Yorkshire dialect

Updated on Oct 25, 2023

Edit

Comment

Native to England Glottolog None		Region Yorkshire

Language family Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Anglo Frisian Anglic English Yorkshire

The Yorkshire dialect refers to the Northern English language varieties spoken in England's historic county of Yorkshire. Those varieties are often referred to as Broad Yorkshire or Tyke. The dialect has roots in older languages such as Old English and Old Norse; it should not be confused with modern slang. The Yorkshire Dialect Society exists to promote use of the dialect in both humour and in serious linguistics; there is also an East Riding Dialect Society.

Yorkshire is generally not as stigmatised as other dialects, and has been used in classic works of literature such as Wuthering Heights, Nicholas Nickleby and The Secret Garden. Studies have shown that accents in the West Riding (that is, mostly, modern West and South Yorkshire) are generally popular and are associated with common sense, loyalty and reliability.

Geographic distribution

Traditionally, there was not one dialect in Yorkshire but several. The Survey of English Dialects identified many different accents in Yorkshire. The Yorkshire Dialect Society draws a border roughly at the River Wharfe between two main zones. The area to the southwest of the river is more influenced by Mercian dialect whilst that to the northeast is more influenced by Northumbrian dialect. The distinction was first made by A. J. Ellis in On Early English Pronunciation. It was approved of by Joseph Wright, the founder of the Yorkshire Dialect Society and the author of the English Dialect Dictionary. Investigations at village level by the dialect analysts Stead (1906), Sheard (1945) and Rohrer (1950) mapped a border between the two areas.

Over time, speech has become closer to Standard English and some of the features that once distinguished one town from another have disappeared. In 1945, J. A. Sheard predicted that various influences "will probably result in the production of a standard West Riding dialect", and K. M. Petyt found in 1985 that "such a situation is at least very nearly in existence". However, the accent of Hull and East Yorkshire remains markedly different. The accent of the Middlesbrough area has some similarities with Geordie.

One anomalous case in the West Riding is Royston, which absorbed migrants from the Black Country at the end of the 19th century. The speech of Royston contrasts with that of nearby Barnsley, as it retains some Black Country features.

Wilfred Pickles, a Yorkshireman born in Halifax, was selected by the BBC as an announcer for its North Regional radio service; he went on to be an occasional newsreader on the BBC Home Service during World War II. He was the first newsreader to speak in a regional accent rather than Received Pronunciation, "a deliberate attempt to make it more difficult for Nazis to impersonate BBC broadcasters", and caused some comment with his farewell catchphrase "... and to all in the North, good neet".

Pronunciation

Some features of Yorkshire pronunciation are general features of northern English accents. Many of them are listed in the northern English accents section on the English English page. For example, Yorkshire speakers have short [a] in words like bath, grass and chance. The long [ɑː] of southern English is widely disliked in these words.

Vowels

Words such as strut, cut, blood, lunch usually take [ʊ], although [ə] is a middle-class variant.

Most words affected by the trap-bath split in South East England - the distinction between the sounds [a] and [ɑː] - are not affected in Yorkshire. A much smaller number of words, however, such as can't, half, palm, and rather, are pronounced in a similar way to the South East. With the exception of Sheffield and Rotherham, the [ɑː] vowel is typically realised as [aː] or [äː] in Yorkshire.

In parts of the West Riding, none, one, once, nothing, tongue, among(st) are pronounced with [ɒ] rather than [ʊ]. A shibboleth for a traditional Huddersfield accent is the word love as [lɒv], pronounced to rhyme with "of".

Words such as late, face, say, game are pronounced with a monophthong [eː] or [ɛː]. However, words with gh in the spelling (e.g. straight, weight), as well exclamations and interjections such as hey and eh (the tag question), are usually pronounced with a diphthong [ɛɪ]. Some words with ake at the end may be pronounced with [ɛ], as in tek, mek, and sek for take, make, and sake (but not for bake or cake).

Words with the Received Pronunciation vowel /əʊ/, as in goat, may have a monophthong [oː] or [ɔː]. In a recent trend, a fronted monophthong [ɵː] is common amongst young women, although this has been the norm for a long time in Hull (where it originates from). It has developed only since 1990, yet it has now spread to Bradford. In the West Riding, there may be a split whereby a diphthong [ɔʊ] coexists in other words, especially where it precedes /l/ or where there is a W at the end of a word (e.g. grow, low). The O's in some specific words are pronounced alternatively as simply /ɔ/, such as open, over, woke, and go.

