East Midlands English is a dialect, including local and social variations spoken in most parts of the East Midlands, England. It generally includes areas east of Watling Street (which separates it from West Midlands English), north of an isogloss separating it from variants of Southern English (e.g. Oxfordshire) and East Anglian English (e.g. Cambridgeshire), and south of another separating it from Northern English dialects (e.g. Yorkshire).
The region includes the counties of Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire, Rutland and Northamptonshire. Dialects of the northern parts of the East Midlands usually share similarities with Northern English dialects, while dialects of the southern parts have similarities with Southern England and parts of the west have some similarities with the West Midlands. Compared to other English dialects, there have been relatively few studies of East Midlands English.
Origins
The East Midlands were incorporated in the Norse-controlled Danelaw in the late 9th century by Ivar the Boneless. With their conquest, the county towns of the East Midlands counties were converted into fortified, Viking city-states, known as the Five Boroughs of the Danelaw. The region's dialect owes much of its grammar and vocabulary to the Nordic influences of its conquerors. For example, the East Midlands verb to scraight ('to cry') is thought to be derived from the Norse, skrike in modern Scandinavian, also meaning to cry.
The East Midlands dialect of Middle English which extended over a much larger area, as far south as Middlesex, is the precursor of modern English spoken today, which has descended from the early modern English of the early 16th century.
East Midlands dialects in literature The novelist and East Midlander D. H. Lawrence was from the Nottinghamshire town of Eastwood and wrote in the Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Coalfield dialects in several poems as well as in his more famous works such as Lady Chatterley's Lover and Sons and Lovers.
Though spoken less commonly today, the dialect of the East Midlands has been investigated in texts such as the Ey Up Mi Duck series of books (and an LP) by Richard Scollins and John Titford. These books were originally intended as a study of Derbyshire Dialect, particularly the distinctive speech of Ilkeston and the Erewash valley, but later editions acknowledge similarities in vocabulary and grammar which unite the East Midlands dialects and broadened their appeal to the region as a whole.
"Ey up" (often spelt ayup / eyup) is a greeting thought to be of Old Norse origin (se upp) used widely throughout the East Midlands, North Midlands, north Staffordshire and Yorkshire, and "m' duck" is thought to be derived from a respectful Anglo Saxon form of address, "Duka" (literally "duke"), and is unrelated to waterfowl. Non-natives of the East Midlands and North Staffordshire are often surprised to hear men greet each other as "m'duck".
Grammar Those who speak traditional regional dialects are not trying unsuccessfully to speak Standard English. East Midlands English follows a series of distinct grammatical rules; some examples follow below.
Formal address Until the mid-20th century, it was not uncommon to hear the use of informal forms of address, thee and thou, as compared to the more formal you. Use of the informal form of address is now uncommon in modern speech.
Personal and possessive pronouns Personal pronouns differ from standard English as follows:
yornyours mineminetheirntheirs ournourshisnhis ernhers
Example: It eent theirn; it's ourn! (It isn't theirs; it's ours!)
Reflexive pronouns Reflexive pronouns are characterised by the replacement of "self" with sen (from Middle English seluen) Y'usen – Yourself Mesen – Myself Thisens – Themselves/Yourselves Ussens – Ourselves Example: We sh'll ay to do it ussens. (We shall have to do it ourselves.)
Vocabulary Humorous texts, such as Nottingham As it is Spoke, have used their phonetically spelled words to deliberately confuse non-natives of the region.
Alrate yooth?Are you alright young man? Here, is a spelling designed to convey the phonological specification in the traditional dialect of , which is , and a slight diphthonging of . Avya gorra wi'ya?Is the wife with you? (lit. "Have you got her with you?) The pronunciation with weak form is alleged to be more common in Nottingham and the South East Midlands; pronunciations with th-fronting in are alleged to be more common elsewhere. TH-fronting became a potential feature of the accents of the region in around 1960. The humorous spellings are designed to indicate H-dropping, the ’'Northern T-to-R rule'’ and , the non-Standard weakform of , which is common to many dialects in England. 'Int any onya any onya? Here is an example of Belper, Derbyshire dialect when asking a group of people if any of them have any matches with which to light a pipe. Hasn’t any of you, got any [matches] on you? It's looking' a bit black ower Bill's movver'sIt looks like rain. (lit. "It's looking a bit black over Bill's Mother's.") – a common, if somewhat old-fashioned, Midlands expression implying impending bad weather. The spelling chosen to indicate the phonological specification in the traditional dialect of : . The identity of Bill or where his mother's house was located is open to question, although it is possibly derived from German emperor Wilhelm II. Awont gooin t’worra!I wasn't going to, was I! , and are blend words designed to convey the phonological specification in the traditional dialect of , and . A farnd im in cutI found him in the Canal, (lit. "I found him in the cut). Using the traditional and local word for Canal. Canals were originally referred to as "Cuts" because during the industrial revolution canals or highways for transportation of goods were literally "cut" into the landscape and allowed to fill with water. Thez summat up wi’imI think he may be ill. (lit. "There's something up with him."). The spellings here chosen to indicate the ‘'Northern'’ feature that is a monophthong, the non-Standard English word , which is historically found in many dialects across England (cf. its use by the London boatmen Gaffer and Riderhood in Our Mutual Friend and by the farmhands in Far from the Madding Crowd), the weakform of previously mentioned and H-dropping. Yer norrayin no tuffees!You're not having any sweets! (should not be taken to mean 'toffees' alone as in East Midlands dialect' "tuffees" can mean all types of sweets). Humorous spellings here were chosen to indicate the Northern T-to-R rule and the phonological specification in the traditional dialect of , which is .
