Look at Tescos accounts and you will discover that know exactly what they are doing. Arguably one of the five most successful retailers in the world.

If only they did – I might go more often…..;)

That’s sad to hear, Kev. I suppose it is a similar situation across the country. It used to be the older people who kept the local dialects alive and as they die so does the dialect.

How revealing! You have to pay to get into Wales on the Crossing Bridge, but it’s free to leave!:)

Kev

I am sure that is right and I was attempting to say something similar but probably expressed myself poorly. Urban language is a mixture of dialects and word patterns from incomers from the local regions and beyond, so the native tongue has become diluted, as you say. Whereas rural areas have remained purer in their dialects and speech patterns. Or are you saying the latter is not the case in the Black Country?

Certainly here in Kent and in Cambridgeshire, where I lived for many years you have to dig deep into small hamlets and villages to find evidence of the “old” dialects.

CD – I believe that secret coded message exchange was also widely practised in Colditz, wasn’t it?

I’m totally non PC anyway I remember the days when PC stood for Police Constable and more recently Personal Computer. They are not constables any more though are they? They are Police Officers, not in my book unless they are above the rank of Sergeant.

Me too, hence my original smiley. I cannot recall ever calling a police constable “officer”. He is a constable – in service terms, an NCO, as is a sergeant.

Or perhaps not so strange. Although rural areas have been populated by immigrants from some metropolitan areas they remain largely parochial with indigenous residents who might have been there for several generations. Towns tend to be “multicultural” in the literal sense and so local speech patterns will tend to be suffused into a “townspeak”.