An investigation into the regional variation and etymology of the words used to refer to a ‘Scally’
Sarah Bromley
Department of English Language, Leeds University
December 2002
NB:
The map refered to is not included in this web page.
NB: Numbers in brackets refer to websites in the bibliography at the end.
Introduction
This study will investigate the synchronic regional variation which exists in the words used to refer to, what I would call, a ‘scally’ and go on to look at the etymology of these dialect words. The following helps define exactly what a ‘scally’ is. A person who:…wears sportswear (tracksuits, trainers, baseball caps) …is in their teens or early twenties …is usually working class or lower middle class …loiters around in groups in town centres, not actually doing much …is perhaps involved in petty crime (eg. shop lifting, vandalism) …if female, wears a lot of cheap gold jewellery …if male, has a shaved head or crew cut
Until I began at university I was not aware that any regional variation existed, I thought everybody knew these people as scallies. I soon realised that this was not the case and am now fascinated to discover exactly which words are used in which areas.
This variable has never before been investigated in an academic sense. I have, however, discovered that some of the words people used today have origins which can be traced to words listed in publications such as those of the English Dialect Society.
Methodology
The data was collected by way of a questionnaire (see Appendix). Informants were asked to list the words they use to refer to the people shown in a variety of photographs (found on the internet) depicting scallies and other ‘types’ of people.
I used photographs to initiate a response because this meant there would be no confusion over what type of person was being referred to and there would be no need for a verbal description containing subjective words, such as ‘rough’. To make sure informants understood what was required of them, they were given two example photos of a hippy and a punk with the words ‘hippy’ and ‘punk’ written beneath. It is hoped that this will have indicated how they should think about the photos they were about to see and show I was not looking for adjectives, such as ‘attractive’ or ‘unintelligent’, but actual labels / names.
I asked only those between 13 and 29 years old to fill in the questionnaire. I felt this would deliver the most accurate results as it appears to be this age group which is most aware of what a ‘scally’ is.
The key to making the investigation a success was to survey informants from all over the United Kingdom. As it would be difficult to gain access to such a geographically diverse group of people in person, it was necessary to devise an alternate method of collecting data. In addition to asking people around Leeds University to complete the questionnaire I decided to use the internet to access a variety of people around the country. I put my questionnaire online and enabled informants to type their answers into boxes and then click ‘Submit’. Clicking ‘Submit’ automatically emailed their answers to me.
I asked each informant where they had lived in the past, in addition to where they currently lived. This would prove extremely useful when deciding how and where to display the data on maps. I also asked informants to pick out the word they would use most often and then list all others afterwards, as I thought this may be of some use when analysing the data.
Another advantage to using the internet was that I was able to gain responses from young people who had lived in their home towns all their lives, as opposed to Leeds University students from around the country who may have been influenced by words used by university friends from different areas. Via the internet I received responses from people who had only ever lived in one town and this proved very useful. The importance of using informants who are ‘non-mobile’ has long been recognised by dialectologists “to guarantee that their speech is characteristic of the region in which they live” (Chambers and Trudgill, 1998;30).
I let internet-users know about my survey by posting messages in online forums which gave people the URL of the survey and asked if they would fill it in. I also asked people to email the link to their friends in order to increase the circulation. I chose forums and message boards aimed at young people which appeared to have a high numbers of users. This approach proved effective and a huge number of responses, more than I had expected, soon began to arrive by email.
Results and Analysis
From a total of 94 responses, I collected 43 different dialect words for a scally. These are listed below. Some refer to just males or females and this has been indicated with an (m) or (f).
charver / charva / charv
chav
chorber / chorver / chor
city boy (m)
city slappa (f)
gary (m)
greebo
Kappa slapper (f)
kev (m)
lad (m)
lass (f)
local
milly (f)
muppet
ned
nugget
pikey
pov
rude-boy (m)
rude-girl (f)
rudie
rudeage
scally / scall / scallwah
schemey / schemie
scrote
scrubber
scruff
sharon (f)
skanger
sket (f)
slapper (f)
smelly
spide
steek (m)
stella (f)
Stockport Rockport
townie / towny
trackie boy (m)
trendy
trev (m)
twalker
white trash
wide boy (m)
Examples of the ways in which these words are used:
‘There was a steek causing trouble.’
