Scouse
Encyclopedia
Scouse is an accent
and dialect
of English
found primarily in the Metropolitan county of Merseyside
, and closely associated with the city of Liverpool
and the adjoining urban areas such as the boroughs
of south Sefton, Knowsley
and the Wirral
. The accent is known to be as far reaching as Clwyd
, Runcorn
and Skelmersdale
in Wales, Cheshire and Lancashire respectively.
The Scouse accent is highly distinctive, and has little in common with those used in the neighbouring regions of Cheshire and Lancashire. The accent itself is not specific to all of Merseyside, with the accents of residents of St Helens
and Southport
, for example, more commonly associated with the historic Lancastrian accent.
The accent was primarily confined to Merseyside until the 1950s when slum clearance in the city resulted in migration of the populace into new pre-war and post-war developments into surrounding areas of what was informally named Merseyside and later to become officialy known as Merseyside
1974. The continued development of the city and its urban areas has brought the accent into contact with areas not historically associated with Liverpool or Merseyside such as Prescot
, Whiston
, Rainhill
, Widnes
and Runcorn
.
Variations within the accent and dialect are noted, along with popular colloquialism
s, that show a growing deviation from the historical Lancashire dialect and a growth in the influence of the accent in the wider area.
Inhabitants of Liverpool are called Liverpudlians but are more often described by the colloquialism Scousers. People from outside of Merseyside who do not speak scouse are commonly referred to as "woolybacks" or "wools" (or derivatives thereof).
lapskaus (and/or the Low German Labskaus
), a word for a meat stew
commonly eaten by sailors. In the 19th century, people who commonly ate "scouse" such as local dockers families and sailors became known as "scousers" especially in the North end of Liverpool and the "Wallasey Pool
".
, and after the 1700s as an international trading and industrial centre. It became a melting pot of several languages and dialects, but primarily Lancastrian Irish, Welsh, English, Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Scots and many others. As a result the Liverpool accent often has more in common with accents from other and global British Empire
port cities such as Glasgow and Dublin than it does with neighbouring towns within Lancashire and Cheshire
The influence of these different speech patterns became apparent in Liverpool and coastal Wirral, distinguishing the accent of its people from those of the surrounding Lancashire and Cheshire areas. It is only recently that Scouse has been treated as a cohesive accent/dialect; for many years, Liverpool was simply seen as a melting pot of different accents without one of its own. For example, the early dialect researcher A. J. Ellis said that Liverpool and Birkenhead
had "no dialect proper".
manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England.
Irish influences include the pronunciation of the name of the letter "H" as /heɪtʃ/ and the 2nd Person plural (you) as 'youse/yous/use' /juːz/.
There are variations on the Scouse accent, with the south side of the city adopting a softer, lyrical tone, and the north a rougher, more gritty accent. Those differences, though not universal, can be seen in the pronunciation of the vowels.
Words such as 'book' and 'cook', for example, can be pronounced as 'boo-k' or 'bewk' and 'koo-k'. This is true to other towns from the midlands, northern England and Scotland. Oddly enough words such as 'took' and 'look', unlike some other accents in northern towns, revert to the type and are pronounced 'tuck' and 'luck'. Not all Liverpudlians are brought up to speak with this variation but this does not make it any less Scouse.
The use of a long /uː/ in such words was once used across the whole of Britain, but is now confined to the more traditional accents of Northern England and Scotland.
The Scouse accent of the early 21st century is markedly different in certain respects from that of earlier decades.. The Liverpool accent of the 1950s and before was more a Lancashire-Irish hybrid. But since then, as with most accents and dialects, Scouse has been subject to phonemic evolution and change. Over the last few decades the accent is no longer a melange but has started to develop further. One could compare the way George Harrison
and John Lennon
spoke in the old Beatles films such as A Hard Day's Night
with modern Scouse speakers such as Steven Gerrard
and Jamie Carragher
. Harrison pronounced the word 'fair' more like the standard English 'fur' - as Cilla Black
does still. This is a pure Lancashire trait but modern Scousers do it the other way round pronouncing 'fur' like 'fair'. Huge changes have taken place in Scouse vowels, which show astonishing length and exaggeration at times in words like 'read' but conversely shorter than standard in a word like 'sleep'. A final 'er' is a sound whilst pronounced 'schwa' in surrounding Lancashire and Cheshire is emphasised strongly as the 'e' in 'pet' /pɛt/. In a strong Scouse accent, the phoneme /k/ in all positions of a word except the beginning can be realised as /x/ or sometimes /kx/.
Even if Irish accents are rhotic
, meaning that they pronounce /r/ at the beginning as well as at the end of a syllable, Scouse is a non-rhotic accent, pronouncing /r/ only at the beginning of a syllable and between vowels, but not at the end of a syllable.
