Geordie () is a nickname for a person from the Tyneside area of

North East England North East England is one of nine official regions of England at the first level of ITL for statistical purposes. The region has three current administrative levels below the region level in the region; combined authority, unitary authorit ...

, and the dialect used by its inhabitants, also known in linguistics as Tyneside English or Newcastle English. There are different definitions of what constitutes a Geordie. The term is used and has been historically used to refer to the people of the North East. A Geordie can also specifically be a native of Tyneside (especially Newcastle upon Tyne) and the surrounding areas. Not everyone from the North East of England identifies as a Geordie. Geordie is a continuation and development of the language spoken by

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a Cultural identity, cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo- ...

settlers, initially employed by the ancient Brythons to fight the Pictish invaders after the end of Roman rule in Britain in the 5th century. The Angles, Saxons and Jutes who arrived became ascendant politically and culturally over the native British through subsequent migration from tribal homelands along the North Sea coast of mainland Europe. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that emerged in the Dark Ages spoke largely mutually intelligible varieties of what is now called

Old English Old English (, ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the early Middle Ages. It was brought to Great Britain by Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain, Anglo ...

, each varying somewhat in phonology, morphology,

syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...

, and

lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Koine Greek language, Greek word (), neuter of () ...

. This linguistic conservatism means that poems by the Anglo-Saxon scholar the Venerable Bede translate more successfully into Geordie than into Standard English. In Northern England and the

Scottish borders The Scottish Borders ( sco, the Mairches, 'the Marches'; gd, Crìochan na h-Alba) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, Dumfries and Galloway, East Lothian, Midlothian, South Lanarkshire, West Lothi ...

, then dominated by the kingdom of Northumbria, there developed a distinct

Northumbrian Old English Northumbrian was a dialect of Old English spoken in the Anglian Kingdom of Northumbria. Together with Mercian, Kentish and West Saxon, it forms one of the sub-categories of Old English devised and employed by modern scholars. The dialect w ...

dialect. Later Irish migrants possibly influenced Geordie phonology from the early 19th century onwards. The British Library points out that the Norse, who primarily lived south of the

River Tees The River Tees (), in Northern England, rises on the eastern slope of Cross Fell in the North Pennines and flows eastwards for to reach the North Sea between Hartlepool and Redcar near Middlesbrough. The modern day history of the river has be ...

, affected the language in Yorkshire but not in regions to the north. This source adds that "the border skirmishes that broke out sporadically during the Middle Ages meant the River Tweed established itself as a significant northern barrier against Scottish influence". Today, many who speak the Geordie dialect use words such as gan ('go' – modern German ) and bairn ('child' – modern Danish ) which "can still trace their roots right back to the Angles". The word "Geordie" can refer to a supporter of

Newcastle United Newcastle United Football Club is an English professional football club, based in Newcastle upon Tyne, that plays in the Premier League – the top flight of English football. The club was founded in 1892 by the merger of Newcastle East End ...

. The Geordie Schooner glass was traditionally used to serve Newcastle Brown Ale. The Geordie dialect and identity are primarily associated with those of a

working-class The working class (or labouring class) comprises those engaged in manual-labour occupations or industrial work, who are remunerated via waged or salaried contracts. Working-class occupations (see also " Designation of workers by collar colou ...

background. A 2008 newspaper survey found the Geordie accent the "most attractive in England".

Geographical coverage

People

When referring to the people, as opposed to the dialect, dictionary definitions of a Geordie typically refer to a native or inhabitant of Newcastle upon Tyne, England, or its environs, an area that encompasses North Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tyneside and

Gateshead Gateshead () is a large town in northern England. It is on the River Tyne's southern bank, opposite Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle to which it is joined by seven bridges. The town contains the Gateshead Millennium Bridge, Millennium Bridge, Sage ...

. This area has a combined population of around 700,000, based on 2011 census-data. The term itself, according to Brockett, originated from all the North East coal mines. The catchment area for the term "Geordie" can include Northumberland and County Durham or be confined to an area as small as the city of Newcastle upon Tyne and the metropolitan boroughs of Tyneside. Scott Dobson, the author of the book ''Larn Yersel Geordie'', once stated that his grandmother, who was brought up in Byker, thought the miners were the true Geordies. There is a theory the name comes from the Northumberland and Durham coal mines. Poems and songs written in this area in 1876 (according to the OED), speak of the "Geordie".

