How to Talk Like a Local

Zusatztext

<p>If you were a Londoner visiting Cornwall would you know how to recognise a<b>grammersow</b>? If you were from the West Country and took a trip up to Scotland, would you be bewildered if someone described you as<b>crabbit</b>? And what if you left your native Belfast for Liverpool, would you understand if someone called you a<b>woollyback</b>?</p><p><i>How to Talk Like a Local</i>is an entertaining guide that gathers together and explains hundreds of words that you would never find in an ordinary dictionary. From<b>dardledumdue</b>, which means day-dreamer in East Anglia, through<b>forkin robbins</b>, the Yorkshire term for earwigs, to<b>clemt,</b>a Lancashire word that means hungry, it covers the enormously rich variety of regional words that pepper the English language.</p><p>Not only does it pick out unique and unusal local words, it also draws together the dozens of terms from all over the country that mean the same thing, such as<b>knee-knabbed</b>,<b>crab-ankled</b>and<b>hurked-up</b>for knock-kneed, and<b>obzocky</b>,<b>butters</b>and<b>maftin</b>for ugly. In addition, it digs down to uncover the origins of these words, tracing their routes in to the language. Many terms meaning left-handed, for example, are related to the Kerr family of Ferniehirst Castle in Scotland, who preferred left-handed warriors. And many seemingly new coinages have been around for centuries, such as<b>chav</b>, which derives from a Romany word meaning child, or<b>scouse</b>, which probably comes from<i>lapskaus</i>, a Norwegian word for a sailors' stew.</p><p>If you're intrigued by these colourful words and phrases, if you're interested in how English is really spoken, or if you want to discover how our language has evolved over the years,<i>How to Talk Like a Local</i>will prove irresistible - and enlightening - reading.</p>

Autorenportrait

Susie Dent is an independent editor and translator who appears regularly in<i>Countdown</i>'s 'dictionary corner'. She is the author of six editions of<i>The Language Report</i>, an annual guide to the new words and phrases that find their way into the English language.

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