The Untold Story of East-Midlands English Accents 

We may lose our dialects but we’ll always have 20 words for bread roll.

Absolutely! One of my colleagues insists that it stands for "Circle of Bread" 😂

At least we ain't the melts who have two types of Sausage rolls Sausage rolls And sausage bread rolls

I call the soft ones baps and the crusty ones cobs.😁

Forgive my Yank ignorance, but any relation to 'cobbers'?

Yes, I love that about many parts of the UK.

Or how about Essex: there is a thin strip along the south of the county (5-10 miles thick) bordering on the Thames where "estuary" English is spoken and also quite a lot of MLE. Go north of that strip however and it is mostly RP. At least from my experience as a native. That may also depend on age however...young people tend more to MLE due to influences of entertainment/media. Their parents might speak RP

@@bretton_woods I’m from Basildon, so I know what you mean. There wasn’t any MLE in my day of course.

not to mention the worksop accent is so different to the nottingham accent too

And then the Chesterfield/Bolsover accent where I'm from is somewhere between Derby and Sheffield, but still very much with the Midlands "face" and not the Yorkshire way of saying it..(I forgot the linguistic term...). People from Chesterfield - due to their proximity to the border are very loyal to their Derbyshire-ness as opposed to Yorkshire!

That’s true

Like when they say stupid as STYOOOPID. 🥹😂

It makes a few of our swear words extra beefy

Good to see a fellow Burtonian on RU-vid, first I’ve seen! Our accent is definitely more east than west, perhaps it follows the river, but I never felt Burton was part of either, just its own place, with its own subtle accent variations. Sadly, its rare to hear the real old Burton accent nowadays. The best word was busses, pronounced buzzez. The best speaker was Norman, the landlord at the Thomas Sykes pub, who was very softly spoken and called you duck all the time.

Keep up the good work!

Yes actors cannot get the accent right at all, so as you say they just do Yorkshire or Lancs ha. In a reply to your comment, "mardy" is used in north Derbyshire too (Chesterfield). Nesh and twitchel not so much.

We have mardy and nesh in Stoke too.

Mardy is used in Sheffield too. See Arctic Monkeys song Mardy Bum.

A lot of these pronunciations are the same or very similar to how people speak in the part of Yorkshire where I live, its near the border with Nottinghamshire though so probably a transitional area. People sound more like how he's speaking than they do, say, Leeds. Pronouncing roundabout as rahndabaht and right as rate and saying yoursen (although this often becomes thisen which I suppose is more Yorkshire).

Twitchel is also evidently a Melbourne expression, as there is a complex of 'twitchels' to the north of the town centre. My bit of the family moved north to Belper, where the expression is 'jitty'.

I love those parts of the country where accents change every few miles.

Hi James. That’s interesting. Thanks for that.

As an east midlander, I find this really cool

From a British point of view, nearly all Australian accents sound pretty similar to each other, even though that probably isn't how Australians themselves see it. I try to hear the differences myself because I'm interested in that sort of thing, but it's difficult.

Same with milk. Becomes miwlk to a few people. I've found myself saying build and milk this way in fast speech - NSWman here.

@@peterrjg6843 yes the only people that actually pronounce the “l” around here are Queenslanders

I bet the locals aughed at Dudl-eye as well!

🤢Why would anyone move Derby instead of Notts? Hope you had fun commuting into Notts every weekend to escape the boredom.

I know a couple of people from Nuneaton and it seems their accent is completely different from anything else in the surrounding area. It hasn't got the West Midlands twang or inflection, nor does it sound like a Leicester accent, more like an accent from much further north, to my east Northamptonshire ears.

In Retford, in N.Notts and close to Derbys/Lincs/S.Yorks, I do not really notice accents (one parent was from Leicester). I do notice some broad Yorkshire when spoken around here, but working in Sheffield, I never noticed anything to catch my ear.

Yep and Northampton has a whole range of accents, Corby Scot’s, Kettring and Wellingborough all different to me

Yeah, I knew a guy from Leicester, and some of his pronunciation reminded me of mancunian (tong instead of tounge, chippeh instead of chippy, nuthin instead of nothing).

