London’s regional words in danger of being phased out

Londoners risk losing their beloved words with a huge number of residents turning their backs on the famous regional dialect.

A staggering 82 percent of people in London say that they don’t think it’s important to continue using local words for items, according to research.

The survey, Words That Suit Your Region by Suit Direct, gathered results from 2,000 participants from around the country to determine the most popular words for items that spark debate across regions, and to see what the existing attitudes are towards regional words.

Further findings show that more than a quarter of people in the capital (28%) believe that they have lost part of their accent since moving location, while 17 percent revealed that they have had to defend their regional name for an item during a debate.

Despite the reluctance to use regional words, Londoners are also unwilling to use words that are believed to have originated in the north with 28 percent of those from the capital claiming that they refuse to use ‘northern’ terms for items.

The traditional Cockney terms make an appearance in the form of words that express delight. While the majority of the UK uses the word ‘ace’ to describe something ‘very good’, London’s first choice is ‘andsome’ with 16 percent and ‘bootiful’ (11%).

However, it’s London’s influence that stretches far around the UK in terms of what the country calls certain items which divide the most opinion.

Londoners are in agreement with the 53 percent of the UK on the most popular name for an evening meal with 63 percent opting for ‘dinner’ instead of ‘tea’ (33%), while one of the most fiercely contested national arguments regarding the name of bread has also been put to rest.

Half of the country say that the small, white, round-shaped bread is a ‘roll,’ but the most-popular term in the North West of the UK, ‘bap’, only makes up 39 per cent of the population. This also reflects the choice in the capital with 50 percent selecting a ‘roll’ compared to 38 percent preferring to call it a ‘bap’ and 15 percent choosing ‘morning roll’.