Geordie
This article is about the dialect. For other uses, see Geordie (disambiguation).Geordie refers to a person from the
Tyneside region of
England and the adjacent areas, or to the
dialect spoken by these people. To many outside the NE region, the term Geordie is (incorrectly) used to describe anyone from the North East.
When referring to people (as opposed to the dialect) the traditional definition of a Geordie is "someone born within sight of the River Tyne" (akin to the way a
Cockney is defined as "someone born within hearing distance of the
Bow bells"). As the
Cockney definition has been taken to mean within 3 miles of the church of
St Mary-le-Bow on
Cheapside, the Geordie definition has been loosely taken to mean any location on actual
Tyneside. The strictest interpretations are that to be called a Geordie, a person must be born within the boundaires of the city of
Newcastle (between
Wylam in the west and
Wallsend in the east) or at least in areas on the north bank of the River
Tyne (also including
North Shields and
Tynemouth). A looser interpretation includes former areas of County Durham on the south bank of the
Tyne, including
Ryton,
Blaydon,
Gateshead,
Hebburn,
Jarrow and
South Shields.
There are a number of rival theories to explain how the term came about, though all accept that it derives from a familiar diminutive form of the name "George". In recent times "Geordie" has also been used to refer to a supporter of
Newcastle United football club.
Until the early 1980s, people from
Sunderland were sometimes loosely included under the Geordie banner, however, the evolution of the term
Mackem originating in the shipyards and the mainly football-based rivalry between Newcastle and Sunderland has seen the latter no longer included under the definition. It is to be noted this rivalry extends beyond football, extending back to Newcastle and Sunderland being on opposite sides during the English Civil War.
Other
Northern English dialects include:
*
Pitmatic (spoken in
Durham)
*
Tyke (Yorkshire)
*
Scouse (spoken in
Merseyside)
*
Mackem (spoken in
Sunderland)
*
Teesside (spoken in
Middlesbrough)
One explanation is that it was established during the
Jacobite Rebellion of
1745. The Jacobites declared that the natives of Newcastle were staunch supporters of the
Hanoverian kings, in particular of
George II during the 1745 rebellion. This contrasted with rural
Northumbria, which largely supported the Jacobite cause. If true, the term may have derived from a popular anti-Hanoverian song (
"Cam ye ower frae France?"), which calls the first Hanoverian king "Geordie Whelps", meaning "George the
Guelph".
An alternative explanation for the name is that local
miners used
"Geordie" safety lamps, designed by
George Stephenson in 1815, rather than the "
Davy lamps" designed by
Humphry Davy which were used in other mining communities.
Newcastle publisher Frank Graham's
Geordie Dictionary states:
"The origin of the word Geordie has been a matter of much discussion and controversy. All the explanations are fanciful and not a single piece of genuine evidence has ever been produced."In Graham's many years of research, the earliest record he has found of the term's use was in
1823 by the famous local
comedian, 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, Billy cried out to the clown:
"Ah man, wee but a feul wad hae sold off his furnitor and left his wife. Noo, yor a fair doon reet feul, not an artificial feul like Billy Purvis! Thous a real Geordie! gan man an hide thysel! gan an' get thy picks agyen. Thou may de for the city, but never for the west end o' wor toon." : (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, man, and hide yourself! Go and get your pick (axes) again. You may do for the city, but never for the west end of our town!")
Judging by this account,
Geordie meant "fool" in 1823.
Although the dialect of
North East of England is called Geordie, the term "Geordie" is often incorrectly used to cover all the peoples of the region, though this usage is generally confined to people from other parts of the
United Kingdom, and can be considered an insult by North-Easterners who do not come from Tyneside, due to intense
local rivalries.
To North-Easterners, the term exclusively refers to persons from Tyneside; other terms have come into use for neighbouring regions. Some of these originated within the last two decades. People from
Wearside have been termed
Mackems; people from
Hartlepool are known as
Monkey hangers, whilst natives of the
Teesside conurbation are generally referred to as
Smoggies. Also, people from
South Shields, on the south side of the
Tyne, yet on the historical
County Durham side, are called
Sandancers, often described as having a stronger accent than their cousins, and sometime foes, from Newcastle. People from the countryside in between these urban areas are generally referred to as 'farm yackers' or 'pit yackers' (particularly in Northumberland around the Ashington area).
Geordie derives much less influence from
French and
Latin than does
Standard English, being substantially
Angle and
Viking in origin. The accent and pronunciation, as in
Lowland Scots, reflect old
Anglo-Saxon pronunciations, accents and usages.
Pronunciation of personal pronouns differs markedly from Standard English: Geordies use "yous" () for plural "you", "me" () for "my", "uz" () for "me", "wor" for "our". The word "wor" is sometimes placed before the given name of the person being the subject of conversation to denote that they are a family member, for example "wor Allan" or "wor da" (father). It is also quite common for Geordies to use the word "man" for both men and women, as in "howay man" (meaning "come on you"), or even "howay man woman"!