Dialect

Academics refer to the Geordie dialect as "Tyneside English". According to the British Library, "Locals insist there are significant differences between Geordie and several other local dialects, such as

Pitmatic __NOTOC__ Pitmatic (originally: "Pitmatical", colloquially known as "Yakka") is a group of traditional Northern English dialects spoken in rural areas of the Northumberland and Durham Coalfield in England. The separating dialectal development ...

and Mackem. Pitmatic is the dialect of the former mining areas in County Durham and around Ashington to the north of Newcastle upon Tyne, while Mackem is used locally to refer to the dialect of the city of Sunderland and the surrounding urban area of Wearside".

Etymology

A number of rival theories explain how the term "Geordie" came about, though all accept that it derives from a familiar diminutive form of the name George, "a very common name among the pitmen" (coal miners) in North East England; indeed, it was once the most popular name for eldest sons in the region. One account traces the name to the times of the

Jacobite Rebellion , war = , image = Prince James Francis Edward Stuart by Louis Gabriel Blanchet.jpg , image_size = 150px , caption = James Francis Edward Stuart, Jacobite claimant between 1701 and 1766 , active ...

of 1715. The Jacobites declared that the natives of Newcastle were staunch supporters of the Hanoverian kings, whose first representative George I reigned (1714–1727) at the time of the 1715 rebellion. Newcastle contrasted with rural Northumberland, which largely supported the Jacobite cause. In this case, the term "Geordie" may have derived from the popular anti-Hanoverian song "

Cam Ye O'er Frae France Cam ye o'er frae France? is a Scots folk song from the time of the Jacobite rebellions of the 18th century. It satirises the marital problems of the Hanoverian George I. Background After the death of Queen Anne the British crown passed on to G ...

?", which calls the first Hanoverian king "Geordie Whelps", a play on "George the Guelph". Another explanation for the name states that local

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face; cutting, blasting, ...

s in the northeast of England used Geordie safety lamps, designed by George Stephenson, known locally as "Geordie the engine-wright", in 1815 rather than the competing

Davy lamp The Davy lamp is a safety lamp for use in flammable atmospheres, invented in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy.Humphry Davy and used in other mining communities. Using the chronological order of two

John Trotter Brockett John Trotter Brockett (1788-1842), was a British attorney, antiquarian, numismatist, and philologist. Life Brockett was born at Witton Gilbert, County Durham. In his early youth his parents moved to Gateshead, and he was educated under the care o ...

books, ''Geordie'' was given to North East pitmen; later he acknowledges that the pitmen also christened their Stephenson lamp ''Geordie''. Linguist Katie Wales also dates the term earlier than does the current '' Oxford English Dictionary''; she observes that ''Geordy'' (or ''Geordie'') was a common name given to coal-mine pitmen in ballads and songs of the region, noting that such usage turns up as early as 1793. It occurs in the titles of two songs by songwriter Joe Wilson: "Geordy, Haud the Bairn" and "Keep your Feet Still, Geordie". Citing such examples as the song "Geordy Black", written by Rowland Harrison of Gateshead, she contends that, as a consequence of popular culture, the miner and the keelman had become icons of the region in the 19th century, and "Geordie" was a label that "affectionately and proudly reflected this," replacing the earlier ballad emblem, the figure of

Bob Crankie Bob, BOB, or B.O.B. may refer to: Places * Mount Bob, New York, United States *Bob Island, Palmer Archipelago, Antarctica People, fictional characters, and named animals *Bob (given name), a list of people and fictional characters *Bob (surname ...

. In the '' English Dialect Dictionary'' of 1900, Joseph Wright gave as his fourth definition of "Geordie": ''A man from Tyneside; a miner; a north-country collier vessel'', quoting two sources from Northumberland, one from East Durham and one from Australia. The source from Durham stated: "In South Tyneside even, this name was applied to the Lower Tyneside men." Newcastle publisher Frank Graham's ''Geordie Dictionary'' states: In Graham's many years of research, the earliest record he found of the term's use dated to 1823 by local

comedian A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing Amusement is the state of experiencing humorous and entertaining events or situations while the person or a ...

Billy Purvis. Purvis had set up a booth at the Newcastle Races on the Town Moor. In an angry tirade against a rival showman, who had hired a young pitman called Tom Johnson to dress as a

clown A clown is a person who performs comedy and arts in a state of open-mindedness using physical comedy, typically while wearing distinct makeup or costuming and reversing folkway-norms. History The most ancient clowns have been found in ...

