A campaign to collect words that could result in a ‘trip to the naughty step’, creating the first-ever national repository of regional swear words is appealing for more Cumbrians to get involved.
The University of Sheffield has launched its linguistic study which aims to document how people speak in their everyday lives, while recognising the need to preserve some traditional regional dialects that might be disappearing from the language.
Academics from the project told the Reminder they’ve already had a modest but definite set of submissions from Cumbria so far, including locally distinctive terms like “jam eater” for someone from Whitehaven, and “krupbutts” a regional expression of frustration reported from central and south Cumbria; alongside items like “mayglem” from north Cumbria which is an unflattering remark about someone’s intelligence.
Another term “doylem/doyle” – with similar meaning about intelligence, was offered from north Cumbria, though also found elsewhere in the North East, says the university. Various other terms have already been received from Cumbria for the project, including one word specifically reported from Penrith and described as a local term that unfortunately is not suitable for a family newspaper. At this stage, the data suggests some genuinely localised vocabulary, say the researchers who would certainly welcome more contributions from the Cumbrian region to build a clearer picture.
Dr Chris Montgomery, who is leading the project from the university’s school of English, explained: “Swearing is a fundamental part of how everybody expresses emotion, identity, humour, and social connection, yet it is often excluded from formal records of language.
“We also know very little about how swearing varies in local areas. This project recognises that to truly understand English as it is lived and spoken, we must include all of it – not just the polite or standardised forms.”
Participation is free for entering words for the project research, which along with academics will also involve second year English language and linguistics students from the university. If anyone wants to submit their own examples of regional swear words you can do so at http://tinyurl.com/swearmap.
