Yorkshire Dialect - Geographic Distribution

Geographic Distribution

Traditionally, there was not one dialect in Yorkshire but several. The Survey of English Dialects identified many different accents in Yorkshire. The Yorkshire Dialect Society draws a border roughly at the River Wharfe between two main zones. The area to the southwest of the river is more influenced by Mercian dialect whilst that to the northeast is more influenced by Northumbrian dialect. The distinction was first made by A.J. Ellis in On Early English Pronunciation. It was approved of by Joseph Wright, the founder of the Yorkshire Dialect Society and the author of the English Dialect Dictionary. Investigations at village level by the dialect analysts Sheard (1906), Stead (1945) and Rohrer (1950) mapped a border between the two areas.

Over time, speech has become closer to Standard English and some of the features that once distinguished one town from another have disappeared. In 1945, JA Sheard predicted that various influences "will probably result in the production of a standard West Riding dialect", and KM Petyt found in 1985 that "such a situation is at least very nearly in existence". However, the accent of Hull and East Yorkshire remains markedly different. The accent of the Middlesbrough area has some similarities with Geordie.

The traditional East Riding dialect has many similarities with the Danish language.

One anomalous case in the West Riding is Royston, which absorbed migrants from the Black Country at the end of the 19th century. The speech of Royston contrasts with that of nearby Barnsley, as it retains some Black Country features.

Other northern English dialects include

• Geordie (spoken in Newcastle upon Tyne)
• Pitmatic (spoken in Durham and Northumberland)
• Scouse (spoken in Liverpool)
• Mackem (spoken in Sunderland)
• Mancunian (spoken in Manchester)
• Lancashire dialect and accent, which varies across the county.