Lexicon

Hiberno-English vocabulary is largely the same as British English, though there are variances, especially with reference to certain goods, services and institutions. Examples that would come into everyday conversation include:

• Bold describes someone (usually a child) who is impudent, naughty or badly behaved.

• Cat - bad, terrible. Sometimes "catmalogeon".

• Couple often means "a few", somewhere between two and four or five - whereas in British and American English it is more likely to mean precisely two.

• Crack or craic is a good time, good company, good atmosphere and conversation.

• Cub - means a young child

• Cute can mean shrewd or clever, particularly in the business sense, as in "cute hoor".

• Doss, meaning bed, or to be lazy.

• Dozy, Dublin adjective meaning annoying - e.g. "Dozy git!".

• Evening starts rather earlier in the day in Ireland than it does in British English. Any time after midday is likely to be described as the "evening", whereas in Britain the evening does not start until about 1700 hrs.

• Feck is a slang term that can mean "throw", "steal" or "go away" ("Feck offFeen - A man. Its meaning is somewhat akin of the American Dude and the London Geezer.

• Fierce, used as a stronger intensifier than 'very'; e.g., "This is fierce bad weather we're having".

• Gammy - bad, broken, crooked, unstable, improbably lucky.

• Jacks : toilet, usually in a pub or similar. As in "mind my handbag while I go to the jacks". From 16th century English "Jakes". (mind means "look after") the words Bog and Loo are also used.

• Press is almost invariably used instead of Cupboard. The hot press is the airing cupboard.

• Ratchet, used mostly in Cork and Kerry, refers to a thing. See "yoke"

• Rubber means an eraser (not a condom!)

• Whisht - Meaning 'be quiet'. 'Hauld (Hold) your whisht' is a common phrase in rural Cavan.

• Yoke - an unnamed thing. Used commonly.

Cockney (London)

Dropping initial [h], [ai] instead of [ei], [w] instead of [l] – kneel – [ni:w], [n] instead of [ŋ] – writin merger of /θ/-zd- with /f/, and [ð]-d- with /v/; monophthongisation of /au/ to [æu]; use of a glottal stop for intervocalic 't', as in bottle or butter

Rules not observed

use of ain't instead of isn't, am not, are not, has not, and have not

Scouse (liverpool)

Flat vowels (not clearly pronounced), nasal consonants, “pitiful” intonation; the /k/ phoneme is often pronounced [x]. There are several possibilities for the /t/ phoneme in Scouse. In some contexts, it may be realised as an alveolar slit fricative, or as a similar affricate; these sounds may sound like [s] and [ts] respectively. In some words, for example but and what, the final /t/ may be replaced by [h]. The th sounds /θ, ð/ may be pronounced as dental [t, d]. The velar nasal [ŋ] is usually followed by a hard [g] sound in words where most other English accents have it at the end of a word or before a vowel, so that sing is [siŋg] as opposed to [siŋ] in RP. The /r/ is often similar to Scots.

Scouse is noted for a fast, highly accented manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England.

Irish influences include the pronunciation of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' and the plural of 'you' as 'youse'. There are also idioms shared with Hiberno-English, such as "I know where you're at" (Standard English: "I know who you are").

Expressions include 'lah' or 'lid', as an abbreviation of lad, used to mean mate or pal, e.g. "alright lid!"

Georgie (Newcastle-upon-Tyne)

Not clear and indistinct pronunciation: what a = worra; got a = gorra; "er" on the end of words becomes "a" (/æ/) ("father" is pronounced "fatha"). Many "a" sounds become more like "e": "hev" for "have" and "thet" for "that". Double vowels are often pronounced separately as diphthongs: "boat" becomes "boh-ut" and ""boot"" becomes "bee-yut". Some words acquire extra vowels ("growel" for "growl", "cannet" for "can't"). This property of the dialect has lead Geordie to be known for putting as many vowels as possible into a word. The "or" sound in words like "talk" becomes "aa" ("walk" becomes "waak"), "er" sounds in words like "work" becomes "or". The "ow" in words like "down" or, most famously, "town" becomes "oo", hence "the Toon" meaning Newcastle. (In Wearside, the "oo" in words like "cook", "book" or "look" becomes "uu", although this accent has come to be known as Mackem, not Geordie.)

canny for "pleasant" (it should be noted that the Scottish use of canny is often somewhat less flattering), hyem for "home", deeky for "look at",

ket for "sweets/treats", naa for "to know/know",

divn't for "don't", bairn/grandbairn for "child/grandchild", hacky for "dirty", gan for "to go/go". Howay is broadly comparable to the invocation "Come on!". Examples of common use include Howay man!, meaning something like "come on" or "hurry up", Howay the lads! as an encouragement for a sports team, or Ho'way!? (with stress on the second syllable) expressing incredulity or disbelief.

Geordie commonly uses the word aye meaning "yes", which is also found in most Scottish dialects. By contrast, a Geordie might say na for an emphatic or dismissive "no".

Brummie (Birmingham)

Traditional expressions include: "A bit black over Bill's mother's" ... Likely to rain soon (now widespread).

"Bab" ... Used by older generation to refer to a spouse or female. "Bostin" ... Excellent, brilliant. "Face as long as Livery Street" ... Looking miserable. "Go and play up your own end" ... Said to children from a different street making a nuisance. It has been used as the title of the autobiographical book and musical play about the Birmingham childhood of radio presenter and entertainer Malcolm Stent. "Keep away from the 'oss road" / "mind the 'orse road" ... An admonition to travel safely, originally a warning to children in the days of horse-drawn traffic. "Rock" ... a children's hard sweet (as in "give us a rock"). "Up the cut" ... Up the canal (not uniquely Birmingham). "Yampy" (often "dead yampy") Scatty and lively, to the point of madness.

West country (Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset)

Velar (back) [r], voiced [s] – [z] (Somerset – Zummerset). [а] sounds like [u] – club, discussion, plug. A slower, drawling manner of speech, with lengthened vowel sounds (this is less pronounced among the Cornish and Bristolians, who actually speak quite rapidly).

The initial "s" is pronounced as "z".

"r"s are pronounced far more prominently than in Standard English, in a Rhotic fashion

An initial "f" may become pronounced "v", as in varmer Joe

In the Bristol area, a terminal "a" (realised as [aw]),

I am = I be; she said to us = her says to we

The second person singular thee and thou forms used, thee often contracted to ee. Bist may be used instead of are e.g. ow bist? = "how are you?". Use of male (rather than neutral) gender with nouns; put he over there = put it over there. An a prefix may be used to denote the past tense; a-went = gone. Use of they rather than them or those; they shoes be mine = those shoes are mine. Am used exclusively in the present tense, usually contracted to 'm; you'm = you am = you are. In other areas, be may be used exclusively in the present tense, often in the present continuous; Where you be going to? = Where are you going? Using "Where's [something] to?", often with "it" replaced by "he" (pronounced "ee"), so "Where's he to?". Use of the past participle "writ" (pronounced reaht) in lieu of "wrote", as in "I writ about eaht larhts in moiy buuk" or "I wrote about it lots in my book". Use of elongated "uh" sound for "oo" as in "buuk", which leads to the accusations of ignorance and stupidity as others may find this 'backwards drawl' -so to speak- amusing.