From ‘cob’ to ‘scran’: the regional words at risk of extinction in Britain revealed – so, do you still use them?

From London’s cockney twang to Birmingham’s Brummie accent, Britain is home to almost 40 regional dialects – each with its own unique words.

Now a study has shown that the quirky regional terms are in danger of becoming extinct.

According to researchers from SAS Northern Europe, South West ‘ansum’ and Yorkshire ‘thoile’ are just two of the terms that have declined in use by up to 98 percent over the past hundred years.

“As dialect continues to change the diversity and richness of our language, the idiosyncrasies, idioms and expressions often associated with particular communities will continue to change in the coming years,” said Dr Iain Brown, Head of Data Science at SAS.

How many of these regional words do you still use?

In the study, the researchers looked at 100 popular regional terms from various local authorities in the United Kingdom.

These words were analyzed using Google Books search to understand how usage has changed between 1919 and 2019.

The results showed that ‘ansum’ – meaning ‘nice’ or ‘top class’ – is most likely to become extinct from the English language.

The use of this term, which originated in Cornwall, has declined by 97 percent over the past hundred years.

‘Scran’ is next on the list, whose use has declined by more than 96 percent over the past 100 years.

‘Originating from the North East of England, but a well-known term in the UK, scran is usually used as an abbreviation for food, but was originally part of the 18th century for a bar tab,’ explains Dr. Brown out.

This is followed by ‘thoile’ (meaning ‘unwilling to pay’), ‘parky’ (meaning ‘fussy’), ‘belve’ (meaning ‘singing loudly’) and ‘liggle’ (wearing something that is too large), which have seen a decrease of 95 percent, 84 percent, 82 percent and 75 percent respectively.

Meanwhile, people from the East Midlands may be surprised to hear that ‘cob’ – meaning ‘sandwich’ – is on the at-risk list and has fallen in popularity by 55 per cent since 2019.

‘This term has caused great debate for many years, with the Midlands identifying a bun as a ‘cob’, while in West Yorkshire it often refers to a tea cake, in the North West to a barn cake and in other places to a bap,’ says Dr. Brown. added.

In contrast, several regional terms have risen in popularity over the past hundred years.

‘Gammy’ – often used in the East Midlands to describe being injured – has increased in use by a whopping 15,900 per cent since 2019, according to SAS.

The Welsh regional term ‘cwtch’, meaning ‘to cuddle’, has also seen a big increase of over 8,000 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Scottish word ‘drookit’ (meaning ‘soaked’), the Yorkshire term ‘lowance’ (meaning ‘allowance’) and the North-West’s ‘noggin’ (meaning ‘head’) are proving popular, with all words increased in usage by more than 1,000 percent.

Some regional terms have risen in popularity due to their use in pop culture.

“Rapper Dizzee Rascal’s number one song ‘Bonkers’ has contributed to a massive 6,000% increase in usage over the last 100 years,” Dr. explained. Brown out.

‘Similarly, ‘mardy’, often used in Yorkshire and the East Midlands to describe someone who is grumpy, was used by the indie band Arctic Monkeys for their hit single ‘Mardy Bum’ and has seen a more modest increase of 30% over the past hundred years known. .’

The researchers suggest that the proliferation of AI services such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri may play a role in the rise and fall of regional terms.

‘Regional terms and differences in meaning may not be ‘factored’ into services like Alexa, Siri and Google, which could have long-term implications for these localizations as more and more people turn to speaking in a widespread digital language Dr. Brown added.

‘A recent report found that more than 75% of residents with strong regional accents in Britain have regularly changed the way they speak to be understood by digital assistants such as Alexa or Siri.’