However, there are many words in use in the traditional East Midlands Dialect which do not appear in standard English. The short list below is by no means exhaustive. More comprehensive glossaries exist within texts such as Ey Up Mi Duck by Richard Scollins and John Titford.
naught nothing (homographic with the digit cypher, 0, and the (now only literary) naught of General English; is a traditional dialect phonological specification and is the regular development in General English). aught anything (homographic with the now literary General English ) nesha weak person, or one who feels the cold. Found in many parts of England, cf. its use in Hardy. belt-jobeasy job (used in certain coal-mining communities based on watching a conveyor belt) causiepavement ("causey" is an older word from which 'causeway' is derived.) coba bread roll (bap); (as verb) to throw cob loafbaker's term used across the UK for a hemispherical loaf cloutstrousers (, usually pronounced ); (as verb:) hits something or someone. jitty/jettyalleyway. twitchelalleyway. Typically (but not exclusively) alleyways providing access to the rear of terraced housing. Can also mean a path between gardens (E.g. allotments) larup/laropto cover with (usually a thick substance) mardy (or etymological marredy) grumpy, sulky (i.e. "She's a mardy one!") mashto make a pot of tea (i.e. "I'll go n’mash tea.") piggleto pick at a scab, spot or a skin irritation (i.e. "Stop piggling that scab!") puddled/puddle-drunk intoxicated or stupid putherto pour out uncontrollably usually of smoke, steam or dust rammelrubbish/waste scraight/scraitin'to cry/crying sile rain heavily snapin or snap lunch/food, tekken ta werk snidered/snided/sniedcovered/infested, (DH Lawrence used the word 'Snied' in a description of an infestation of mice in Sons and Lovers.), wazzerk/wassockfool (used across the East & West Midlands)
There are also word forms that occur in Standard English but which have additional meanings in some of the varieties considered here. bonny In many dialects, this has the sense of 'looking well' often referring to a healthy plumpness.A New English Dictionary (1888) Bonny, adj., 2. b. (https://archive.org/stream/oed01arch#page/987/mode/1up)Oxford English Dictionary 2nd ed. (1989) Bonny, adj., 2. b. In Derby, Leicester and Nottingham, there still also exists a transferred sense of plump, robust, stout or overweight derived from this sense. Cf. Samuel Johnson's comment that ‘'It seems to be used in general conversation for plump’’ as cited in NED Bonny 2 b as (J.). (There is a yet older sense now only commonly used in Scots, Northern & some Midland dialects meaning 'beautiful' generally rather than of individuals having a pleasing embonpoint specifically.)A New English Dictionary (1888) 2nd Bonny, adj., 1. (https://archive.org/stream/oed01arch#page/987/mode/1up) fast stuck, caught (i.e. "Who's got a finger fast?") tuffeessweets, confectionery
badlyhungover/ill croakerdoctor croggiean (illegal) crossbar ride, "two-up" on the crossbar of a bicycle duck's necksbottle of lemonade fuddle an ad hoc buffet or Potluck oakie ice cream (common in Leicestershire) see hokey pokey pota plaster cast suckericed lolly tabsears, also called lugholes yack to yank cos can you
The greeting 'now then' (as 'Nah theen') is still in use in Lincolnshire and North-East Derbyshire, used where other people might say "Hello". 'Nen mate' can also be heard instead of "now then mate".
People from Leicester are known in the popular holiday resort Skegness as "Chits", due to their expression for "how much is it?" when asking the price of goods in shops.Leicester Mercury, 16 July 2004
Phonology East Midlands accents generally lack the trap–bath split, so that cast is pronounced rather than the pronunciation associated with most southern accents. The Northampton accent has lengthening . Most accents in the East Midlands lack the foot–strut split, with words containing like strut or but being pronounced with , without any distinction between putt and put. East Midlands accents are generally non-rhotic. The PRICE vowel has a very far back starting-point, and can be realised as .Hughes, Trudgill & Watts ed., English accents and dialects: an introduction to social and regional varieties of English in the British Isles, chapter on Leicester's speech, Hodder Arnold, 2005 Yod-dropping, as in East Anglia, can be found in some areas, for example new as , sounding like "noo". H-dropping is common, in which is usually omitted from most words, while NG-coalescence is present in most of the East Midlands except in Derbyshire where is pronounced as .Wells (1982), pp. 189, 366. In Lincolnshire, sounds like the u vowel of words like strut being realised as may be even shorter than in the North. In Leicester, words with short vowels such as up and last have a northern pronunciation, whereas words with vowels such as down and road sound rather more like a south-eastern accent. The vowel sound at the end of words like border (and the name of the city) is also a distinctive feature.