Geordie (/ˈdʒɔːdi/) is a regional nickname for a person from the Tyneside[1] region of the north east of England, or the name of the English-language dialect spoken by its inhabitants. Depending on who is using it, the catchment area for the term "Geordie" can be as large as the whole of North East England, or as small as the city of Newcastle upon Tyne.
In most aspects, Geordie speech is a direct continuation and development of the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxon settlers of this region. They consisted of mercenaries employed by the ancient Brythons to fight the Pictish invaders after the end of Roman rule in Britannia in the 5th century; the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes who thus arrived became, over time, ascendant politically and — through population transfer from tribal homelands in northern Europe — culturally over the native British. The Anglo-Saxon kingdoms that emerged during the Dark Ages spoke largely mutually-intelligible varieties of what is now called Old English, each varying somewhat in phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. This Anglo-Saxon influence on Geordie can be seen today, to the extent that poems by the Anglo-Saxon scholar the Venerable Bede translates more successfully into Geordie than into modern-day English.[2] Thus, in northern England, dominated by the kingdom of Northumbria, was found a distinct "Northumbrian" Old English dialect.
In recent times, "Geordie" has been used to refer to a supporter of Newcastle United football club,[3] despite many Geordies supporting other local teams, and the Newcastle Brown Ale[4] schooner glassware used to serve beer in the United States.
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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,[5] which was "a very common name among the pitmen"[6][7] (coal miners) in the north-east of England; indeed, it was once the most popular name for eldest sons in the region.
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 the popular anti-Hanoverian song "Cam Ye O'er Frae France?",[8] which calls the first Hanoverian king "Geordie Whelps", meaning "George the Guelph".
Another explanation for the name is that local miners in the north east of England used Geordie safety lamps, designed by George Stephenson, known locally as "Geordie the engine-wright",[9] in 1815[10] rather than the competing Davy lamps designed by Humphry Davy which were used in other mining communities. Using the chronological order of two John Trotter Brockett books, Geordie was given to North East pitmen; later he acknowledges that the pitmen also christened their Stephenson lamp Geordie.[6][7]
Linguist Katie Wales[11] also dates the term earlier than does the Oxford English Dictionary; she observes that Geordy or Geordie) was a common name given to coal mine pit-men 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 song-writer Joe Wilson (1841–1875): 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.
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 terms use was in 1823 by 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 on, man, and hide yourself! Go on and get your picks [axes] again. You may do for the city, but never for the west end of our town!")
Graham is backed up historically by John Camden Hotten, who 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.".[12] Geordie has also been documented for at least 180 to 240 years as meaning the whole of the North East of England..
Bad-weather Geordy was a name applied to cockle sellers:
As the season at which cockles are in greatest demand is generally the most stormy in the year - September to March - the sailors' wives at the seaport towns of Northumberland and Durham consider the cry of the cockle man as the harbinger of bad weather, and the sailor, when he hears the cry of 'cockles alive,' in a dark wintry night, concludes that a storm is at hand, and breathes a prayer, backwards, for the soul of Bad-Weather-Geordy.—S. Oliver, Rambles in Northumberland, 1835
Travel writer Scott Dobson used the term "Geordieland" in a 1973 guidebook to refer collectively to Northumberland and Durham.[13]
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",[14] an area that encompasses North Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tyneside and Gateshead.[1][15] However, just as a Cockney is often colloquially defined as someone "born within the sound of the Bow bells", a Geordie can be defined as someone born "within spitting distance of the Tyne".[16] Another interpretation is the North East of England.[13]