Vowel sounds are also quite unusual.
*"er" on the end of words becomes "a" () ("father" is pronounced "fatha", both "a" sounds as in "hat").
*Many "a" sounds become more like "e": "hev" for "have" and "thet" for "that".
*Double vowels are often pronounced separately as diphthongs: "boat" becomes "boh-ut" and "boot" becomes "bee-yut".
*Some words acquire extra vowels ("growel" for "growl", "cannet" for "can't"). This property of the dialect has led Geordie to be known for
putting as many vowels as possible into a word.
*The "or" sound in words like "talk" becomes "aa" ("walk" becomes "waak"),
*"er" sounds in words like "work" becomes "or".
*The "ow" in words like "down" or, most famously, "town" becomes "oo", hence "the Toon" meaning
Newcastle. (In Wearside, the "oo" in words like "cook", "book" or "look" becomes "uu", although this accent has come to be known as
Mackem, not Geordie.)
A Geordie joke that illustrates some of the above goes as follows:
Doctor to Geordie in wheelchair : You've made good progress and now it's time to try to walk again.:Geordie : Work? Why man, Aa cannet even waak!
Vocabulary
Geordie also has a large amount of
vocabulary not heard elsewhere in England, though some are shared with (or similar to) Scots. Words still in common use today include:
canny for "pleasant" (the Scottish use of canny is often somewhat less flattering),
hyem for "home",
deeky for "look at",
ket for "sweets/treats",
knaa for "to know/know",
divn't for "don't",
bairn/grandbairn for "child/grandchild",
hacky for "dirty",
gan for "to go/go".
toon for "Town"
Howay is broadly comparable to the invocation "Come on!" or the
French "Allez!" ("Go on!"). Examples of common use include
Howay man!, meaning "come on" or "hurry up",
Howay the lads! as an encouragement for a sports team, or
Ho'way!? (with stress on the second syllable) expressing incredulity or disbelief. The word
hyem for "home" is inherited from the
Old Norse language and "gan hyem" (go home) sounds almost identical to the danish for go home (
gan hjem). The word
tab for "cigarette" is thought to derive either from
Ogden's Tabs, a once-popular
cigarette brand, or more simply as a diminuation of
tobacco (which is derived from
Spanish tabaco).
Geordie commonly uses the word
aye meaning "yes", like most Scots and northern English dialects. By contrast, a Geordie might say
na for an emphatic or dismissive "no".
Much of the vocabulary contains elements inherited from
Old English that have been lost in Standard English, as the north was comparatively less affected by the
Norman conquest. Pronouncing Old English with a Geordie‐like accent, rather than the more commonly recommended
German, results in a form more comprehensible to those with knowledge of the meaning of Geordie vocabulary. When a Geordie uses the word
larn for teach, it is not a misuse of the English word "learn" as often thought; the word is derived from the
Anglo Saxon word
læran, meaning "to teach" (compare German
lehren with identical meaning).
In Standard English, where one would say "to be able", in Geordie, "te can" (from
Old English "cunnan", "to know") is used in its place. Though "can" is used in Standard English, it does not appear there in infinitive form.
It is said that the
Roma influenced some of the Geordies' words eg.
charva is an old word meaning child in Roma and has been used by Geordies to describe troublesome people for some time. Since the 1980s however
charva has taken on a separate meaning of a distinct part of popular culture and in the late 1990s the word spread to the south where it was adapted to
chav.
The word
gadgie for man is derived from the similar sounding Roma word for a non-Roma. The word for dog is
jugal which, again, derives from the Roma word originally meaning
jackal. There is a high percentage of people with Roma origins in the North East.
Newcastle hosts a large travelling
fair,
the "Hoppings", which has been held annually on the
Town Moor every year for over a century. Although organised by, and attended by travelling
showmen, there are a number of
Roma at the main entrance to the fair.
The region also has seen Italian immigration, particularly in the 19th century. As a consequence, some slang words like
netty, meaning a toilet or bathroom, have been linked to a corresponding Italian word, in this case
cabinetti.
"Geordie" is also sometimes used to describe the distinctive dialect of the people of
Northumbria. However strictly speaking, South East Northumberland (the
mining area bordering Tyneside) has its own similar, but distinctive dialect known as
Pitmatic.
In recent times, the Geordie accent has featured prominently in the British media, arguably more so than ever before, perhaps encouraged by the success of
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in the early
1980s. Note however, that although the accent appears, the dialect is toned down for comprehension of the general (non-northumbrian) public.
Television presenters such as
Ant and Dec are now happy to use their natural accents on air.
