British dialects: Under the influence
The way Britons speak is conditioned by influences both recent and remote. Who'd guess that how East Anglians choose to describe a stream is still affected by Viking raids of 1300 years ago? The joys of Scouse owe a huge debt to the arrival 150 years ago of Irish people fleeing the Famine, and today's young people's vernacular right across the country is being shaped by the West Indian and Indian speech of their musicians of choice.
Dermot Murnaghan continues his series of live investigations into dialect and the way the British talk locally, from contemporary slang to centuries-old sayings. Using the unique resources of the over 1000 people who've been interviewed over the past nine months by the BBC Voices project, Dermot and his guests examine what's happening to the UK vernacular and what it tells us about Britain in 2005. With resident dialect expert Dr Clive Upton.
Read entire article at BBC Radio 4 "Word 4 Word"
Dermot Murnaghan continues his series of live investigations into dialect and the way the British talk locally, from contemporary slang to centuries-old sayings. Using the unique resources of the over 1000 people who've been interviewed over the past nine months by the BBC Voices project, Dermot and his guests examine what's happening to the UK vernacular and what it tells us about Britain in 2005. With resident dialect expert Dr Clive Upton.