Yorkshire dialect and accent

The Yorkshire dialect refers to the varieties of English used in the Northern England historic county of Yorkshire. These varieties are often referred to as Broad Yorkshire or Tyke. [ cite web|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/voices2005/pete_2.shtml |title=Tyke: It's all the Vikings' fault (sort of) |accessdate=2008-04-16 |last=Keane |first=Peter |work=BBC Bradford and West Yorkshire |publisher=BBC ]

In 2007, Ian McMillan published a book named "Collins Chelp and Chunter: a Guide to the Tyke Tongue". This was a compilation of words that are used in the Yorkshire dialect as well as a few pieces of Yorkshire humour and illustrations. Many words are pinned down to specific areas of Yorkshire, or to specific towns or villages; one word is even ascribed to Grange Moor, a small village between Barnsley and Huddersfield. There is also "The Yorkshire Dictionary", edited by Arnold Kellett, which is more comprehensive and contains several words that have fallen out of everyday use in Yorkshire. The Yorkshire Dialect Society exists to promote use of the dialect in both humour and in serious linguistics; there is also an East Riding Dialect Society. The dialect has roots in older languages such as Old English and Old Norse; it should not be confused with modern slang.

Yorkshire is generally not as stigmatised as other dialects, and has been used in classic works of literature such as "Wuthering Heights". An April 2008 survey found that Yorkshire accents are now ranked above Received Pronunciation for inspiring confidence in the speaker. [ [http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2008/apr/04/6 Yorkshire named top twang as Brummie brogue comes bottom | UK news | guardian.co.uk ] ]

Geographic distribution

There is much variation in this region, some very local; the Survey of English Dialects identified many different accents in Yorkshire. On a large scale, there are differences between a [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021MMC900S01522U00028C01 Dales dialect] and a [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021MMC900S19525U00004C01 Scarborough dialect] ndash both of which can be, in turn, very hard for outsiders to understand. Even relatively close places, for example, Leeds and Harrogate, a mere 13 miles apart, have distinct accents and even dialects, with Leeds accents tending to be very deep and gruff, compared to the generally posh RP Harrogate accent. Natives will usually have little difficulty in identifying that a speaker is from a different, though close, town (for example "Dee" ("thee") and "Dah" ("tha"), see below). Another example is the accent differences across Yorkshire over the pronunciation of the same dialect word for the narrow passage between terraced houses ("Jennel", "Jinnel", "Ginnel"), and the pronunciation of "over" ("ovver", "o'er"). One source of confusion is how a "floo-er" would be a flower and a term of affection in the north and east ridings, but a floor in the West Riding. When it is used as a term of affection, people from the West Riding are often confused at how someone is being called a floor.

The Yorkshire Dialect Society draws a border roughly at the River Wharfe between two main zones. The area to the south-west of the river is more influenced by Mercian dialect whilst that to the north-east is more influenced by Northumbrian dialect. This distinction was first made by A.J. Ellis in "On Early English Pronunciation". It was approved of by Joseph Wright, the founder of the Yorkshire Dialect Society and the author of the English Dialect Dictionary. In the S.E.D., the dialect analysts Rohrer, Sheard and Stead mapped a precise boundary by visiting several villages. [ [http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/ Yorshire Dialect ] ]

The East Riding dialect has a lot of similarities with the Danish language [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/Books/BritishWorkman/BritishWorkman12.html] . The West Riding is less pure in its influence, also containing elements of Icelandic, Norman and Saxon. However, many of the things that have sharply divided the two areas have now passed out of use. For example, it would be very rare to hear someone from the East Riding say "down south" as "doon sooth" anymore, just as it would be rare for someone from the West Riding to say "eat meat" as "eyt meyt" anymore.

Also in certain respects, the Middlesbrough and South Tees accent is a form of Yorkshire accent that hinters on a cross between North Yorkshire and Durham; however, much to the amusement and sometimes frustration of locals, it is often confused for Geordie, usually by people in the South of England.