If a close vowel precedes /l/, a schwa may be inserted. This gives [iəl] for /iːl/ and (less frequently) [uəl] for /uːl/.

When /ɛ/ precedes /r/ in a stressed syllable, /ɛ/ can become [ə]. For example, very can be pronounced [vəɹɪ].

In Hull, Middlesbrough, and other parts of the east coast, the sound in word, heard, nurse, etc. is pronounced in the same way as in square, dare. This is [ɛː]. The set of words with /ɪə/, such as near, fear, beard, etc., may have a similar pronunciation but remains distinctive as [eɛ].

In other parts of Yorkshire, this sound is a short [ə]. This seems to have developed as an intermediate form between the older form [ɒ] (now very rare in these words) and the RP pronunciation [ə:].

In Hull, Middlesbrough and much of the East Riding, the phoneme /aɪ/ (as in prize) may become a monophthong [aː] before a voiced consonant. For example, five becomes [faːv] (fahv), prize becomes [pʰɹaːz] (prahz). This does not occur before voiceless consonants, so "price" is [pʰɹaɪs].

In some areas, especially in the southern half of Yorkshire, there is a tendency to pronounce the diphthong /aʊ/ (as in mouth) as a monophthong [aː] (mahth). This is characteristic of informal speech and may coexist with the more formal [aʊ]. In Hull, the offset of /aʊ/ is strongly labialised. It occurs more in specific words - such as down, about, now, how, and out - than others.

In the northern half of Yorkshire, the local pronunciation of these words is [u:], but this is now less common than the RP [aʊ] in North Yorkshire.

Words like city and many are pronounced with a final [ɛ~e] in the Sheffield area.

What would be a schwa on the end of a word in other accents is realised as [ɛ] in Hull.

A prefix to a word is more likely not to take a reduced vowel sound in comparison to the same prefix's vowel sound in other accents. For example, concern is [kɒnˈsɜːn] or [kɒnˈsɛːn], rather than [kənˈsɜːn].

The following features are recessive, and are generally less common amongst younger than older speakers in Yorkshire:

Long vowel [uː] in words such as book, cook, and look.

Where and there often become a diphthong [iə]. This sound may also be used in words with ea in the spelling: for example, head as [iəd] ('eead), leaves as [liəvz] (leeaves)

[eɪ] may take the place of /iː/, especially in words such as key, meat, speak.

Words such as door, floor, four may take a variety of diphthongal pronunciations [uə, oə, ɔə, ʊə].

Words which once had a velar fricative in Old and Middle English may have [oʊ~ɔʊ] for /ɔː/ (e.g. brought, fought, thought).

Some words that end -ight can still be heard in their dialectal forms. For example, night as [niːt] (neet) and right as [ɹiːt] (reet) or, in some areas, [ɹeɪt] (reyt). This can also be heard in Nova Scotia.

Consonants

In some areas, an originally voiced consonant followed by a voiceless one can be pronounced as voiceless. For example, Bradford may be pronounced as if it were Bratford, with [t] (although more likely with a glottal stop, [ʔ]) instead of the [d] employed in most English accents. Absolute is often pronounced as if it were apsolute, with a [p] in place of the [b].

As with most dialects of English, final [ŋ] sound in, for example, hearing and eating are often reduced to [n]. However, [ŋɡ] can be heard in Sheffield.

H-dropping is common in informal speech, especially amongst the working classes.

Omission of final stops /d, t/ and fricatives /f, θ, ð/, especially in function words. As in other dialects, with can be reduced to wi, especially before consonants. Was is also often reduced to wa (pronounced roughly as "woh"), even when not in contracted negative form (see table below).

A glottal stop may also be used to replace /k/ (e.g. like becomes [laɪʔ]) at the end of a syllable.

In the Middlesbrough area, glottal reinforcement occurs for /k, p, t/.

Most Yorkshire accents are non-rhotic, but rhotic accents do exist in some areas that border with Lancashire. At the time of the Survey of English Dialects, much of the East Riding was partially rhotic: a final r on a word, as in letter, hour, and quarter would be pronounced in a rhotic manner, but an r mid-way through a word, as in start, yard, and burn would be pronounced in a non-rhotic manner.

Some consonant changes amongst the younger generation are typical of younger speakers across England, but are not part of the traditional dialect:

Th-fronting so that [f, v] for /θ, ð/ (although Joseph Wright noted th-fronting in the Windhill area in 1892).

