Words of Mouth

FORGET THE THAMES VALLEY, HULL HAS ITS OWN HUMBER ESTUARY ENGLISH. STEVE WALSH ON THE TALK OF OUR TOWN...

In 1979, a local radio presenter took his place in linguistic history, assuring his audience that: 'There's ner sner on the rerd'. The phrase has since become a by-word for Hull speak. But despite making extravagant use of one of our best-known sounds, it hardly does justice to the rich miscellany of transformed vowels, unique words and idioms, which the Hull dialect luxuriates in.

'Cold' is pronounced 'cowled' or 'curled' depending on which part of the city you're from and P&O's latest superferry ends up sounding like a local designer clothes franchise, the Prada Hull. And where, except Hull, could a hairdresser's get away with calling itself 'His and Hairs' and know that people will get the joke?

But unlike more 'media-friendly' dialects, Hull speak is neither well known nor much appreciated outside the city boundaries. It's an attitude that local historian and language enthusiast Alec Gill does not understand. "If I'm away from the city and I hear someone with a Hull accent, my heart glows," he said. "It's so distinct but outsiders always get it wrong. Whenever there's a play on the radio about the fishing industry, the actors always sound like they're from Bradford or somewhere."

If BBC commissioning editors have problems pinning down Hull speak accurately, imagine how a speaker of a foreign language must feel. It was to overcome such difficulties that the University of Hull's Language Institute included an option on the Hull accent as part of its English language induction course for overseas students.

"It was essential for students on community placements to be able to communicate effectively," said retired course tutor Hilary Woodward. "You might have someone from Hong Kong working in a resource centre for the elderly or with young adults. They wouldn't just have to contend with peculiarities of vocabulary and pronunciation but possibly also with clients' hearing and learning difficulties as well."

Scandinavians are perhaps better equipped than most to understand the Hull dialect - mainly because their ancestors are responsible for so much of it. A thousand years ago, waves of invading Norsemen extorted a Viking's ransom in 'Danegeld' and land from the indigenous Anglo-Saxons. But they left behind a wealth of indispensable words, like 'them', 'leg', 'husband' and 'sky'.

Hull and East Yorkshire, being close to the Vikings' centre of power at York, have also been greatly enriched with many vivid dialect words and phrases still in common use. 'Siling down', meaning raining heavily, is from the Old Norse for a strain or filter and 'bairn' echoes the modern Norwegian word for a child, 'barn'. Place names too betray Scandinavian origins. The 'ings' in Ings Road, for example, refers to marshy grassland. 'Hull' itself is thought to be derived from a Celtic word meaning 'hollow' - a reference to the low-lying position of the river on which the city is built.

'Bray', meaning to beat or hit, sounds like it should be Viking. In fact, it's more likely to have come from the Old French word 'brei-er': to pound. Meanwhile, if you're 'chowed at' -getting told off - you're actually being 'chewed at'. The word has a similar sense in the slang term for food, 'chow'.

Whether modern coinages, from television and film, will stand the test of time quite so well remains to be seen. Among pupils at one Hull secondary school, Ali G's trademark 'boyakasha!' is apparently now old hat. Californian 'Valley Girl' phrases like 'Wahdevver, grrlfriend!' and 'Talk to the hand!' are the new cool.

However, purists will be pleased to hear that, in some ways, young people in Hull are less impressed with linguistic fads than their peers elsewhere. Researchers from the University of Reading have found that 'Estuary English', currently sweeping the nation with the 'mock cockney' sounds of the Thames Valley, is only making slow headway in Hull.

Geographical isolation undoubtedly has something to do with it. But Alec Gill has another explanation. "We don't need Estuary English - we've got our own estuary, the Humber."