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Scouse (; formally known as Liverpool English or Merseyside English) is an accent and
dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...
of
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ide ...
associated with
Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
and the surrounding county of
Merseyside Merseyside ( ) is a metropolitan and ceremonial county in North West England, with a population of 1.38 million. It encompasses both banks of the Mersey Estuary and comprises five metropolitan boroughs: Knowsley, St Helens, Sefton, Wi ...
. The Scouse accent is highly distinctive; having been influenced heavily by Irish, Norwegian, and Welsh immigrants who arrived via the
Liverpool docks The Port of Liverpool is the enclosed dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of the r ...
, it has little in common with the accents of its neighbouring regions or the rest of England. Scouse is also a general term for this pan-ethnic community or
Liverpudlians Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a populat ...
in general. The accent is named after
scouse Scouse (; formally known as Liverpool English or Merseyside English) is an accent and dialect of English associated with Liverpool and the surrounding county of Merseyside. The Scouse accent is highly distinctive; having been influenced he ...
, a stew eaten by sailors and locals. The development of Liverpool since the 1950s has spread the accent into nearby areas such as the towns of
Runcorn Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port in the Borough of Halton in Cheshire, England. Its population in 2011 was 61,789. The town is in the southeast of the Liverpool City Region, with Liverpool to the northwest across the River Mersey. ...
and
Skelmersdale Skelmersdale is a town in Lancashire, England, on the River Tawd, west of Wigan, northeast of Liverpool and southwest of Preston. In 2006, it had a population of 38,813. The town is known locally as Skem . While the first record of the tow ...
. Variations within Scouse have been noted: the accent of Liverpool's city centre and northern neighbourhoods is usually described as fast, harsh, and nasal, while the accent found in the southern suburbs of Liverpool is typically referred to as slow, soft, and dark. Popular colloquialisms have shown a growing deviation from the historical
Lancashire dialect The Lancashire dialect or (colloquially, Lanky) refers to the Northern English vernacular speech of the English county of Lancashire. The region is notable for its tradition of poetry written in the dialect. Scope of Lancashire dialect La ...
that was previously found in Liverpool, as well as a growth in the influence of the accent in the wider area. Natives and residents of Liverpool are formally referred to as Liverpudlians, but are more often called Scousers. The northern variation of Scouse has appeared in mainstream British media but, until the 2010s, often served only to be impersonated and mocked in comedy series such as ''
Harry Enfield & Chums ''Harry Enfield & Chums'' (originally titled ''Harry Enfield's Television Programme'') is a British sketch show starring Harry Enfield, Paul Whitehouse and Kathy Burke. It first broadcast on BBC2 in 1990 in the 9 pm slot on Thursday night ...
'' and its Scousers sketch.Archived a
Ghostarchive
and th
Wayback Machine
 It is consistently voted one of the least popular accents in the UK. Conversely, the Scouse accent as a whole is usually placed within the top two friendliest UK accents, alongside that of Newcastle upon Tyne.


Etymology

The word is a shortened form of lobscouse, the origin of which is uncertain. It is related to the Norwegian ''
lobscouse Lobscouse (or ''lapskaus'') is a thick Norwegian stew made of meat and potatoes. There are many variations of ''lapskaus''. The dish may be made of fresh or leftover meat (usually beef or lamb, but sometimes also chicken, pork, or ham) and pota ...
'', Swedish ''lapskojs'', and Danish ''labskovs (skipperlabskovs)'', as well as the Low German '' labskaus'', and refers to a stew of the same name commonly eaten by sailors. In the 19th century, poorer people in Liverpool, Birkenhead, Bootle and Wallasey commonly ate scouse as it was a cheap dish, and familiar to the families of seafarers. Outsiders tended to call these people scousers. In ''The Lancashire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore'', Alan Crosby suggested that the word only became known nationwide with the popularity of the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
sitcom ''
Till Death Us Do Part ''Till Death Us Do Part'' is a British television sitcom that aired on BBC1 from 1965 to 1975. The show was first broadcast in 1965 as a ''Comedy Playhouse'' pilot, then as seven series between 1966 and 1975. In 1981, ITV continued the sitcom ...
'' (19651975), which featured a Liverpudlian socialist and a
Cockney Cockney is an accent and dialect of English, mainly spoken in London and its environs, particularly by working-class and lower middle-class Londoners. The term "Cockney" has traditionally been used to describe a person from the East End, or ...
conservative in a regular argument.Alan Crosby, ''The Lancashire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore'', 2000, entry for word ''Scouser''


