That's How It Happened

Two weeks ago Leeds Metropolitan University launched the UK's first Masters degree in Northern Studies. Professor Tony Collines was quoted as saying:

As soon as the north is mentioned all these stereotypes are trotted out. Ideally, we'd like people to talk about David Hockney, Tony Harrison, Henry Moore, the Beatles, and all these cultural expressions of the north, rather than these stereotypes that are no more than that - stereotypes of whippets and flat caps.

Not to be outdone, Northumbria University have just launched a definitive history and dictionary of pitmatic, the mining language of Durham and the Great Northern Coalfield. There are some samples of the dialect available here, although no indications of possible translations for whippet or flat cap.