T-glottalisation: a more traditional pronunciation is to realise /t/ as [r] in certain phrases, which leads to pronunciation spellings such as gerroff.

[ʋ] for /r/.

The following are typical of the older generation:

In Sheffield, cases of initial "th" /ð/) become [d]. This pronunciation has led to Sheffielders being given the nickname "dee dahs" (the local forms of "thee" and "thou"/"tha").

Initial /ɡ, k/ realised as [d, t] before /l/). For example, clumsy becomes [tlʊmzɛ].

Further information

These features can be found in the English Accents and Dialects collection on the British Library website. This website features samples of Yorkshire (and elsewhere in England) speech in wma format, with annotations on phonology with X-SAMPA phonetic transcriptions, lexis and grammar.

Vocabulary and grammar

A list of non-standard grammatical features of Yorkshire speech is shown below. In formal settings, these features are castigated and, as a result, their use is recessive. They are most common amongst older speakers and amongst the working classes.

Definite article reduction: shortening of the to a form without a vowel, often written t'. See this overview and a more detailed page on the Yorkshire Dialect website, and also Jones (2002). This is most likely to be a glottal stop [ʔ], although traditionally it was [t] or (in the areas that border Lancashire) [θ].

Some dialect words persist, although most have fallen out of use. The use of owt and nowt, derived from Old English a wiht and ne wiht, mean anything and nothing, as well as summat to mean something. They are pronounced [aʊt] and [naʊt] in North Yorkshire, but as [ɔʊt] and [nɔʊt] in most of the rest of Yorkshire. Other examples of dialect still in use include flayed (sometimes flayt) (scared), laik (play), roar (cry), aye (yes), nay (emphatic "no"), and all (also), anyroad (anyway) and afore (before).

When making a comparison such as greater than or lesser than, the word "nor" can be used in place of "than", e.g. better nor him.

Nouns describing units of value, weight, distance, height and sometimes volumes of liquid have no plural marker. For example, ten pounds becomes ten pound; five miles becomes five mile.

The word us is often used in place of me or in the place of our (e.g. we should put us names on us property). Us is invariably pronounced with a final [z] rather than an [s].

Use of the singular second-person pronoun thou (often written tha) and thee. This is a T form in the T-V distinction, and is largely confined to male, mostly older speakers.

Were can be used in place of was when connected to a singular pronoun. The reverse - i.e. producing constructions such as we was and you was - is also not unheard of.

While is often used in the sense of until (e.g. unless we go at a fair lick, we'll not be home while seven.) Stay here while it shuts might cause a non-local to think that they should stay there during its shutting, when the order really means that they should stay only until it shuts.

The word self may become sen, e.g. yourself becomes thy sen, tha sen.

Similar to other English dialects, using the word them to mean those is common, e.g. This used to be a pub back in them days.

The word right is used to mean very or really, e.g. If I'm honest, I'm not right bothered about it.

As in many non-standard dialects, double negatives are common, e.g. I was never scared of nobody.

The relative clause may be what rather than that, e.g. other people what I've heard. Alternatively there may be no relative clause, e.g. I've a sister lives there.

Contracted negatives

In informal Yorkshire speech, negatives may be more contracted than in other varieties of English. These forms are shown in the table below. Although the final consonant is written as [t], this may be realised as [ʔ], especially when followed by a consonant.

Hadn't does not become reduced to [ant]. This may be to avoid confusion with hasn't or haven't, which can both be realised as [ant].

Yorkshire Dialect Society

The Yorkshire Dialect Society exists to promote use of the dialect in both humour and in serious linguistics; there is also an East Riding Dialect Society.

The Yorkshire society is the oldest of the county dialect societies; it grew out of the committee of workers formed to collect material for the English Dialect Dictionary. The committee was formed in October 1894 at Joseph Wright's suggestion and the Yorkshire Dialect Society was founded in 1897. It publishes an annual volume of The Transactions of the Yorkshire Dialect Society; the contents of this include studies of English dialects outside Yorkshire, e.g. the dialects of Northumberland, and Shakespeare's use of dialect.

