Speak up for Yorkshire

Wikipedia’s Yorkshire

Within the borders of this great historic county of Yorkshire are areas which are widely considered to be among the greenest in England, due to both the vast stretches of unspoiled countryside in two National Parks the Yorkshire Dales plus North York Moors. Yorkshire has sometimes been nicknamed God’s Own County hence the title of our web site.
The emblem of Yorkshire is the white rose of the English royal House of York hence our logo. The most commonly used flag representative of Yorkshire is the White Rose on a dark blue background, which after years of use, was fully recognised by the Flag Institute in 2008.

Yorkshire Language

As befits such a large county Yorkshire has its own language and dialect. Who would have linked the Old Norse words like ‘ars’ in Yorkshire ‘arse’ meaning posterior, bottom, back, behind, buttocks; back of a cart or wagon; back of something as in the “arse end of…” . Or try ‘Skita’ in old Norse leading to ‘skitters’ meaning diarrhoea . There are many more examples in Old English or Old Norse on Yorkshire Dialect. I am drawn to ‘bait’ to feed, to offer food; a packed meal; contents of a lunchbox from ‘Beit’ middin, midden dung heap, rubbish tip, dustbin ‘myki-dyngja’ and ‘sackless’ ineffectual, simple-minded, lacking in energy or effort; also innocent of wrong intent ‘saklauss’ but happen I’m just laikin’ around.
This Yorkshire Dialect site also links to a wealth of poetry, prose and academic Yorkshire linguistics.

Yorkshire Dialect Society

The Yorkshire Dialect Society is 112 years old and owes its existance to Joseph Wright an amazing Yorkshireman. ‘Born in 1855 in Idle, he started work at the age of six, and on reaching his teens and while working in one of the many mills in the West Riding, he taught himself to read and write, set up his own night school at home to supplement his income, and went on to become a teacher, and eventually a professor at Oxford.  On 10 November 1894, Professor Wright addressed a meeting about a mammoth project to prepare and publish an English Dialect Dictionary. The committee formed as a result of this meeting, which eventually collected some 350,000 Yorkshire words and phrases, was to be the nucleus of the Yorkshire Dialect Society’.

If it is verse you are after then try Yorkshire Dialect Org who extol you to get published in the following way:-

‘If tha knows nowt, say nowt an appen nob’dy ‘ll notice.
Bur if tha’s gor a bit er verse tha’d leek purrin’ up ere then wang it dahn t’email pipe reet nah.’

So if there is a poem in you ‘Speak up for Yorkshire’  reet nah.