I think in the south they can get some impressive negative numbers.
Commonly overheard between students after passing back an exam that had been scored:
Wujoogit? (+1 point, but it’s my fave)
Not only does it pop up in places you wouldn’t expect, it isn’t even mispronounced the same way everywhere.
Here in St. Louis, we’d pronounce “warsh” to rhyme with far.
People a little further south pronounce it to rhyme with or.
I’ve even heard it pronounced like “whoosh” but with an R somehow inserted. I can’t even mimic it properly.
And the georne gebide gece and miltse fore alra his haligra gewyrhtum and ge-earningum and boenum be [hiwe]num, tha the domino deo gelicedon from fruman middan-geardes; thonne gehereth he thec thorh hiora thingunge. Do thonne fiorthan sithe thin hleor thriga to iorthan, fore alle Godes cirican, and sing thas fers: domini est salus, saluum fac populum tuum, domine, praetende misericordiam tuam. Sing thonne pater noster. Gebide thonne fore alle geleaffulle menn in mundo. Thonne bistu thone deg dael-niomende thorh Dryhtnes gefe alra theara goda the {ae}nig monn for his noman gedoeth, and thec alle soth-festae fore thingiath in caelo et in terra. Amen.
I must say, it’s a rare pleasure to meet a fellow Mercian speaker.
We do? I must be so used to this I don’t notice it. Can you give some examples?