‘The sharons always hang around there.’
‘You get a lot of rudeage outside McDonalds on a Saturday afternoon.’
Mapping the Results
The first step is to plot on a map where these words were found.
Some of the data had to be examined more closely before being transferred to the map. For example, one informant from Reading who had been living in Manchester for ‘a few months’ listed ‘scally’ as a word she would use. It became clear that the informant must have picked up the word ‘scally’ since being in Manchester and so, for the purpose of retaining clarity in the regional groupings, this occurrence should be plotted in Manchester, not Reading.
Presenting all forty three variables on a map would be bewildering and unnecessary, so I found ways of simplifying the data.
I chose to include on the map only those words given to me more than once. Words for which I had only one occurrence may have just been part of an individual’s idiolect or a word used by a group of friends, and not necessarily a regional word.
To further simply the data, I looked at words which specifically referred to males or females. Words such as ‘kev’ and ‘sharon’ were equivalent to each other in who they were used by and where they were used. That is, whenever ‘kev’ was used to refer to a male, ‘sharon’ was used to refer to a female. This meant that I was able to treat ‘kev’ and ’sharon’ as one single variable. The same was also true of ‘ned’ and ‘senga’, ‘rude-boy’ and ‘rude-girl’ and ‘steek’ and ‘milly’.
This leaves us with the following list to be displayed on a map (Figure 1):
charva / charver / charv chav Kappa slapper (f) kev (m) / Sharon (f) ned (m) / senga (f) pikey rude-boy (m) / rude-girl (f) scally schemey / schemie spide steek (m) / milly (f) towny / townie trev (m)
The map shows some very definite regional distribution. There appears to be only two names which are not affiliated with a particular region, these are ‘Kappa slapper’ and ‘townie’. These two words are found across the length and breadth of the UK. ‘Townie’ is by far the most commonly used word and it seems it would be understood in any area. Perhaps this means we can take ‘townie’ to be the standard variable.
The remainder of the words can be assigned to regions in the following way:
| charva / charver / charv | Far North of England |
| chav | Kent |
| kev (m) / sharon (f) | The Midlands and the South |
| ned (m) / senga (f) | Scotland |
| pikey | South East England |
| rude-boy (m) / rude-girl (f) | The Midlands and the South |
| scally | North West England (and the North Wales coast) |
| schemey / schemie | Scotland, specifically Glasgow |
| spide | Northern Ireland |
| steek (m) / milly (f) | Northern Ireland |
| trev (m) | Far South of England |
Wales, Yorkshire and the Midlands do not appear to have a trademark word of their own. Data is lacking for Norfolk and Suffolk, so no observations can be made for this area.
This allows us to create an interpretive map (Figure 2), showing the areas which the regional words (excluding the ubiquitous, ‘townie’ and ‘Kappa Slapper’) are found in. I have used the heterogloss technique (Chambers and Trudgill, 1998;90) because there were some areas with no trademark word and heteroglosses make it possible to show just the areas which do have a word. Of course, the areas marked on the map may have had slightly different shapes if I had had answers returned from people in other towns.
There are two unexplainably anomalous results - ‘rude boy/girl’ in Hull and ‘charva’ in Sheffield. These informants make no mention of having lived elsewhere but it can be assumed that they must have been made aware of these words in some other way, perhaps via the internet or by relatives living in other areas. For the purposes of the interpretive map, I have disregarded these two.
Word Etymologies
Using the internet and dialect dictionaries it was possible to discover a great deal about the origins and etymologies of these words. Some have historical origins, whereas others appear more modern, almost as though they have been created especially for their current purpose. I will deal with the more modern words first.
Ned and Senga
A number of websites (1) revealed that Ned stands for Non Educated Delinquent. One website about fashions in Glasgow1 said that Senga is ‘Agnes spelt backwards’ and ‘legend has it that the name originated in the rougher areas of the city where parents, eager to give their children a bit of class, decided it would sound more exotic to spell the mundane Agnes backwards, hence “Senga” was born’.
Kev, Sharon and Trev
I was unable to find any references to the origins of these words but feel confident that they are modern in origin, perhaps first appearing in the 1990s as a way to refer to people from the lower classes. These words probably arose out of the generalisation that the names Sharon, Trevor and Kevin are ‘common’ names which scallies would often be called. This is similar to the way that the people of Glasgow viewed the name ‘Senga’ as characteristic of a lower-class person.
Kappa Slapper
‘Kappa’ is a make of sportswear which became particularly popular with scallies during the nineties. Kappa conveniently rhymes with ‘slapper’, another appropriate way of referring to a ‘cheap’ girl, so females likely to wear Kappa became known as ‘Kappa slappers’.
Townie
The OED’s entry for ‘townie’ says:
“townie n. (also townee) derog. town inhabitant ignorant of country life”.
Although this does not fully describe the modern definition used by many people, it is easy to see how the meaning has been adapted over the years.
Rude-boy and Rude-girl
A website “celebrating British youth culture in the 20th century” (4) states:
“Rude Boy was originally a Jamaican term, used to describe a hooligan or ne'er do well. However in late 1970's / early 1980's Britain, the term came to represent a smartly dressed skinhead who listened to Ska music.”
It seems that today, Rude Boy has altered back to its original Jamaican meaning and acquired a female counterpart. There are, however, no indicators as to why this term is a specifically Southern one.
Charver, Charva,
Charv
An online Cumbrian dictionary (2) states that ‘charver’ originally
meant boy or lad and gives the following definition: “Charver (noun) boy, or lad. Eg. Deek at that charver lowpin' ower
t'yat = Look at that boy jumping over the gate.” A site containing excerpts from the newsletters of The Durham and Tyneside
Dialect Group (3) goes further and reveals that ‘charver’ originally
came from a Romany word “chawvo”, meaning “a young person, a friend”.
Despite this, none of the older dialect dictionaries, for example Northumberland
Words (Heslop, 1892), make any mention of the word. Chorver, Chorber and Chor
Although only one informant (from Hartlepool) listed these as words
they would use, they still appear to have interesting origins which
are similar to those of ‘charver’. It may first appear that ‘chor’ is
simply a shortened version of ‘chorver / chorber’. However, the online
Cumbrian Dictionary (2) used previously provides us with information
which suggests otherwise. One meaning given in the dictionary for ‘chor’ is: “(noun chor) Boy or Lad. Short for Charver.” If this was the case, where have ‘chorver’ and ‘chorber’ come from?
The dictionary also lists ‘chor’ as a verb: “(verb chor) To steal or pinch. Eg. I chorred a yat on sat'dur
when I was gattered = I stole a gate on saturday night when I was drunk.
(I chore, you chore, he is a chorer, it is chored.)” This suggests that perhaps ‘chor’ is not, in fact, a shortening of
‘chorver’ and ‘chorber’. ‘Chor’ may have been a word in its own right
and ‘chorver’ and ‘chorber’ may have derived from ‘chorer’ meaning ‘someone
who steals’, as this fits in well with the stereotype of a scally.
Pikey
Halliwell’s Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words (Halliwell, 1889) lists ‘piker’ as an East Sussex word for a tramp and ‘pikey’ as a Kent word for a gypsy. A Dictionary of The Kentish Dialect and Provincialisms (Parish & Shaw, 1887) defines a ‘piky’ as “a turnpike traveller; a vagabond and so generally a low fellow”. The word derives from the word ‘pike’ a shortened version of ‘turnpike’, “a road on which a toll was collected at a toll gate”9.
One website says that there are many such travellers in Kent “because of the summer hop picking” (5). This website also asserts that Pikeys are different to true gypsies in that they are of Irish descent, as opposed to having Romany heritage. Many of the scallies who are today called ‘pikeys’ probably have no connection to these travellers of Irish descent but it is easy to see how the word has remained. Travellers are often viewed as a nuisance and slightly dishonest and uncultured so, to the people of Kent, ‘pikey’ is an idea (l) way of referring to the scallies of today.
Chav
The Online Dictionary of Playground Slang (6) lists the word “chavvie” which it defines as “Offensive term for a Gypsy, tinker, tramp etc”. This word seems to have the same meaning as ‘pikey’ and this is fitting, as the two words are found in Kent. There are, strangely, no entries for this word in any of the historical dialect dictionaries.
