Welcome to The Briercliffe Society Forum

A = Alreet (how are you) e.g. "y'alreet?"
B = Barmpot (idiot) e.g. "tha' barmpot!"
C = Cake 'ole (mouth) e.g. "shut yer cake 'ole".
D = Dust ( do you ) e.g. "dust come from round 'ere?"
E = Ey up (excuse me/hello) e.g. "ey up cock"
F = Flit (to move house) e.g. "es flit last weyk"
G = Gradely (very good) e.g. "aye, gradely"
H = Hommer (hammer) e.g. "pass t'hommer"
I = Inth (in the) e.g. " put wood inth 'ole"
J = Jiggered (tired) e.g. "ahm reet jiggered"
K = Kecks (trousers) e.g."is kecks were tight"
L = Leet ( light) e.g. "put big leet on"
M = Moither (annoy) e.g. "stop moitherin' me"
N =Nouse (common sense) e.g. "use yer nouse lad"
O = Owt (anything) e.g. "owt for nowt"
P = Pow-fagged (tired) e.g. "ahm pow-fagged!"
Q = Quare (strange) e.g. "there's nowt so quare as folk"
R = Reet (right) e.g. "es reet tha' noes"
S = Sken (look)e.g. "gissa sken"
T = Tarra ( goodbye) e.g. "tarra luv!"
U = Umpteen (several) e.g. "ah've told thi umpteen times!"
V = Vawse (vase) e.g. "ah've put them flowers int vause"
W = Worrell (what will) e.g. "worrell 'e do nah?"
X = Xagckly (exactly) e.g. "Accrington Stanley, who are they? xagckly"
Y = Yon (yonder) e.g. "it's oer yon."
Z = Zipped (fast) e.g. " e zipped past like a bat outta hell."

A lot of these are familiar to me. Some I still use.

Stephanie.

Love it Stephanie.

When I first saw Lanky I thiought it meant tall...until I started reading.

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Mel

Searching for lost relatives? Win the Lottery!

I'm familiar with all those, Stephanie, except for Nouse and Pow-fagged. Fagged, yes, but not the pow bit. They were in common use among the older people in Accrington.

Joan

Pow-fagged and buggered------pardon my french, but that is how I remember it. Knackered to the rest

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

Oh my....memories come flooding...
How about 'luvveroyl' ? Chimney, chimney hole it means...no idea about the origin of the 'luvver' bit.
Anyone?

It's over sixty years since I lived full-time in Lancashire, so I'm well out of touch with the language as it is spoken now, but I remember two words my grandmother used which struck me as "different" when I visited in the1950s. One is "vexed" to mean cross or irritated about something: the other is "brow" where "brow" means not just the crest of a hill (as it does elsewhere) but the whole incline, as in "Ee, it's a stiff pull up that brow". I don't remember ever hearing "vex" used in Wolverhampton where I grew up, or further south for that matter, in fact the only place I've heard it in the past many years is in "Albert and the Lion": "Mother, yon Lion's 'et Albert" - and Mother said "Well, I am vexed".
Are these words still in common use? Am I an ignorant Southerner?

Charon

My mum still says vexed but I don't know many other people who do. We still say "brow" in the context you say, but we pronounce it "brew".

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Maureen
If you can't fight, wear a big 'at

Here are a few words that I used to use and I guess you might still hear in and around Burnley [I put something similar on the OGFBarlick website before this one started up]

Lake (verb) : play
Side (the table) : clear up after a meal
Oin : annoy [oined : annoyed]
Losing : as in 'the match is losing', meaning that the crowd is coming out (of Turf Moor say, after another home defeat probably, but that is a different meaning of 'losing' !). Would be used for school, factory, cinema etc
Ginnel : small lane
Lug 'oil : ear
Flob : spit
Sken : stare
Neb : front part of old-style boy's school cap

I've a big list somewhere of such words, and phrases.

The interesting thing is the extent to which a word is very localised (e.g. just NE Lancs + adjacent bits of Craven), or wider in the north.

Pronunciations of place names too are interesting : what a mess southerners make of Todmorden and Rawtenstall. My Scottish wife can't get Foulridge right either !

How about a section for dialect ?

Rex

As a Manchester girl, the only words In Rex's list I grew up with were 'side' and 'ginnel'. Another one I'd never heard till I moved here was 'agate'. I can't even think of a synonym for that, it just crops up in recounting a conversation, as in "I'm agate" and "she's agate", meaning I said and she said. Absolutely no idea where that one came from.

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Maureen
If you can't fight, wear a big 'at

We lived across from a school and the term "School's losing," was common at lunch (dinner) time and at the end of the afternoon. It applied to factories as well. We always sided the table after a meal.

Two others that I remember were mard and moider. Mard meant you were soft or weak, e.g. "Don't be mard," if you were crying after a fall or unpleasant incident. Moider was another word for annoying or bothering someone. My mother would say, "Stop moidering me."

My Grandma used almost all these words we've discussed, but my parents less so.

Joan

I know nearly all the words and phrases mentioned, I think they sound lovely, like I sed a' fore, I still use some of them, even my Grandson has picked bits up, he is only 11, but he made us smile the other day when someone asked him something and he replied I', which as you know means 'yes'. Long may the Lanky dialect continue.




Stephanie.

Think that is a good idea of Rex's, ow' about a dialect topic Mel!


Stephanie.

'Agate' I think means 'up and about doing (something)'. Not one I ever used, but I've become aware of it in dialect writing (Waugh, Brierley, Laycock, Wrigley, Collier).

'Did you see them chicken ?' 'Chicken' here is plural, anyone used that ?

My sister says, when we have talked up on the phone, 'I don't think I know much else', or just 'I don't know much else'.

'Last back end' isn't rude, it just means autumn or early winter.

'Bay window' : posh ! If you had one, you were. This from my mother, raised in Chadderton.

If I think on (!), I'll put more on the site.

Rex

'I don't think I know much else', or just 'I don't know much else'.

I still use that Rex. Bad grammar, I would have been told at school.

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Gloria

I'd be dangerous with a brain.

Last back end is very familiar, so is "think on," Rex, usually said as a warning, as in 'Think on you get home in time.'

My Grandma referred to dusk as 'Blind man's holiday,' and the floor as 'The big (h)ook.'

A frequent expression of my dad's in the autumn was, 'Nights are drawin' in,' although that may not be especially Lancastrian. I haven't heard it in Canada.

Joan