The word comes from lobscouse, a sailor's (very likely a Norwegian sailor) dish of stewed meat, vegetables, and ship's biscuit, not unlike Irish stew. Lobscouser became a slang name for a sailor. As a port city, Liverpool became known for this dish. The word Scouser came to refer to a native of Liverpool, the city where they ate scouse

The Scouse accent like much else in the city owes its roots to Liverpool’s position as a port.

The major influence comes from the influx of Irish and Welsh into the city

Every tide brought ashore a new imported verb and many stuck becoming part of everyday language.

Irish influences include the pronunciation of the name of the letter 'h' as /heɪtʃ/ and the 2nd Person plural (you) as 'youse/yous/use' /juːz/

The /k/ phoneme is often pronounced [x], especially at the end of a word, so that back [bax] sounds like German Bach and lock sounds like Scottish English loch. In other positions /k/ may be realised as an affricate [kx].

There are several possibilities for the /t/ phoneme in Scouse. In some contexts it may be realised as [s] and [ts]. Hence right may be heard as rice or rights

Words like sing tend to have a final [ng] (quite prestigious locally)

Scouse /r/ may be an approximant [ɹ], or a tap [ɾ]. Those who use it, use it particularly after /Ɵ/ (three, through) and intervocalically (ferry, hurry).

As elsewhere in the north of England, the accent does not use the broad A, pronouncing words like bath with the [a] of cat, and the vowels put and putt are often the same.

Liverpool is notable for the merger of the lexical sets NURSE and SQUARE, so that:

spur=sparecurd=caredfir=fur

RP English Modern Scouse

[ɜ:] as in 'fur' [ɛ:]

[ɛə] as in 'square' [ɛ:]

[ri:d] as in 'read' [i:]

[sli:p] as in 'sleep' [i:]

[bʌtə] as in 'butter' [bʊtɛ]

[fɔːk] as in 'fork' [fɔ:x]

Scouse is noted for a fast, highly accented manner of speech, with a range of rising and falling tones not typical of most of northern England.

Scouse: I don’t 'like ¯itAre 'you from 'Liverpool?

The use of me instead of my was also attributed to Irish English influence: for example:

"That's me book you got there" for "That's my book you got there".

An exception occurs when "my" is emphasised, for example:

"That's my book you got there" (and not his).

Word or phrase Meaning

Chuffed, dead chuffed Happy, very happy

De pool The city of Liverpool

Cud wind de liver clock Tall person

De clock The face

De moey, de gob, cakehole The mouth

Dee ooter, snotter The nose

http://www.mikekemble.com/mside/scouse1.html

http://www.whoohoo.co.uk/scouse-translator.asp

Well, here's a story for you: Sarah was a nurse who had been working in the newest area of the territory, she was very happy to start a new job this time in North Square near the Duke Street Tower. On her first morning, she washed her face, put on a plain white dress and a fleece jacket, picked up her kit and headed for work.

When she got there, there was a woman with a goose waiting for her. The woman gave Sarah a letter from the vet. The letter implied that the animal could be suffering from a rare form of foot and mouth disease, which was surprising, because normally you would only expect to see it in a goat. Sarah was sentimental, so this made her feel sorry for the bird.

The goose began to strut around the office like a lunatic, which made an unsanitary mess. The goose's owner, Mary Harrison, kept calling, "Comma, Comma," which Sarah thought was an odd choice for a name. Comma was strong and huge, so it would take some force to trap her, but Sarah managed by gently stroking the goose's lower back with her palm, and singing to her. Her efforts were not futile. Very soon, Comma began to tire, and Sarah gave her a relaxing bath, washed her and laid her on a cloth for diagnosis

Almost immediately, Sarah remembered an effective treatment that required her to measure out a lot of medicine. The treatment was very expensive, but Mrs. Harrison-a millionaire lawyer-thought it was a fair price for a cure.

Liverpool's a city that attracts a lot of attention. *It its people tend to be quite outgoing. Um and they also tend to have quite a lot of get-up-and-go. It's also a city that's been through a lot of of difficulties over the last thirty years. And before, really, um but in particular the last thirty years. Very high unemployment, and because of that a lot of Liverpudlians have travelled to other parts of the country to find work. There's also been a lot of bad press about the city. Um people have an image, that is perpetuated by the media really, of of the way that the people of Liverpool are and who they are. Um one of the biggest stereotypes, I would say, is of the comedian or, like, the chirpy chappy that kind of comes along and entertains. And you find like when you travel away, as I did when I first moved away, people kind of want to stick you in a cage and prod you with a stick so you'll entertain them, with jokes or whatever. Um one of the things that like feeds into that is the different expressions that we have. Um we do have a lot of different ways of saying things, um that people find odd or find amusing. Um we don't say things straightforwardly really. We tend to find *an image for it, a metaphor, or whatever. Um somebody who's on their own is "on the Bill" or is a "Billy-no-mates". Somebody who, I dunno, lots of things, those, all those sort of things.