That article struck a chord with me as I grew up in a small village in the north of Scotland that was dominated by one industry - fishing. Most of my male ancestors for ~300 years had some connection with fishing and an alarming number died in accidents.

At high school we had one teacher who had a simple way of attempting to motivate kids - his room was at the top of the school building and had a splendid view out over the Moray Firth - he'd simply look out the window and comment on how rough the weather was - everyone knew what he meant.

When I was at University one of my school friends suggested I come away with him on the trawler he worked on for ~5 days - just to experience it. I lasted about 3 days before pretty much having to retire to my bunk with a mixture of sea-sickness, fatigue and quite a bit of fear (one of the crew helpfully pointed out the likelihood of escaping from the cabin where the berths were if the boat went down). It was cold and, to me, amazingly rough - which everyone thought was hilarious as it was the middle of July and they used to fish year round.

"Hey up, Poke. Is that thy lad?" - Hello, is that you lad?

Then to me: "Hey up, Young Pokey. Is tha barn darn t' pit?" - Hello, Young Pokey. Is your child down the pit?

"Aye, sither. Ah'm barn darn t' thutty-niners wi' t' fa'ther." Yes he is, the child is down the mines with the father"

"He's a cheyky young bleeder. Tha wants to gi'im thick end o' thi belt." - He's a cheeky young bleeder(bugger), you want to give him the thick end of the belt.

"Thi dad had to grease a few palms to get thi darn t' pit that day, tha knows. Nar look at thi. Tha passed thi Eleven Plus, tha's bin to college an' tha's got a reet good job, an't tha?" - Your Dad had to grease a few palms to get down the pit that day, you know(Good gestures to the right people). Now look at him, he passed the eleven plus, been to college, got a right good job and that?

I'm from Leeds, Yorkshire. But this is very broad Yorkshire. Was a pleasure to read it actually. The part of Yorkshire I am based at the moment has a lot of folk who still speak this way. Some things still throw me. Tha' knows.

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maureenmit...

It's like a whole new language, the southerners struggle to understand us sometimes and think we're crazy.

There is the little detail in there that when the kid is speaking like that the other miner assumes he's joking, because that's not his natural accent. It's very regional. The bit in My Fair Lady where Higgins places people to the street level by accent isn't quite realistic but it's very close.

(a map for our American readers:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/Methley,+West+Yorkshire,+U...

Movement of households, radio, TV, and internet are homoginising accents. E.g. yoofs speaking Ebonics in island nations.

Some people have an incredible ability to place accents e.g. I was hitching in Ireland, he picked up another guy, and then thw driver guessed the birthplace of the hitcher to a tiny village (10s of people) just by accent.

I have picked that someone I met at the pub was from a particular house (flat) by accent once (students sharing house).

A minor point, but in the third passage Leetning is speaking to the author and so I think the translation should be "Now look at you, you passed the eleven plus..."

"Is that your lad?"

"Ah'm barn darn t' thutty-niners wi' t' fa'ther."

I'm bairn down the thirty niners with father

Not grammatical - hence I think why folk though he was talking the mickey.

@ColinWright, can you help out with following text from the article? Just don't want to miss out on the inner meaning of the message from father to son. Many thanks!

> "I'm sorry. Tha wain't say nowt to thi mam nar, will tha? This is just between us men."

"You won't say anything to your mom now, will you?"

Tha = thee, the familiar form of "you". "Only thee-thou's them as thee-thou's you": family and close friends only. This is dying out. I recall my Yorkshire grandmother using it, but only intermittently.

wain't = won't nar = now

These are both on the other side of a vowel shift.

Nowt = nothing. This is a bit of dialect that's still alive, partly due to its use in the TV advertising slogan "Bread wi' Nowt Taken Out".

TV and the class system have long worked against UK regional accents and dialect.

I live in Leeds now, but grew up in Nottingham (70 miles south, also coal-mining country) and we said "owt" and "nowt" - but pronounced like "oat", not "out".

Also your stereotypical Yorkshire would shorten "the" to "t'" (going down t'pit) - we would drop it completely "guin' dahn pit".

Sometimes I reckon Yorkshire folks think I'm taking the piss the way I say things.

I was at Uni with a bloke from Burnley, and he used to say "obbat" and "nobbat" (for "owt" and "nowt" respectively), although I've never heard them since.

Just a quick note, I thought this was all the same thing, as it was on the same line, but now I see the split

"wain't = won't nar = now"

wain't = won't

nar = now

I only got it after reading your comment. Thanks.

The idea that the old thou/you distinction is finally dying out for good at the start of the 21st century genuinely upsets me.

nowt = naught

The main one to get is "tha" and "thi" which are various pronunciations of "thee." Archaiac pronouns, "thee," "thou" etc are still used in various english regional dialects.

When I was a kid in the south west I used to hear people say "About she-high" or "about yay (yea?) high" when gesturing to approximate the size of an object.

"About yay high" is a pretty common expression in New England, especially the more isolated parts

I certainly heard it, and I grew up in a large Midwestern city...

"ye" for you is fairly common in some Scots dialects e.g.

"far ye gan?" - "Where are you going?"

I've put a more complete translation of the non-standard English bits here:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9678231

"Watch thi'sens." = "Watch yourselves"