Discover Dialect Words
Why do dialects have all the best words?
Take giddy-kipper or plonker or bang-a-bonk, they are sayings that bring a smile to everyone’s faces.
In a few simple and clever ways they make language fun, memorable and full of personality.
Also on a deeper note, people hold these words close to their hearts because they foster warmth, integrity, identity and bring deeper, more meaningful connections between humans.
It is in this spirit that Talk Dialect brings people, language, communication, connection and technology together to harness the deeper emotional and cultural resonance of these dialect words.
From the Greek word διάλεκτος (diálektos) via the verb dialegesthai (to talk together), dialect in its broadest sense – is not dying out, it is alive and well. Talking forms the fundamental fabric of everyday speech and is the first crucial connections we have to our carers, between our selves and then to other human beings.
For us, dialect is simply our natural human language – the way we really speak to each other when we are being meaningful.
As AI threatens to render our dialects obsolete, for Talk Dialect it is the very tool used to reach and rescue and revitalise the most meaningful words that we ever speak.
From individual contributions to dialect groups and communities to AI-driven conservation and open-source tools, we invite everybody to contribute dialect words from every nook and cranny of England, and beyond.
By recording and revitalising dialect language from each of the 39 historic counties of England from Cornwall to Cumberland, Talk Dialect gives old people their voice back and younger people a sense of pride in the place where they live.
This national project has grown out of the evergreen No.1 Google-ranking blog An Alphabetical Compilation of Lancashire Dialect by Nikki Wordsmith.
Even more importantly, the Talk Dialect Team gratefully acknowledges the work of all the linguists and language enthusiasts who have gone before and are still working tirelessly and meticulously today.
The Talk Dialect Team would especially like to thank the Lancashire Dialect Reading Group based at Euxton Library, who very generously gave us their full Lancashire Dialect Glossary many many moons ago.
We promise to verify, attribute, credit, share, support and help people who talk dialect as best we can for future generations to come.
We warmly invite you and your family and friends to explore the rest of this site,
The Talk Dialect Team 🗣️💚