, Billy cried out to the clown:

(Rough translation: "Oh man, who but a fool would have sold off his furniture and left his wife? Now, you're a fair downright fool, not an artificial fool like Billy Purvis! You're a real Geordie! Go on, man, and hide yourself! Go on and get your picks xesagain. You may do for the city, but never for the west end of our town!")

John Camden Hotten wrote in 1869: "Geordie, general term in Northumberland and Durham for a pitman, or coal-miner. Origin not known; the term has been in use more than a century." Using Hotten as a chronological reference, Geordie has been documented for at least years as a term related to Northumberland and County Durham. The name ''Bad-weather Geordy'' applied to cockle sellers: Travel writer

Scott Dobson Scott Dobson (26 December 1918 – 22 January 1986) was an English art teacher, art critic and writer. His works were influential in North East England. Life He was born Edward Scott Dobson on 26 December 1918 in Blyth, Northumberland, the ...

used the term "Geordieland" in a 1973 guidebook to refer collectively to Northumberland and Durham.

Linguistic surveys

The Survey of English Dialects included Earsdon and Heddon-on-the-Wall in its fieldwork, administering more than 1000 questions to local informants. The

Linguistic Survey of Scotland The Linguistic Survey of Scotland was a long-term project at the University of Edinburgh to cover the use of language in Scotland, including Scottish English, Scots and Scottish Gaelic. The Survey began at a time when the modern subject of linguis ...

included

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

and Northumberland (using pre-1974 boundaries) in its scope, collecting words through postal questionnaires. Tyneside sites included Cullercoats, Earsdon, Forest Hall, Gosforth, Newcastle upon Tyne, Wallsend-on-Tyne and Whitley Bay.

Phonology

The phonemic notation used in this article is based on the set of symbols used by . Other scholars may use different transcriptions. Watt and Allen stated that there were approximately 800,000 people in the early 2000s who spoke this form of British English.

Tyneside English (TE) is spoken in Newcastle upon Tyne, a city of around 260,000 inhabitants in the far north of England, and in the conurbation stretching east and south of Newcastle along the valley of the River Tyne as far as the North Sea. The total population of this conurbation, which also subsumes Gateshead, Jarrow, North and South Shields, Whitley Bay, and Tynemouth, exceeds 800,000.

Consonants

Geordie consonants generally follow those of

Received Pronunciation Received Pronunciation (RP) is the Accent (sociolinguistics), accent traditionally regarded as the Standard language, standard and most Prestige (sociolinguistics), prestigious form of spoken British English. For over a century, there has been ...

, with these unique characteristics as follows: * appearing in an unstressed final syllable of a word (such as in ''reading'') is pronounced as (thus, ''reading'' is ). * The Geordie accent does not use the glottal stop in a usual fashion. It is characterised by a unique type of glottal stops. can all be pronounced simultaneously with a glottal stop after them in Geordie, both at the end of a syllable and sometimes before a weak vowel. ** T-glottalisation, in which is realised by before a syllabic nasal (e.g., ''button'' as ), in absolute final position (''get'' as ), and whenever the is intervocalic so long as the latter vowel is not stressed (''pity'' as ). ** Glottaling in Geordie is known as 'pre-glottalisation', which is 'an occlusion at the appropriate place of articulation and 'glottalisation', usually manifested as a short period of laryngealised voice before and/or after and often also during the stop gap'. This type of glottal is unique to Tyneside English. * Other voiceless

stops Stop may refer to: Places *Stop, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the United States * Stop (Rogatica), a village in Rogatica, Republika Srpska, Bosnia and Herzegovina Facilities * Bus stop * Truck stop, a type of rest stop for truck dri ...

, , are glottally reinforced in medial position, and

preaspirated In phonetics, preaspiration (sometimes spelled pre-aspiration) is a period of voicelessness or aspiration preceding the closure of a voiceless obstruent, basically equivalent to an -like sound preceding the obstruent. In other words, when an obstru ...

in final position. * The dialect is

non-rhotic Rhoticity in English is the pronunciation of the historical rhotic consonant by English speakers. The presence or absence of rhoticity is one of the most prominent distinctions by which varieties of English can be classified. In rhotic varieti ...

, like most British dialects, most commonly as an alveolar approximant , although a labiodental realisation is also growing for younger females (this is also possible by older males, albeit rarer). Traditionally, intrusive R was not present, instead glottalising between boundaries, however is present in newer varieties. * ''Yod''-coalescence in both stressed and unstressed syllables (so that ''dew'' becomes ). * is traditionally clear in all contexts, meaning the velarised allophone is absent. However, modern accents may periodically use in syllable final positions, sometimes it may even be vocalised (as in ''bottle'' ).