People from Sunderland have been nicknamed Mackems in recent generations. However, the earliest known recorded use of the term found by an Oxford English Dictionary/BBC Two public "wordhunt"[17][18] occurred as late as 1988.[19]
| English diaphone | Geordie phoneme | Example |
|---|---|---|
| /æ/ | a~ɑ | back |
| /ɑː/ | ɒː | father |
| /ɒ/ | ɒ | top |
| /ɔː/ | ɔː | thaw |
| /ə/ | ə | attack |
| /ɨ/ | ə | wasted |
| /ɪ/ | ɪ, ɪ̈ | hit |
| /iː/ | iː | feet |
| /eɪ/ | eː, ɪə | rain |
| /ɛ/ | ɛ | dress |
| /ɜr/ | øː, ʊː | first |
| /ər/ | a | master |
| /ʌ/ | ʊ | strut |
| /ʊ/ | ʊ | foot |
| /uː/ | (ɪ)u | glue |
| /aɪ/ | ɛɪ | shine |
| /aɪt/ | (ə)iːt | night |
| /ɔɪ/ | ɛɪ, ɛi | choice |
| /oʊ/ | oː, ɵː, ʊə | goat |
| /oʊld/ | aːld | cold |
| /aʊ/ | əʊ | now |
| /ɑr/ | ɒː | barn |
| /ɪər/ | ɪa | fear |
| /ɛər/ | ɛa, eː | chair |
| /ɔr/ | ɔː | north |
| /ʊər/ | ʊa | poor |
Geordie consonants generally follow those of Received Pronunciation. Some phonological characteristics specific to Geordie are listed as follows:
Geordie has a large amount of vocabulary not heard elsewhere in England. In a newspaper survey, the Geordie accent was found to be the "most attractive in England".[20]
Words still in common use by Geordie dialect speakers today include:
howay or haway is broadly comparable to the invocation "Come on!" or the French "Allez-y!" ("Go on!"). Examples of common use include Howay man! or Haway man!, meaning "come on" or "hurry up", Howay the lads! or Haway 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.[23] The literal opposite of this word is "haddaway" (go away), which is not as popular as "howay", but has found frequent use 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.’[24]).
Divvie or divvy seems to come from the Co-op dividend,[25] or from the two Davy lamps (the more dangerous explosive Scotch Davy[26] used in 1850, commission disapproved of its use in 1886 (inventor not known, nicknamed Scotch Davy probably given by miners after the Davy lamp was made perhaps by north east miners who used the Stephenson Lamp[10][27]), and the later better designed Davy designed by Humphry Davy also called the Divvy.[28]) 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,[29] meaning a toilet and place of need and necessity for relief[29][30][31] or bathroom,[29][30][31] has an uncertain origin,[32] though some have theorised that it may come from slang used by Roman soldiers on Hadrian's Wall,[33] which may have later become gabinetti in the Romanic Italian language[33] (such as in the Westoe Netty, the subject of a famous painting from Bob Olley[33][34]). However gabbinetto is the Modern Italian diminutive of gabbia, which actually derives from the Latin cavea ("hollow", "cavity", "enclosure"), the root of the loanwords that became the Modern English cave,[1] cage,[2] and gaol.[3] Thus, another explanation would be that it comes from a Modern Romanic Italian form of the word gabinetti,[32] though only a relatively small number of Italians have migrated to the North of England, mostly during the 19th century.[35]
Some etymologists connect the word netty to the Modern English word needy. John Trotter Brockett, writing in 1829 in his A glossary of north country words...,[31] claims that the etymon of netty (and its related form neddy) is the Modern English needy[4] and need.[5]
Bill Griffiths, in A Dictionary of North East Dialect, points to the earlier form, the Old English 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'".[30] Another related word, nessy is thought (by Griffiths) to derive from the Modern English "necessary".[30]
A poem called "Yam" narrated by author Douglas Kew, demonstrates the usage of a lot of Geordie words.[36][37]
In recent times, the Geordie dialect has featured prominently in the British media due to its alien dialect to much of the population but also its friendly appeal. Television presenters such as Ant and Dec are now happy to use their natural accents on air.[38] 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[39] and Sid Waddell[40] have both worked as television sports commentators. Cheryl Cole, a member of Girls Aloud and judge on The X Factor, has a Geordie accent,[41] she says that she's "proud to be Geordie!" as does Joe McElderry the winner of X Factor 2009.[41] In May 2011 Cheryl Cole was let go from the American version of the X Factor because its "producers feared the American audience would not understand her Geordie accent."[42] while hosting during a May 2011 taping of Britain's Got Talent, another popular Geordie Dec Donnelly made an apparent attempt to stand up for Cole by asking "Can you understand my accent?" .[42]
The song 'Why Aye Man' is also a popular Geordie song by Mark Knopfler.
