Yorkshire Sayings and Words

To most people a true Yorkshire Dales accent is a foreign language, most of which comes from our ancestors and the languages of the Angles, Vikings and Saxons.

Many people from Germany feel at home with the Yorkshire dialect which is very similar to many German words and almost all the ancient Yorkshire words have been ‘removed’ from modern Standard English.

The dialect has a distinctive pattern of grammar, vocabulary, accent and spelling, which to some people is looked down upon and those speaking it are thought as simple minded folks.

The Yorkshire accent, as with all languages is changing and if we were to go back 100 years, the people of the day would have great difficulty in understanding what the modern person of today is saying. Plus it is in danger of been lost as a language to be found only in books and the internet if not preserved.

To this end the Yorkshire Dialect Society helps to promote the Yorkshire dialect on TV and Radio, and has helped make changes to peoples attitude to dialect, so your less likely to hear Standard BBC English which has slowly been replaced with regional accents.