Ferntickles or murfles? Survey of England's regional dialects to be revived
by Mark Brown Arts correspondent from Science | The Guardian on (#4TX1N)
University of Leeds researchers to update groundbreaking 1950s language survey
Are you terrified by "harvest men" or "long-legged tailors"? Do you have "ferntickles" or "brunny-spots" on your face? If someone called you "gibble-fisted" would you be affronted or amused?
The words for daddy long-legs, freckles and left-handed are all examples of English regional dialect discovered in the 1950s by a team of fieldworkers in what was the most comprehensive survey of its kind ever undertaken.
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