Potteries dialect

Origin and history

As with most local dialects in English, Potteries dialect derives originally from Anglo Saxon Old English. The 14th-century Anglo Saxon poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which appears in the Cotton Nero A.x manuscript uses dialect words native to the Potteries, leading some scholars to believe that it was written by a monk from Dieulacres Abbey. However, the most commonly suggested candidate for authorship is John Massey of Cotton, Cheshire (now part of Cranage outside Holmes Chapel). The same manuscript also contains three religious alliterative poems, Cleanness, Patience and Pearl, which are attributed to the same unknown author. Although the identity of the author is still disputed, J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon writing in 1925 concluded that "his home was in the West Midlands of England; so much his language shows, and his metre, and his scenery."

The first documented instance of Potteries dialect is by the prominent Stafforshire lawyer John Ward (1781–1870) and local historian Simeon Shaw in their book The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent published in 1843, and still available from Webberley's Bookshop, where Ward recorded phonetically a conversation which he overheard in Burslem marketplace in 1810. In the passage, entitled A Burslem Dialogue, Ward provided an explanation of some of the words unique to the district: ‘mewds’ (moulds), ‘kale’ (being called upon in order, first, second….), ‘heo’ (she), ‘shippon’ (a cow-house).

From the 1750s onwards the Industrial Revolution created a high concentration of workforce in the ceramic and coal mining industries, working in close proximity in Stoke-on-Trent. This allowed the dialect to develop as a way of speech specific to those industries.

Some observers of Potteries dialect in the 21st century fear it is dying out as a living speech, as fewer young people use it in everyday conversation. Steve Birks cites increased ease of travel, the decline of the pottery industry leading to people moving out of the area to find work, the prevalence of and exposure to Received Pronunciation through television and radio, and the uniformity of the British education system as contributing factors in the decline of the dialect. Alan Povey has predicted that his will be the last generation that speaks Potteries dialect, and that after his generation is gone the dialect will die out for good. However Birks points out that there have been attempts to eradicate the dialect since the 19th century which were unsuccessful. John Ward writing in 1843 noted that the Potteries dialect was "now almost banished by the schoolmasters assiduous care". Birks also writes that dialect is still used widely amongst local residents, and is toned down when speaking to visitors to the city to be intelligible to them, which shows the dialect is still present in everyday conversation. He also states that there is "a growing interest in preserving, reading about and speaking dialects."

Features

Three noticeable features of the dialect are the vowel sound ow (as in low) which is used where standard English would use ol as in cowd = cold, 'towd" = told, etc. and the use of thee and they in place of you (both singular and plural), also heard in parts of Yorkshire and Lancashire. Finally, the Potteries dialect is especially evident in the words 'cook', 'book', 'hook' and 'look'; where a Potteries accent will sound the oo as 'ooh' (as in shoe), rather than the standard English pronunciation using 'uck' (as in truck).

Another peculiarity is the use of the addition of ne at the end of words to indicate the negative as in thee cosne goo dine theyr sirree, theyl get thesen ow bautered u. Although clearly similar to Latin in the way this is used, this might just be coincidental. There are differences in the way people from Staffordshire Moorlands villages speak to people from the Potteries. Indeed, it used to be possible, within living memory, to be able identify which village people came from simply by their accent or words used. i.e. 'thesen' is a Moorlands word and 'thesell' is Potteries. A sparrow would be described in the Moorlands as a "spuggy", a watering can a "lecking can" or a horse a "tit" – though not so in the Potteries.

The late John Levitt from Keele University was very interested in recording this dialect and often stated that the Potteries or North Staffs dialect was the most difficult dialect to speak as well as it being the closest to Anglo Saxon. If one, as a native dialect speaker, attempts to read Sir Gawain and the Green Knight in this dialect it suddenly changes from incomprehensible to a lilting poem as it was constructed to be. This has led scholars to speculate that it was written by a monk from Dieulacres Abbey. Levitt was also intrigued by the ability of Potteries people to be able to confuse the letters O and H as in otel or horanges.

Examples

Like all English dialects, the Potteries dialect derives from Anglo-Saxon Old English. Example words and phrases:

In popular culture

A popular cartoon called May un Mar Lady, created by Dave Follows, appears in The Sentinel newspaper and is written in the Potteries dialect. Previously The Sentinel has carried other stories in the dialect, most notably the Jabez stories written by Wilfred Bloor under the pseudonym of A Scott Alan Povey's Owd Grandad Piggott stories which have aired on BBC Radio Stoke for a number of years are recited in the Potteries dialect by the author.

The Potteries accent is much more difficult to imitate than the better known Cockney, Scouse, Brummie or Geordie; and few actors from outside the Potteries have managed to master it. Neither in the 1952 film "The Card" nor in the 1976 TV series "Clayhanger", did any actor give a reasonable rendition of the accent. Ken Loach's 1971 film The Rank and File was set in the Potteries and attempted to use the local dialect, but many of the actors were recruited from the film The Big Flame which was set in Liverpool and used Scouse.