# Foreign nurses trained to understand Lancashire phrases like 'make a brew'



## Northerner (Jun 2, 2014)

Eastern European nurses are having training to help them understand dialects after they reported problems deciphering regional phrases in Lancashire.

Newly recruited European nurses are being given extra training to help them understand the Lancashire dialect – including phrases like “make us a brew.”

Nurses appointed to address a national shortage of staff have reported struggling to understand phrases like “I’m starved,” which means I’m cold in Lancashire, once they have started working at hospitals outside London.

Staff at the Royal Blackburn and Burnley General hospitals in Lancashire reported having difficulty understanding words like ‘blood’ and ‘bath’ when said in a certain accent as well as regional phrases such as ‘am a get.’

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/n...tand-Lancashire-phrases-like-make-a-brew.html

And we, in turn, have problems understanding some HCPs!


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## trophywench (Jun 2, 2014)

What does 'am a get' mean?  and what region is it from?

And yes, we jolly well do Alan - however these days, 'fraid I'd say so!


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## Northerner (Jun 2, 2014)

trophywench said:


> What does 'am a get' mean?  and what region is it from?



Well, my first thought was it was a regional version of 'I'm a git', but why would you say that?


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## HelenM (Jun 2, 2014)

After a bit of searching ( sometimes not knowing silly things like that annoys me)

I think it's 'ahm (I'm) a gate' : but then it doesn't seem clear exactly what that means.

"One phrase which we still use regularly, and which seems to confuse outsiders is "A-GATE". This is not easy to define, but roughly corresponds to the standard english "doing", or "working on".

 Example: (referring to the ongoing, apparently interminable replacement of the water pipes on Bolton Road) AYE, THIV BIN A-GATE (WI IT) A GOOD WHILE
http://www.troubleatmill.com/comms.htm

'In the process of'   a gate (spoken data) 
http://hazelgardner.com/old-lancashire-dialect-words-and-their-origins/

But a letter to the Telegraph says: 
The DT have it wrong. It's not "am a get" - it's "Ah'm a-geht." - I am a-gate. It's hard to explain - but it usually means arguing about something as in "Ah'm a-geht and he's a-geht" or when someone resurrects an argument it can be said "He's a-geht again."


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## Northerner (Jun 2, 2014)

Perhaps we should ask an East European nurse the next time we see one!


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## KookyCat (Jun 2, 2014)

Being a good Lancashire lass I feel I should join in with this one!  People do find it hard the understand the flat vowels, like bath, coke, grass etc.  in fact at Uni the barmaid in our halls bar found it so impossible to understand me when I said coke I had to switch to Pepsi 

* Bonny – attractive or beautiful
* Make a brew – to make a cup of tea
* Starved/ it's starving – cold
* Cruckle – going over on your ankle
* Hopple – to hobble or be tethered
* Mizzle – light rain or drizzle
* Nesh – feeling the cold a lot
* Skenning – to squint or stare

Of the list above I know all but "starved", I have never heard anyone use that to describe being cold unless it's peculiar to Burnley/Blackburn.  We say "I'm perished" when we're cold, and another word that causes confusion is "aye" for yes, "nay" for no and "how are you fettlin?" (How are you doing).  In my experience everyone except us find it confusing, so European nurses have no chance.  I'm still chuckling after 20 years at a poetry recital in full on Lancashire dialect where absolutely nobody except the poet knew what was occurring, not a word, everyone was very polite of course until she asked people to join in for a verse, the silence was only broken by nervous throat clearing, and foot shuffling 

Weird thing is when I moved to Stoke I understood their dialect so maybe you get an ear for it!  I also love a Bristol accent and a proper cockney, ooh and Belfast and Glasgow, those accents have guts


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## AlisonM (Jun 2, 2014)

We get starved with the cold up here too, and mizzle for a light drizzle. And bonny of course is a Scots word anyway.


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## trophywench (Jun 2, 2014)

Aye, the bonny bonny, banks of Loch Lomond, whichever road ye take !

I understand all the rest perfectly.


"how are you fettlin?" is perfectly obvious to me, it's just an alternative version of the correct English "Owm yo gooin?", ay it, cock?


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## KookyCat (Jun 3, 2014)

I got into trouble saying "alright cock" several times, here it's cocker shortened to cock and it's a term of endearment like duck or chicken.  I didn't realise it was a " naughty" word elsewhere


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## trophywench (Jun 3, 2014)

Well I worked with a girl who couldn't stand it when I said my Grandad used to call me and my sister his 'little wenches' - she thought it was simply beyond the pale that infant girl children should ever be addressed with terminology that according to her, belonged without exclusion to the village bike with ample bosom protruding from a very low-cut blouse, and serving beer in a tavern to Dirty Old Men and farm hands.

You what?  said several of us! - it's merely a term of endearment !

Where I came from it was also how lads referred to their girlfriends - and being someone's wench certainly did NOT infer that the female concerned was 'no better than she ought to be' !

Pete's word of endearment to me, was 'Strumpet' - I loved it !


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