Scousers Have The Scandinavians To Thank For Their Name

Whether you’re from Liverpool or just know of the city, there’s a very real chance that you’ll have heard the term ‘Scouser’ used to describe the residents of it. It is always interesting hearing someone from the likes of Canada or the United States of America say the word, usually pronouncing the second ‘s’ as a ‘z’, rather than soft ‘s’.

Sometimes used in a derogatory manner, the name is worn with pride by the majority of people from Merseyside. In fact, those from the Wirral, who are not true Scousers, as discussed elsewhere on this site, will often claim to be Scousers simply for the cachet that is attached to the word in the eyes of many.

Scouse

More formally known as ‘Liverpool English’, Scouse is a term that is used to describe the accent of people from the city of Liverpool. As a result of that, those that come from the area are often referred to as ‘Scousers’. Heavily influenced by the likes of Irish and Welsh immigrants that arrived at the docks in Liverpool when it was one of the most important port cities in the world, there is also some Scandinavian influence thanks to the sailors who sailed into the docks. It is the various influences on the accent that mean that it bears little resemblance to any other accents that you’d encounter elsewhere in England.

It is not just in the sound of the accent that Scandinavians have had a big influence on the people of Liverpool. Lobscouse is the English version of lapskaus, which is a thick Scandinavian stew mate of meat and potatoes, as well as other veg. The exact origin of ‘lobscouse’ isn’t clear, but the links to the likes of the Norwegian lapskaus, the Swedish lapskojs, the Danish labskovs and the Low German labskaus cannot be denied. The stew was commonly eaten by sailors, making use of the limited resources that they had available to them when at sea and returning to port, so it was taken up by locals to Liverpool.

In the early part of the 19th century, the poor residents of areas like the centre of Liverpool, Bootle, Birkenhead and Wallasey would eat Scouse because it was a cheap dish that was easy to cook. It was also one that was familiar to the families of those that worked at sea, meaning that everyone was happy enough to eat it. Those from the outside would refer to the people that ate Scouse as ‘Scousers’, although the term didn’t immediately catch on in a wider sense. In fact, there is some suggestion that it was only when a Cockney and a Scouser regularly argued on the TV show Till Death Us Do Part in the 1960s and 1970s that it began to be used more widely.

A Term That Divides Opinion

The interesting thing about the term ‘Scouser’ is that it divides opinion within the city of Liverpool. Many would refer to themselves as Liverpudlians, but Evertonians might not be willing to do so for fear of being associated with the more successful club from across Stanley Park. Yet others don’t enjoy being called Scousers, believing it to have its origin in more derogatory circumstances. There is certainly a split amongst people, with some of the younger residents of the city being wary of getting given a label that is often used to cause division. To many, you are either a Scouser or a ‘wool’, with only those from Liverpool itself allowed to be labelled as Scousers.

Anyone that either remembers or has seen Harry Enfield’s ‘Scousers’ sketch will know the negative connotations associated with being called one. The 1980s was a period of strife and unrest for Liverpool, with a number of the caricatures about the people of the city being locked in the minds of those from further afield at the time. Interestingly, many of those from outside of the city wouldn’t actually think of ‘Scouser’ as being a derogatory term, with only some of the people ashamed of calling themselves a Scouser likely to shy away from it. One such person is Richard Wright, who coined the term ‘Liverpolitan’.

Wright had ‘Liverpolitan’ entered into the Urban Dictionary in 2016, explaining that the term could be used to describe anyone from the Liverpool City Region. The majority of people from the area are left-leaning politically, meaning that those from Liverpool, Knowsley, Sefton, the Wirral and St Helens have plenty in common with each other. Wright was of the belief that using the term Liverpolitan would remove the tension between those from the city and those that might otherwise be described as ‘wools’. The Urban Dictionary says a Liverpolitan is ‘A native or inhabitant of the Liverpool City Region. Not to be confused with a ‘Scouser’ or ‘Liverpudlian’, who is someone from the city of Liverpool proper.’

Speaking on the matter, Wright said, “We live in the Liverpool City Region age. It’s so much bigger than Liverpool itself. There are 1.6 million people living in our region. It’s a stereotype that people use to say they’re proud to come from Liverpool. But that could go so much further as devolution could go much further and could see people get behind the Liverpolitan idea. The downside is that it always ends up in a debate about Scousers versus Woolybacks which is unhelpful. It always goes too far, looking into how people talk, dress and act. It’s draft, inward-looking and provincial. People don’t want to defined by that. Liverpool is a very outward looking city and Liverpolitan gives us a chance to be modern and celebrate being from the region.”

Whether you agree with Wright or not, the term itself has its origins in the Scandinavian sailors who came to Liverpool and helped mould the city into the amazing, outward-facing place that it is today.