Internet users hope to create a new dialect so people from Brighton can distinguish one another from other Southerners.

The move was sparked because other parts of the country have regional sayings and phrases, while Cockneys have their famous rhyming slang.

But there are few "Brightonisms" and visitors to the brightonlife.com web site have been submitting words and phrases they would like to seep into the city's subconscious.

Among suggestions so far are "wested" after the West Pier. This describes feeling rotten after drinking, as in being in a poor state but with hope of regeneration.

Other words put forward include "pav" from the Pavillion and meaning posh or "churchill" from Churchill Square meaning corporate or commercial.

People posting on the web site have said they would like the words included in the dictionary one day.

The Oxford English Dictionary contains roughly half a million words, including phrases and scientific terms and words that have fallen out of use.

A spokeswoman for the Oxford Word and Language Service said: "Before we consider anything for inclusion we need a body of printed evidence.

"It does not matter if the word is dialect or slang but there has to be printed evidence."