Origins

Originally a small fishing village, Liverpool developed as a port, trading particularly with Ireland. After the 1700s, it developed as a major international trading and industrial centre. The city consequently became a melting pot of several languages and dialects, as sailors and traders from different areas (alongside migrants from other parts of Britain, Ireland, and northern Europe) established themselves in the area. Until the mid-19th century, the dominant local accent was similar to that of neighbouring areas of
Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...
. The comedian and actor
Robb Wilton Robert Wilton Smith (28 August 1881 – 1 May 1957), better known as Robb Wilton, was an English comedian and actor. He was best known for his filmed monologues during the 1930s and 1940s, in which he played incompetent authority figures. His tr ...
(1881–1957), who was born in the Everton district of Liverpool, spoke with a dry Lancashire accent rather than a Scouse accent. The influence of Irish (especially Dublin Irish) and Northern Welsh migrants, combined with other European accents, contributed to a distinctive local Liverpool accent. The first reference to a distinctive Liverpool accent was in 1890. Linguist Gerald Knowles suggested that the accent's nasal quality may have derived from poor 19th-century public health, by which the prevalence of colds for many people over a long time resulted in a nasal accent becoming regarded as the
norm Naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) and technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) consist of materials, usually industrial wastes or by-products enriched with radioactive elements found in the envi ...
and copied by others learning the language.


Academic research

The period of early dialect research in Great Britain did little to cover Scouse. The early researcher Alexander John Ellis said that Liverpool and Birkenhead "had no dialect proper", as he conceived of dialects as speech that had been passed down through generations from the earliest Germanic speakers. Ellis did research some locations on the Wirral, but these respondents spoke in traditional Cheshire dialect at the time and not in Scouse. The 1950s
Survey of English Dialects The Survey of English Dialects was undertaken between 1950 and 1961 under the direction of Professor Harold Orton of the English department of the University of Leeds. It aimed to collect the full range of speech in England and Wales before loc ...
recorded traditional Lancastrian dialect from the town of
Halewood Halewood is a town in the Metropolitan Borough of Knowsley in Merseyside, England. It lies near the city of Liverpool's southeastern boundary, bordered by the suburbs of Netherley, Hunt's Cross and Woolton. Historically a part of Lancashire, ...
and found no trace of Scouse influence. The phonetician
John C Wells John Christopher Wells (born 11 March 1939) is a British phonetician and Esperantist. Wells is a professor emeritus at University College London, where until his retirement in 2006 he held the departmental chair in phonetics. Career Wells ear ...
wrote that "the Scouse accent might as well not exist" in ''The Linguistic Atlas of England'', which was the Survey's principal output.Review of the Linguistic Atlas of England
John C Wells, The Times Higher Education Supplement, 1 December 1978 The first academic study of Scouse was undertaken by Gerald Knowles at the
University of Leeds , mottoeng = And knowledge will be increased , established = 1831 – Leeds School of Medicine1874 – Yorkshire College of Science1884 - Yorkshire College1887 – affiliated to the federal Victoria University1904 – University of Leeds , ...
in 1973. He identified the key problem being that traditional dialect research had focused on developments from a single
proto-language In the tree model of historical linguistics, a proto-language is a postulated ancestral language from which a number of attested languages are believed to have descended by evolution, forming a language family. Proto-languages are usually unattes ...
, but Scouse (and many other urban dialects) had resulted from interactions between an unknown number of languages.


Phonology

The phonemic notation used in this article is based on the set of symbols used by .


