Potteries Dialect - Origin and History

Origin and History

As with most local dialects in English, Potteries dialect derives originally from Anglo Saxon Old English. The 14th-century Anglo Saxon poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, which appears in the Cotton Nero A.x manuscript uses dialect words native to the Potteries, leading some scholars to believe that it was written by a monk from Dieulacres Abbey. However, the most commonly suggested candidate for authorship is John Massey of Cotton, Cheshire (now part of Cranage outside Holmes Chapel). The same manuscript also contains three religious alliterative poems, Cleanness, Patience and Pearl, which are attributed to the same unknown author. Although the identity of the author is still disputed J. R. R. Tolkien and E. V. Gordon writing in 1925 concluded that "his home was in the West Midlands of England; so much his language shows, and his metre, and his scenery."

The first documented instance of Potteries dialect is by the prominent Stafforshire lawyer John Ward (1781–1870) and local historian Simeon Shaw in their book The Borough of Stoke-upon-Trent published in 1843, where Ward recorded phonetically a conversation which he overheard in Burslem marketplace in 1810. In the passage, entitled A Burslem Dialogue, Ward provided an explanation of some of the words unique to the district: ‘mewds’ (moulds), ‘kale’ (being called upon in order, first, second….), ‘heo’ (she), ‘shippon’ (a cow-house).

From the 1750s onwards the Industrial Revolution created a high concentration of workforce in the ceramic and coal mining industries, working in close proximity in Stoke-on-Trent. This allowed the dialect to develop as a way of speech specific to those industries.

Some observers of Potteries dialect in the 21st century fear it is dying out as a living speech, as fewer young people use it in everyday conversation. Steve Birks cites increased ease of travel, the decline of the pottery industry leading to people moving out of the area to find work, the prevalence of and exposure to Received Pronunciation through television and radio, and the uniformity of the British education system as contributing factors in the decline of the dialect. Alan Povey has predicted that his will be the last generation that speaks Potteries dialect, and that after his generation is gone the dialect will die out for good. However Birks points out that there have been attempts to eradicate the dialect since the 19th century which were unsuccessful. John Ward writing in 1843 noted that the Potteries dialect was “now almost banished by the schoolmasters assiduous care”. Birks also writes that dialect is still used widely amongst local residents, and is toned down when speaking to visitors to the city in order to be intelligible to them, which shows the dialect is still present in everyday conversation. He also states that there is "a growing interest in preserving, reading about and speaking dialects."