Pretty sure it’s an extension of also putting t in front of other words but can anyone please explain the dialect or phenomenon?

Edit: I didn’t hear this from Michael Mcyntire OR Peter Kay y’know, I actually hear Marc Riley saying it on t’radio, probably as a joke but nonetheless, it’s an example of the turn of phrase which I hear people lampooning…

19 comments

  1. Apparently an old English version of “the” that is common in Yorkshire. In Lancashire and Cheshire it’s more “th”

  2. “t’internet” is a contraction of “the internet”, the apostrophe indicates that a word or part of a word has been omitted.

    It’s the same reason that you chose to use “it’s” instead of “it is” in your question.

  7. It’s called a glottal stop. Northerners use it instead of the word the. It’s represented by the letter t because that’s how it sounds.

  8. Hardest game in the world: Northern I-Spy.

    “…summat beginning wi’ T”

    “Is it t’cobbled street”

    “No”

    “Is it t’budgerigar?”

    “No”

    “Is it t’whippet?”

    “No”

    etc

  9. I heard a story once where a friend of a friend went to work abroad. They were looking for something and was told it was in the tin. It wasn’t, so they went back to the person they asked and said “t’in’t in tin,” pronounced “tin tin tin.”

    It’s a North Derbyshire/Yorkshire regional thing. T’ is just a contraction of the, particularly in front of words that start with a vowel sound.

  10. Most don’t.
    Those saying tinternet is a contraction of ‘the’ and ‘internet’ aren’t right. We don’t shorten ‘the’, most of the time we drop it all together. For example when we say ‘I’m off t’shop’. The t’ is from to – not the.
    Anyone saying tinternet has probably picked it up from the comedians sketch, think Michael Macintyre? I always hated that skit because of his t’lion t’witch and t’wardrobe joke. Made no sense to me.
    It’s hard to explain this in written form.

    From a northerner with a small chip on her shoulder x

  12. One of my favourite jokes about this was from I’m Sorry I Haven’t a Clue on the radio, new word definitions: “Towel rail – a place where Yorkshire folk keep their owls”.

  13. We don’t, despite what Michael McIntyre would have you believe. We miss off “the” entirely.

    “I’m just popping to shops.” NOT “I’m just popping to t’ shops.”

  14. I hate to burst your bubble, but that friend of a friend, unless he’s an old joke, doesn’t exist.

  17. There is a certain type of Yorkshire accent that is becoming old fashioned (I guess more so in west and some extent ridings but definitely not north for example) where ‘the’ and ‘to’ are often contracted.

    When this is written phonetically an example would be something like:

    *I found it on t’internet’

    Here the t’ is a contraction of ‘the’. However, the actual sound is something like:

    *I found it ont internet*

    with the emphasis of the contracted ‘the’ being placed on the preceeding word with a gap before the second.

    Unfunny comedians don’t get this and pronounce the written form incorrectly.

    The confusion also arises because you have phrases with ‘to the’ which is sometimes contracted to a ‘tuh’ sound e.g.

    *I’m going tuh shop*

    But often also contracted as above I.e.

    *I’m go int shop*

    and both would be written

    *I’m going t’shop*

    Further confusion even arises because in other northern accents/dialect, the contraction here is completely silent. For example in Manchester, you would often here the same phrase simply as

    *I’m going shop*

  18. The problem here is people writing a glottal stop as ” t’ ” and then other people reading that and saying it like “t”.

    Glottal stop yes, T no

    If I write a glottal stop as * , then I would say something like “over * road” for over the road; or “I’m going t* shop” for “I’m going to the shop.

    Michael Fecking Macintyre can shove his “tlion twitch and twardrobe” “joke” under his nails.

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