Yorkshire Dialect Society to run courses in how to 'speak Yorkshire' over fears traditional folk phrases are dying out

The six-week pilot scheme will teach participants to speak in Yorkshire’s traditional vernacular as well as read and write the centuries-old local dialect.

Retired languages teacher and Yorkshire Dialect Society chairman Rod Dimbleby, of Brighouse, will run the weekly classes at Keighley Library.

The sessions focus not on the distinctive Yorkshire accent but on words and phrases that are at risk of disappearing from common usage.

Much of the 19th-century literature written by those from mill and mining towns could soon be unintelligible to modern readers, Mr Dimbleby fears.

They include folk poems, songs and rhymes, as well as figures of speech. Newspapers even used to print articles written in this vernacular.

Much of the Yorkshire dialect has its origins in the speech of Viking settlers, while some phrases evolved out of local industries, such as ‘put wood in t’ole’, meaning shut the door. This is a reference to children employed in Victorian coal mines, whose job was to operate a wooden hatch that kept the pit ventilated for older workers.

The poem Back Street Ballad, by Arnold Kelly, is another throwback to the collieries, with verses about miners coming home black with soot.

The Society was founded in 1894, and is the oldest surviving dialect society.

The course starts at Keighley Library on September 8 and costs £5 per session. For more information, email Mr Dimbleby at [email protected].