After "44 years of meticulous study," the Dictionary of American Regional English is nearly done. But Britain has a longer and more complicated history of linguistical eccentricity. Here, for example, is how we count sheep on the English left coast:
Yan, tan, tethera, methera, pimp, teezar, leezar, cattera, horna, dik, yandik, tandik, tetherdik, bumpit, yan-a-bumpit, tan-a-bumpit, tethera-bumpit, methera-bumpit, jigot...
But according to this Guardian article, it would cost way too much to compile the UK version of the regional dictionary. Which sucks. How cool would it be to leaf through the OED of Britslang, to read of ways to say someone is clemmed, a bit previous, a gurning gormless git... Want want want.
So what terms do you like to use? What makes those around you stare and blink and scratch their heads while you chortle to yourself?
