:: Rony was speaking to Professor John Widdowson in February 2005

Professor John Widdowson worked at the University of Sheffield for many years. He came in to BBC Radio Sheffield to speak with Rony Robinson about South Yorkshire accents and dialects.

Along with Clive Upton at Leeds University, Professor John Widdowson took part in a survey of regional English for many years. Leeds University took a survey of English dialects in the 1950s and 60s, so the 2005 survey offered interesting comparisons.

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John Widdowson explains why the words we use in dialects have diminished quite dramatically over the past 50 years:

"It's largely because life has changed - we don't have life on the land and horse culture for example - all the handcrafted trades have changed so all that terminology disappears."

Cack-handed vs. dolly-posh

"In Sheffield if you ask people what their word for 'left-handed' is, they're likely to say 'cack-handed' - common across the whole country but it originated in the South East. The words originally were "dolly-posh" - especially if you came from the Hillsborough area. Further over towards Stannington it was "dolly-pawed." North of Sheffield it was "dolly-handed" or just "dolly" by itself. Only in the Sheffield area were these 'dolly' forms used.

"In the old days we used to do washing in a dolly tub with a dolly peg - that's quite an awkward action - it could come from that but no one really knows."

"Orr norr"... or "Urr nurr"?

While the words we use in individual dialects have diminished over the past 50 years, John believes that accents are still strong: "It's a very clear local identifier. You might hear people speaking next door on holiday and we find out they're from our town.

"'Oh no' is another example. In East Yorkshire, people often say 'Aww norr' and in places like Hull it can be a bit more like 'Urr nurr'. Pronunciations can shift according to who you're talking to.

"Accents define individuals far more than dialects do. Older people often tend to preserve their accent. It's also been said that men retain accent more than women, who tend to be more standard in their pronunciation although this is changing and doesn't seem to be the case so much any more.

"Slang for 'great' and 'awful' can be good identifiers of a person's generation. If someone says, "that's super" or "that's smashing" it instantly dates them to an older generation than someone who says, "cool"!

"I think you begin with the language your parents had - particularly your mother - and how that changes depends on your education, where you live, your work colleagues, your friends and neighbours.

Having a natter

Professor Widdowson tells a story about how his wedding nearly didn't happen because of a misunderstanding about "natter".

"My mother-in-law-to-be, who came from East Yorkshire, spoke to my mother and said she'd like to come round for a natter. My mother - who was from Sheffield - said she wasn't going to have a natter with anybody because she took that as gossip rather than just a pleasant chat! So a misunderstanding within East and West Yorkshire about what 'natter' actually meant!"