"Students new to Nottingham are often flummoxed by the local lingo. What is a “cob”? And why do people call each other “duck”? When young people tell you something is “slay”, do you have any idea what they mean?
"And it’s not just variation in English - Nottingham is an incredibly multilingual city. Polish, Urdu, Arabic, Romanian, Panjabi, Chinese, Portuguese, Italian, Kurdish and Spanish are each spoken by over 1,000 people and an impressive 14.3% of the population speak a language other than English as their main language. And of course many, many use English as their main language but can also speak one or more other languages well (including our 550+ language degree students!)."
Pledge to protect
"We are encouraging individuals and organisations to sign a pledge to protect the local lingo, raising awareness that language, though invisible, is a powerful vessel for heritage, carrying jokes, poems, crafts, and community identity. The website and Nottingham Voices app allow users to explore the rich tapestry of Nottingham’s accents, dialects and languages through an interactive illustrated map which reveals audio clips of local voices.
"Composer Chris Hope has even created a Nottingham Soundscape which fuses cultures old and new, mixing local dialects and languages interspersed with local sounds including clocks, lace-machines, mechanical punches, trams, diesel engines, church bells and the glide and cut of skaters. This is the sound of Nottingham!"