The use of the glottal stop
as an allophone
of /t/ can occur in various positions, including after a stressed syllable. This is called T-glottalisation and is particularly common amongst the younger speakers of the Scouse accent. /t/ may also be flapped intervocalically. /t/ and /d/ are often pronounced similarly to the fricatives /s/ and /z/.
The loss of dental fricatives, /ð/ and /θ/, was commonly attributed as being present due to Irish English influence. They were realised as /d/ and /t/ respectively. However, in the younger generation, this feature is being outnumbered by those who realise them as a labiodental fricatives.
becomes /f/ in all environments. [θɪnk] becomes [fɪnk] for "think." becomes /v/ in all environments except word-initially, in which case it becomes /d/. [dɪðə] becomes [dɪvɛ] for "dither"; [ðəʊ] becomes [dəʊ] for "though."
The use of me instead of my was also attributed to Irish English influence: for example, "That's me book you got there" for "That's my book you got there". An exception occurs when "my" is emphasised: for example, "That's my book you got there" (and not his).
Other Scouse features include:
to make it a recognised Internet dialect. After citing a number of references, the application was accepted on 25 May 2000 and now allows Internet documents that use the dialect to be categorised as 'Scouse' by using the language tag "en-Scouse".
Fictional characters
dialects include:
Accent (linguistics)
In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside , the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language In...
and dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
found primarily in the Metropolitan county of Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
, and closely associated with the city of Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
and the adjoining urban areas such as the boroughs
Metropolitan borough
A metropolitan borough is a type of local government district in England, and is a subdivision of a metropolitan county. Created in 1974 by the Local Government Act 1972, metropolitan boroughs are defined in English law as metropolitan districts, however all of them have been granted or regranted...
of south Sefton, Knowsley
Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley
The Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley is a metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England. It comprises the towns of Kirkby, Prescot, Huyton, Whiston, Halewood and Cronton; Kirkby, Huyton, and Prescot being the major commercial centres...
and the Wirral
Wirral
Wirral may refer to:* Wirral Peninsula, a peninsula in the northwest of England, between the rivers Dee and Mersey* Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, occupying the northern part of the Wirral Peninsula...
. The accent is known to be as far reaching as Clwyd
Clwyd
Clwyd is a preserved county of Wales, situated in the north-east, bordering England with Cheshire to its east, Shropshire to the south-east, and the Welsh counties of Gwynedd to its immediate west and Powys to the south. It additionally shares a maritime border with the metropolitan county of...
, Runcorn
Runcorn
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port within the borough of Halton in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In 2009, its population was estimated to be 61,500. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north...
and Skelmersdale
Skelmersdale
Skelmersdale is a town in West Lancashire, England. It lies on high-ground on the River Tawd, to the west of Wigan, to the northeast of Liverpool, south-southwest of Preston. As of 2006, Skelmersdale had a population of 38,813, down from 41,000 in 2004. The town is known locally as Skem.The...
in Wales, Cheshire and Lancashire respectively.
The Scouse accent is highly distinctive, and has little in common with those used in the neighbouring regions of Cheshire and Lancashire. The accent itself is not specific to all of Merseyside, with the accents of residents of St Helens
St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens with a population of just over 100,000, part of an urban area with a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 Census...
and Southport
Southport
Southport is a seaside town in the Metropolitan Borough of Sefton in Merseyside, England. During the 2001 census Southport was recorded as having a population of 90,336, making it the eleventh most populous settlement in North West England...
, for example, more commonly associated with the historic Lancastrian accent.
The accent was primarily confined to Merseyside until the 1950s when slum clearance in the city resulted in migration of the populace into new pre-war and post-war developments into surrounding areas of what was informally named Merseyside and later to become officialy known as Merseyside
Merseyside
Merseyside is a metropolitan county in North West England, with a population of 1,365,900. It encompasses the metropolitan area centred on both banks of the lower reaches of the Mersey Estuary, and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wirral, and the city of Liverpool...
1974. The continued development of the city and its urban areas has brought the accent into contact with areas not historically associated with Liverpool or Merseyside such as Prescot
Prescot
Prescot is a town and civil parish, within the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. It is 8 miles to the east of Liverpool city centre and lies within the historic boundaries of Lancashire. At the 2001 Census, the population was 11,184 .Prescot marks the beginning of the...
, Whiston
Whiston
Whiston is the name of several places in England:* Whiston, Merseyside* Whiston, Northamptonshire* Whiston, South Yorkshire...
, Rainhill
Rainhill
Rainhill is a large village and civil parish of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England.Historically a part of Lancashire, Rainhill was formerly a township within the ecclesiastical parish of Prescot, and hundred of West Derby...