Vowels

* The
square-nurse merger In English, many vowel shifts affect only vowels followed by in rhotic dialects, or vowels that were historically followed by that has been elided in non-rhotic dialects. Most of them involve the merging of vowel distinctions and so fewer vo ...
in Scouse renders minimal pairs such as ''fair''-''fur'', ''stare''-''stir'' and ''pair''-''purr'' homophonous as , and . The actual realization is variable, but the current mainstream pronunciation is close to , as shown on the vowel chart. Other allophones include , , , and as well as the rounded and , with all but being more conservative than . In addition to those, there also exist the diphthongal variants and . Middle class speakers may differentiate from by using the front for the former (so that ''fair'', ''stare'' and ''pair'' are rendered ) and the central for the latter (so that ''fur'', ''stir'' and ''purr'' are rendered ), much like in RP. * As other Northern English varieties, Scouse lacks the
foot-strut split Most dialects of modern English have two close back vowels: the near-close near-back rounded vowel found in words like ''foot'', and the close back rounded vowel (realized as central in many dialects) found in words like ''goose''. The vow ...
, so that words like ''cut'' , ''luck'' and ''up'' have the same phoneme as ''bull'' , ''foot'' and ''put'' . Speakers attempting to distinguish between the two typically use a stressed for the former set: , resulting in a Welsh English-like strut-schwa merger. However, this often leads to hypercorrection, so that ''good luck'' may be pronounced . * Words such as ''grass'', ''path'' and ''sample'' have a short , rather than the long due to the lack of the trap-bath split: . As with the foot-strut split, an attempt to use in an RP-like way may lead to hypercorrections such as (RP ). * The words ''book'', ''cook'' and ''look'' are typically pronounced with the vowel of rather than that of , which is true within Northern England and the Midlands. This causes minimal pairs such as ''look'' and ''luck'', and ''book'' and ''buck''. The use of a long in such words is more often used in working-class accents; however, recently this feature is becoming more recessive, being less found with younger people. * The
weak vowel merger The close and mid-height front vowels of English (vowels of ''i'' and ''e'' type) have undergone a variety of changes over time and often vary by dialect. Developments involving long vowels Until Great Vowel Shift Middle English had a long ...
is in transition, so that some instances of the unstressed merge with , so that ''eleven'' ''orange'' are pronounced and . The typical g-dropped variant of ''ing'' is , which is subject to syllabic consonant formation (as in ''disputing'' ). As in Geordie, for standard may also occur, as in ''maggot'' . * is typically central and it may be even fronted to so that it becomes the rounded counterpart of . * In final position, tend to be fronting/backing diphthongs with central onsets . Sometimes this also happens before in words such as ''school'' . * The vowel is tense and is best analysed as belonging to the phoneme. * There is not a full agreement on the phonetic realisation of : ** According to , it is back , with front being a common realisation for some speakers. ** According to and , it is typically front . * The vowel typically has a front second element . * The vowel is typically diphthongal , rather than being a monophthong that is commonly found in other Northern English accents. * The vowel has a considerable allophonic variation. Its starting point can be open-mid front , close-mid front or mid central (similarly to the vowel), whereas its ending point varies between fairly close central and a more back . The most typical realisation is , but and an RP-like are also possible. John Wells also lists and , which are more common in Midland English and younger Northern English. To him, variants with central or front onsets sound 'inappropriately posh' in combination with other broad Scouse vowels. * The vowel can be monophthongised to in certain environments. According to and , the diphthongal realisation is quite close to the conservative RP norm (), but according to it has a rather back starting point (). * The vowel is , close to the RP norm.


Consonants

*
H-dropping ''H''-dropping or aitch-dropping is the deletion of the voiceless glottal fricative or "''H''-sound", . The phenomenon is common in many dialects of English, and is also found in certain other languages, either as a purely historical developmen ...
, as in many other varieties of Northern England English. This renders ''hear'' , ''high'' and ''hold'' variably homophonous with ''ear'' , ''I'' and ''old'' . * NG-coalescence is not present as with other Northern English accents, for instance realising ''along'' as . * Like many other accents around the world, G-dropping also occurs, with being the most common realization of the sequence. * has several allophones depending on environment: ** Intervocalically (including at word boundaries), it is typically pronounced or , which is found in several other Northern English varieties. **Pre-pausally, it may be debuccalised to , with older speakers only doing this in function words with short vowel: ''it'', ''lot'', ''not'', ''that'', ''what'', pronounced respectively. On the other hand, younger speakers may further debuccalise in polysyllabic words in unstressed syllables, hence ''aggregate'' . This is not differentiated from in this article. **
T-glottalisation In English phonology, ''t''-glottalization or ''t''-glottalling is a sound change in certain English dialects and accents, particularly in the United Kingdom, that causes the phoneme to be pronounced as the glottal stop in certain position ...
is rarer than in the rest of England, with occurring before and syllabic consonants. **
Affrication An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pair ...
of as word-initially and
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...
to intervocalically and word-finally. The latter type of allophony does not lead to a loss of contrast with as the articulation is different; in addition, is also longer. For female speakers, the fricative allophone of is not necessarily but rather a complex sequence , so that ''out'' is pronounced , rather than . In this article, the difference is not transcribed and is used for the latter two allophones. * can turn into an affricate or a
fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
, determined mostly by the quality of the preceding vowel. If fricative, a
palatal The palate () is the roof of the mouth in humans and other mammals. It separates the oral cavity from the nasal cavity. A similar structure is found in crocodilians, but in most other tetrapods, the oral and nasal cavities are not truly separ ...
,
velar Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue (the dorsum) against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth (known also as the velum). Since the velar region of the roof of the mouth is relatively extensive a ...
or
uvular Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be stops, fricatives, nasals, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not prov ...
articulation ( respectively) is realised. This is seen distinctively with words like ''book'' and ''clock''. * can be fricatised to , albeit rarely. * As with other varieties of English, the voiceless plosives are aspirated word-initially, except when precedes in the same syllable. It can also occur word- and utterance-finally, with potential
preaspirated In phonetics, preaspiration (sometimes spelled pre-aspiration) is a period of Voice (phonetics), voicelessness or Aspiration (phonetics), aspiration preceding the closure of a voiceless obstruent, basically equivalent to an -like sound preceding the ...
pronunciations (which is often perceived as glottal noise or as oral friction produced in the same environment as the stop) for utterance-final environments, primarily found in female speakers. * The voiced plosives are also fricatised, with particularly being lenited to the same extent as , although the fricative allophone is frequently devoiced. * Under Irish influence, the dental stops are often used instead of the standard dental fricatives , leading to a phonemic distinction between dental and alveolar stops. The fricative forms are also found, whereas
th-fronting ''Th''-fronting is the pronunciation of the English "th" as "f" or "v". When ''th''-fronting is applied, becomes (for example, ''three'' is pronounced as ''free'') and becomes (for example, ''bathe'' is pronounced as ''bave''). (Here "fron ...
is not as common. * The accent is
non-rhotic Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic variet ...
, meaning is not pronounced unless followed by a vowel. When it is pronounced, it is typically realised as a tap particularly between vowels (as in ''mirror'' ) or in initial clusters (as in ''breath'' ), and approximant otherwise, sometimes also instead of the tap.


