It's never Dull in Hull (Hull (Kingston-upon-Hull) in General)

Member Name: missbrowneyedgirl

Product:	Hull (Kingston-upon-Hull) in General
Date:	04/02/04 (487 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Difficult that, I can't see any apart from confusing foriegners

Disadvantages: Incomprehensible to most English speakers!

Well, that's not strictly true. It would be more accurate to say "it's
not usually as Dull in Hull as it would be in any location further west or
north of Hull" but that probably wouldn't fit on the tourist board's t-shirt.

Anyway, back to the point, why would I want to tell you about a place
that 12 other writers have very successfully covered nearly every aspect of?
Well, there are 2 reasons...

1) I have found something important that hasn't been covered and
2) Being a born and bred West-Hull-Villages girl, I think I'm very qualified
to tell you about it.

Now, I mentioned this was important, as this is because you will need
to know this in order to survive in Hull! You see it probably has
something to do with Hull being a bit of a backwater, which in turn probably has
something to do with the fact that Hull is the end of the line - literally.

The end of the M62 and the last stop on the train line (although Arriva
have usually swapped their train for a bus long before it reaches Hull) have
all contributed to this bizarre fact.

You see not a lot of people know this but most of the locals don't
speak English!

No, it's true! Well, not English as you or I would know it. No, their
version of English is the lesser known dialect of 'Ull. Now before you
panic, it's OK! I'm fully fluent and I can teach you! In fact up until
only a few years ago 'Ull was my first language! That's because I was a
'lercal' and now I live in Sheffield and can't get away with Hull vowels.

And there, is your first and most important lesson. In Hull the vowel
for almost everything is an 'er' sound. In case you missed it I said lercal
but I meant local... You see somewhere in the depths of times past, Hull lost most of it's other vowel pronunciations.

So, let
's practice. Pull yourself a frown, think rain and misery and grunt "herler". That's the way! And can you guess what that meant? Yes? You at the back in the red t-shirt? That's right! It's "hello". The 'o' sounds are usually the worst offenders.

Say you were popping into one of the local water holes for some
refreshment you would fit in perfectly by ordering a 'Bercerdi 'n' Kerk'*. Obviously
though if you would prefer Pepsi as your mixer do specify the brand name.

Also, one of my favourite is "Er ner!"* which is usually cried in horror when things go wrong!

Now don't start running before you can walk though as the Hull Vowel is only a general rule of thumb. It does work in most instances but sometimes you can get caught out.

For example if you mentioned a 'serfer' to an 'Ull speaker, they are not very
likely to offer you a board and point you in the direction of the sea. In fact they are far more likely to brand you as 'posh' and offer you a spot on their settee.

Ser*, there you 'av it and jolly good luck to you all!

* Kerk = Coke, Er ner = Oh no!, Serfer = sofa, Ser = so

Summary: