I SWEAR TO TELL TRUTH..

Brits reveal regional bad language

- BY LUCY THORNTON

SWEARING may not be big or clever but linguists looking at how people really speak are still keen to hear it.

They are compiling the first national census to map swear words, as well as more innocent and quirky regional terms, which they fear may be dying out.

So far they have collected terms such as offcumden, a word for outsiders, clarty - someone or something filthy and sticky - and nesh, a person sensitive to the cold.