, Widnes
Widnes
Widnes is an industrial town within the borough of Halton, in Cheshire, England, with an urban area population of 57,663 in 2004. It is located on the northern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form the Runcorn Gap. Directly to the south across the Mersey is the town of Runcorn...
and Runcorn
Runcorn
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port within the borough of Halton in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In 2009, its population was estimated to be 61,500. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north...
.
Variations within the accent and dialect are noted, along with popular colloquialism
Colloquialism
A colloquialism is a word or phrase that is common in everyday, unconstrained conversation rather than in formal speech, academic writing, or paralinguistics. Dictionaries often display colloquial words and phrases with the abbreviation colloq. as an identifier...
s, that show a growing deviation from the historical Lancashire dialect and a growth in the influence of the accent in the wider area.
Inhabitants of Liverpool are called Liverpudlians but are more often described by the colloquialism Scousers. People from outside of Merseyside who do not speak scouse are commonly referred to as "woolybacks" or "wools" (or derivatives thereof).
Etymology
The word "scouse" is a shortened form of "lobscouse", derived from the NorwegianNorwegian language
Norwegian is a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Norway, where it is the official language. Together with Swedish and Danish, Norwegian forms a continuum of more or less mutually intelligible local and regional variants .These Scandinavian languages together with the Faroese language...
lapskaus (and/or the Low German Labskaus
Labskaus
Labskaus is a culinary specialty from Northern Germany and in particular from the cities of Bremen, Lübeck, and Hamburg. The main ingredients are salted meat or corned beef, potatoes, and onion...
), a word for a meat stew
Stew
A stew is a combination of solid food ingredients that have been cooked in liquid and served in the resultant gravy. Ingredients in a stew can include any combination of vegetables , meat, especially tougher meats suitable for slow-cooking, such as beef. Poultry, sausages, and seafood are also used...
commonly eaten by sailors. In the 19th century, people who commonly ate "scouse" such as local dockers families and sailors became known as "scousers" especially in the North end of Liverpool and the "Wallasey Pool
Wallasey Pool
Wallasey Pool was a natural tidal inlet of water that separated the towns of Wallasey and Birkenhead on the Wirral Peninsula, England. Originally flowing directly into the River Mersey, it was converted into the sophisticated Birkenhead Dock system from the 1820s onwards by land reclamation, with...
".
History
Originally a small fishing village, Liverpool developed as a port, trading particularly with IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, and after the 1700s as an international trading and industrial centre. It became a melting pot of several languages and dialects, but primarily Lancastrian Irish, Welsh, English, Dutch, Scandinavian, German, Scots and many others. As a result the Liverpool accent often has more in common with accents from other and global British Empire
British Empire
The British Empire comprised the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom. It originated with the overseas colonies and trading posts established by England in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. At its height, it was the...
port cities such as Glasgow and Dublin than it does with neighbouring towns within Lancashire and Cheshire
The influence of these different speech patterns became apparent in Liverpool and coastal Wirral, distinguishing the accent of its people from those of the surrounding Lancashire and Cheshire areas. It is only recently that Scouse has been treated as a cohesive accent/dialect; for many years, Liverpool was simply seen as a melting pot of different accents without one of its own. For example, the early dialect researcher A. J. Ellis said that Liverpool and Birkenhead
Birkenhead
Birkenhead is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral in Merseyside, England. It is on the Wirral Peninsula, along the west bank of the River Mersey, opposite the city of Liverpool...
had "no dialect proper".
Phonology
Scouse is notable in some circumstances for a fast, highly accentedStress (linguistics)
In linguistics, stress is the relative emphasis that may be given to certain syllables in a word, or to certain words in a phrase or sentence. The term is also used for similar patterns of phonetic prominence inside syllables. The word accent is sometimes also used with this sense.The stress placed...
manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England.
Irish influences include the pronunciation of the name of the letter "H" as /heɪtʃ/ and the 2nd Person plural (you) as 'youse/yous/use' /juːz/.
There are variations on the Scouse accent, with the south side of the city adopting a softer, lyrical tone, and the north a rougher, more gritty accent. Those differences, though not universal, can be seen in the pronunciation of the vowels.
Words such as 'book' and 'cook', for example, can be pronounced as 'boo-k' or 'bewk' and 'koo-k'. This is true to other towns from the midlands, northern England and Scotland. Oddly enough words such as 'took' and 'look', unlike some other accents in northern towns, revert to the type and are pronounced 'tuck' and 'luck'. Not all Liverpudlians are brought up to speak with this variation but this does not make it any less Scouse.
