To wonder why many MNetters say oop north

[Topanga1]

Are you pronouncing oop to rhyme with loop?
I've never heard a northerner, or anyone else for that matter, pronounce up to rhyme with loop.

[LottieDoubtie]

It's a jokey northern stereotype- it isn't exclusive to MN

[DaisyFranceLynch]

I always read it like the "oo" sound in "good", rather than "loop".

"Sarf London" is another confusing one - is it meant to rhyme with "scarf"?

[YesThisIsMe]

I think it's meant to be oo as in book.

[BombadierFritz]

do mumsnetters say oop north? or sarf london? cant say i've noticed.

[YesThisIsMe]

Sarf Lunnun can rhyme with scarf, or with air.

[zoebarnes]

I say oop north and sarf london.
I'm from the north and I live in south London. They're just sayings.

[Huldra]

Along with It's Grim up North and been around for decades. Southern's who say it are being self deprecating.

[BarbaraofSeville]

I'm not sure that the southerners who say it are always being self deprecating Huldra. Some people seem to genuinely believe it, and think that the hundred year old pictures of mines and smoky factories are present day.

Oop north, rhyming with loop is well known, long established, pre Mumsnet.

[BillSykesDog]

I live in Yorkshire and have certainly heard 'Ooop' said.

Loads of people up here say 'That there London' too which is the northern equivalent I guess.

[ThenLaterWhenItGotDark]

Yes, it's not just on MN.

Shame nobody, ever, in the history of the world, even when taking the piss, has actually pronounced it like that.

The "sarf" thing is said out loud, and not just by southerners though. It's more sahth though. Or sahf/sairf if you're my cousin.

[MaidOfStars]

Has thee ne'er bin t'Yorkshire or Lancashire, duck?

Go have a listen to Jane Horrocks speaking native.

[BrianCoxWithBellsOn]

I live "oop Norf" but am originally from "darn Sarf"

Have heard it lots in real life, mainly from my Southern relatives.

Tis just a bit o' banter.

[Champagneformyrealfriends]

I'm from West Yorkshire and I don't speak with a broad accent however DH works in Barnsley and I can't understand some of his colleagues sometimes.

[AGruffaloCrumble]

I'm just miffed there's nothing for the midlands. I've heard 'oop north' lots in RL. Almost always jokingly.

[SaggyNaggy]

Having recently moved to a northern type place, next t'Ull, it sounds like "oop" to me.
In Hull it kind of sounds like,
"Goo'in oop rerd te gerra a can o Cerk"
Which translates as,
"Going up the road to get a can of Coke"

Hope that makes sense and does t offend Hullish people. I love Hull.

[passingthrough1]

Isn't up sort of uh-p? Because a southerner (big generalisation!) says more like "ap" as up and a northerner pronounces a u as "uh"??

[Ifailed]

AGruffaloCrumble

If you live in Sarf London, the midlands is up north. As is pretty well everywhere, including Islington.

[SaggyNaggy]

AGruffaloCrumble
Depends where in the Midlands, I think midlanders have many different stereotypes, from "Yam Yams" to "Treacle Towner's"

Being a former Treacle Towner, I can understand northerners, in Nuneaton they speak a bit like:
"Arve goo'in up the ASDA ferra tret, mart gerra can ov coke lark, me babbie"

[ThenLaterWhenItGotDark]

But even Jane Horrocks doesn't say "oop". She (and other Lancashire folk) just say "up" to rhyme with "cook". (though some of them will say "cook" itself to rhyme with "fluke" ) As would my Grandad (Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border)

Do people from Bristol really say Brizzle btw? My Bristol friend always writes it thus, and I've always wondered.

[AGruffaloCrumble]

West Midlands tiny city so it's probably just irrelevant to the masses. If we had anything it is probably something to do with apples. It is a shire county though, so often gets LOTR references.

I've heard Brizzle lots from friends who went to uni there.

[ExitPursuedBySpartacus]

Oop North is commonly used in our house, as is That London.

And saying it rhymes with book is quite funny, as there are two distinctive ways of saying it - an oop north one and a that London one.

[Andrewofgg]

Yorkshire and Lancashire are not the North. They are the better end of the Midlands. The North begins at the River Tees and ends at the Tyne (north of which is barbarian country).

Not that I'm from County Durham, of course . . .

[bananafish81]

Mancunian living in London

Always say I'm going 'oop north' when going home to visit family

Use 'daaaahn sarf' less often

But then again my husband says I come back from a weekend oop north with a northern twang

Which after 18 years living dahn sarf has mostly been knocked out of me

Not by design. I find myself shocked to the core when I find myself saying barth or glars

[blueskyinmarch]

Oop, loop, cook and fluke are all pronounced the same here in the proper North (Scotland). Everything below Gretna is South to me.

[FlyingElbows]

"North"? Ye cry that North? Aye. Away ye go.

Btw oop, look, cook am fluke aw rhyme!