Yorkshire dialect and accent in popular culture

The director Ken Loach has set several of his films in South Yorkshire and has stated that he doesn't want actors to deviate from their natural accent. The dialect is strongest in the 1969 film Kes, filmed around Barnsley with local actors, and in the 1977 film The Price of Coal, which had actors from across South Yorkshire. The films Looks and Smiles (1981) and The Navigators (2001) were both set in Sheffield. Loach has noted that the speech is less regionally-marked in his more recent films and has attributed this to changing speech habits in South Yorkshire. In addition, parts of his serial Days of Hope featured dialect from a more rural part of Yorkshire, with the lead actor, Paul Copley, being from Denby Dale.

Dialect of the northern dales featured in the series All Creatures Great and Small.

A number of popular bands hail from Yorkshire and have distinctive Yorkshire accents. Joe Elliott and Rick Savage, vocalist and bassist of Def Leppard; Alex Turner, vocalist of the Arctic Monkeys; Jon McClure, of Reverend and The Makers; Jon Windle, of Little Man Tate; Jarvis Cocker, vocalist of Pulp; and Joe Carnall, of Milburn and Phil Oakey (of The Human League) are all known for their Sheffield accents, whilst The Cribs, who are from Netherton, sing in a Wakefield accent. Graham Fellows, in his persona as John Shuttleworth, uses his Sheffield accent, though his first public prominence was as cockney Jilted John. Toddla T, a DJ on BBC Radio 1 and 1Xtra, has a strong Sheffield accent and often uses the phrase "big up thysen" (an adaptation into Yorkshire dialect of the slang term "big up yourself" which is most often used in the music and pop culture of the Jamaican diaspora). Similarly, grime crews such as Scumfam use a modern Sheffield accent, which still includes some dialect words.

Actor Sean Bean normally speaks with a Yorkshire accent in his acting roles, as does actor Matthew Lewis, famously known for playing Neville Longbottom in the Harry Potter films.

Wallace of Wallace and Gromit, voiced by Peter Sallis, has his accent from Holme Valley of West Yorkshire, despite the character living in nearby Lancashire. Sallis has said that creator Nick Park wanted a Lancashire accent, but Sallis could only manage to do a Yorkshire one.

The late British Poet Laureate, Ted Hughes originated from Mytholmroyd, close to the border with Lancashire, and spent much of his childhood in Mexborough, South Yorkshire. His own readings of his work were noted for his "flinty" or "granite" voice and "distinctive accent" and some said that his Yorkshire accent affected the rhythm of his poetry.

The soap opera Emmerdale, formerly Emmerdale Farm, was noted for use of Broad Yorkshire but the storylines involving numerous incomers have diluted the dialect until it is hardly heard.

In the ITV Edwardian/interwar period drama Downton Abbey, set at a fictional country estate in North Yorkshire between Thirsk and Ripon, many of the servants and nearly all of the local villagers have Yorkshire accents. BBC One series Happy Valley and Last Tango in Halifax, both from creator Sally Wainwright of Huddersfield, also heavily feature Yorkshire accents.

In the HBO television adaptation of George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones, many of the characters from the North of Westeros speak with Yorkshire accents, matching the native dialect of Sean Bean, who plays Lord Eddard "Ned" Stark.

Several of the dwarves in the Peter Jackson film adaptation of The Hobbit, namely Thorin Oakenshield, Kíli and Fili, speak with Yorkshire accents.

The character of the Fat Controller in the Thomas and Friends TV series, as voiced by Michael Angelis, has a broad Yorkshire accent.

On Ilkla Moor Bar t'At, a popular folk song, is sung in the Yorkshire dialect and accent and considered to be the unofficial anthem of Yorkshire.

Books written in Yorkshire dialect

Yorkshire Ditties (Series 1) by John Hartley

'Yorkshire Ditties (Series 2) by John Hartley

Yorkshire Puddin' by John Hartley, 1876

Yorkshire Tales (Series 3) by John Hartley

Yorkshire Dialect Poems (1673–1915) and traditional poems by Frederic William Moorman

Songs of the Ridings by Frederic William Moorman

A Yorkshire Dialect Reciter; compiled by George H. Cowling, author of "A Yorkshire Tyke", "The Dialect of Hackness", &c. London: Folk Press Ltd, [1926]

A Kind of Loving and Joby by Stan Barstow. (specifically that of Dewsbury and Ossett)

Most of the dialogue in GB84 by David Peace

A Kestrel for a Knave later turned into the film Kes

The Secret Garden (parts of) by Frances Hodgson Burnett

Wuthering Heights (parts of) by Emily Brontë (note that this is very old-fashioned Haworth dialect)