I'm from Leicester & I can't stand the leicester accent. If you want to see dust bins talking, go to Leicester. Treat yourself to a lovely day out along narborough road.

@@lc5176 also from Leicester and we'd be better off without racists and xenophobes in the city

Thanks Richard. I hope to get round to Leicester some day.

@DaveHuxtableLanguages thanks for linking this video. Although there are some similarities, Leicestershire accents (there are several) are quite different to the Derby and Notts accents you described, as are Lincolnshire and Northants, so a deep dive could be interesting.

​@@DaveHuxtableLanguages "Couldn't" can sound very rude in a Leicester accent.

@@mdwellington I think there’s a subtle difference.

Darley Dale, Brigg, Thorp Arch & Hull. Advert from the 80's, maybe sofa showrooms?

I've noticed the thing about O's too. In your example--home--it sounds to me like ho-wum. It sounds to me like a W-sound and crept into the pronunciation. I'm from Suffolk originally but my wife's born and bred Nottingham. She'll often say ho-wum (home), plee-as (please), bee-ans (beans) and Boo-wuts (Boots). I'll tease her about it occasionally but I can't really talk - I sound like a cockney!

Agreed about the o sound. Our friend from Bulwell pronounces the word 'cold' as 'code' whereas us Spireites say 'keawd'. In Sheffield its 'cooorld'. Completely different and we're 10 miles away.

@@wendykirkland Absolutely - although I do find that THAT o sound varies across Nottingham. I was more angling for 'o' as in 'spoke'

Funny how that happens.

​@@DaveHuxtableLanguagesfunnily enough, despite currently living in Mexico for almost 10 years my accent is pretty much unchanged (a mongrel mix of Estuary, MLE, Cockney and some stray Leicester-isms from my mum) and in some respects may have even become more pronounced. I do work for an American company though so I make an effort to tone down the MLE and Cockney bits when I'm on the clock and lean more into a mild RP My daughter's (English) accent is really interesting and unique, it's a strange mix of Estuary, General American and Norteño that sounds like nothing I've ever heard before, pero su español es puro norteño! I imagine as she gets older she'll pick up more of my accent when speaking English, though we do live quite close to the border so American English is much more common here than in the south of Mexico where Cambridge is the educational standard Speaking of educational standards, my wife is a high school English teacher here and she definitely has a norteño accent when speaking English so that certainly has a bit of an impact on my daughter's accent My wife has been told by coworker's that she's been picking up a lot of my accent and expressions though One of my proudest moments was when we were in the car and another driver aggressively cut my wife off, prompting my wife to shout "OI! YOU ABSOLUTE F*CKING MUG!" My heart was absolutely beaming with joy at that moment 😂

That would be fascinating to investigate. I love how you get pairs of place names like Shipton and Skipton that illustrate the Norse influence or lack of it.

Glad you enjoyed it

Quite a lot of them speak with working-class accents as well. I wouldn't describe Ronnie O'Sullivan's accent as middle-class, for instance.

Glad you enjoyed it!

Glad it got to you in time. Some people have had to wait two years. I'm sorry not to have picked up the -eh thing. That sounds fun.

I had the same experience. I've only just come across the tour of British accents video. Regional variations in speech and dialect is something that has always fascinated me so I found this really interesting and the seamless merging from one accent to the other is very clever. I too was all set to comment that East Midlands had been missed but then spotted it coming up as the next video on the feed. The 'eh' thing mentioned above is definitely a big deal. I really don't like my name being shortened to Debbie and one of the main reasons is because I don't want to be Debbeh frum Cosbeh. I have lived near Barnsley for 35 years now and people still tell me I'm Southerner! (whereas I've met many people from the actual South who think Leicester is Northern.) I always describe myself as a Northern-orientated Midlander. I was interested that similarities I have noticed between East Midlands and Yorkshire are explained by the Viking influence you mentioned. Finally, I've always been intrigued as to why my mum says bath, path and glass etc with a short a but master and plaster with an 'ar' sound. It sounds, from your video that this is not unusual? Thanks for some really fascinating insights. I will be looking out for more.