The use of a long /uː/ in such words was once used across the whole of Britain, but is now confined to the more traditional accents of Northern England and Scotland.
| RP English Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms... |
Scouse |
|---|---|
| [ʊ] as in 'book' | [uː] |
| [ʊ] as in 'cook' | [uː] |
The Scouse accent of the early 21st century is markedly different in certain respects from that of earlier decades.. The Liverpool accent of the 1950s and before was more a Lancashire-Irish hybrid. But since then, as with most accents and dialects, Scouse has been subject to phonemic evolution and change. Over the last few decades the accent is no longer a melange but has started to develop further. One could compare the way George Harrison
George Harrison
George Harrison, MBE was an English musician, guitarist, singer-songwriter, actor and film producer who achieved international fame as lead guitarist of The Beatles. Often referred to as "the quiet Beatle", Harrison became over time an admirer of Indian mysticism, and introduced it to the other...
and John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
spoke in the old Beatles films such as A Hard Day's Night
A Hard Day's Night (film)
A Hard Day's Night is a 1964 British black-and-white comedy film directed by Richard Lester and starring The Beatles—John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr—during the height of Beatlemania. It was written by Alun Owen and originally released by United Artists...
with modern Scouse speakers such as Steven Gerrard
Steven Gerrard
Steven George Gerrard MBE is an English footballer who plays for and captains Premier League club Liverpool. He also has 89 caps for the England national team. He has played much of his career in a centre midfielder role, but he has also been used as a second striker and right winger...
and Jamie Carragher
Jamie Carragher
James Lee Duncan "Jamie" Carragher is an English footballer who plays as a defender for Premier League side Liverpool...
. Harrison pronounced the word 'fair' more like the standard English 'fur' - as Cilla Black
Cilla Black
Cilla Black OBE is an English singer, actress, entertainer and media personality, who has been consistently popular as a light entertainment figure since 1963. She is most famous for her singles Anyone Who Had A Heart, You're My World, and Alfie...
does still. This is a pure Lancashire trait but modern Scousers do it the other way round pronouncing 'fur' like 'fair'. Huge changes have taken place in Scouse vowels, which show astonishing length and exaggeration at times in words like 'read' but conversely shorter than standard in a word like 'sleep'. A final 'er' is a sound whilst pronounced 'schwa' in surrounding Lancashire and Cheshire is emphasised strongly as the 'e' in 'pet' /pɛt/. In a strong Scouse accent, the phoneme /k/ in all positions of a word except the beginning can be realised as /x/ or sometimes /kx/.
| RP English Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms... |
Old Scouse | Modern Scouse |
|---|---|---|
| [ɜː] as in 'fur' | [ɜː] | [ɛː] |
| [ɛə] as in 'square' | [ɜː] | [ɛː] |
| [riːd] as in 'read' | [iː] | [iːi̯] |
| [sliːp] as in 'sleep' | [iː] | [i] |
| [bʌtə] as in 'butter' | [bʊtə] | [bʊtɛ] |
| [fɔːk] as in 'fork' | [fɔːx] | [fɔːx] |
| [bɑːθ] as in 'bath | [bɑf] | [baf] |
Even if Irish accents are rhotic
Rhotic
In linguistics, rhotic can refer to:* Rhotic consonant, such as the sound in red* R-colored vowel, such as the sound in Midwestern American English pronunciation of fur and before a consonant as in hard....
, meaning that they pronounce /r/ at the beginning as well as at the end of a syllable, Scouse is a non-rhotic accent, pronouncing /r/ only at the beginning of a syllable and between vowels, but not at the end of a syllable.
| Rhotic Accent | Scouse |
|---|---|
| [flɔːr] as in 'floor' | [flɔː] |
| [wɝd] as in 'word' | [wɛːd] |
The use of the glottal stop
Glottal stop
The glottal stop, or more fully, the voiceless glottal plosive, is a type of consonantal sound used in many spoken languages. In English, the feature is represented, for example, by the hyphen in uh-oh! and by the apostrophe or [[ʻokina]] in Hawaii among those using a preservative pronunciation of...
as an allophone
Allophone
In phonology, an allophone is one of a set of multiple possible spoken sounds used to pronounce a single phoneme. For example, and are allophones for the phoneme in the English language...
of /t/ can occur in various positions, including after a stressed syllable. This is called T-glottalisation and is particularly common amongst the younger speakers of the Scouse accent. /t/ may also be flapped intervocalically. /t/ and /d/ are often pronounced similarly to the fricatives /s/ and /z/.
The loss of dental fricatives, /ð/ and /θ/, was commonly attributed as being present due to Irish English influence. They were realised as /d/ and /t/ respectively. However, in the younger generation, this feature is being outnumbered by those who realise them as a labiodental fricatives.
becomes /f/ in all environments. [θɪnk] becomes [fɪnk] for "think." becomes /v/ in all environments except word-initially, in which case it becomes /d/. [dɪðə] becomes [dɪvɛ] for "dither"; [ðəʊ] becomes [dəʊ] for "though."
