It has similarities with the dialects of the surrounding counties of Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Staffordshire, Shropshire, and Derbyshire.

But when I read sections of the poem aloud to my father, he knew, and used, more than 90% of the vocabulary; and the phonetics of the vowels have scarcely changed.

[1][5] These sources were expanded by Egerton Leigh in a glossary published posthumously in 1877, which was an attempt to preserve a way of speech that was already under threat from "emigration, railways, and the blending of shires.

Cheshire dialect contains some words that are distinct from standard English, such as "shippen" for cow shed.

[citation needed] Like most dialects in Northern England and the Midlands, Cheshire English lacks both the trap-bath and foot-strut splits.