To those who live here, there is nothing unusual about the way we speak, but the Yorkshire dialect is often thought of as simple speech for simple folk.To those who live here, there is nothing unusual about the way we speak, but the Yorkshire dialect is often thought of as simple speech for simple folk.
To those who live here, there is nothing unusual about the way we speak, but the Yorkshire dialect is often thought of as simple speech for simple folk.

Yorkshire Day: 12 uniquely Wakefield and Yorkshire sayings and expressions

The Yorkshire dialect is nothing if not unique, with locals creating their own unique quips over the years.

To those who live here, there is nothing unusual about the way we speak, but the Yorkshire dialect is often thought of as simple speech for simple folk.

But it has a long and ancient history, with many words reflective of the language used by the Angles, Saxons and Vikings, and most of the distinctive words date back to when the Romans left Britain around 400AD.

The Angles laid the first foundations of the Yorkshire dialect and it still retains many old words that have since been discarded from Standard English.

Key characteristics include shorted vowel sounds, dropped ‘h’ and ‘g’ sounds at the start and end of words, and the letter ‘t’ generally being half pronounced, or dropped all together.

The unique turn of phrase has brought with it a number of classic sayings over the years that only true Yorkshire folk can deliver with such passion, fury and annoyance.

We asked Express readers to name Yorkshire sayings and expressions – how many of these do you use?