News | Monday, 14th November 2022

Permanent archive of Manchester accents and dialects launches to celebrate local language

Manchester Voices was a three-year research project led by sociolinguists at Manchester Metropolitan University

A permanent historic record of how the people of Greater Manchester spoke in the 2020s is now available to view online and at Manchester Central Library.

It marks the end of Manchester Voices, a three-year research project led by sociolinguists at Manchester Metropolitan University, investigating how people speak across the region, and what people think and feel about these ways of speaking.

Now Mancunians can explore the project’s fascinating findings, including clips recorded in the team’s special ‘Accent Van’ that hit the road across the region in 2021, and maps showing the area’s four distinct dialects that locals identified - ‘Manc’, ‘Lancashire’, ‘Wigan’ and ‘posh’.

There is also analysis from the Manchester Voices experts on features of local accents to listen out for, as well as poems, podcasts, a quiz and some historical archive recordings.

For generations to come, schoolchildren, students and the general public will be able to explore the findings and learn about language, as well as sharing in the pride and diversity in how their fellow Greater Manchester residents speak.

The interactive, screen-based resource and Manchester Voices website was officially launched at a special event at Manchester Central Library in November.

Dr Rob Drummond, lead researcher on Manchester Voices and Reader in Sociolinguistics at Manchester Metropolitan, said: “It’s been an absolute pleasure working on this project and learning so much about the voices and people of Greater Manchester. We are extremely proud of the resource in Central Library, and hope that people will use it for years to come to find out more about local language in the 2020s”

Findings

In the first stage of the research, conducted during the COVID lockdowns, researchers asked more than 350 people from the region to draw and describe the different accents and dialects on an online map, as well as asking people who were born and raised in one borough to submit a recording of themselves speaking.

Those early findings showed that people think the ‘Manc’ accent is situated mostly in the city of Manchester itself, while residents of South Manchester, Trafford and Stockport are more likely to sound ‘posh’.

While residents of the northern boroughs of Bury, Bolton, Rochdale and Oldham are characterised as speaking ‘Lancashire’, Wigan natives are thought to have a distinctive dialect all of their own – and more likely to catch the ‘buz’ or read a ‘bewk’ than their GM neighbours.

In summer 2021, researchers took the Accent Van on tour across the 10 boroughs, kitted out with a mobile recording studio that offered members of the public a quiet place to reflect on where they live, the way they speak, and how it relates to who they are.

In all, 421 people took part, and many of their interviews can be accessed through the permanent archive.

It’s been an absolute pleasure working on this project and learning so much about the voices and people of Greater Manchester. We are extremely proud of the resource in Central Library, and hope that people will use it for years to come to find out more about local language in the 2020s.

Many of the interviews offer insight into people’s accents, attitudes and identities. One interviewee said: “I like the way I speak and I would never want to change it. In fact, the very opposite. I think we should embrace local accents, no matter where they’re from. Losing them makes us all the poorer."

You can read more about Manchester Voices in the Spring/Summer 2022 edition of Met Magazine, Manchester Metropolitan’s official magazine.