Can you tell where someone is from from how they write on MN?

[Theystoleourrecipe]

I've noticed that when going through posts, I'll read something and think, 'oh this person is from x, just by the words and phrases they use. I'll sometimes be able to localise this to a more specific region. I never look at usernames when I'm reading unless something really stands out to me, so I generally don't have any prior knowledge of the poster influencing me. Of course I can't be 100% sure but I would put a bet on being right, most of the time.

Do you ever recognise a particular region through how a poster writes? Are you conscious of how you write, making sure not to use colloquialisms unique to your area or do you not think about it, or do it anyway?

oi could bost a bacon bap an’ all.

Just because something is widely used, that doesn't make it correct or acceptable. 'Hospickle' makes me want to stab the speaker. I appreciate that this is an extreme reaction .
I also really dislike it then people leave out the connecting words - it's so lazy to say "needs washed" instead of "needs to be washed". If someone truly CBA to add in two words, why can't they just say "needs washing"?

Some of these words aren't as identifying as we think they are - people in Wales say 'lush', 'bap' and 'dap' too. Any 'aye' come to think of it.

My friend, born and bred in Yorkshire (although Welsh) and living near Hastings, definitely has an RP accent.

There are some crossovers between southern standard and RP, but a lot fewer people now speak RP. And almost (if not) all are privately educated and have attended schools where elocution and diction are still taught. (Again, hence Catherine Wales actually speaking more "poshly" than William)

'Just because something is widely used, that doesn't make it correct or acceptable.'

Who or what is the arbiter of 'correct' and 'acceptable', then?
If something is widely used (and understood) within a region, a community, a country, then surely it's correct and acceptable in that region/community/country, no?

My friend, born and bred in Yorkshire (although Welsh) and living near Hastings, definitely has an RP accent.

Yes some people may speak it who live elsewhere but it originates from the South East and that's where you'll find the majority of speakers in the UK even if it is dying out.

And what's ultimately 'better' about 'needs washing' than 'needs washed'?

Very few people actually speak RP any more-it's not the same as posh Standard English.

Aye

How about the term "poke"?

Not the standard definition, obviously!

When my Scottish born daughter was wee, my Northern Irish mother asked her "do you want a poke?".

My poor daughter was so confused she looked to me, so I said "Nanny's asking if you want an ice cream".

So, poke means ice cream.

Believe it has a different meaning in south west Scotland.

You can also get a poke of chips.

Or hoke!!!

Language has rules and if you say 'needs washed' or 'hospickle', its incorrect according to those rules. Even if everyone local does know what you mean or says it too.
Language does change and evolve, but I don't think 'hospickle' will ever catch on the the extent it becomes an equally 'correct' version of hospital.

I'm delighted to hear that this still exists! Almost worth moving for!

I’ve only ever seen hospickle written when somebody is having a joke/taking the piss tbh. Like when people write t’interweb.

Hostible is one you would have heard years ago in Dublin - maybe still do in fact.

As a PP says, I don't think people are writing 'hospickle' on a large scale. It's a pronunciation thing, surely.

About 'needs washed':
https://ygdp.yale.edu/phenomena/needs-washed

(But no doubt that will be rejected because it's about American English, which is the fount of all linguistic evil anyway, according to many on this site)

I’m Scottish, ‘this needs washed’ is exactly what I say. I said ‘I’m away to bed’ to an English friend and she’d never heard that before, is that particularly Scottish?

Take/bring and took/brought are also used interchangeably in the US

Actually I think American English is fine - it evolved from the English used when Brits settled in that part of the world, so is different but not necessarily wrong. It's probably similar to old English in many ways.

'Needs washed' never used to be used in standard English (as used in England). It's a relatively new thing to be set. In wider use. It looks and sounds wrong and no one will convince me otherwise

• to be said in wider use.

Australian here, I'm curious - what's particularly Irish in that? It's correct English, I'd say the same thing.

Edit - ah, I see, it's brought vs took. I thought the original post was saying brought/bought. I think brought or took would both be used here in slightly different ways of speaking about the same thing.

Lush is not just Welsh, it is heavily used in the south west, very much so in Bristol.

i don’t know Australian English at all, but in English English, you ‘bring’ something from there to here, and ‘take’ somewhere from there to here — it’s the direction of the movement of the object in relation to where the speaker is that determines the verb. In Hiberno-English, there isn’t that distinction.

I have moved around a lot especially as a child so probably don't use many regional words normally. Maybe that is unusual.