Lancyshiyer. Pure and simple. I decided, having had an accentless voice for 20 years, when a colleague from Chorley didn’t get a job in a Bakewell school, to develop an accent in protest. And I’m glad I did. I’m also cultivating a deeper understanding of dialect. I have to say, I sometimes get invited to lunches with David Crystal and I love, love, love hearing him talk about language. I only correct my students’ French accents when they say ‘ze’ for ‘th’ - hard to get the tongue around, and a few who have a problem with ‘house’ which comes out more like the Scottish ‘hoose’ - but I tend to think you pick up the accent of the area if you’re there long enough. I do lots of accent imitations with my very fluent clients and they laugh themselves silly!
My favourite dialect phrase is from Westhoughton (also known as the Cowyeds) and it’s ‘I’m clempt’ - ‘I’m hungry’. Ironically got more in touch with Dutch than English!!
yup yit = "Are you up yet, (you lazy…)?“
mup noo = " Well I’m up now, (you moany old…)”
Anywhere near? On a more serious note, I get serious worries both from my English students, who honestly don’t know what to make of all these regional and particularly international variations (esp. UK vs. US English), and from my international trainee teachers, who stress over whether their accent is ‘acceptable’ and whether they should modify it to… well, what?!