Scouse

Scouse(/skaʊs/skowss), more formally known asLiverpool EnglishorMerseyside English,is anaccentanddialectofEnglishassociated with the city ofLiverpooland the surroundingLiverpool City Region. The Scouse accent is highly distinctive, as it was heavily influenced byIrishandWelshimmigrants who arrived via theLiverpool docks, as well asScandinaviansailors who also used the docks.People from Liverpool are known as Liverpudlians, but are usually called Scousers; the name comes fromscouse, a stew originating from Scandinavianlobscouseeaten by sailors and locals.
Liverpool's development since the 1950s has spread the accent into nearby areas such as the towns ofRuncornandSkelmersdale.Variations of Scouse have been noted: the accent of Liverpool'scity centreand northern neighbourhoods is usually described as fast, harsh, and nasal,while the "Beatles-like" accent found in Liverpool's southern suburbs is typically described as slow, soft, and dark.Popular colloquialisms have shown a growing deviation from the historicalLancashire dialectpreviously found in Liverpool,as well as a growth in the influence of the accent in the wider area.Scouse is often considered by other Britons one of the country's least popular accents due to its difficulty, but it also performs very well in polls of British accents that people perceive as happy and friendly.
The wordscouseis a shortened form oflobscouse, the origin of which is uncertain.It is related to the Norwegianlapskaus, Swedishlapskojs, Danishlabskovs (skipperlabskovs), and theLow Germanlabskaus, and refers to astew of the same namecommonly eaten by sailors. In the 19th century, poorer people in Liverpool, Birkenhead, Bootle and Wallasey commonly ate scouse as it was a cheap dish familiar to the families of seafarers. Outsiders called these people "scousers".InThe Lancashire Dictionary of Dialect, Tradition and Folklore, Alan Crosby suggests that the word became known nationwide only with the popularity of theBBCsitcomTill Death Us Do Part(1965–1975), which featured a Liverpudlian socialist and aCockneyconservative in a regular argument.
Originally a small fishing village, Liverpool developed as a port. After the 1700s, it developed into a major international trading and industrial centre. The city consequently became amelting potof several accents and dialects as sailors and migrants from different areas such asWalesand especiallyIreland) established themselves in the area. Until the mid-19th century, the dominant local accent was similar to that of neighbouring areas ofLancashire. For instance, the comedian and actorRobb Wilton(1881–1957), despite coming from theEvertondistrict of Liverpool, spoke with a dryLancashire accentrather than a Scouse accent.
The influence of immigrants from Ireland (especiallyDublin) andNorthern Wales, as well as visitingScandinaviansailors, 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 public health in the 19th century, by which the prevalence of colds among many people over a long time resulted in a nasal accent coming to be regarded as thenormand copied by newer incomers learning the dialect of the local area.Scousers tend to speak at a higher pitch than most other English speakers, sometimes approachingfalsetto.
The VictorianphoneticianAlexander John Ellissaid 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 English speakers. Ellis did research some locations on the Wirral, but these respondents spoke in the traditional Cheshire dialect at the time and not in Scouse.The 1950sSurvey of English Dialectsrecorded traditional Lancastrian dialect from the town ofHalewood, finding no trace of Scouse influence. The phoneticianJohn C. Wellswrote that "the Scouse accent might as well not exist" inThe Linguistic Atlas of England, which was the Survey's principal output.
An academic study of Scouse was undertaken by Gerald Knowles at theUniversity of Leedsin 1973. He identified a key problem: that traditional dialect research had focused on developments from a singleproto-language, but Scouse (and many other urban dialects) had resulted from interactions between an unknown number of languages.
The phonemic notation used in this article is based on the set of symbols used byWatson (2007).
Scouse is highly distinguishable from other English dialects. Because of this international recognition, Keith Szlamp made a request toIANAon 16 September 1996 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".
Scouse has also become well-known globally as the accent ofthe Beatles.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.
Othernorthern English dialectsinclude: