Just like other English dialects, the East Midlands tongue is very much influenced by the settling of the Anglo people. Besides that, it was affected by other languages as well. The dialect is a mixture of Scandinavian, English and a bit of French. During the 13^th and 14^th centuries, many East Midlanders moved to London, where they influenced the Standard English with their dialect. In the centre of England, a lot of mining communities developed in the 16^th century. The communities in Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire were famous for their use of dialect¹². East Midlands dialect came from the centre of the country and was therefore understood by many people and that is why Leicester, according to the BBC, is declared ‘the place of birth of the Modern Standard English’ by some linguists. (Note: I could not find any other proof than the article on the website of the BBC.)

The East Midlands’ dialect changes though. Besides the input of General American via all sorts of media, Leicester has a very diverse population and the tongue is now affected by Asian and Afro-Caribbean people¹².

England has stand up comedians who are very well able to entertain their audience with their dialect. Comedian Mark Rough is not an exception - I hope you will enjoy one of his shows that I found on YouTube: