Chinese and Scouse

I found this kind of fun site outlining some basic facts about Scouse, the accent in Liverpool. Now, I actually stumbled across this site doing something pseudo-academic and not football related. I was looking up Chinese diaspora populations on the web and came across information stating that some of the earliest Chinese immigrants to Britain arrived in Liverpool. Makes sense because it’s a port city.

What’s interesting on the above website is the little tidbit at the bottom about a little idiosyncrasy in Scouse that might actually have Chinese origins. The syllable “lah,” often added at the end of sentences, is generally thought to be a term for “lad.” But in Chinese (Cantonese in particular, but I’ve heard in Mandarin as well), “lah” is a suffix that indicates exclamation. I remember sitting next to a woman on the plane from Hong Kong to LA who, when I was telling her about my study abroad experiences, kept saying “Okay-lah.” And when she had to get past me to go to the bathroom, she said “Sorry-lah.” I thought it was interesting at the time, a little glimpse into the effect of British colonialism on language in Hong Kong.

Now I get a kick out of the possibility that Chinese might have had such an influence on an accent that is considered so distinct in England as to almost be considered a dialect.