The use of me instead of my was also attributed to Irish English influence: for example, "That's me book you got there" for "That's my book you got there". An exception occurs when "my" is emphasised: for example, "That's my book you got there" (and not his).
Other Scouse features include:
- The use of 'giz' instead of 'give us'.
- The use of the term 'made up' to portray the feeling of happiness or joy in something. For example, 'I'm made up I didn't go out last night'.
- The term 'sound' is used in many ways. It is used as a positive adjective such as 'it was sound' meaning it was good. It is used to answer questions of our wellbeing, such as 'I'm sound' in reply to 'How are you?' The term can also be used in negative circumstances to affirm a type of indifference such as 'I'm dumping you'. The reply 'sound' in this case translates to 'yeah fine', 'ok', 'I'm fine about it', 'no problem' etc.
- [k] pronounced as [x] at the ends of some words.
International recognition
Scouse is highly distinguishable from other English dialects and because of this international recognition on 16 September 1996 Keith Szlamp made a request to IANAInternet Assigned Numbers Authority
The Internet Assigned Numbers Authority is the entity that oversees global IP address allocation, autonomous system number allocation, root zone management in the Domain Name System , media types, and other Internet Protocol-related symbols and numbers...
to make it a recognised Internet dialect. After citing a number of references, the application was accepted on 25 May 2000 and now allows Internet documents that use the dialect to be categorised as 'Scouse' by using the language tag "en-Scouse".
Notable scouse-speaking people
Notable peopleFictional characters
- Albie, psychotic murderer, played by Robert CarlyleRobert CarlyleRobert Carlyle, OBE is a Scottish film and television actor. He is known for a variety of roles including those in Trainspotting, Hamish Macbeth, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough, Angela's Ashes, The 51st State, and 28 Weeks Later...
in the ITV series CrackerCracker (UK TV series)Cracker is a British crime drama series produced by Granada Television for ITV and created and principally written by Jimmy McGovern. The series is centered on a criminal psychologist , Eddie "Fitz" Fitzgerald, played by Robbie Coltrane. Set in Manchester, it consists of three series which were... - Moxey, in Auf Wiedersehen Pet
- Yosser Hughes, portrayed by Bernard HillBernard HillBernard Hill is a British actor of film, stage and television. In a career spanning thirty years, he is best known for playing Yosser Hughes, the troubled 'hard man' whose life is falling apart in Alan Bleasdale's groundbreaking 1980s TV drama, Boys from the Blackstuff...
and other characters, in cult series Boys from the BlackstuffBoys from the BlackstuffBoys from the Blackstuff is a British television drama series of five episodes, originally transmitted from 10 October to 7 November 1982 on BBC2.... - Francis Scully, in drama series ScullyScullyScully may refer to:a surnameThe Irish name, "Scully" comes from older forms Ó Scalaidhe, Ó Scolaidhe, Ó Scolaí and Ó Scolaighe. These surnames referred to an ancestor who functioned as a sceulaidhe, a high-ranking storyteller of an old Irish court, or a "student"...
- Scouse Steve, in the E4 series FonejackerFonejackerFonejacker is a British comedy programme broadcast on E4 featuring a series of prank calls involving a number of different characters performed by British Iranian television actor Kayvan Novak. It first appeared in May 2006, although it did not become a full series until 2007.The first series began...
- The Beets, in DougDougDoug is an American animated sitcom created by Jim Jinkins and co-produced by his studio, Jumbo Pictures . Doug centers on the surreal and imaginative exploits of its title character, Douglas "Doug" Funnie, who experiences common predicaments while attending middle school. The series lampoons...
- Runaway teenagers Billy Rizley (David MorrisseyDavid MorrisseyDavid Mark Morrissey is an English actor and director. Morrissey grew up in the Kensington and Knotty Ash areas of Liverpool, and learned to act at the city's Everyman Youth Theatre. At the age of 18, he was cast in the television series One Summer , which won him recognition throughout the country...
) and 'Icky' Higson (Spencer Leigh), in Willy Russell's play One SummerOne SummerOne Summer is a British television drama series written by Willy Russell and directed by Gordon Flemyng. It stars David Morrissey and Spencer Leigh as Billy Rizley and Icky Higson, two Liverpool boys who run away to Wales one summer. It also starred James Hazeldine and Ian Hart... - John ConstantineJohn ConstantineJohn Constantine is a fictional character, an occult detective anti-hero in comic books published by DC Comics, mostly under the Vertigo imprint. The character first appeared in Swamp Thing #37 , and was created by Alan Moore, Steve Bissette, John Totleben and Rick Veitch...
