Editing Stoke-on-Trent (section)

== Dialect ==
{{main|Potteries dialect}}
The Potteries has a distinctive [[Potteries dialect|local dialect]]. It contains many non-standard words, e.g. ''nesh'' meaning "soft, tender, or to easily get cold",<ref name=dialect /> and ''slat'' meaning "to throw".<ref name=dialect /> The best-known word is ''duck'', which is used as a greeting to either men or women. It is believed to be derived from the [[Old English|Saxon]] word ''ducas'', used to indicate respect. In [[Middle English]] this became ''duc'' or ''duk'', which denotes a leader. It became the title ''[[Duke]]'' and the [[Old French]] word ''duché'', which indicates the territory ruled by a Duke.<ref name=dialect>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/voices2005/features/steve_birks.shtml |title=Voices – The history of the Potteries dialect |access-date=14 May 2007 |work=BBC Stoke & Staffordshire |publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080128130736/http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/voices2005/features/steve_birks.shtml |archive-date=28 January 2008 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Another common variation on the standard English dialect is the use of the word ''shug'' for sugar. This is usually used as a term of endearment when closing a sentence, as in "Ta Shug" (thank you, sugar).{{citation needed|date=January 2022}}

A local [[Comic strip|cartoon strip]] called ''[[May un Mar Lady]] (Me and my Wife)'', published in the newspaper ''[[The Sentinel (Staffordshire)|The Sentinel]]'' and written in [[Potteries dialect]], first appeared on 8 July 1986 and ran for over 20 years.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.thisisthesentinel.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=158338&command=displayContent&sourceNode=158321&contentPK=17135845&moduleName=InternalSearch&formname=sidebarsearch |title=Follows at the Festival |access-date=14 May 2007 |date=19 April 2007 |work=The Sentinel |publisher=Staffordshire Sentinel Newspapers Ltd }}{{Dead link|date=November 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref> Since the death of cartoonist [[Dave Follows]] in 2003, the full twenty-year run (7,000) of ''May un Mar Lady'' strips are being republished in ''The Sentinel'' as ''May un Mar Lady Revisited'', keeping the dialect alive for another twenty years.

Alan Povey's ''[[Owd Grandad Piggott]]'' stories, which have aired on [[BBC Radio Stoke]] for several years, are recited in the Potteries dialect by the author.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/news/2003/10/dave_follows.shtml |date=October 2003 |title=Dave Follows – tributes to the cartoonists' cartoonist |access-date=14 May 2007 |work=BBC Stoke & Staffordshire |publisher=British Broadcasting Corporation |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060314171036/http://www.bbc.co.uk/stoke/news/2003/10/dave_follows.shtml |archive-date=14 March 2006 |url-status=live }}</ref>