Word 4 Word programmes
DERMOT MURNAGHAN and his听guests discuss, live, six aspects of the way we talk, regionally and casually in the early years of the 21 st century. The programme also takes calls from listeners who have emailed comments to听the programme听and hearing direct from those involved in the VOICES survey.
Did you听know we almost all use 'knackered' as the preferred vernacular word for 'tired'? 'Chuffed' is how most of us like to say we're pleased. If you don't have much money, you are likely to use the word 'skint'... but maybe also 'brassic' which is found across the UK and comes from rhyming slang 'boracic lint'. How many of you say you are 'loaded' to mean 'to have a lot of money'?听
And how many words are there for that walkway we often have between houses? Alley - of course. But also jitty, jennel, ginnel, twitchel, twitten, bacskie, wynd, close, entry, eight-foot, ten-foot....
Do you prefer to sit on a sofa, settee, couch (if you live in Scotland , that's most likely) or chaise longue or Chesterfield ? If you come from the north Midlands , you probably say 'sofee' - VOICES found nowhere else in the country that used that particular word.
SOME DELICIOUS WORDS AND THEIR ORIGINS
Ferntickle - a freckle. Older Northern Irish dialect though quoted in Voices. The word exists in Scots in various spellings; Lutton has it as ' farenticles'. Comes from Middle English farntikylle - resembling the seed of the fern.
(Scotland & N. Ireland)
Thrawn - moody. Originally meaning twisted or deformed, past participle of the verb 'thraw', from Old English thrawan , to twist. In Scots it takes the meaning 'sullen' from early 19 th century.
(both Northern Ireland usage)
Keepy-back - savings
Bray - to hit, beat, as in the expression 'I'll bray yer arse'. Also found in Cumbria often historically 'to beat to a powder' as to 'bray spice' in a mortar.
(both Northumbrian usage)
Tranklements - a kit of tools, necessary equipment ( Sheffield usage, but also reported more widely).
Skopadiddle, Skopadiggle - a mischievous child (reported from Sheffield , 2005)
(Yorkshire)
Starve, Starved, Starving - to be (very) cold. The term 'starve', from Old English steorfan , originally meant to 'die a lingering death', e.g. of cold. The term听to 'starve for cold' is recorded in the 14th century, later evolving into 'starveof听cold'.
Tippler Toilet - a primitive Lancashire form of exterior water-closet, familiarly known as the 'long-drop', flushed by running water in the scullery.
(Lancashire)
Stream the Clome - do the washing up ('clome' is crockery). The word derives from Old English 肠濒谩尘 , mud, by extension 'potter's clay' and so 'earthenware'.
Grammersow - a woodlouse, millipede
( Cornwall )
Shrammed - freezing cold. The antiquary Francis Grose records 'shrammed' as Wiltshire dialect in his Provincial Glossary of 1787: 'I am shram'd to death; I am dead with cold'. The word comes from shram and scram, meaning 'to shrivel with cold', which is dervived from the Old English verb scrimman听 meaning to shrivel.
(South-western England)
Ferniggle - to play truant.
(West of England )
Hank Marvin - starvin(g). Cockney rhyming slang (Hank Marvin - starvin'). Hank Marvin was the lead guitarist of the Shadows.
Potless - broke, lacking money. London slang usage.
(London)
Pick to rain - to start raining , also pick with rain. Welsh English usage, borrowed from Welsh pigan , to begin to rain.
Potch -听 a mess, trouble. Also verbal, to 'potch with' something: mess about with (Welsh English usage).
(Wales)
Crimes o' Paris - exclamation, used as expression of exasperation, as in 'Crimes of Paris! Whatsisname?'.(Potteries usage)
Old Hundred - swearing (amongst miners: 'owd 'oondred'). Derbyshire mining usage.
(Midlands)
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Bestselling children's writer and poet Michael Rosen has written听a specially commissioned verse about the myriad forms our current vernacular takes. 
Dermot Murnaghan has spent most of his career in broadcast journalism. Before joining the 大象传媒, he spent more than a decade fronting ITV's national news bulletins from London. He joined the 大象传媒 in the Autumn of 2002, becoming Breakfast's main presenter immediately