Vowels

; Length * For some speakers, vowel length alternates with vowel quality in a very similar way to the Scottish vowel length rule. * Vowel length is phonemic for many speakers of Geordie, meaning that length is often the one and only phonetic difference between and ( and ) or between and ( and ). If older or traditional dialect forms are considered, () also has a phonemic long counterpart , which is mostly used in words spelled with , making minimal pairs such as ''tack'' vs. ''talk'' (less broad Geordie pronunciation: ). Another appears as an allophone of before final voiced consonants in words such as ''lad'' . ; Phonetic quality and phonemic incidence * and , , are typically somewhat closer than in other varieties in morphologically closed syllables; is also less prone to fronting than in other varieties of BrE and its quality is rather close to the cardinal . However, younger women tend to use a central instead. In morphologically open syllables, and are realised as closing diphthongs . This creates minimal pairs such as ''freeze'' vs. ''frees'' and ''bruise'' (hereafter transcribed with for the sake of simplicity) vs. ''brews'' . ** The vowel is tense and is best analysed as belonging to the phoneme. * As other Northern English varieties, Geordie lacks the - split, so that words like ''cut'', ''up'' and ''luck'' have the same phoneme as ''put'', ''sugar'' and ''butcher''. The typical phonetic realisation is unrounded , but it may be hypercorrected to among middle-class (especially female) speakers. * The long close-mid vowels , in and , may be realised as monophthongs in open syllables or as opening diphthongs in closed syllables. Alternatively, can be a closing diphthong and can be centralised to . The opening diphthongs are recessive, as younger speakers reject them in favour of the monophthongal . ** Other, now archaic, realisations of include in ''snow'' and in ''soldiers'' . ** Many female speakers merge with , but the exact phonetic quality of the merged vowel is uncertain. * , , may be phonetically or a higher, unrounded vowel . An RP-like vowel is also possible. ** In older broadest Geordie, merges with to under the influence of a uvular that once followed it (when Geordie was still a rhotic dialect). The fact that the original vowel is never hypercorrected to or suggests that either this merger was never categorical, or that speakers are unusually successful in sorting those vowels out again. * The schwa is often rather open (). It also tends to be longer in duration than the preceding stressed vowel, even if that vowel is phonologically long. Therefore, words such as ''water'' and ''meter'' are pronounced and . This feature is shared with the very conservative (''Upper Crust'') variety of Received Pronunciation. ** Words such as ''voices'' and ''ended'' have in the second syllable (so ), rather than the of RP. That does not mean that Geordie has undergone the

weak vowel In linguistics, and particularly phonology, stress or accent is the relative emphasis or prominence given to a certain syllable in a word or to a certain word in a phrase or sentence. That emphasis is typically caused by such properties as ...

merger because can still be found in some unstressed syllables in place of the more usual . An example of that is the second syllable of ''seven'' , but it can also be pronounced with a simple schwa instead. Certain weak forms also have instead of ; these include ''at'' (homophonous with strong ''it''), ''of'' (nearly homophonous with ''if''), ''as'' (homophonous with strong ''is''), ''can'' and ''us'' (again, homophonous with strong ''is''). * As in other Northern English dialects, the vowel is short in Geordie, thus there is no London-style trap-bath split. There are a small number of exceptions to this rule; for instance, ''half'', ''master'', ''plaster'' and sometimes also ''disaster'' are pronounced with the vowel . * Some speakers unround , , to . Regardless of the rounding, the difference in backness between and is very pronounced, a feature which Geordie shares with RP and some northern and midland cities such as Stoke-on-Trent and Derby, but not with the accents of the middle north. * Older traditional Geordie does not always adhere to the same distributional patters of vowels found in standard varieties of English. Examples of that include the words ''no'' and ''stone'', which may be pronounced and , so with vowels that are best analysed as belonging to the and phonemes. Geordie diphthong chart - part 1

; Diphthongs * The second elements of and , , are commonly as open as the typical Geordie realisation of (). * The first element of , , varies between , and . Traditionally, this whole vowel was a high monophthong (with ''town'' being pronounced close to RP ''toon'') and this pronunciation can still be heard, as can a narrower diphthong (with ''town'' being pronounced close to RP ''tone''). * is , but Geordie speakers generally use a less common allophone for certain environments in accordance with the Scottish vowel length rule, , which has a longer, lower, and more back onset than the main allophone. Thus is used in words such as ''knife'' , whereas is used in ''knives'' . For simplicity, both of them are written with in this article.

