Exactly my observation as a southerner who has lived in the north and Scandinavia

Norwegians speaking their native tongue to me sound like they’re speaking German with a Geordie accent.

if you’re only half-listening to a Scouser, it could easily be Dutch

cheers means goodbye in Yorkshire? In Lancashire (and elsewhere in the UK) I’ve never heard it mean anything other than “thank you” or the thing you say after clinking glasses

the only time I’ve ever heard anything different is from foreigners learning English

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/cheers “goodbye”

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/cheerio 1. “Goodbye”, 2. “Hello”

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/cheero “A friendly greeting”

yes I’m aware of the dictionary definitions, that’s why foreigners say it, but not once have I ever heard an actual Brit use it like that. it’s a definition that has pretty much passed out of common usage

Cheers is used as goodbye here in the East Midlands. If you were here, you'd hear plenty of Brits use it on a daily basis.

in what context?

I could be wrong about this of course, but I suspect what you’re observing is people saying thank you as they’re leaving: e.g. getting off the bus, or after buying something, or after receiving directions

The phrase "Cheers for now" is less ambigous as a sign off or goodbye than cheers on its own.

In the context of 'cheers' being a direct one-to-one replacement of 'goodbye'. (Or more precisely 'bye'.) If, in my local usage, there is any difference between 'bye' and 'cheers', it's that the latter has a bit more bonhomie about it.

In this context, I'm afraid, you are wrong. When I'm in the office, the last thing I say to everybody else as I leave is, 'Cheers.' I'm not thanking them for letting me into office; I'm saying, 'Goodbye.'

I'm perplexed as to why you're pushing this so hard. People who have experience of this are telling you something. But you, despite clearly not having the same experience, are telling them that they are wrong. Don't mean to be snarky, but why is this so important to you?

Next up, 'Do Midlanders really call each other mardy?'

yesterday after discussing this, I asked multiple people I know from across the country, including the midlands, and they all said that no, cheers is not something they've ever heard as goodbye. I stand by the fact that cheers means thank you/regards, and occasionally is used in place of or alongside goodbye when some kind of transactional behaviour has taken place

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/1gkmqj/what_exactly_...

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/2sjb2j/how_do_i_use_...

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskUK/comments/8tooyt/is_cheers_ins...

you're misunderstanding the nuance of it. when other people are leaving the office and they say cheers, they're saying a short form of "cheers for working with me today" more equivalent to "regards" than "goodbye"

It’s also used in Bristol. “Cheers Drive” is a good-bye to a bus driver.

that’s “thank you” not “bye”

I understand it as “goodbye”. You have a point though.

Are you familiar with the Danelaw, and with Danegeld? I think that knowing "Danes" ruled much of mainland Britain for hundreds of years and provided kings of a unified-ish (pre-Norman) England (Cnut [Canute]) makes it less surprising?

The pronunciation of words between English and Dutch make them appear to be quite different. Once you’re used to hearing Dutch, which most British won’t be, the differences are much, much less than one might imagine.

Are you sure that "cheers" and "tschuss" are etymologically related? I would love that.

Everything I could find points to a Latin cognate, "cara".

Might be a common origin from Latin.

It does appear to be more than a coincidence that my dialect and the modern German usage share a word that sounds the same and means the same.