Studies have shown that accents in the West Riding (that is, mostly, modern West and South Yorkshire) are well-liked by the country and are associated with common sense, loyalty and reliability. In response to this, call centres have been increasingly located in this area. [cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/bradford/content/articles/2006/10/05/call_centre_feature.shtml |title="Can I help you!" |author=BBC Bradford and West Yorkshire |date=2006-10-05 |accessdate=2007-01-05 ]

Other northern English dialects include
* Geordie (spoken in Newcastle upon Tyne)
* Pitmatic (spoken in Durham and Northumberland)
* Scouse (spoken in Liverpool)
* Mackem (spoken in Sunderland)
* Mancunian (spoken in Manchester)
* Lancashire dialect and accent, which varies across the county.

Accent (pronunciation)

Some features of Yorkshire accents are general features of northern English accents. Many of these are listed in the northern English accents section on the English English page. For example Yorkshire speakers have short IPA2|a in words like "bath, grass, chance" as opposed to the long IPA| [ɑː] of Received Pronunciation (RP). Yorkshire accents tend to substitute IPA|/ʊ/ for RP IPA|/ʌ/, making pairs of words like "put" and "putt" homophones.

Most Yorkshire accents are non-rhotic, but rhotic accents do exist in some areas that border with Lancashire. Much of the East Riding is partially rhotic: a final r on a word, as in "letter, hour, quarter" would be pronounced in a rhotic manner, but an r mid-way through a word, as in "start, yard, burn" would be pronounced in a non-rhotic manner. [See the Welwick and Nafferton accents on the S.E.D. [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021SED00C908S47U00002C01] [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021SED00C908S47U00004C01] ]

Other features of pronunciation include:

Vowels

* A final "y" is normally said as IPA| [i] although the Sheffield area is more likely to use IPA| [ɛ] .
* In some areas, especially in the southern half of Yorkshire, there is a tendency to pronounce the phoneme IPA|/aʊ/ (as in "mouth") as a monophthong IPA| [aː] , often represented with "ah", hence "dahn" for "down", "sahth" for "south". In these areas, the words "out" and "art" may be indistinguishable. [Several recordings in the [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/ English Accents and Dialects] collection show this feature, for example this [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021SED00C908S48U00002C01 Sheffield speaker] .]
* Words such as "car, far, art, park," etc. have an IPA| [aː] sound, except in the few rhotic areas of Yorkshire.
* The phoneme IPA|/aɪ/ (as in "price") may also become a monophthong, IPA| [ɑː] or IPA| [aː] . For example, "five" becomes IPA| [fɑːv] , "price" becomes IPA| [prɑːs] . This is most common in the East Riding; it becomes less and less common as you go further west in Yorkshire.
* Many Yorkshire accents have an extra vowel phoneme compared with other accents such as RP, pronounced as a diphthong IPA| [ɛɪ] , used in words with "eigh" in the spelling, such as "eight" and "weight", which is then pronounced differently from "wait". See "Wait-weight merger vowels". Some words with "igh" in the spelling, like "night", can be pronounced with IPA|/iː/ (as in "fleece") instead of IPA|/aɪ/ (as in "price").
*In some Yorkshire accents, the word "right" can also be pronounced with the same IPA| [ɛɪ] as "weight", similar to an RP pronunciation of "rate". [For Sheffield, Alexander (2001) uses the spellings "leet" and "neet" for "light" and "night", but "reight" and "feight" for "right" and "fight".] The word "write" is usually pronounced as in RP, however. "Fight" can also be pronounced to rhyme with "weight".
* Another group of words where IPA| [ɛɪ] may turn up in some accents is in words with "ea" in the spelling derived from a Middle English IPA|/ɛ/ lengthened by Middle English open syllable lengthening, such as "eat", "meat" and "speak". In some accents, the three words "meet", "meat" and "team", which all have the same vowel IPA|/ɪi/ in RP, may have three different vowels, IPA| [iː] , IPA| [ɛɪ] and IPA| [ɪə] respectively. [See Wakelin (1977), p90, for details. For Sheffield, Alexander (2001) uses the spellings "eight" and "meight" for "eat" and "meat", but "creeam" and "teeam" for "cream" and "team". See also "Meet-meat merger".]
* The vowel in words like "face, space, taste" (in RP a diphthong IPA| [eɪ] ) is usually pronounced either as a diphthong IPA|/eə/ or as a monophthong IPA|/eː/, with the former being more common and the latter being confined to areas south of Leeds. Words with "ake" at the end may be pronounced with IPA|/ɛ/ (as in "dress"), as in "tek", "mek", and "sek" for "take", "make", and "sake". The traditional Yorkshire pronunciations were "tak, mak, sak" but these are now considered archaic.
* Words with the RP vowel IPA|/əʊ/, as in "goat", may have a variety of different sounds. In traditional accents, diphthongs including IPA| [oi] , IPA| [ɔu] , IPA| [ɔə] and IPA| [uə] are used and in south Yorkshire particularly, words such as "coal" and "hole" may be pronounced as rhyming with "coil" [These phonetic transcriptions are from Watt and Tillotson (2001). For Sheffield, Alexander (2001) uses the spellings "nooase" for "nose" and "rooad" for "road", but "coyal" and "oyal" for "coal" and "hole". See Wakelin (1977), p89, for some information on the origin of the different vowels.] . Other common sounds include a long back monophthong IPA| [ɔː] and, in a recent trend, a fronted monophthong IPA| [ɵː] (which can sound close to the vowel of RP "nurse"). The latter is said to originate amongst females in Hull [ [http://www.bbc.co.uk/voices/recordings/individual/leeds-university-arif-ayeshah.shtml BBC - Voices - The Voices Recordings ] ] ; it has only developed in the last decade, yet it has now spread as far as Bradford. (Watt and Tillotson 2001)
* Amongst the "broadest" speech, the Old English long "oo" in words such as "book, cook, look" can still be heard. This is more likely to be heard the further west that you go in Yorkshire, and it is fairly widespread in Lancashire.
* In both the West Riding and in the city of York, the vowel IPA|/uː/, as in "goose", can be realised as a diphthong IPA| [ʊu] . [Several recordings in the [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/ English Accents and Dialects] collection show this feature, for example this [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021MMC900S08553U00001C01 Ossett speaker] .]
* The West Riding to the south of Leeds and Bradford shares one feature with much of the east of England. Past participle endings which are pronounced IPA|/ɪz/ and IPA|/ɪd/ (with the vowel of "kit") in RP may be pronounced with a schwa, IPA|/ə/. As these accents are mostly non-rhotic, this means that the plural of "badge" can sound like the plural of "badger" and the plural of "box" can sound like the plural of "boxer".
* In Hull, Middlesbrough and other parts of the east coast, the sound in "word", "heard", "nurse", etc. is pronounced in much the same way, with an extended IPA|/eə/ sound (e.g imagine elongating the vowel part of 'wed' to sound 'word').
* In the Barnsley area, there are some words where an /a/ becomes an /e/. For example, "have" is pronounced "ev" and "master" and is pronounced "mester".
* In some areas of South Yorkshire "won't" may be pronounced as IPA|/wɛint/, "wain't". A more traditional Yorkshire pronunciation is IPA|/wiənt/, "weeant".
* "Where" and "there" often becomes a diphthong IPA|/iə/ leading to pronunciation as "wee-yuh" and "thee-yuh" with the 'uh' representing a schwa. This sound was once used in any mid-word "ea" - for example, "team, head, deaf" - but this is now only found amongst the very oldest speakers.

Consonants

* In some areas, an originally voiced consonant followed by a voiceless one can be pronounced as voiceless, as is done in Dutch and German. For example, "Bradford" may be pronounced IPA| [bɹatfəd] , with IPA| [t] (although more likely with a glottal stop, IPA| [ʔ] ) instead of the expected IPA| [d] . "Absolute" is often pronounced IPA| [apsəlu:t] , with a /p/ in place of the /b/. [In the [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/ English Accents and Dialects] collection, this is referred to as "Yorkshire assimilation". Several of the recordings in the collection show this feature, for example this [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021MMC900S08565U00003C01 Bradford speaker] .]
* As with many other dialects in the surrounding areas, middle and final /ng/ sound in for example Thing, Sing, Singer, Finger are often replaced or followed by a strong /k/ sound.
* As in most of England, the younger generation presents an increasing tendency to use a glottal stop for all non-initial /t/ sounds, excepting those in consonant clusters. e.g. IPA| [bɒʔl] for "bottle", IPA| [saʔ] for "sat". This originates in London and parts of East Anglia, but has now spread across England so that it is common in people under 30. [Peter Trudgill, "The Dialects of England", Blackwell, Oxford pp.77-78] However, older residents of Yorkshire are more likely to replace a IPA|/t/ before a vowel with an IPA|/r/ so that "getting better" becomes "gerring berrer", "get off" becomes "gerroff", "put it down" becomes "purrit down", etc.
* Sheffield pronunication of "th" (especially where it represents IPA|/ð/) tends somewhat towards IPA| [d] . This pronunciation, particularly in the second person pronouns "dee" and "dah" (for "thee" and "thou"/"thy") has led to Sheffielders being given the nickname "dee dahs" (cf. "thee tha") by people from nearby Rotherham and Barnsley. However, the pronunciation is now very rare and had already began to die out by the time of the 1950s Survey of English Dialects [ [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/personalisation/object.cfm?uid=021SED00C908S48U00002C01 Sheffield, Yorkshire ] ] .
* The swallowing of /k/, /p/ and /t/ is associated more with the north-east of England, but it can also be heard in the Barnsley area. [ [http://kiri.ling.cam.ac.uk/mark/Barnsley%20VOT.pdf The Title ] ]

Further information

These features can be found in the [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/ English Accents and Dialects] collection on the British Library [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/ Collect Britain] website. This website features samples of Yorkshire (and elsewhere in England) speech in wma format, with annotations on phonology with X-SAMPA phonetic transcriptions, lexis and grammar.

See also Wells (1982), section 4.4.

Vocabulary and grammar

Yorkshire dialect shares many features with other English dialects used in northern England or in Scotland (e.g. "Aye" for "Yes").

Examples of vocabulary and grammar more specific to Yorkshire dialects include

* Definite article reduction: shortening of "the" to a form without a vowel, often written "t`". "Down the pub" is pronounced "down t` pub", where the "t`" represents a sound more like a glottal stop than a true "t" sound. That is, the phrase sounds like "downt pub", where the "t" of "downt" is completely or very nearly absent. Giving the "t`" a full "t" sound ("down terpub") or omitting it entirely ("down pub") are mistakes commonly, and often deliberately, made by someone affecting a Yorkshire accent, or more usually a "comedy generic northern" accent. "Down to the pub" uses two "t`"s, each pronounced as above ("Down ter pub"). Phoneticists will understand that in the above examples, "er" represents "schwa". In South Yorkshire, particularly in the Dearne Valley, the word "the" is often omitted entirely, "Down pub" would be widely understood as a complete sentence. This is particularly true around the village of Wath-upon-Dearne. See [http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/DARover.htm this overview] and [http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/DARmorvar.htm a more detailed page] on the Yorkshire Dialect website, and also Jones (2002).
* The use of "owt" and "nowt"--derived from Middle English "aught" and "naught". They are pronounced IPA|/aʊt/ (as "out") and IPA|/naʊt/ (like "nout") in North Yorkshire, but as IPA|/oʊt/ (like "oat")--{IPA|/noʊt/ (like "note") in most of the rest of Yorkshire. There is also "summat" for "something," IPA|/səmət/ (as "summit"), derived from Middle English "some-aught"; heard also in rural parts of the USA such as in the Appalachians.
* The word "dun't" is used instead of "don't" or "doesn't".
* Nouns describing units of value, weight, distance, height and sometimes volumes of liquid have no plural marker. For example, "ten pounds" becomes "ten pound"; "five miles" becomes "five mile".
* Location descriptions gain an extra "of". For example, "off the streets" becomes "off of the streets"; "alongside the table" becomes "alongside of the table".
* The word "us" is often used in place of "me" or in the place of "our" (e.g. we should put us names on us property), also common is to use the sound ahs in place of us and ah in place of our (e.g. we should put ahs name on ah property). (Compare the German "uns" or "unsere" meaning "us" or "our".)
* Use of the singular second-person pronoun "thou" (often written "tha") and "thee".
* In the West Riding, all cases of the past tense of "to be" is "were" instead of "was" in normal English: "I were wearing t'red coat, but he were wearing t'green one". In some areas, "was" is rather pronounced as "wuh". The East Riding does the opposite and makes all cases into "was".
* In the North and West Ridings, "there are" often becomes "there is", often said 'thuz' in the West.
* Some areas abbreviate "I am not" to "I aren't" rather than the usual "I'm not". This is common around York. In the screenplay of Rita, Sue and Bob Too, it was used frequently, so it is likely to have once been used in Bradford also.
* "While" is often used in the sense of "until" (e.g. "unless we go at a fair lick, we'll not be home while seven.") "Stay here while it shuts" might cause a non-local to think that they should stay there "during" its shutting, when the order really means that they should stay only "until" it shuts. "Wait while lights flash" is seen on British road signs at railway level crossings (railroad grade crossings); the potential for misunderstanding is obvious.
* In common with many other dialects, "aye" is frequently used for "yes".
* Generally in cities, such as Leeds and Sheffield, "love" is a term used by anyone, although "duck" is also used in Sheffield.
* The word "daft" has a slightly different connotation in parts of Yorkshire. In most of Britain, its usage corresponds to "silly" but it is often used to mean "unintelligent" in Yorkshire.
* The word "self" may become "sen", e.g. "yourself" becomes "thy sen". The north-west of Yorkshire is more likely to use "sel", e.g. "thysel".
* Remnants from the Vikings include the verb "laik", to play. The younger generation tend to abbreviate this to "lek", however.
* The use of "now then" (sometimes written as "Nowthen") as a greeting.

Yorkshire dialect and accent in popular culture

Many films demonstrate Yorkshire accents, although this source needs to be used with care: the film industry is notorious for using "generic Northern" accents or confusing Lancashire and Yorkshire. In the best examples, characters will even use Yorkshire dialect--often as a somewhat simplistic device to establish their (lower) social class. Good films for hearing Yorkshire accents are "Kes", filmed around Barnsley with local actors; the 1997 film "The Full Monty", featuring Sheffield, which is a mix of Derbyshire and mild Yorkshire accents (lead actor Robert Carlyle is not from Sheffield (he is from Maryhill, Glasgow) but is well known for working hard at getting his accent right, but even he slips up occasionally in this film); and the 1998 film "Little Voice", featuring a Scarborough accent (though Jane Horrocks is well known for her Lancashire accent).

In television, the sitcom "Last of the Summer Wine", filmed in Holmfirth, has the many characters using local language forms. All Creatures Great and Small was set entirely in the Yorkshire Dales and many of the characters, especially the local farmers, speak with this accent. The Chuckle Brothers speak with an accent that southerners find much easier to understand and that can be found around Rotherham. Similarly, some programmes misrepresent it (or at least do not claim to be very local). The 1996 film "Brassed Off" was filmed in Grimethorpe, yet the accents are not representative. The soap "Emmerdale" is set around Otley ("Hotten"), but the accent heard in the soap does not reflect local trends accurately.

Ted Hughes originated from Mytholmroyd, close to the border with Lancashire, and spent much of his childhood in Mexborough, South Yorkshire. He spoke with one of the rhotic Yorkshire accents.

Within the British Isles, the accent tends to have strong associations with common sense, so exaggerated Dales accents are occasionally heard in British comedy when "plain speaking" is called for.

* Blackadderndash In the third season episode 'Amy and Amiability', the episode's eponymous heroine Amy Hardwood's father (played by Lancastrian Warren Clarke) plays a stereotypical Eighteenth Century Yorkshire mill owner complete with Dales accent.
* Red Dwarfndash In the fourth season episode 'DNA', the android Kryten's third spare head develops a broad Dales accent and stereotypical demeanor after it succumbs to 'droid rot'. As the episode's plot concerns the android being transmogrified into a human, Spare Head 3 is the straight-talking voice of hard reality, reminding Kryten that he 'came into this world as a Mechanoid, and a Mechanoid you'll always be' as a mild parody of typically British drama concerning class mobility and the common perception of a Dales accent being a solidly working-class one.
* Monty Python's Flying Circusndash The only Python from Yorkshire is Michael Palin, from Sheffield in South Yorkshire, but in "plain speaking / hard times" sketches, a Yorkshire Accent is almost obligatory ("We lived in a hole in t' road, ate gravel" etc.; "Trouble at t' Mill. One of t' crossbeam's gone out of skew on t' treadle.").
* Battlestar Galactica (2004)ndash In the third season episode 'Dirty Hands', Dr. Gaius Baltar's native accent on agrarian Aerelon is spoken as a Yorkshire accent, which he abandons after teaching himself an inner colonies' accent (represented by RP) as a child.
* – In episode 156 & 157 Gambit, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, played by Yorkshireman Patrick Stewart, bears a distinct Huddersfield accent.

Alex Turner, vocalist of Arctic Monkeys, Jon McClure, of Reverend and The Makers, Jon Windle, of Little Man Tate (band), and Joe Carnall, of Milburn (band) are all known to sing in Sheffield accents, as well as many other local bands in and around Sheffield.

The Cribs are known to sing in rather heavy Wakefield accents.

References

* Alexander, D. (2001). "Orreight mi ol"'. Sheffield: ALD. ISBN 1-901587-18-5. A book about the traditional Sheffield dialect.
* Jones, M. J. (2002). The origin of Definite Article Reduction in northern English dialects: evidence from dialect allomorphy. English Language and Linguistics 6.2: 325-345.
* Wakelin, M. F. (1977). "English Dialects: An Introduction", , Revised Edition, London: The Athlone Press.
* Watt, D. and Tillotson, J. (2001). A spectrographic analysis of vowel fronting in Bradford English. "English World-Wide" 22:2, pp 269-302. Available at [http://www.abdn.ac.uk/langling/resources/Watt-Tillotson2001.pdf]
* Wells, J. C. (1982). "Accents of English 2: The British Isles". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-28540-2.

Books written in Yorkshire Dialect

* Yorkshire ditties (Series 1) by John Hartley – [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17472 {link}]
* Yorkshire ditties (Series 2) by John Hartley – [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/17799 {link}]
* Yorkshire tales (Series 3) by John Hartley – [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/18176 {link}]
* Yorkshire Dialect Poems (1673-1915) and traditional poems by Frederic William Moorman – [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/2888 {link}]
* Songs of the Ridings by Frederic William Moorman – [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/3232 {link}]
* "A Kind of Loving" and "Joby" by Stan Barstow. (specifically that of Dewsbury and Ossett)
* Most of the dialogue in "GB84" by David Peace.
* A Kestrel for a Knave later turned into the film Kes.
* The Secret Garden (parts of) by Frances Hodgson Burnett
* Wuthering Heights (parts of) by Emily Brontë (note that this is very old-fashioned Haworth dialect)

In-depth studies of individual dialects in Yorkshire

* K.M. Petyt, "Emily Brontë and the Haworth Dialect"
* Joseph Wright, "A Grammar of the Dialect of Windhill"
* Hans Tidholm, "The Dialect of Egton in North Yorkshire"
* David Battye, "Sheffield Dialect"

Several nineteenth century books are kept in specialist libraries.

See also

* Yorkshire colloquialismsAll Creatures Great And Small by James Herriot

Up And Down In The Dales, In the Heart Of The Dales, Head Over Heels In The Dales, by Gervase Phinn

External links

* [http://www.bl.uk/learning/langlit/sounds/ Sounds Familiar?] ndash Listen to examples of regional accents and dialects from across the UK on the British Library's 'Sounds Familiar' website
* [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/dialects/ English Accents and Dialects] collection on the British Library [http://www.collectbritain.co.uk/ Collect Britain] website.
* [http://www.yorksj.ac.uk/dialect/ Yorkshire Dialect website]
* [http://www.ydsociety.org.uk/ Yorkshire Dialect Society]
* [http://www.genuki.org.uk/big/eng/YKS/Misc/Books/FolkTalk/Chapter3.html Chapter from a 1892 book on "Yorkshire Folk Talk". The descriptions focus on the dialect specifically of the East Riding]
* [http://freewebs.com/englishdialects Dialect Poems from the English regions]
* [http://www.whoohoo.co.uk/yorkshire-translator.asp Whoohoo Yorkshire Dialect Translator]
* [http://regmedia.co.uk/2006/04/24/glossary_for_international_recruits.pdf Guide to Yorkshire words given to international recruits to the Doncaster West N.H.S.]