Geordie

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This article is about the people and dialect of Tyneside. For other uses, see Geordie (disambiguation).
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Geordie refers to a person from the Tyneside region in north east England, in particular the city of Newcastle and the adjacent areas, or to the dialect of English spoken by these people. Outside this region, the term Geordie is the popular choice in referring to 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" so this traditionally meant South Tyneside (Jarrow, Hebburn, South Shields), Gateshead, Newcastle etc. 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 three miles of the church of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside, the Geordie definition -by some- has been taken to mean any location on actual Tyneside. A looser interpretation includes former areas of County Durham, including Ryton, Washington etc.

A number of rival theories 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 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 slightly less included under the definition. It is to be noted this rivalry extends beyond football, since Newcastle and Sunderland opposed each other during the English Civil War (see Tyne-Wear rivalry).

Other Northern English dialects include:

Contents

[edit] Derivation of the term

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!")

[edit] Geographical coverage

Although the dialect of North East of England is often referred to as Geordie the term "Geordie" is, to some, 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 slightly incorrect by some North-Easterners who do may not come from Tyneside and the surrounding areas.

To many North-Easterners opinions, the term refers to persons from Tyneside, western Co Durham and Northumberland meaning Gateshead, South Tyneside (Jarrow, Boldon, South Shields, etc.) and Newcastle etc.; other terms have come into use for neighbouring regions. Some historians believe the true Geordies come from south of the Tyne as the North bank supported the Jacobite cause while the South bank were Geordies men. Some of these terms originated within the last two decades:

People from Sunderland have been termed Mackems over the past 20years. They used to call themselves Geordies, some still do feeling others have hijacked the name;

Some people from Hartlepool like to be 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, are called Sandancers by some, though this has nothing to do with their accent as they are Geordies. If you look at history, the people -in the main- from South Tyneside are descendants from people from the metropolitan Gateshead and Newcastle (a respectful note must go to the small number of migrants from Scotland and Ireland who I'm excluding here), people who at around the beginning of the industrial revolution about 1850s and 1860s all the way up to the early 20th centuary moved up river to work in ship yards and coal mines. They are often described as having a stronger Geordie accent than their cousins from North Shields, Wallsend, Gateshead, Newcastle et al. Regarding the term Sandancer, the term Sandancer comes from the 1930s, when some Arab immigrants moved to South Shields and could not find work. So hence in order to pay their way and get digs, through poverty, they'd 'sand dance' in the sand dunes on South Shields beach for money. People outside South Shields noticed this and jumped to label and thought it was a kind of racist freak show slavery. So hence the South Shields populous got the name 'Sanddancers.' However over time when people forgot about the slanderous racist connotations of the term, the term become endearing to the populous. So hence they are sand dancing Geordies;

Some people from the countryside in between these urban areas are by some referred to as 'pit yacks' Northumberland around the Ashington and Cramlington area), again though this has nothing to do with their accent as in the main they are Geordie.

[edit] The Geordie dialect

ə This article contains only non-IPA pronunciation information which should be expanded with the International Phonetic Alphabet.
For assistance, see Wikipedia:Manual of Style (pronunciation).

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" (IPA: [juəz]) for plural "you", "me" (/mi/) for "my", "uz" (/ʌz/) for "me", "wor" ("oor/ooa" when emphasised) 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" (/æ/) ("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 "bait" 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!

Phil Jupitus also told a Geordie joke demonstrating the dialect on an edition of QI about General Custer giving a speech to his troops before the Battle of the Little Big Horn. General Custer says "They've got war drums", at which point a young Geordie says "thieving bastards". He believes the enemy to have stolen their drums, because "war" sounds like "wor" the Geordie expression for "our".

[edit] Vocabulary

Look up category:Geordie in
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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:

  • alreet a variation on alright
  • canny for "pleasant" (the Scottish use of canny is often somewhat less flattering)
  • hyem for "home"
  • deek for "look at"
  • kets for "sweets/treats"
  • knaa for "to know/know"
  • divnt for "don't"
  • bairn/grandbairn for "child/grandchild"
  • hacky for "dirty"
  • gan for "to go/go"
  • hoy for "to throw"
  • toon for "Town"
  • nettie for "Earth Closet, or toilet"
  • clart for "mud" as in "there's clarts on yar boots"
  • hadaway for "get away"
  • hinny for "a term of endearment"
  • haad for "hold/ ie keep a hadd/ keep a hold/ had yer gob/ keep quiet"
  • divvie for "stupid person"
  • tab for "cigarette"
  • chor "to steal"
  • chiv for "knife"

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 and Norwegian for go home (gå 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 tobacco).

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". "A Wudnt Nah Like" is also a popular phrase meaning "I don't Know," while a common term amongst Geordies in the Ryton and Blaydon area to sight disbelief is "Pure Well Aye" or "well na", meaning that something is obvious. It is also used in the North Shields, Tynemouth, and Wallsend area.

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 since the late 1990s the word chav, with the same etymology and definition as charva, has gained common usage nationally, particularly in the South-East. The Spanish word chaval, meaning young man, has the same root.

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[citation needed].

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.

[edit] Geordie in the media

In recent times, the Geordie dialect 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 dialect 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 dialect on air. Marcus Bentley, the commentator on the UK edition of Big Brother, is often perceived by southerners to have a Geordie dialect 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 dialect still tends to be employed for comedy effect as opposed to serious usage.

The dialect was also popularised by the comic magazine Viz, where the dialect itself is often conveyed phonetically by unusual spellings within the comic strips. Viz magazine itself was founded on Tyneside by two local males, Chris Donald and his brother Simon.

The Steve Coogan-helmed BBC comedy I'm Alan Partridge featured a Geordie named Michael (Simon Greenall) as the primary supporting character and de facto best friend of the eponymous hero, despite Partridge's typically snobbish and patronising demeanour sinking to new lows when referring to Michael (at one point referring to him as 'just the Work Geordie').

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) and The Little Broon Book.

The Jocks and the Geordies was a Dandy comic strip running from 1975 to the early 1990s.

[edit] Famous Geordies

See also: List of people from Newcastle and Famous people from Sunderland

[edit] External links

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