The dialect was also popularized by the comic magazine Viz, where the dialect is often conveyed phonetically by unusual spellings within the comic strips. Viz magazine was founded on Tyneside by two locals, 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 referring to Michael at one point as 'just the Work Geordie'.
The movie Goal!, which stars Kuno Becker and Alessandro Nivola, prominently exposes the Newcastle football club, as well as exposing the Geordies and their dialect.
Mike Neville and George House (aka Jarge Hoose), presenters of the BBC local news programme Look North, in the 1960s and 1970s, not only incorporated Geordie into the show, albeit usually in comedy pieces pointing up the gulf between ordinary Geordies and officials speaking Standard English, but were responsible for a series of recordings, beginning with Larn Yersel' Geordie[43] which attempted, not always seriously, to bring the Geordie dialect to the rest of England.
The creator of Larn Yersel' Geordie was local humorist Scott Dobson,[44] who wrote several booklets on the theme in the early 1970s, including History O' the Geordies,[45] Advanced Geordie Palaver,[46][47] The Geordie Joke Book (with Dick Irwin)[48] and The Little Broon Book (Bringing out The New Little Broon Book in 1990[49]).
The Jocks and the Geordies was a Dandy comic strip running from 1975 to the early 1990s.
In the lyrics of the song "Sailing to Philadelphia" by Mark Knopfler, Jeremiah Dixon describes himself as a "Geordie boy. Jeremiah Dixon, surveyor of the Mason-Dixon line".[50] Knopfler also includes a "Geordie" reference in the song "5:15 AM," from the album Shangri-La: "the bandit man / came up the great north road / up to geordieland / to mine the motherlode." In an earlier live album and video, Alchemy: Dire Straits Live, the band are seen in a pub - on the wall hangs a scoreboard for darts featuring "Geordies" vs. "All Others."
Dorfy, real name Dorothy Samuelson-Sandvid, was a noted Geordie dialect writer who once wrote for the South Shields Gazette.[51][52][53][54][55]
Auf Wiedersehen, Pet was a popular fictional British comedy-drama series about a group of seven British migrant construction workers:[56][57] Wayne, Dennis, Oz, Bomber, Barry, Neville and Moxey, who, in Series 1, are living and working on a German building site. Three of the seven were Geordies. Dennis Patterson (played by Tim Healy) comes from Birtley Co. Durham; Leonard "Oz" Osborne (played by Jimmy Nail) comes from Gateshead; and Neville Hope (played by Kevin Whately) comes from North Shields.
The Hairy Bikers' Cookbook with Geordie Simon King and Dave Myers. The duo's lifestyle TV show is a mixture of cookery and travelogue.[58]
In 1974, Alan Price’s Jarrow song reached number one in the old RNI International Service, and number 4 in the UK charts, which brought to the attention once again of the Jarrow March.[59]
The character Detective Inspector Robert "Robbie" Lewis (formerly Detective Sergeant) in the long-running ITV series Inspector Morse is a self-described Geordie-- although not a "professional" one. His speech variety serves as a foil to Morse's pedantry and RP.
On the arts program "Aria and Pasta," the Northumbrian opera singer Sir Thomas Allen (who retains some Geordie vowels in his speech) described the dish he prepared as "Geordie Pasta."
The character "Geordie Georgie", as portrayed by Catherine Tate in her eponymous TV show, is a Geordie, complete with a thick affected accent, and is portrayed regularly taking part in (mostly ridiculously ambitious) sponsored events for a North East based charity - the charity in question usually has a website with an outrageous domain name, for instance, the site for the charity she supports for battered husbands is "www.chinnedbythemissus.co.uk". The sketches usually conclude with her remonstrating her co-worker Martin, sometimes by violent means, for his apparent non-support of her charitable crusades.[60]
There is a new MTV Show called "Geordie Shore"...a spin-off of "Jersey Shore".