Scally
The etymology of this word is by far the most complex and convoluted. I have mentioned only the most convincing and interesting pieces of information here.
This word derives from the word ‘scallywag’, meaning a person who was “sharp and street wise, perhaps a small time thief“ (6).
The etymology of ‘scallywag’ can be traced to the old America word of the same meaning, ‘scalawag’. The term was first used “in colloquial Southron (US) dialect with the sense of 'an undersized or worthless animal, a runt'” (7). There is even thought given to the etymology of this sense of the word and it is suggested that it comes from the name of a Shetland Isle, Scalaway, because “the Shetlands are known for their undersized and uncooperative ponies” (7).
A number of websites testify that ‘scalawag’ then became a word to refer to southern Americans who supported federal Reconstruction policies for their own gain after the civil war (8,10). The word then went on to mean any corrupt and dishonest politician (8) and finally, according to Webster’s Dictionary, a scamp or reprobate (11).
The historical dialect dictionaries make no mention of ‘scallywag’ or ‘scalawag’ but Wright’s English Dialect Dictionary (1898-1905) and Halliwell’s Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words (Halliwell, 1889) lists ‘scaly’ as an adjective, one of the meanings of which is thievish, dishonest, tricky. Wright cites this meaning as American and quotes an appearance from 1896. This adjective has evidently derived from the American word ‘scalawag’, in the same way that that today’s noun ‘scally’ derived from ‘scallywag’ in the twentieth century.
The move from ‘scallywag’ to ‘scally’ appears to have happened around the mid nineteen seventies and early eighties. In the Dictionary of Playground Slang (6) a “former-scally” testifies that “In the mid-seventies a hardcore group of Liverpool supporters followed the team into and all over Europe” and it was this group that people started to refer to as scallies. This former-scally is also able to shed light on the origins of sportswear being a key trademark of a scally, he says “Along the way they stole and robbed from many sports goods stores. They brought these goods back to sell and wore them too. Hence the beginning of the ‘scally’ football fashion which began to spread nationwide in the very early eighties.”
Conclusion
At a time when dialect speech is becoming rarer, it is heartening to discover such a rich amount of regional variation existing amongst young people. Furthermore, there is a healthy combination of words with historical origins and ones which have been created in the last few years. It seems that some older dialect speech is still alive, with new dialect words also being created.
The reason this variation still exists and has not become ‘diluted’ can probably be attributed to the fact that magazines and television soaps and dramas (probably the biggest sources for young peoples’ acquisition of non-regional words) do not appear to ever use any of the words investigated here. I feel this is because the words are, in a sense, a slightly derogatory and ‘classist’ stereotype, so writers may steer clear of them for this reason. Perhaps more significantly though, is the fact that most television script writers and journalists are in their late twenties or older and this age group seems less familiar with such words.
It is my hope that the current regional variation remains and it will certainly be interesting to monitor how this variation develops over the next few decades.
References
Bibliography
Chambers, JK & Trudgill, Peter (1998) Dialectology Cambridge; CUP
Halliwell, J O H (1889) Halliwell’s Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words London; Reeves & Turner
Heslop, O Rd (1892) Northumberland Words: A Glossary of Words Used in the County of Northumberland and on the Tyneside London; Trubner & Co.
Parish, W D & Shaw, W F (1887) A Dictionary of Kentish Dialect & Provincialisms London, Trubner & Co.
Wright, Joseph ed. (1898-1905) The English Dialect Dictionary Oxford; Clarendon Press.
Websites
1 www.csm.linst.ac.uk/fashion/susie.html
2 www.haven.demon.co.uk/gonmad.html Online Cumbrian Dictionary
3 www.indigogroup.co.uk/durhamdialect/ddanews.html Durham and Tyneside
Dialect Group
4 www.yesterdayskids.co.uk/rudie.html Yesterday’s Kids
5 www.aldertons.com/question.htm
6 www.odps.cyberscriber.com Online Dictionary of Playground Slang
7 www.kuro5hin.org/comments/2002/9/19/205033/984?pid=221
8 www.quinion.com/words/weirdwords/ww-sca1.htm World Wide Words
9 www.oed.com The Oxford English Dictionary
10 www.alabamamoments.state.al.us/sec27qs.html
11 www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary Merriam-Webster Dictionary Online