GEORDIE

GEORDIE
1. A native of the North-East of ENGLAND in and around the city of Newcastle upon Tyne (Tyneside), an area often referred to informally as Geordieland.

2. The variety of working-class speech in that area, deriving ultimately from NORTHUMBRIAN, one of the three divisions of OLD ENGLISH, and in many ways closer to SCOTS than to YORKSHIRE dialect.

3. The term is often loosely applied to all people in the North-East of England and their speech. This can sometimes cause offence to non-Tynesiders, such as the people of Wearside and Middlesbrough.

Pronunciation

(1) Geordie is non-rhotic and the only urban accent of England in which initial h is not dropped. (2) The glottal stop occurs with /p, t, k/ in syllable-final position and sometimes initially before a weak vowel, as in caper, city, local. Phoneticians disagree as to whether the glottal stop precedes or follows the consonant. (3) There is a clear /1/ in all positions. (4) The uvular r, known as the Durham or Northumberland BURR, was once common but is now in decline, having been widely regarded and treated as a speech defect. The pronunciation of r is now generally dental, alveolar, or post-alveolar, but the burr has left a legacy in broad Geordie, in which certain vowels are pronounced as if still followed by the burr: cure as ‘kyooah’, nurse as ‘noahss’. (5) Commonly, there is an /a:/ vowel in such words as all, talk, walk, war. Geordie walk sounds to non-Geordies like ‘waak’, and work like ‘walk’. A joke recounts how a man went to his doctor because of a painful knee. The doctor bandaged it and asked: ‘Do you think you can walk now?’ The man replied: ‘Work? I can hardly walk!’ (6) There is an /o/ or /oə/ in such words as don't, goat, know, told. (7) The vowel in such words as down, town ranges from the /u/ of Scots doun, toun to its RP value. (8) The closing vowel in words like bonny and happy is /i/ (‘bonnee’, ‘happee’). (9) There is often a low rising tone in statements, making them seem tentative or like questions to non-Geordies.

Syntax, vocabulary, and usage

(1) A traditional Aa where standard English has I (Aa doan't know), comparable to Ah in Scots. (2) A traditional but now sporadic use of negative -na rather than not or -n't, as in Aa canna bide you chap I can't stand that chap, comparable to Scots and Ulster Scots -nae/-na/-ny. (3) The form diven't is a traditional alternative to don't: I diven't do nothin' I don't do anything. (4) Common forms of address include bonny lad (to a man or boy), bonny lass (to a woman or girl), hinny (honey: to a woman, girl, man, or boy): How there, bonny lass? How are you, dear? (5) Geordie shares many words with Scots and ScoE: bairn child, bonny fine, good-looking (used of women and men), canny steady and cautious (but with a local nuance of good, kind, and gentle). See DIALECT IN ENGLAND, L-SOUNDS, NORTHERN ENGLISH.