The Yorkshire dialect has a long history as well. Of course, there are Roman and later Angle influences and when the Norwegian Vikings followed the Danish Vikings from 900 there were new words added to the language as well. From 1066¹⁹ French was a tongue of influence as well. It was normally used next to the English speech, but some words were borrowed and adopted into the Yorkshire dialect.

The Yorkshire dialects can be divided into three parts²⁰, the North, East and West Ridings. The Northern and Eastern dialect merged and there is a contrast noticeable between the North and East dialects and the Western one. It is believed that the Northern and Eastern dialect sound softer because of the farmer’s language and rural communities in the area. The Westerners on the other hand had to face a life full of hardship as a lot of people worked in the mills.

Many dialects are influenced by Standard English – as I have shown before – but the Northern Yorkshire area is fairly isolated and still rural, so many traditional phrases and sayings have been saved ²⁰.

	Malcolm McDowell is a famous actor from Leeds, West Yorkshire. He was born in Leeds, but actually raised in Liverpool. He was sent to a southern public school by his parents, so he never really got the Yorkshire accent, nor was he able to speak the dialect.

If you like to laugh, you should probably travel to Yorkshire with Yorkshire Airlines: