Ey up! How to talk Yorkshire-style

BORN and bred in Yorkshire, Happy Valley’s Sergeant Catherine Cawood is renowned for her colourful one-liners.

The best of them, ‘I’m going to strangle a few more prostitutes and stick some bottles where the sun don’t shine’, ‘Obviously I was trying to shoot him in the chesticles, not the family jewels’ and ‘Man up princess, use your initiative’ prompt much amusement from viewers.

As well as the Yorkshire elongated vowels, particularly with words such as ‘take’ and ‘make’, the police officer is constantly heard using Yorkshire’s famous local slang. There are three ways to say hello, ‘Ow do,’ ‘Nah then’, and ‘Ey up’.’ ‘Chuffin’ ’eck’ is used to express surprise, a ‘ginnel’ or a ‘snicket’ is an alleyway or a narrow passage between buildings and ‘cocker’ is a term of endearment.

‘Offcumden’ certainly isn’t, it is a person who has arrived from somewhere else.

If you’re ‘maddled’, you’re confused; if you’re ‘middlin’, you’re average.

‘Reyt’ can either mean really or very and is placed in front of an adjective to emphasise it, while ‘shunt’ and ‘wunt’ are shorter versions of the contractions shouldn’t and wouldn’t.

‘Ge-ore’ is give over, ‘summat’ translates to something and ‘mither’ is used when you are irritating someone.