, occult detective anti-hero in comic books - The Dungbeetles, in Conker's Bad Fur DayConker's Bad Fur DayConker's Bad Fur Day is an action-platform video game developed and published by Rare. It was released for the Nintendo 64 in 2001 and was Rare's last game published for the console. The game was in development for four years; it was originally intended for a young audience, but was redesigned and...
and Conker: Live & ReloadedConker: Live & ReloadedConker: Live & Reloaded is an action-platform video game developed by Rare and exclusively released for the Xbox in June 2005. The single player mode is a remake of the 2001 game Conker's Bad Fur Day for the Nintendo 64. However, it includes a new multiplayer mode that is different to the Nintendo... - "The ScousersThe ScousersThe Scousers was a sketch from the Harry Enfield's Television Programme comedy show of the early 1990s.It featured a set of stereotyped Liverpudlian characters or Scousers, "Ga'", "Ba'" and "Te'" played by Gary Bleasdale, Harry Enfield, Joe McGann, and Mark Moraghan...
" in Harry Enfield's Television ProgrammeHarry Enfield's Television ProgrammeHarry Enfield's Television Programme was a British sketch show starring Harry Enfield and Paul Whitehouse... - Dave ListerDave ListerDavid "Dave" Lister, commonly referred to simply as Lister, is a fictional character from the British science fiction situation comedy Red Dwarf, portrayed by Craig Charles...
(played by Craig CharlesCraig CharlesCraig Joseph Charles is an English actor, stand-up comedian, author, poet, radio and television presenter, best known for playing Dave Lister in the British cult-favourite science fiction sitcom Red Dwarf...
), in Red DwarfRed DwarfRed Dwarf is a British comedy franchise which primarily comprises eight series of a television science fiction sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999 and Dave from 2009–present. It gained cult following. It was created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, who also wrote the first six series... - "Super Scouse", narrator of song "Convoy GB", by DJ Dave Lee TravisDave Lee TravisDave Lee Travis , also known professionally as DLT and the Hairy Cornflake, is a British radio presenter, best known for his career on BBC Radio 1.-Early life:...
, the British version of "ConvoyConvoy (song)"Convoy" is a 1975 novelty song performed by C. W. McCall that became a number-one song on both the country and pop charts in the US. Written by McCall and Chip Davis, the song spent six weeks at number one on the country charts and one week at number one on the pop charts...
" - Wakko Warner, in AnimaniacsAnimaniacsSteven Spielberg Presents Animaniacs, usually referred to as simply Animaniacs, is an American animated series, distributed by Warner Bros. Television and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. The cartoon was the second animated series produced by the collaboration of Steven...
- Dane McGowan, in Grant Morrison's The InvisiblesThe InvisiblesThe Invisibles is a comic book series that was published by the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics from 1994 to 2000. It was created and scripted by Scottish writer Grant Morrison, and drawn by various artists throughout its publication....
- Ron Nasty of parody rock band The RutlesThe RutlesThe Rutles are a band that are known for their visual and aural pastiches and parodies of The Beatles. Originally created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes as a fictional band to be featured as part of various 1970s television programming, the group recorded, toured, and released two UK chart hits in...
- Combo, in the 2006 British drama film This Is EnglandThis Is England-Track listing:#"54-46 Was My Number" - Toots & The Maytals#"Come On Eileen" - Dexys Midnight Runners#"Tainted Love" - Soft Cell#"Underpass/Flares" - Movie Dialogue From This Is England#"Nicole " - Gravenhurst...
- In the children's television series Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends some narration and voices are performed in scouse accent by Ringo StarrRingo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
and Michael AngelisMichael AngelisMichael Angelis is an English actor and voice actor.Michael Angelis was one of the stars of the famous 1982 BBC drama serial Boys from the Black Stuff and another Alan Bleasedale drama G.B.H.. He also starred in comedies such as Luv and The Liver Birds, in which he appeared between series 5 and 9... - Radio from Sonic the Hedgehog.
- Zak RamseyZak RamseyZak Timothy Ramsey is a fictional character from the long-running Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Kent Riley. Zak first appeared in 2004, when he was credited as 'Zak Barnes'. After only four months, Riley was dropped from the programme. The character received a revival 18 months later...
and Hayley RamseyHayley RamseyHayley Ramsey is a fictional character from the British Channel 4 soap opera Hollyoaks, played by Kelly-Marie Stewart. She made her first on-screen appearance on 28 January 2009 as the sister of already established character Zak Ramsey . Hayley is notably the first prominent disabled character in...
