Why do they pronounce "my" as "me"

What about Newcastle and "Why I man"? or something like that, does anyone know where that came from?

It's Why Aye, Man.

Why here is just one of those emphasising exclamations.

It means "Why yes, good fellow!"

Here is one, where did the word "tar" for "thanks" come from? Here in Liverpool, tar is used more than "thanks".

Don't know. In the north you were stongly influenced in your dialect by Scandinavians. I believe in Norwegian it's Takk (and then somthing I've forgotten). So maybe it's a Scandinavian thing. Barn is child in a Scandinavian language.

Apparently, and I read this in something serious, the accent in Liverpool was influenced by the fact that adenoids were really common at one point (on account of pollution from some kind of factory). Plus you have a lot of Irish immigrants and I've heard Liverpudlians get mistaken for Irish people in the US.

Anybody watch "Frasier" ? I just found out that john Mahoney is from Manchester.

Anyway, "tar" I think would be Norwegian influence. It is funny though, that in the modern day area of the former Danelaw, there is not a lot of Danish influence. Maybe there is, but I do ot relaise it because the Midlands dialect became the standard English dialect. I would have thought that there would be some colloquialisms still though.

My great-g-dad would call his children and g-children "ba(i)rn," and he was from Bruxholm (near Lincoln). This troubles me as he was English. Was this term used by a lot of Englishmen round the turn of the century (the 20th century = 1900's) ?

I know that "las(-sie)" and "lad" and Scandinavian terms for boy and girl, and these are used throughout England and Scotland.

That explains it then, something I didn't know. Lad and Las, didn't know they came from Scandinavia.

In Lancashire the older generation refer to kids as "cock" or "cocker". So you sometimes get a grandmother calling their grandsons "cock".

Then what do they call their grandsons' cocks?

I suppose cock to refer to a penis is a southern thing. They say "cock" as in "cockrel" the head of the pack. In schools if you were the hardest (i.e beat people up) in the school people would refer to you as the "cock of the school". Seem's ironic now. To other it's ridiculous, but it's all about culture. "dick" is describe their grandsons "cocks".

It's like in yorkshire, I known the older generation to refer to people as "duck". Why duck I don't know.

They also use duck in the Midlands.

- Watcha, cock!

- Watch yer own cock.

Maybe that's what the mean about the Watford Gap. A great deal of Northern English speech traits start very low down.

It's "lass" not "las." It is a Scottish word originally, i think.