Funny old thing, regional variations, aren't they? Anyone read Bill Brysons 'Mother Togue'? He makes the point, as an American living a lot of the time in England, that for all Britain is tiny compared to the US, the variations in dialects are vast. One very interesting (well, to us triva nerds) point was the use of 'twenty one' and 'one and twenty'. Aparently, up the east side of England from Suffolk to Yorkshire it changges every twenty miles. I have never come across it but I have no reason to disbelieve the esteemed Mr. B.

The transfer of mard from being in a strop to being soft is an odd one indeed. Bearing in mind that a lot of people around my area (Salford, Lancs) cane from the midlands during a miners strike you would have thought that it would have carried the meaning. Maybe it was purposely corrupted. My Grandad, refered to anyone foppish (such as me in my teen years!) by saying 'Thi favvors a Staffurdshur mon'. So he saw anyone from Staffordshire as soft, even though his granparents came up in the same migration. Maybe the word was picked up by local Lancastrians and used to taunt the strike-breakers? Wonder if the same is true in Yorkshire?

Isn't language wonderful and long may it be so varied:-)

DeG