Do they speak English in Liverpool?

This might be the first question you will ask yourself when you come to Liverpool, get into a bus or a taxi at the airport and are not able to understand a word of what the driver says.

I still remember the first time I heard Scouse, the famous Liverpudlian accent. I was on the street and heard a ‘la’ (=lad) having a conversation on his mobile. It caught my attention, because the language sounded very exotic, so I tried to guess what it was. I was going through a list of languages in my head, while my ear started to catch single English words. Astonished I realized that I had been listening to English, with a very strong Liverpudlian twist, which overall didn’t sound like English at all!

Get prepared and get patient. It takes time to understand Scousers, but imagine how made up (=very happy) you will be once you get there. For a start, instead of saying hello or good morning, try to say: Iya, you right luv? (when you greet a lady) or Iya, you right la? (or mate) when you greet a guy. Easy, eh? With time, if you’re lucky and very focused, you will start to understand further elements of a conversation too.

Later, you will hear your child speak proper Scouse with other kids, or even speak your native language with a Liverpudlian melody, which you and your family will find absolutely cute. You, at the same time, will realize that you can never learn to speak like this (and probably you don’t even want to try, because you still pretend that you can speak the posh BBC English). Eventually, you will get in love with this accent, simply because you can’t help falling in love with Scousers, and the way the speak is part of who they are.

And in the meantime: Lern Yerself Scouse!*

*A title of a book by Frank Shaw, image of its cover is used in this article.