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Geordie

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This article is about the dialect. For other uses, see Geordie (disambiguation).
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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:

Contents

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!")
Judging by this account, Geordie meant "fool" in 1823.

Geographical coverage

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).

The Geordie dialect

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" 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.

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: 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 Scottish 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.

Geordie in the media

In recent times, the Geordie accent has featured prominently in the national media, arguably more so than ever before, perhaps encouraged by the success of Auf Wiedersehen, Pet in the early 1980s. Television presenters such as Ant and Dec, and Marcus Bentley, are now happy to use their natural accents on air. 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.

Famous Geordies

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

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