Welcome to MerseySpeak, this is my attempt to bring together some of the varied slang or lingo used by natives of Liverpool, ( often referred to as scouser or scousers or sometimes just plain Liverpudlians ). I've categorised these slang terms in to 24 subsections as well as alphabetically. With a bit of luck. We'll turn you in to honorary scousers, or at least help you with the colourful Liverpool lingo.
MerseySpeak has undergone some minor reconstruction, but as it's never really been advertised, you'll never know ;o) There are slightly over 2500 usages gathered here,( hopefully being added to on a regular basis) organized alphabetically in twenty- six files. Entries will expand, though: as I get off my backside to do more research further into Liverpool social history.
I have also organized a large portion of the usages thematically into twenty-four files, and in each of those files is a collection of sayings relevant to the central theme of that file. The titles of those twenty-four files have been changed somewhat. The major change will be that the file on work and docker's nicknames will merge with the one on professions, and a new file on street cries and songs will be added. Here is how the new index will read: ( for now at least )
1. the body and physical appearances
2. the child's world
3. comparisons: more thans, less thans
4. crime, law, and order
5. dismissive remarks about
6. drinking
7. drugs
8. ethnic give and takes
9. food and eating
10. money and spending
11. old age and dying
12. raillery and verbal confrontations
13. religion
14. rhyming slang among Liverpudlians
15. sexuality
16. similes
17. snobbery and better than thou-ism
18. sports
19. time
20. toilet, privvy and bog
21. violence
22. the weather
23. work, the professions, and docker's nicknames
24. street cries and songs
So muck in wack ( or Judy ), yerr at yeh ma's
Some two thousand usages on these pages were gathered over the last several years from books, correspondence, speakers, and movies connected with the Liverpool area. I wanted to praise and demonstrate the wit and originality of a speech and community which has, in my opinion, too often been dismissed or caricatured as being other than standard and therefore less than human. But then of course I am biased having been born and raised there, spending my formative years in the 'South End' and later Mossley Hill.
Many of the usages can be grouped around a central category of experience, i.e., sexuality, raillery, etc. I decided on twenty-four topical headings, to give some sense of the pool of options for talking about a given experience, and therefore the possibilities of variety and play for the verbally astute. There might have been 48 topics, or 96, etc. I understand that the Oxford Dictionary of Slang has as many as 720.
Many of the usages are obsolete. A young adult speaker in Merseyside would not understand them, even as archaisms or shelved antiques. I included them because I wanted to give some sense of the distinct and independent linguistic traditions in this community.
Ultimately this list will give credit to all the informants I have used. The information right now is in mounds in file drawers. Credit is due to so many. Any mistakes are down to me alone
Any and all criticism, preferably constructive, will be gratefully received please email comments to
MerseySpeak Comments
Regards
Mark Barratt
By the way, the motto on the Coat Of Arms is " God Has Given Us This Tranquillity ", Crest was issued to the City in 1797, and the motto was suggested by James, 10th Earl of Derby