MerseySpeak
A collection of Liverpool slang, sayings, phrases and local language, presented here in a cleaner interface while retaining the original material.
A proper archive, not just a list
The collection contains thousands of archived usages arranged alphabetically and thematically. Some entries are short definitions; others are longer sayings, examples or pieces of historical language.
The interface deliberately keeps those differences rather than forcing everything into the same mould.
The original pages were compiled around 2001. The S section was never written up, so it has no full entries; S words that appear in the thematic collections are listed in its place.
From the original MerseySpeak
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.
Credit is due to so many. Any mistakes are down to me alone.
Mark Barratt