Vocabulary

The Geordie dialect shares similarities with other Northern English dialects, as well as with the Scots language (See Rowe 2007, 2009). Dorfy, real name Dorothy Samuelson-Sandvid, was a noted Geordie dialect writer. In her column for the South Shields Gazette, Samuelson-Sandvid attests many samples of Geordie language usage, such as the nouns ''bairn'' ("child") and ''clarts'' ("mud"); the adjectives ''canny'' ("pleasant") and ''clag'' ("sticky"); and the imperative verb phrase ''howay'' ("hurry up!"; "come on!") '' Howay'' is broadly comparable to the invocation "Come on!" or the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

"Allez-y!" ("Go on!"). Examples of common use include ''Howay man!'', meaning "come on" or "hurry up", ''Howay the lads!'' as a term of encouragement for a sports team for example (the players' tunnel at St James' Park has this phrase just above the entrance to the pitch), or ''Ho'way!?'' (with stress on the second syllable) expressing incredulity or disbelief. The literal opposite of this phrase is ''haddaway'' ("go away"); although not as common as ''howay'', it is perhaps most commonly used in the phrase "Haddaway an' shite" (Tom Hadaway, Figure 5.2 Haddaway an' shite; 'Cursing like sleet blackening the buds, raging at the monk of Jarrow scribbling his morality and judgement into a book.'). Another word, ''divvie'' or ''divvy'' ("idiot"), seems to come from the Co-op dividend, or from the two

Davy lamp The Davy lamp is a safety lamp for use in flammable atmospheres, invented in 1815 by Sir Humphry Davy.), and the later better designed Davy designed by Humphry Davy also called the Divvy.) As in a north east miner saying 'Marra, ye keep way from me if ye usin a divvy.' It seems the word divvie then translated to daft lad/lass. Perhaps coming from the fact one would be seen as foolish going down a mine with a Scotch Divvy when there are safer lamps available, like the Geordie, or the Davy. The Geordie word ''

netty Netty may refer to: * Netty (software), a Java project * North East England ( Geordie) dialect for toilet or public convenience *Netty (name) See also * Westoe Netty *Nethy (disambiguation) * Natty (disambiguation) *Netta (disambiguation) *Nett ...

'', meaning a toilet and place of need and necessity for relief or bathroom, has an uncertain origin, though some have theorised that it may come from slang used by Roman soldiers on

Hadrian's Wall Hadrian's Wall ( la, Vallum Aelium), also known as the Roman Wall, Picts' Wall, or ''Vallum Hadriani'' in Latin, is a former defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia, begun in AD 122 in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. R ...

, which may have later become '' gabinetti'' in the

Romance language The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European languages, I ...

Italian (such as in the Westoe Netty, the subject of a famous painting from Bob Olley). However, ''gabbinetto'' is the

Modern Italian Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 m ...

diminutive of ''gabbia'', which actually derives from the Latin '' cavea'' ("hollow", "cavity", "enclosure"), the root of the

loanwords A loanword (also loan word or loan-word) is a word at least partly assimilated from one language (the donor language) into another language. This is in contrast to cognates, which are words in two or more languages that are similar because the ...

that became the Modern English ''cave'', ''cage'', and ''gaol''. Thus, another explanation would be that it comes from a Modern Italian form of the word '' gabinetti'', though only a relatively small number of Italians have migrated to the North of England, mostly during the 19th century. Some etymologists connect the word ''

'' to the Modern English word ''needy''. John Trotter Brockett, writing in 1829 in his ''A glossary of north country words...'', claims that the etymon of ''netty'' (and its related form ''neddy'') is the Modern English ''needy'' and ''need''. Bill Griffiths, in ''A Dictionary of North East Dialect'', points to the earlier form, the

''níd''; he writes: "MS locates a possible early ex. "Robert Hovyngham sall make... at the other end of his house a knyttyng" York 1419, in which case the root could be OE níd 'necessary'". Another related word, ''nessy'' is thought (by Griffiths) to derive from the Modern English "necessary". A poem called "Yam" narrated by author Douglas Kew, demonstrates the usage of a number of Geordie words.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * * * * *

External links

Newcastle English (Geordie)

Sounds Familiar?
�� Listen to examples of Geordie and other regional accents and dialects of the UK on the British Library's 'Sounds Familiar' website

and compare side by side with other accents from the UK and around the World.
The Geordie Directory
– Find out about & learn the Geordie accent
Geordie dialect words
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