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Leicester English

Leicester English
Native to	England
Region	Leicester
Ethnicity	English
Language family	Indo-European Germanic West Germanic Ingvaeonic Anglo-Frisian Anglic English East Midlands English Leicester English
Early forms	Old English Middle English Early Modern English
Dialects	Leicester English
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Location of Leicester within England

Leicester English (/ˈlɛstə ˈɪŋɡlɪʃ/) is a dialect and accent (sociolinguistics), including social variations spoken in Leicester and the county of Leicestershire in England. It is a descendent of the East Midlands English variant of spoken English, as Leicester and Leicestershire are located within the East Midlands region and it possesses many features of East Midlands English with a variety of additional unique linguistic changes and features. This variant of English is able to be considered a dialect (as opposed to simply an accent), because it involves unique vocabulary, rather than just different pronunciations to other forms of English.

Origins

Map of England showing areas governed by Danelaw (including Leicester).

Leicester English is a variation of English that was initially heavily influenced by Nordic cultures. Towards the end of the 9th century and throughout the 10th century, the East Midlands region was governed by Danelaw, as it was ruled and occupied by Viking people . As a result the many counties and cities of the East Midlands (including Leicestershire and Leicester) show signs of Nordic influences on there grammar and vocabulary. This is evident in some place names of Leicestershire that have a '-by' ending (coming from the Danish word for 'town' or 'village), like 'Oadby' and 'Barkby' .

More recently, the Leicester dialect has undergone further change, both in terms of it's pronunciation of words and it has even seen new vocabulary introduced. A significant factor in this change is that Leicester is currently one of the most multicultural and ethnically diverse areas of England according to the 2011 UK census. This huge mixture of a variety of different cultures and backgrounds creates a blend of languages that has directly effected the Leicester dialect.

Vocabulary

There are many words and phrases that are commonly used among speakers of the Leicester dialect that would likely be very unfamiliar to people who are not native to Leicester. In 1881, Arthur Benoni Evans created a book of words used amongst people native to Leicester . Despite this book being written a long time ago, some of the words present in this book are still in use in Leicester today.

Here are some examples of vocabulary popular among Leicester English speakers:

Words

1. croggie - /krɑgi/ noun meaning a ride given to a passenger on a bicycle . (in which they sit on the crossbar or handlebars, or behind the person pedalling).
2. mardy - /ma:di/ adjective meaning someone who is upset or annoyed.
3. mash - /maʃ/ verb meaning to make or brew a tea. According to a series of SED records, nine out of ten people in Leicestershire would use this term.
4. nowt - /nəʊt/ pronoun short for the word nothing.
5. oakie - /əʊki/ noun meaning ice cream.
6. summat - /'sʊmət/ pronoun short for the word something.

Phrases

1. "Got a cob on" - meaning that someone is in a bad mood.
2. "ow much'isit" - (How much is it?) This is a phrase that is heavily associated with the Leicester dialect. It is because of this phrase, that the Leicester dialect is sometimes described as the 'Chissit' accent, as when pronounced by Leicester English speakers, it sounds as though they are saying "I'm a Chissit". "Chissit" has even become a term, used by people non-native to Leicester, to describe Leicester natives.

Phonology

The phonology of Leicester English is one of the main characteristics that differentiates it from other dialects. There is a vast amount of phonological features present in this dialect that make it unique to other variants of English. Here are some examples of the phonological features that exist in Leicester English:

• The short 'a' vowel sound [a] is preferred to the long 'a' vowel sound [a:]. For example bath is pronounced /bɑθ/ instead of /bɑːθ/.
• It is a non-rhotic dialect, meaning that the non-syllable final 'r' sound is not pronounced.
• The foot-strut split is not included, meaning words containing [ʌ] like strut or but are pronounced with [ʊ] instead. This leads to no real differentiation between words like putt and put as both have [ʊ].
• Happy tensing is not a feature. The final vowel in words like city and happy is more [ɪ] or [e] rather than [i]. For example "city" /ˈsɪti/ becomes "cit-eh" /ˈsɪte/.
• T-glottalization (represented in IPA as [ʔ]) is a very common feature of Leicester English, this is often at the end of words, but may also come at the end of syllable sounds within words. For example hit /hɪt/ becomes /hɪʔ/ and butter /ˈbʌtə/ becomes /ˈbʌʔə/.
• H-dropping is a feature. This is where the [h] sound is omitted. This is heard most frequently at the beginning of words, for example has /hæz/ becomes as /æz/.
• '-ing' endings are often pronounced as [ɪn], for example the verb running becomes 'runnin' .
• The Leicester dialect also has a very distinct pronunciation of words with '-er' endings. This is present in the pronunciation of the name of the city itself, as Leicester /ˈlɛstə/ becomes 'Les-tah' /ˈlɛstɑ/. The rock band 'Kasabian' made this spelling of the word a much more popular cultural term amongst the people of Leicester as they wore it on t-shirts for a performance in Leicester.
• of reduction is also common, where in speech the word of /ɒv/ (when used in the middle of sentences) is reduced to /ə/. For example, "at the end of the day" /at ðiː ɛnd ɒv ðə deɪ/ becomes /at ðiː ɛnd ə ðə deɪ/ so sounds more like "at the end uh the day"
• them contraction is another common feature, which is when 'them' /ðɛm/ becomes 'um' /ʊm/.

Grammar

Speakers of regional dialects are not intentionally trying to break the grammatical rules of Standard English, however in spoken discourse it is common that speakers of Leicester English may not adhere to the uniform rules and guidelines of English grammar.

• The pronoun them is often used as a determiner, for example "there was nowt else to do them days".
• were generalisation is another common grammatical feature, where were is used instead of was. For example, "he were a good lad".
• Personal and possessive pronouns may also differ in Leicester English. It is very common that instead of saying yours, Leicester speakers say yourn. This can occur for the majority of pronouns, ours becomes ourn, hers becomes ern, theirs becomes theirn and so on. For example, "It's ourn not theirn. (It's ours not theirs).

Leicester English in Media

Leicester English is a very specific dialect, although there are still examples of where it is present various forms of media.

Music

The rock band Kasabian, who formed in Leicester, have a song titled 'Eez-eh' as part of their 5th album 48:13. The title 'Eez-eh' is a reference to the Leicester pronunciation of the word easy. This feature of the phonology of Leicester English is demonstrated in the Phonology section above.