend from an older Germanic word—rather than one being directly derived from another.

Lēah was widely used in Anglo-Saxon England to describe clearings where people lived, farmed, or grazed animals.

It survives in hundreds of English place-names, often appearing as -ley, -leigh, or -lea—for example, Ashley, Hadleigh, and Bentley.

Over time, its original meaning of a clearing became less obvious, but lea remains in modern English, particularly in the sense of an open grassy meadow.

Thanks once again to Ffion for her really interesting angle into dialect words.

Nikki Wordsmith 🪶

Add your own favourite dialect word in under 5 seconds and you never know it could be your dictionary entry that is picked for next week.

feral_therapy
#Lēah #WordOfTheWeek
#TalkDialect 🗣️💚 taken in Staffordshire by @talk.dialect

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a month ago