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How to Talk Like a Local: From Cockney to Geordie
When it’s cold, are you nithered, taters or perishing? The English language in Britain changes from county to county, with hundreds of local words to discover. Susie Dent’s beguiling guide to these words charts their origins and development.From the Trade Paperback edition.
Paperback
First published November 25, 2008
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About the author
Susie Dent
23 books468 followersDent was educated at the Marist Convent in Ascot, an independent Roman Catholic day school. She went on to Somerville College, Oxford for her B.A. in modern languages, then to Princeton University for her master's degree in German.
Dent is serves as the resident lexicographer and adjudicator for the letters rounds on long-running British game show Countdown. At the time she began work on Countdown in 1992, she had just started working for the Oxford University Press on producing English dictionaries, having previously worked on bilingual dictionaries.
Dent is serves as the resident lexicographer and adjudicator for the letters rounds on long-running British game show Countdown. At the time she began work on Countdown in 1992, she had just started working for the Oxford University Press on producing English dictionaries, having previously worked on bilingual dictionaries.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 25, 2016
How to Talk like a Local is, essentially, Susie Dent’s alphabetical listing of unusual words drawn from the dialects of England, Wales and Scotland. Under each word, she lists its particular provenance (whether very specific like “Liverpool” or more generally regional like “the South-West”) and then gives us a few words about the word’s appearances in English literature of centuries past or its etymology. Interspersed with Susie Dent’s A-Z listings are brief essays by Simon Elmes that give a more detailed view of certain dialects or how different words for various concepts spread through Great Britain.
I enjoyed How to Talk like a Local for introducing me to innumerable items I had never heard before, such as “bange” for a drizzle (Essex), “twirlies” for pensioners (Liverpool), and “laidly” for hideous or repulsive (Scotland, Northumberland). Some of the words mentioned here, like “snaps” from Nottingham, I already knew, but had no idea of their origin, so it was nice to get some history. The author’s fascination with dialectal diversity is also infectious. Though she has written this book in a very simple, approachable style, Dent is an accomplished lexicographer at the academic level. Her survey of dialects is remarkably fair, showing how each regional variety has its own value. You’ll find no derogatory comments about whatever diverges from the UK’s posher forms of speech.
It’s hard to recommend the book too highly, however. It is essentially just a list of weird words. Also, as a reader with a knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet (which isn’t that hard to pick up), I was frustrated by Elmes and Dent’s attempt to describe dialect pronunciations solely through letters as they sound in Standard English. Telling a reader that “student” in a certain dialect is pronounced stoodunt is not very enlightening, but if the authors had just included an IPA transcription like one would find in a modern dictionary, then it would have been clear.
I enjoyed How to Talk like a Local for introducing me to innumerable items I had never heard before, such as “bange” for a drizzle (Essex), “twirlies” for pensioners (Liverpool), and “laidly” for hideous or repulsive (Scotland, Northumberland). Some of the words mentioned here, like “snaps” from Nottingham, I already knew, but had no idea of their origin, so it was nice to get some history. The author’s fascination with dialectal diversity is also infectious. Though she has written this book in a very simple, approachable style, Dent is an accomplished lexicographer at the academic level. Her survey of dialects is remarkably fair, showing how each regional variety has its own value. You’ll find no derogatory comments about whatever diverges from the UK’s posher forms of speech.
It’s hard to recommend the book too highly, however. It is essentially just a list of weird words. Also, as a reader with a knowledge of the International Phonetic Alphabet (which isn’t that hard to pick up), I was frustrated by Elmes and Dent’s attempt to describe dialect pronunciations solely through letters as they sound in Standard English. Telling a reader that “student” in a certain dialect is pronounced stoodunt is not very enlightening, but if the authors had just included an IPA transcription like one would find in a modern dictionary, then it would have been clear.
May 1, 2018
susan dent is genius. i love the way she presents language development and history in an interesting and fun way!
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews