A DIALECT champion today urged East Lancashire folk to be proud of their "Lankie twang."

The Lancashire Evening Telegraph's Pride of East Lancashire campaign is rewarding local heroes for the work they do in the community -- but it is also heralding the things which make our area so great.

And Lancashire Dialect Society's chairman Derek Stanton has insisted the Lancashire accent is part of our history -- rooted in the North West's heritage as the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution.

He said: "There's no question about it, we should be proud of it. For though Lancashire dialect is one of the historical dialects that have been diminished -- to the extent that experts now agree that the only true dialects remaining are those of Yorkshire and northern Cumbria -- we still have the Lancashire accent and that's a true part of our history."

But even though Lancashire dialect may have almost disappeared from daily use, the region's accent and expressions can still seem like a foreign language to others -- as Oswaldtwistle-born Derek found recently when he was on the receiving end of a parliamentary question...from the compilers of Hansard, the written record of proceedings at Westminster.

"They wanted to know the derivation of 'EE, by gum!', he said.

Folk singer, author and broadcaster Derek, of Thirlmere Drive, Withnell, who revived the Dialect Society five years ago when it had shrunk to just 20 members, was able to tell them it was a milder form of 'Oh, my God!' and deliberately adapted to prevent any offence being taken."

Yet though 69-year-old Derek regards the Lancashire accent as an oral link to the region's industrial hey-day, the now-virtually vanished dialect's roots stretch back to the ancient Britons -- according to expert, Lancashire Evening Telegraph columnist and naturalist Ron Freethy.

Ex-teacher Ron, brought a book out last year on 'Lankie Twang' and says that without doubt our earliest words are of Celtic origin.

"Lancashire has more Celtic words in its speech than any other English county except Cumbria and Cornwall," he reveals.

But the Cymric that was spoken by the Celts has been added to and eroded by the languages of the people who have 'invaded' Lancashire over the centuries -- Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Normans and groups like the work-hungry Irish who flocked in from the 19th century onwards as industrial growth soared.

"Initially, then, we must consider Lankie Twang as having a broad base of Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and Scandinavian," says Ron.

But though what remains today may be far from a living dialect, it is a form of speech that is still distinct enough to make the Lancashire Dialect Society the target of inquiries from TV programme makers, language students and people researching their family history as well as from perplexed parliamentary officials.

Yet, it is somewhat lucky to have survived and had become almost a thing of the past by the 1960s, says Ron, becoming destroyed by a combination of improved education, radio, TV and the ease and speed of modern transport.

But now not all is lost, he adds. The BBC now accepts and celebrates regional accents and the the plethora of old dialect poets like Tim Bobbin and Sam Laycock are being re-read.

HOW well do you know 'Lancashire language'? See if you can translate these words and expressions from Ron Freethy's 'Dickshunary' of Lankie Twang. Answer below.

1. Addicks Watter

2. Degg

3. Fawse

4. Fradging

5. Goit

6. Hutching up

7. Kaythur

8. Laiking

9. Rawming

10. Walla.

Answers: 1 A very weak drink; 2 Sprinkle; 3 Sly; 4 Gossiping; 5 A water channel from a river or reservoir; 6 Getting close together; 7 A cradle; 8 Playing; 9 Wrestling or squirming; 10 Bland-tasting.