Ah yerra baebeh?

Ah ya gooin dahn shops?

Agree.

Yes, please do Lincoln (uphill and downhill) and the wonderful diphthongs of Lincolnshire, for example when talking about potatoes (ave yer set yer tee-a-tees, mee-a-tee?) etc.

Farmer Winks accent is a great resources for Fens/Spalding area too.

Thank you! You seem to know your way around the vocal tract so I really appreciate your comments and local knowledge.

I was born in Chesterfield and brought up in Bolsover. I also spent several years in Sheffield just recently. There is definitely a lot of overlap with Sheffield and Derbyshire in the words you mentioned, and yes in Bolsover everyone said "duck" but I noticed it was "love" in Sheffield! I love the local accents and it makes me homesick. I live in Belfast now :(

I went to school about 5 miles away from where I live and the dinner ladies would always say "me duck". But here no-one uses that word in that way. So 5 miles makes a huge difference.

Awesome, thank you!

I’m from Northampton originally, I don’t think it falls into this category at all.

@@craighobbs3708 What category are we talking about?

As I mentioned above, mardy is also used in the West Midlands in areas that aren't a huge distance from the East Midlands. But I suppose that's what you'd expect. I'm talking about the area near Burton-on-Trent and Tamworth.

Got be Long Eatn then

@@daveabbott haha yes!

@@WhiteWinds Born in Sawley and went to school in Draycott and Wilsthorpe lol

@@daveabbott ahh Wilsthorpe! Changed a lot now since I was there!

We don't get "rate" in Leicester, I could be wrong but I think you've got to go as far north as Nottingham before it starts appearing.

I live in Mansfield and the accent here seems to differ from Shirebrook, Chesterfield, Worksop and Nottingham. Even though they are all close by.

I live in Warsop, which borders Shirebrook for those that don't know, and even we have a slightly different accent (or dialect?) to you. However, like you, we also say 'duck', NEVER miduck! Ahm rate aren't ah duck?

Fascinating how accents change over such small areas.

Yes, as a Nottingham person now in Derby for ten years too, I corroborate all of those!

Great details. Thanks for sharing.

I'm from Ilson and can vouch for rhe accuracy of those books (my 6th form English teacher helped wirh the research dor them).

I was brought up in Langley Mill and my wife in Swadlincote. If I speak to anyone from the Heanor area for more than a couple of minutes she can’t understand me - a distance of only 30 miles. Around the Swadlincote area, duck gives way to surrey, a form of sirrah, and is used in exactly the same way. I’d never use twitchel but jitty for a back alley.

Thanks for the suggestion.

It’s really sad if it’s not being researched.

Well, Corby is special, anyway, what with their Scottish influx. I have to admit, though, that we always spoke a posher version of everything in Rutland, so some of the things mentioned in the video are not something most of our contacts used, but which I definitely knew from a bunch of older locals. The region certainly influenced my pronunciation quite a bit, as I have the short "grass" and "glass", but I still do not say "sin-g-er".

Crossing the county line from Kettering to market Harborough is a literal "barth" to "bath" journey. I grew up in Stanwick and the east Northants dialect seems to be a blend of cockney, east anglian and Midlands. Live in Rowell now (can't be far from your origins) and a 5 minute drive up the a6 to 'arbruh is like entering a different country!

@@lukemclellan2141 Nah, mate. I’m from Essex.

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages I thought I was replying to the op 😞 sorry for the confusion. That's the second time it's happened today. Must be user error.

Hi Nicole. Glad you like it. That’s true. Thinking about it, retail in the UK is pretty informal. It isn’t shocking to be called love or dear, which wouldn’t happen in the US for example.

I live in Australia now, but I'm originally from North Yorkshire, where it's common to call everyone "love" informally, whatever gender. I've been caught out a few times calling random people here "love"and copping some weird reactions.

