Scouse

Scouse ( /ˈskaʊs/) is an accent and dialect of English found primarily in the Metropolitan county of Merseyside, and closely associated with the city of Liverpool and the adjoining urban areas such as the boroughs of south Sefton, Knowsley and the Wirral. The accent is known to be as far reaching as Flintshire in Wales, and Runcorn and Skelmersdale in Cheshire and Lancashire respectively.

The Scouse accent is highly distinctive, and has little in common with those used in the neighbouring regions of Cheshire and Lancashire. The accent itself is not specific to all of Merseyside, with the accents of residents of St Helens and Southport, for example, more commonly associated with the historic Lancastrian accent.

The accent was primarily confined to Merseyside until the 1950s when slum clearance in the city resulted in migration of the populace into new pre-war and post-war developments into surrounding areas of what was informally named Merseyside and later to become officially known as Merseyside in 1974. The continued development of the city and its urban areas has brought the accent into contact with areas not historically associated with Liverpool such as Prescot, Whiston and Rainhill in Merseyside and Widnes and Runcorn in Cheshire.

Variations within the accent and dialect are noted, along with popular colloquialisms, that show a growing deviation from the historical Lancashire dialect and a growth in the influence of the accent in the wider area.

Inhabitants of Liverpool are called Liverpudlians but are more often described by the colloquialism "Scousers". People from outside of Merseyside who do not speak scouse are commonly referred to as "woolybacks" or "wools" (or derivatives thereof).