"We've nowt to give."

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TheParser

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In the 1920's, a British labor union leader was asked to accept pay reductions for his men. He replied, " Nowt doing. We've nowt to give."

Would you please translate "nowt" into standard English?

Thank you.
 
It means "nothing". It's used in certain regional dialects in BrE.
 
You might be interested in the old Yorkshire saying: Hear all, see all, say nowt; tak' all, keep all, gi' nowt, and if tha ever does owt for nowt do it for thysen.

Hear all, see all, say nothing; take all, keep all, give nothing; and, if you ever do anything for nothing, do it for yourself.

​
 
Thank you very much, Teacher EMSR and Moderator 5jj.
 
There are certain phrases used in all parts of the UK which include certain regional words. I have heard and used:

You don't get owt for nowt = You don't get something/anything for nothing.

I don't come from a part of the UK where "owt" or "nowt" are used on a day-to-day basis but they're in regular use in some phrases.
 
TheParser, notice that "owt" and "nowt" are just a variation of "aught" and "naught".
 
Off-topic, but possibly of interest: ought/aught is an old-fashioned word in some dialects for 'nought' (the figure). My grandfather used to say, "I left school in ought six". (1906)

owt and nowt rhyme with doubt
ought/aught rhymes with bought.
 
5jj said:
Off-topic, but possibly of interest: ought/aught is an old-fashioned word in some dialects for 'nought' (the figure). My grandfather used to say, "I left school in ought six". (1906)

owt and nowt rhyme with doubt
ought/aught rhymes with bought.
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It's an interesting case -- "naught" and "aught" meaning the same thing. It may seem strange that "aught" means zero, as we're used to having "n" at the beginning of a word with a negative meaning. "N" however tends to behave erratically when it begins an English noun. The cause of it is the pair of articles "a" and "an". "A naught" became "an aught" for some. "An eke name" became " a nickname" and "a nyas" became "an eyas". Surely there are more such pairs but I remember these.
 
birdeen's call said:
. The cause of it is the pair of articles "a" and "an". "A naught" became "an aught" for some. "An eke name" became " a nickname" and "a nyas" became "an eyas". Surely there are more such pairs but I remember these.
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Apron and adder originally began with n. Those are the only two that spring to mind at present.
 
I learned "nowt" from a TV show set in Manchester. They also used "ta" to mean "thanks." Is that also a regional thing?
 
SoothingDave said:
I learned "nowt" from a TV show set in Manchester. They also used "ta" to mean "thanks." Is that also a regional thing?
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I think "ta" can be heard anywhere in Britain but I may be wrong.
 
It's pretty widespread in BrE. I recommend that learners do not use it, as some speakers consider it to be uneducated and/or childish.
 
birdeen's call said:
"Nonce" has a similar history of misdivision. See here.

PS: I'm not sure if the complete list of misdivided words was TheParser's goal when he started this thread but, for what it's worth, here's another one: Online Etymology Dictionary
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Yes - I was trying to think of umpire.

There's also orange (cf Spanish naranja).

Rover
 
Rover_KE said:
There's also orange (cf Spanish naranja).

Rover
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Interesting! It's "arancia" in Italian so I guess the "n" must have been lost before the word came to Britain, right?
 
The word "pea" developed as a singular because people thought "pease" was plural.
 
birdeen's call said:
Interesting! It's "arancia" in Italian so I guess the "n" must have been lost before the word came to Britain, right?
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To partly answer my own question, Online Etymology Dictionary isn't absolutely sure how the "n" became lost in Italian: Online Etymology Dictionary

But the indefinite article seems to be the main suspect again.
 
birdeen's call said:
I think "ta" can be heard anywhere in Britain but I may be wrong.
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Yes, it's quite widespread (see 5jj's comment about usage)
It is also a source of confusion for people learning English, because 'ta' means 'thank you' and 'tata' means 'goodbye'. Go figure ...
 
waflob said:
Yes, it's quite widespread (see 5jj's comment about usage)
It is also a source of confusion for people learning English, because 'ta' means 'thank you' and 'tata' means 'goodbye'. Go figure ...
Click to expand...

And "ta-ra" also means goodbye but is regional.

You will hear "ta" a lot. It's not considered polite to use in formal speech and I certainly wouldn't use it to a customer but I use it with friends and family most of the time. The slightly odd thing about it is that whereas we say "Thanks a lot" we don't say "Ta a lot". We do say "Ta very much" or, very informally, "Ta muchly" (note, "muchly" is not an actual English word!)
 
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