Marcus Bentley, the
commentator on the UK edition of
Big Brother, is often perceived by southerners to have a Geordie accent (North-East accents do sound very alike to the untuned ear). However, he grew up in
Stockton on Tees.
Brendan Foster and
Sid Waddell have both worked as television sports commentators. However, in general, the Geordie accent still tends to be employed for comedy effect as opposed to serious usage.
The accent was also popularised by the
comic magazine Viz, where the accent itself is often conveyed phonetically by unusual spellings within the comic strips.
Viz magazine itself was founded on Tyneside by a couple of Geordie lads,
Chris Donald and his brother
Simon.
Mention must also be made of the pioneering efforts of Newcastle natives
Mike Neville and
George House (aka
Jarge Hoose), presenters of the
BBC local news programme
Look North in the 1960s and 1970s. Not only did they incorporate Geordie into the show, albeit usually in comedy pieces pointing up the gulf between ordinary Geordies and officials speaking
Standard English, but they were responsible for a series of recordings, beginning with
Larn Yersel' Geordie which attempted, not always seriously, to bring the Geordie dialect to the rest of England.
The mastermind behind
Larn Yersel' Geordie was local humourist Scott Dobson, who wrote several booklets on the theme in the early 1970s, including
Histry o' the Geordies,
Advanced Geordie Palaver,
The Geordie Joke Book (with Dick Irwin),
The Little Broon Book.
:See also:
List of people from Newcastle and
Famous people from Sunderland*
Donna Air, actress and television presenter
*
Sir Thomas Allen, opera singer
*
Ant and Dec, television presenters
*
William George Armstrong, 1st Baron Armstrong, engineer and arms manufacturer
*
Peter Beardsley, footballer
*
Thomas Bewick, artist/engraver
*
Owen Brannigan, classical bass-baritone and voice of
Newcastle Brown Ale TV Adverts
*
Lancelot 'Capability' Brown, landscape gardener
*
Eric Burdon, musician (
The Animals)
*
Chas Chandler, musician (The Animals), record producer, manager (
Jimi Hendrix Experience,
Slade)
*
Bobby and
Jack Charlton, footballers
*
Henry 'Harry' Clasper, rower
*
Lord Collingwood, Napoleonic Admiral
*
Catherine Cookson, author
*
Steve Cram MBE, athlete and broadcaster
*
Grace Darling, heroine
*
Chris and
Simon Donald, co-founders of
Viz magazine
*
Bryan Ferry, musician (
Roxy Music)
*
Brendan Foster, athlete and founder of the
Great North Run*
Paul Gascoigne (Gazza), footballer
*
Alex Glasgow, singer and songwriter
*
Daniel Gooch, engineer and politician
*
Robson Green, actor
*
Tim Healy, actor
*
George House, TV presenter
*
Brian Johnson,
AC/DC singer
*
Mark Knopfler, musician (
Dire Straits and solo)
*
Ian La Frenais, writer
*
Hank Marvin, musician (
The Shadows)
*
Jayne Middlemiss, television presenter
*
Jackie Milburn, footballer
*
Jimmy Nail, actor and singer
*
Mike Neville, journalist, author and TV presenter.
*
Ross Noble, comedian
*
Wavis O'Shave, musician and comedian
*
Alan Price, musician (The Animals, Alan Price Set,
et al)
*
Geordie Ridley,
music hall comedian and composer of "
the Blaydon Races"
*
Bobby Robson, former footballer and
England manager, adopted Geordie.
*
Claire Rutter, opera singer
*
Ridley and
Tony Scott, film directors
*
Sting, actor and musician (
The Police and solo)
*
Alan Shearer, footballer
*
Paul Smith, singer (
Maximo Park)
*
George Stephenson,
engineer*
Dave Stewart, musician (
Eurythmics)
*
Bob Stokoe, footballer, F.A. Cup winning manager
*
Andy Taylor, musician (
Duran Duran)
*
Peter Taylor, Baron Taylor of Gosforth, late
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales*
Neil Tennant, musician (
Pet Shop Boys)
*
Bobby Thompson, comedian ("The Little Waster")
*
Cheryl Tweedy, musician (
Girls Aloud)
*
Basil Cardinal Hume, spiritual leader of the Roman Catholic Church
*
Bruce Welch, musician (The Shadows)
*
Denise Welch, actress (
Coronation Street)
*
Chris Waddle, footballer, from
Tow Law,
County Durham*
Sid Waddell,
darts commentator
*
Kevin Whately, actor
*
John Woodvine, actor
*
Harry Woolf, Baron Woolf, former
Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales*
Northumbria Language Society - The Language*
Newcastle English (Geordie)*
Northumberland County Council - The Northumbrian Language*
Geordie slang dictionary*
Dialect Poems from the English regions*
The British Library's Myers Project, about North-East England*
Mawson Wareham - Newcastle record label (classical, folk, comedy etc, mainly by Northeastern performers)
