Scouse

This article is about the accent. For the food, see Scouse (food).

Location of Merseyside within England

Scouse (/ˈskaʊs/; also, in academic sources, called Liverpool English or Merseyside English) is an accent and dialect of English found primarily in the Metropolitan county of Merseyside, and closely associated with the city of Liverpool. The accent extends as far as Flintshire in Wales, Runcorn in Cheshire and Skelmersdale in Lancashire.

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 Liverpool until the 1950s when slum clearance in the city resulted in migration of the populace into new pre-war and post-war developments in surrounding areas of what was informally named Merseyside and later to become officially known as Merseyside in 1974. The continued development of the city and its urban areas has brought the accent into contact with areas not historically associated with Liverpool such as Prescot, Whiston and Rainhill in Merseyside and Widnes, Runcorn and Ellesmere Port in Cheshire.

Variations within the accent and dialect are noted, along with popular colloquialisms, 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 or Liverpolitans but are more often described by the colloquialism "Scousers".

Etymology

The word "scouse" is a shortened form of "lobscouse", derived from the Norwegian lapskaus, Swedish lapskojs and Danish labskovs (or the Low German Labskaus), a word for a meat stew 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. 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 programme Till Death Us Do Part, which starting in 1965 featured a Liverpudlian socialist and a Cockney conservative in regular argument.

Origins

Originally a small fishing village, Liverpool developed as a port, trading particularly with Ireland, and after the 1700s 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, and migrants from other parts of Britain, Ireland and northern Europe, established themselves in the area. The Scandinavians introduced the dish Scouse.

Until the mid-19th century, the dominant local accent was similar to that of neighbouring areas of Lancashire. The influence of Irish and Welsh incomers, combined with 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 and copied by others learning the language.

Phonology

Monophthongs of Scouse (from Watson (2007:357)).

Diphthongs of Scouse (from Watson (2007:357))

Scouse is notable in some circumstances for a fast, highly accented manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England.

There are variations on the Scouse accent, with the south side of the city adopting a softer, more lyrical tone, and the north a rougher, more gritty accent. Those differences, though not universal, are most notable in the pronunciation of the vowels.

Words such as 'book' and 'cook' can be pronounced with the same tenser vowel as in GOOSE, not the one of FOOT. This is true to other towns from the midlands, northern England, Dublin English and the English used in Scotland. 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.

Written English	RP English	Scouse
'book'	[bʊk]	[bʉːx]
'cook'	[kʰʊk]	[kʰʉːx]

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 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.

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 did (it could be argued that Brian Epstein's influence led to his artists adopting a softer Liverpool accent to appeal to a wider audience). This is a pure Lancashire trait but modern Scousers do it the other way round pronouncing 'fur' like 'fair'.

Changes have taken place in Scouse vowels, which show length and exaggeration at times in words like 'read', conversely shorter than standard in a word like 'sleep'. A final 'er' is a sound that, although pronounced as a schwa in surrounding Lancashire and Cheshire, is emphasised as strongly as the 'e' in 'pet' /pɛt/. In a strong Scouse accent, the phoneme /k/ can be realised at the ends of some words as [x] or sometimes [k͡x].

RP English	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]
[ˈbʌtə] as in 'butter'	[ˈbʊθ̠ə]	[ˈbʊθ̠ɛ]
[fɔːk] as in 'fork'	[fɔːx]	[fɔːx]
[bɑːθ] as in 'bath	[bɑθ̠]	[baθ̠], |[bɑθ̠]

Even if Irish accents are rhotic, meaning that they pronounce /r/ at the end as well as at the beginning 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 last condition may not apply if the next word begins with a vowel and is pronounced without a pause, so the sentence "the floor is dirty" is often pronounced [ðə ˈflɔːr ɪz ˈdɛːtɪ], while "the floor... is dirty" is pronounced [ðə ˈflɔː | ɪz ˈdɛːtɪ]. See linking R.

Rhotic Accent	Scouse
[flɔːr] as in 'floor'	[flɔː]
[wɝd] as in 'word'	[wɛːd]

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. The letter /t/ may also be flapped intervocalically (in between vowels), /t/ and /d/ are often pronounced similarly to the fricatives /s/ and /z/.

The loss of dental fricatives, /ð/ and /θ/, is commonly attributed to Irish English influence. They are realised as [d̪] and [t̪] respectively. However, in the younger generation, in some areas but by no means all, this feature is being outnumbered by those who realise them as labiodental fricatives.

• /θ/ becomes /f/ in all environments. [θɪŋk] becomes [fɪŋk] for "think."
• /ð/ becomes /v/ in all environments except word-initially, in which case it becomes /d/. [ˈdɪðə] becomes [ˈdɪvɛ] for "dither"; [ðəʊ] becomes [dəʊ] for "though."