, in HollyoaksHollyoaksHollyoaks is a long-running British television soap opera, first broadcast on Channel 4 on 23 October 1995. It was originally devised by Phil Redmond, who has also devised shows including Brookside and Grange Hill... - Zebedee, in children's television seriesChildren's television seriesChildren's television series, are commercial television programs designed for, and marketed to children, normally scheduled for broadcast during the morning and afternoon when children are awake. They can sometimes run in the early evening, for the children that go to school...
TUGSTUGSTUGS is a British children's television series, first broadcast in 1988. It was created by the producers of Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends, Robert D. Cardona and David Mitton. The series dealt with the adventures of two anthropomorphized tugboat fleets, the Star Fleet and the Z-Stacks, who... - Characters played by Robert CarlyleRobert CarlyleRobert Carlyle, OBE is a Scottish film and television actor. He is known for a variety of roles including those in Trainspotting, Hamish Macbeth, The Full Monty, The World Is Not Enough, Angela's Ashes, The 51st State, and 28 Weeks Later...
, Rhys IfansRhys IfansRhys Ifans is a Welsh actor and musician. He is known for his portrayal of characters such as Spike in Notting Hill and Jed Parry in Enduring Love and as a member of the Welsh rock groups Super Furry Animals and The Peth. Ifans also appeared as Xenophilius Lovegood in Harry Potter and the Deathly...
, and Emily MortimerEmily MortimerEmily Kathleen A. Mortimer is an English actress. She began performing on stage, and has since appeared in several film and television roles, including Scream 3, Match Point, Lars and the Real Girl, and Shutter Island....
in The 51st StateThe 51st StateThe 51st State is a 2001 British action comedy film written by Stel Pavlou and directed by Ronny Yu. Produced by Focus Films Ltd. . The film stars Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Carlyle, Emily Mortimer, Ricky Tomlinson, Sean Pertwee, Rhys Ifans and Meat Loaf...
(Formula 51 in the US) - The Duck Brothers, voiced by Ringo StarrRingo StarrRichard Starkey, MBE better known by his stage name Ringo Starr, is an English musician and actor who gained worldwide fame as the drummer for The Beatles. When the band formed in 1960, Starr was a member of another Liverpool band, Rory Storm and the Hurricanes. He became The Beatles' drummer in...
and Samuel VincentSamuel VincentSamuel Vincent is a Canadian voice actor who works with the Ocean Productions based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia.-Biography:...
, in Courage the Cowardly DogCourage the Cowardly DogCourage the Cowardly Dog is an American animated television series created by John R. Dilworth for Cartoon Network. Its central plot revolves around a somewhat anthropomorphic dog named Courage who lives with his owners, Muriel and Eustace Bagge, an elderly, married farming couple in the "Middle of... - Ruby, Iris and May Moss, three sisters with scouse accents in the 2007 BBC eight-part drama LiliesLilies (BBC TV series)Lilies is a British period-drama television series, written by Heidi Thomas, which ran for one eight-episode series in early 2007 on BBC One. The show's tagline was "Liverpool, 1920...
, set in 1920s Liverpool. - Ron Wheatcroft, in long-running BBC comedy Goodnight SweetheartGoodnight SweetheartGoodnight Sweetheart is a sitcom that ran for six series on BBC1 from 1993 to 1999. It stars Nicholas Lyndhurst as Gary Sparrow, an accidental time traveller who leads a double life after discovering a time portal allowing him to travel between the London of the 1990s and the same area during the...
. - Danny Kavanagh, in BBC drama series The LakesThe LakesThe Lakes may refer to:Places* The Lakes, Visalia, California* Lake District National Park in England* The Lakes, Las Vegas, United States, a planned community* The Lakes, Western Australia** The Lakes Important Bird Area* The Lakes, Copenhagen, Denmark...
- Ben 'Fox' Daniels, in the Alex RiderAlex RiderAlex Rider is a series of spy novels by British author Anthony Horowitz about a 14-15 year old spy named Alex Rider. The series is aimed primarily at young adults. Nine novels have been published to date, as well as three graphic novels, three short stories and a supplementary book...
series by Anthony HorowitzAnthony HorowitzAnthony Craig Horowitz is an English novelist and screenwriter. He has written many children's novels, including The Power of Five, Alex Rider and The Diamond Brothers series and has written over fifty books. He has also written extensively for television, adapting many of Agatha Christie's...
. - Mimi MaguireMimi MaguireKatherine Harmonica Joy Catherine "Mimi" Tutton is a fictional character from the Channel 4 drama Shameless., Mimi is the foul-mouthed, loud, brash and violent matriarch of the Maguire family. She is also a drug dealer on the Chatsworth Estate and is frequently seen selling drugs on the show...
