Regional words risk being phased out as north battles south for supremacy

'Tea' is the most popular term for an evening meal in the north

The UK looks to be facing a regional identity crisis with more than two-thirds of the population snubbing their regional dialects.

71% of the country claim that they aren’t interested in continuing with their region’s unique words, with a divide opening up across the country as north battles south.

Ahead of National Dialect Day on 20 October, the survey, Words That Suit Your Region by Suit Direct, gathered results from 2,000 participants from around the country to determine the most popular words for items that spark debate across regions, and to see what the existing attitudes are towards regional words ahead.

Findings from the study suggest that regional language is on the way out with nearly a quarter of people (23%) saying that they have lost part of their original accent since moving location, while 13% revealed that they have had to defend their region’s name for an item during a debate.

However, the north of the country appears to be showing defiance in the face of changing attitudes – which doesn’t come as a shock to the founder of National Dialect Day, Lancashire dialect historian, Sid Calderbank.

He said: “I’m not shocked or surprised at all because dialect has changed over the centuries with necessity as people find a need to communicate more widely beyond their own village or valley.

“Originally it was travel or trade. I can’t sell you a sack of corn unless we call it the same thing. There are loads of words that are particularly to a region, a town or village or common to a particular industry, like agriculture, coal mining or fishing.”

And it appears that the bottom half of the country has the majority of control of dialect and the most divisive words.

The south rules in terms of what the country calls its evening meal, despite strong opposition from England’s northern regions with 53% of the country opting for ‘dinner’ instead of ‘tea’. The northern term makes up 41% of the population’s choice, despite being the most popular with those in the North East, North West and Yorkshire and the Humber, while only 6% say ‘supper’.

Half of the country say that the small, white, round-shaped bread is a ‘roll’ but the most-popular term in the North West and second place in the country, ‘bap’, only makes up 39 per cent of the population’s vocabulary.

A spokesperson from Suit Direct said: “Regional dialects are a major part of the country’s heritage and these findings give an interesting and potentially concerning insight into the future of the UK’s regional words.

“The research has also taken on a fun element and we hope we’re able to settle a few discussions across the country.”