Accent Van drives around region to create database of Greater Manchester hyperlocal accents
Greater Manchester is only about 30 miles from east to west but it has long been famed for its linguistic diversity: the rich rolling Rs and extra long “oos” of the northern mill towns where people looook in coook booooks are a world away from the nasal Mancunian drawl where your brother is “ahh kid” and words which end in a Y finish instead with an “eh” (ya cheekeh monkeh).
But now that its 2.8 million residents can zip across the region on a tram or a train instead of wearing out their clogs, have hyperlocal accents become a thing of the past? And did the omnipotence of the Gallagher brothers in the 1990s corrupt the accents of a whole generation of Greater Mancunians?
Pea wet (the water from mushy peas)
Alreet
Hospickle (hospital)
Cracking t’flags (so hot it is cracking the flagstones)
Flitch (back bacon)
Shall I brew up? (shall I make us a cup of tea)
