Evolution of the English Language

re the Duke of N -
One of my uncles was a tenant farmer for the Duke until he died about 4 years ago aged 99. His oldest son, my cousin , still has the farm. In Otterburn.
We used to spend our summer holidays there and help with the hay making.
re language etc - my Uncle would speak to us in our normal accent, but when mixing with the local shepherds etc change to broad Northumbrian. He once took me with him into Alnwick to the Duke's office for some official business and on the way in we met the Duke, Probably the father of the present Duke. Then Uncle changed to proper posh mode.
I kept shtum . Another unforgettable childhood memory.

My son lives in Tynemouth and it was D. of Northumberland land. The original street names all link to the Percy family. The Grand Hotel there is said to have been built at first as a summer house for the Duchess. They still own the right of way through a gated street on the front. It is amazing how much power they had.

I sometimes still use "skedaddle" (no idea of correct spelling) and have no direct link with Yorkshire.

My mother was born and bred on Merseyside, as was I, and my father came from Surrey, so I have no idea where I picked it up from.

According to etymological dictionaries, it's a 19th century word of American origin.

Decades ago Yorkshire women were using the expression "I fell wrong" meaning that they pregnant. It caught my newly demobbed father out when he was locum tenens for a Yorkshire GP in 1947.

I suspect falling pregnant was likewise originally a dialect form, perhaps never used by the well-educated or the snobbish, but in common use somewhere in the English speaking world.

Skedaddle may have older roots. It's first use in print is the American Civil War
Skedaddle” first appeared in written accounts of battles in that war, used to mean “to retreat quickly; to flee” (“As soon as the rebs saw our red breeches … coming through the woods they skedaddled,” 1862). In military use there were definite overtones of cowardice under fire in “skedaddle,” but as the word quickly percolated into civilian usage, it came to mean simply “to leave quickly” or “to run away.”

There are a number of theories about the origin of “skedaddle,” but no definite answer to the puzzle. The relatively sudden appearance of “skedaddle” as a fully-formed word, with no known ancestors in English, tends to argue for its importation from another language. There are theories that attempt to trace “skedaddle” to various Swedish or Danish words but fail on lack of evidence. It is more probable that “skedaddle” is rooted in the Irish word “sgedadol,” meaning “scattered,” or the Scots word “”skiddle,” meaning “to spill or scatter.” Given the Scots-Irish heritage of many of the states central to the Civil War, these both seem like reasonable bets to me.
Fascinating isn't it!

I love dialects too. Skidaddle was in common use when I was growing up and mam used to threaten to snickersneeze us when we were cheeky. My dad used to pronounce knife as k-nif-a.

Given the number of Irish on Merseyside, it could possibly be a reason why I came across it. I honestly don't know, but I know it was (and is) part of my vocabulary.

Fascinating, and special thanks to VampireQueen.

I have lived in a few different parts of England. Partly my job, partly my personality, I picked up words and ways of speaking and absorbed them.
For most of my adult life we lived in a very diverse town, I picked up lots of West Indian and Asian words and phrases. Now I've come home, to a rather out-of-the way part of England, but speech has changed! With older people I talk the way I did as a child, but younger ones (especially my own kids) find it hilarious!
Even as a child though, we were near a USAF base, had friends & neighbours who were from Belgium (WW1) Italy & Poland (WW2) so even my native 'dialect' included a few odd phrases from elsewhere, including 'ach y fi'from my friend's Welsh mum!
I love the way language evolves.