, in the 2004 Channel 4 drama television series ShamelessShamelessShameless is a British television drama series set in Manchester on the fictional Chatsworth council estate. Produced by Company Pictures for Channel 4, the first seven-episode series aired weekly on Tuesday nights at 10pm from 13 January 2004...
, set in the fictional Chatsworth council estate, of StretfordStretfordStretford is a town within the Metropolitan Borough of Trafford, in Greater Manchester, England. Lying on flat ground between the River Mersey and the Manchester Ship Canal, it is to the southwest of Manchester city centre, south-southwest of Salford and northeast of Altrincham...
, ManchesterManchesterManchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
. - Tyler, played by Philip WhitchurchPhilip WhitchurchPhilip Whitchurch is a British stage, film, and television actor. He is best known for playing Chief Inspector Philip Cato in The Bill from 1993 to 1995...
, in TV series My Hero - Jeff Heaney, in Peep ShowPeep Show (TV series)Peep Show is a British sitcom starring David Mitchell and Robert Webb. The television programme is written by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain, with additional material by Mitchell and Webb themselves, amongst others. It has been broadcast on Channel 4 since 2003. The show's seventh series makes it...
- Garry and Dean, the pair of "scouse thieves" in Guy RitchieGuy RitchieGuy Stuart Ritchie is an English screenwriter and film maker who directed Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Revolver, RocknRolla and Sherlock Holmes.-Early life:...
's film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking BarrelsLock, Stock and Two Smoking BarrelsLock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels is a 1998 British crime film directed and written by Guy Ritchie. The story is a heist film involving a self-confident young card sharp who loses £500,000 to a powerful crime lord in a rigged game of three card brag...
See also
Other northern EnglishNorthern English
Northern English is a group of dialects of the English language. It includes the North East England dialects, which are similar in some respects to Scots....
dialects include:
- GeordieGeordieGeordie is a regional nickname for a person from the Tyneside region of the north east of England, or the name of the English-language dialect spoken by its inhabitants...
(spoken in Newcastle upon Tyne) - PitmaticPitmaticPitmatic , also colloquially known as "yakka", is a dialect of English used in the counties of Northumberland and Durham in England. It developed as a separate dialect from Northumbrian and Geordie partly due to the specialised terms used by mineworkers in the local coal pits...
(spoken in Durham and Northumberland) - TykeYorkshire dialect and accentThe Yorkshire dialect refers to the varieties of English used in the Northern England historic county of Yorkshire. Those varieties are often referred to as Broad Yorkshire or Tyke. The dialect has roots in older languages such as Old English and Old Norse; it should not be confused with modern slang...
(spoken in Yorkshire) - MackemMackemMackem is a term that refers to the accent, dialect and people of the Wearside area, or more specifically Sunderland, a city in North East England. Spelling variations include "Mak'em", "Makem", and "Maccam".- Origin :...
(spoken in Sunderland) - MancunianMancunianMancunian is the associated adjective and demonym of Manchester, a city in North West England. It may refer to:*The city of Manchester, in Greater Manchester, England**The people of Manchester, or the list of people from Manchester...
(spoken in Manchester) - Lancashire dialect and accentLancashire dialect and accentLancashire dialect and accent refers to the vernacular speech in Lancashire, one of the counties of England. Simon Elmes' book Talking for Britain said that Lancashire dialect is now much less common than it once was, but it is not yet extinct...
, which varies across the county. - Cumbrian dialectCumbrian dialectThe Cumbrian dialect is a local English dialect spoken in Cumbria in northern England, not to be confused with the extinct Celtic language Cumbric that used to be spoken in Cumbria. As in any county, there is a gradual drift in accent towards its neighbours...
, spoken largely in North and West Cumbria.
External links
- Sounds Familiar: Birkenhead (Scouse) Listen to examples of Scouse and other regional accents and dialects of the UK on the British Library's 'Sounds Familiar' website
- 'Hover & Hear' Scouse pronunciations, and compare with other accents from the UK and around the World.
- English Accents and Dialects, British Library Collect Britain website features samples of Liverpool speech (wma format, with annotations on phonology, lexis and grammar):
- BBC - Liverpool Local History - Learn to speak Scouse!
- A. B. Z. of Scouse (Lern Yerself Scouse) (ISBN 0-901367-03-6)
- IANA registration form for the
en-scousetag - IETF RFC 4646 - Tags for Identifying Languages (2006)
- Dialect Poems from the English regions
- Visit Liverpool The official tourist board website to Liverpool
- A Scouser in New York A syndicated on-air segment that airs on Bolton FM Radio during Kev Gurney's show (7pm to 10pm - Saturdays) and Magic 999 during Roy Basnett's Breakfast (6am to 10am - Monday thru Friday).