Manchester dialect

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (May 2009)

Mancunian (or Manc) is a dialect, and the name given to the people of Manchester, England, and some of the surrounding areas within Greater Manchester, for example Salford.

It is claimed that the accent has subconsciously changed the way people from other regions speak,^[1] through television with Manchester-set shows such as Shameless and through music with many bands from the district including Oasis, The Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, among others.

Dialect

The dialect is distinguishable from other Northern English dialects. A major feature of the Mancunian accent is the over-enunciation of vowel sounds when compared to the flattened sounds of neighbouring areas. This is also noticeable with words ending in <er> such as tenner. Traditionally, the Manchester area was known for glottal reinforcement of the consonants /k/, /p/ and /t/,^[2] similar to modern speech in the north-east of England.

John C. Wells observed the accents of Leeds and Manchester. He found them to be similar despite the historic divide between the two sides of the Pennines. His proposed criteria for distinguishing the two are that Mancunians avoid Ng-coalescence, so singer rhymes with finger /sɪŋgə/ and king, ring, sing, etc. all end with a hard g sound, and also that Leeds residents employ "Yorkshire assimilation", by which voiced consonants change into voiceless consonants in words such as Bradford /bratfəd/, subcommittee /sʊpkəmɪtɪ/ and frogspawn /frɒkspɔːn/.^[3]

The Mancunian dialect may have originally developed from the old Lancastrian dialects and could have been affected by the vast influx of immigrants introduced to the city during the Industrial Revolution, when the cities of Salford and Manchester became a port due to the building of the Manchester Ship Canal. Immigrants moved to the city for work opportunities from many parts of Europe, most notably Ireland.

Geographical coverage

Although Salfordians speak with a Mancunian dialect, many who live in the boundaries of Salford proper, particularly those of the older generations, identify as Salfordian rather than Mancunian.

The dialect itself is very distinctive with celebrities speaking a Mancunian dialect including Bez of the Salford band Happy Mondays, and Liam Gallagher of Burnage band Oasis. Another example is that of music mogul Tony Wilson who was affectionately known as 'Mr Manchester' due to his work in promoting the greater cultural status of Manchester, despite being born in Salford and raised in Marple, Stockport.

Other famous Mancunians who were not born within the city's boundaries include Terry Christian, a TV presenter who was born in Stockport and boxer Ricky Hatton who was also born in Stockport but brought up in Hattersley, Tameside. The accent has featured in Manchester based comedies such as Shameless and the The Royle Family. Manchester's most famous soap opera Coronation Street has, despite being based in the city, less pronounced Mancunian accents than other TV shows set in the area.

Thomas Ormson and Michelle Keegan who play David and Tina on Coronation Street, have very strong thick Mancunian accents same as Emma Collinge who plays Roise Webster.Same with Simon Gregson who plays well known Steve McDonald there are many others in the soap that have thick Mancunian accent.

Vocabulary

Some of Manchester's most notable words, phrases and sayings include "having a buzz", meaning to have a good time, "Rkid", meaning a sibling or friend and "the dibble"^[4] referring to the police. The term "madferit", meaning full of enthusiasm, was a phrase that embodied the Madchester era. Influences from Ireland include the pronunciation of the letter 'h' as 'haitch' and the plural of 'you' as 'youse'. However, this pronunciation of 'h' is now widespread, being used by approximately 24% of British people born since 1982.^[5]

References