Lexicon and syntax

Irish influences include the pronunciation of the name of the letter "H" as /heɪtʃ/ and the second person plural (you) as 'youse/yous/use' /juːz/.

The use of me instead of my is 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 in common use include such examples as:

• 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 terms 'sound' and 'boss' are used in many ways. They are 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 boss' in reply to 'How are you?' The term can also be used sarcastically in negative circumstances to affirm a type of indifference such as 'I'm dumping you'. The reply 'sound' in this case translates to the sarcastic use of 'good' or to 'yeah fine', 'ok', 'I'm fine about it', 'no problem' etc.

International recognition

See also: Category:People from Liverpool

Scouse is highly distinguishable from other English dialects and because of this international recognition on 16 September 1996 Keith Szlamp made a request to IANA 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". Many natives of northern Europe, and especially the Scandinavian region, have suggested that Scousers 'sound like they sing when they talk' due to the flowing rhythm and pitch.

Notable people with scouse accents

See also: Category:People from Liverpool

Notable people

3

Fictional characters

• Mike Rawlins, the "randy Scouse git" of Till Death Us Do Part.
• Albie, psychotic murderer, played by Robert Carlyle in the ITV series Cracker
• Moxey, in Auf Wiedersehen Pet
• Yosser Hughes, portrayed by Bernard Hill and other characters, in cult series Boys from the Blackstuff
• Francis Scully, in drama series Scully
• Scouse Steve, in the E4 series Fonejacker
• The Beets, in Doug
• Runaway teenagers Billy Rizley (David Morrissey) and 'Icky' Higson (Spencer Leigh), in Willy Russell's play One Summer
• John Constantine, occult detective anti-hero in comic books
• The Dungbeetles, in Conker's Bad Fur Day and Conker: Live & Reloaded
• "The Scousers" in Harry Enfield's Television Programme
• Dave Lister (played by Craig Charles), in Red Dwarf
• "Super Scouse", narrator of song "Convoy GB", by DJ Dave Lee Travis, the British version of "Convoy"
• Wakko Warner, in Animaniacs
• Dane McGowan, in Grant Morrison's The Invisibles
• Ron Nasty of parody rock band The Rutles
• Combo, in the 2006 British drama film This Is England
• In the children's television series Thomas The Tank Engine & Friends some narration and voices are performed in scouse accent by Ringo Starr and Michael Angelis especially James and Percy (Seasons 6–12)
• Radio from Sonic the Hedgehog.
• Zak Ramsey and Hayley Ramsey, in Hollyoaks
• Zebedee, in children's television series TUGS
• Characters played by Robert Carlyle, Rhys Ifans, and Emily Mortimer in The 51st State (Formula 51 in the US)
• The Duck Brothers, voiced by Ringo Starr and Samuel Vincent, in Courage the Cowardly Dog
• Ruby, Iris and May Moss, three sisters with scouse accents in the 2007 BBC eight-part drama Lilies, set in 1920s Liverpool.
• Ron Wheatcroft, in long-running BBC comedy Goodnight Sweetheart.
• Danny Kavanagh, in BBC drama series The Lakes
• Ben 'Fox' Daniels, in the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz.
• Mimi Maguire, in the 2004 Channel 4 drama television series Shameless, set in the fictional Chatsworth council estate, of Stretford, Manchester.
• Tyler, played by Philip Whitchurch, in TV series My Hero
• Jeff Heaney, in Peep Show
• Garry and Dean, the pair of "scouse thieves" in Guy Ritchie's film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
• Jason Bent comedy footballer out of Lee Nelson's well good show portrayed by comedian Simon Brodkin

See also

Other northern English dialects include:

• Geordie (spoken in Newcastle upon Tyne)
• Pitmatic (spoken in Durham and Northumberland)
• Tyke (spoken in Yorkshire)
• Mackem (spoken in Sunderland)
• Mancunian (spoken in Manchester)
• Lancashire dialect and accent, which varies across the county.
• Cumbrian dialect, spoken largely in North and West Cumbria.

Further reading

• Tony Crowley, Scouse: A Social and Cultural History, Liverpool University Press, 2012
• p. 348
• Marotta, G. and Barth, M., Acoustic and sociolingustic aspects of lenition in Liverpool English, Studi Linguistici e Filologici Online 3.2, pp377–413. Available online PDF (978 KB) (including sound files).
• Shaw, F. and Spiegl, F. and Kelly, S., (1966). How to Talk Proper in Liverpool (Lern Yerself Scouse S.) Liverpool:Scouse Press. ISBN 0-901367-01-X
• Wells, J. C. (1982). Accents of English 2: The British Isles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28540-2.

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.
• Sound map – Accents & dialects in Accents & Dialects, British Library.
• 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-scouse tag
• 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).