@@DaveHuxtableLanguages The only place I've encountered this outside UK was in Colombia, where it seems ok to ask a waitress 'que tienas, amor?' or thank a shopkeeper with 'gracias, mi amor'. Nothing quite so bizarre as the Leeds variant though, where burly men call each other 'love' without any eyebrows being raised.

As a child, Duck sounded like something a pensioner would say, but by my 20s I’d started using it myself, feeling self conscious when I realised what I’d said.

Yes it's used ubiquitously as a friendly and colloquial address, eyup and ta (thanks) duck are the standard addresses.

Fascinating.

ent, kent, shent, en enna gunna 😀

Glad to hear it!

Glad you like them!

One day.

So cool that you saw it. Thank you so much!

Yes I've got this book! Highly recommended.

I’m from Leicester, I was born their 60 years ago, we said mardy, along with frit and yit, both of which mean frightened. Buffet and ballet were pronounced buffy and bally respectively. In general I didn’t hear any real dialect when growing up, but apparently I did have an obvious accent when I first moved to Cambridge at age 21, which went after a few years. My cousins from Denby Dale in Yorkshire sounded very very different to us. They’d say “What’s tha on wi”, “Gi oer” and “Daft ap’orth” for example, quite different.

same in Nuneaton we say "Duwn't, Wuwn't , ent, guw, etc

I once called a Londoner mardy thinking it was a common word, he didn't know what it meant.

Interesting. Mardy isn't just an East Midlands word incidentally. A lot of people use it round here in Staffordshire, although this isn't far from the Derbyshire/Leicestershire border.

Funny you mention, Jitty .We called ours a "Jetty", but others called similar little paths Jitty. There is even a street in the Market place called The Jetty. Must all be the same origin.

Yes, there’s a whole lot left to explore.

Youth becomes Yoth in parts as in: "Ey up, yoth." I think that means: "Good morrow, young sir."

Thanks for the suggesting. I’ll check out Farmer Wink.

Thank you!

I believe that Peterborough has become an outpost of the Southeast that differs markedly from East Anglian further East and East Midlands to its West. I could imagine that many of the Southern Lincolnshire people get most of their influence from the nearest "city" (Peterborough kind of is, despite my misgivings).

Yes I've noticed that everywhere I go. I can't help feeling a little depressed by it.

Television is homogenizing accents around the world. In Italy, everyone is sounding Milanese because that's where the television stations are. Sicilian (another language entirely) has been almost entirely lost to the younger generation, who all speak Italian now. The Neapolitans, who are very proud of their language and culture, are holding on, but use Neapolitan mainly with family, or in telling jokes. The good news is that everyone can understand each other. The bad news is that very beautiful dialects are being lost. As an American I notice that the Irish and even the English are sounding more American in the last few years. This is probably due to the influence of the internet. The Irish have to take Irish in school, but almost no one speaks it anymore. All the Gaelic languages are disappearing.

@@Ned-Ryerson The traditional Peterborough accent still exists but is much less distinct than it was - generally only the little old boys* and little old gels who will drop into it. Obviously there has been huge influxes of people since the late 1970s and so that has diluted the accent a great deal. You really need to go just outside Peterborough to places like Whittlesey (about 5 miles) and you will hear something a bit more traditional - although Whittlesey always had a much stronger accent and was more East Anglian (or Fennish as we say). * In the Fennish dialect little old boys are old men, "old boys" are any male who isn't old. Similar "old gel" could be quite a young girl, and only "little old gel" is an old lady. I'm from South Lincs (although I now live in Peterboough), and certainly when I was growing up in the 70s there was a distinct difference between South Lincs towns and villages and Peterborough. There was also a distinct difference between Whittlesey and Peterborough too, and Yaxley and Peterborough (which are much closer to each other than places like Spalding or even Crowland). I would think most people in South Lincs would have seen Spalding or Boston as the big town. I think that changed when Queensgate opened in 1982. The main new town bits of Peterborough were built in the late 70s / early 80s. I grew up in Crowland but honestly we saw ourselves as much closer to the other Lincs towns than Peterborough - secondary school for me was Spalding, cubs/scouts went camping in South Lincs, we played football against other South Lincs village teams etc.