Lexicon and syntax

A notable
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
influence include the second person plural "you" as "" . The use of "" instead of "my" is also present, i.e. "" instead of "that's my book you've got there". An exception occurs when "my" is emphasised in an example such as "". Other common Scouse features include the use of "" instead of "give us", which became famous throughout the UK through ''
Boys from the Blackstuff ''Boys from the Blackstuff'' is a British drama television series of five episodes, originally transmitted from 10 October to 7 November 1982 on BBC2. The serial was written by Liverpudlian playwright Alan Bleasdale, as a sequel to a televisio ...
'' in 1982; the use of the term "" to mean "extremely happy", such as in ""; and the terms "" for "okay" and "" for "great", which can also be used to answer questions of wellbeing such as "I'm boss" in reply to "How are you?" and can also be used sarcastically in negative circumstances (the reply "" in the case of being told bad news translates to the sarcastic use of "good" or "okay").


International recognition

Scouse is highly distinguishable from other English dialects. Because of this international recognition, Keith Szlamp made a request to IANA on 16 September 1996 to make it a recognised Internet dialect. After citing a number of references,Szlamp, K.
The definition of the word 'Scouser'
, ''Oxford English Dictionary'' 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". Scouse has also become well known as the accent of
The Beatles The Beatles were an English rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the most influential band of all time and were integral to the developmen ...
, an international cultural phenomenon. While the members of the band are famously from Liverpool, their accents have more in common with the older Lancashire-like Liverpool dialect found in the southern suburbs; the accent has evolved into Scouse since the 1960s, mostly in the centre and northern areas of the city, with some identifying the improvement of air quality as a potential factor.


See also

Other northern English dialects include: *
Cumbrian The Cumberland dialect is a local Northern English dialect in decline, spoken in Cumberland, Westmorland and Lancashire North of the Sands, not to be confused with the area's extinct Celtic language, Cumbric. Some parts of Cumbria have a mo ...
(Cumbria) * Geordie (Newcastle) * Lanky (Lancashire) *
Mackem Mackem, Makem or Mak'em a nickname for residents of and people from Sunderland, a city in North East England. It is also a name for the local dialect and accent (not to be confused with Geordie); and for a fan, of whatever origin, of Sunderland ...
(Sunderland) * Mancunian (Manchester) *
Pitmatic __NOTOC__ Pitmatic (originally: "Pitmatical", colloquially known as "Yakka") is a group of traditional Northern English dialects spoken in rural areas of the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield in England. The separating dialectal development ...
(Durham and Northumberland) * Tyke (Yorkshire)


References


Bibliography

* * * * * *


Further reading

* * * * *


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

, and compare with other accents from the UK and around the world
Sound map – Accents & dialects
i
Accents & Dialects
British Library.
BBC – Liverpool Local History – Learn to speak Scouse!
*''A. B. Z. of Scouse (Lern Yerself Scouse)'' ()
IANA registration form for the en-scouse tag
*IETF RFC 4646 — Tags for Identifying Languages (2006)
Visit Liverpool
— The official tourist board website to Liverpool
A Scouser in California
— A syndicated on-air segment that airs o
Bolton FM Radio
during Kev Gurney's show (7pm to 10pm – Saturdays) an
Magic 999
during Roy Basnett's Breakfast (6am to 10am – Monday to Friday)
Clean Air Cleaning Up Old Beatles Accent
ABC News {{English dialects by continent English language in England Languages of the United Kingdom Liverpool British regional nicknames City colloquials