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Cumbrian Chat: Diction and Dialect
By P Wright
People get excited about Scots speech, are astonished at the gangling Geordies with their Northumberland burr and laugh at the dry talk of the lolloping Lankies and terrible Tykes. But they sadly neglect Cumbria, which has surely one of the most interesting dialects in Britain.
This book is both a guide to how it is spoken and a dictionary explaining such terms as kysty, fleyed and gigot. This vital language aid is therefore essential reading for dyed in the wool natives, new settlers and, not least, bemused visitors.
Ah knaw ivverybody dizna leykit; they sau it’s nee way o’talkan’, nut B.B.C. keynd or owt o’tahat. But, if it dizna impress thee, ther’s summat wrang: thoo’s a drummle-heed, sackless, gawmless, nicked i’heed or jiggered. Even leyl lads can speak it. So dinna be kysty (fastidious), dinna be fleyed (frightened); and, wherivver thoo meets a Cumbrian, gan up tul him to practice the Cumbrian chat”.
