Not only have Newcastle residents accommodated somewhat to the norms of Standard English, but the Geordie accent has become better known to the rest of the country through television series such as "The Likely Lads" and "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" and the cult movie "Get Carter. The relationship between the local dialect and standard English, like in other parts of Britain, has not always been comfortable.
Nonstandard pronunciation and grammatical forms have been widely proscribed in school classes, and speakers of the dialect themselves will often express a view that their language is substandard or bad. Until very recently, there has been no educated role model on radio or television, and many people from the area feel that they are discriminated against on the basis of the way they speak. This is not unique to people from the Newcastle region, of course, but publicity over a couple of recent events has highlighted these problems.
The failure of an exceptionally well-qualified applicant from a Tyneside comprehensive school to negotiate an interview for Oxford University received wide publicity, including accusations of elitism from the Chancellor Gordon Brown, and other ministers in the labour government.
Similarly, the rustication of a Geordie female officer cadet from the British Army's Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst renewed suspicion that accent may still be a cause of discrimination, although this was strongly denied by the Sandhurst administration. The officer cadet in question claimed that fellow cadets taunted her with shouts of Whey aye, man!
She also alleges that she was warned that Geordie speech patterns such as sentence-final "like" were not becoming of an officer and should be eliminated from her speech.
Nowadays, many educated Geordies, especially in the urban area, have a wider degree of competence in both standard and nonstandard speech so that, depending on context, they have a range of forms at their disposal. Generally, the more informal the context, the greater the number of dialect features. There are also signs of a growing pride in the distinctive nature of the dialect, with Geordie dictionaries, versions of bible stories and so on, appearing on the market, even if somewhat self-deprecating in tone.
There are also bumper stickers with humorous messages such as Divn't dunsh us, I'm a Geordie! For more background information, check out the following websites:. People in the North-east will often tell you that a lot of Geordie words come from "Scandinavian.
Words such as lop 'louse or its egg', bowk 'belch', hoppings 'fairground', ket 'rubbish' and worm 'monster' have been suggested as Anglo-Saxon survivals. Invaders from further north, known popularly as "Vikings", probably had a greater influence on the language further south in Durham and Yorkshire. Geordie language is, in fact, quite closely allied to Lowland Scottish, although the exact etymology of many words of the area is still not fully understood.
The following words, typically used around Tyneside and Northumberland, do appear to have currency further north into the Scottish Lowlands:. The common word galluses meaning 'braces to hold up the trousers', seems to have reached not only Scotland but parts of the US as well. Other typical Geordie words are also found further south, and appear to be part of a general Northern English lexicon:. What, then, can be considered truly Geordie words?
The following do seem typical of the area, although it may well turn out that they are known outside the area as well. The word canny is widely used in Geordie with a variety of meanings, including adverbial 'very'. Varnigh is in common use, meaning 'almost', or 'very nearly'. Other dialect words such as penker 'marble' and plodge 'wade through mud' may have an onomatopoeic element, while a Romani origin has been suggested for some words such as gadgie 'chap' and baari 'excellent'.
I have also seen references to an alleged Romani borrowing jugal 'dog', although I have never heard the word used in speech. Some indigenous terms are well known from local songs or legends, but may not often be heard in conversation today. Examples are singing hinny 'a kind of pancake', worm 'monster', mazer 'an eccentric', girdle cake 'another pancake'.
Most consonant sounds are similar to those of Standard English. The most notable exception is the famous "burr" or uvular r sound, roughly similar to the French pronunciation of "r". We will process your information in accordance with our data policy, more details of which can be found on our privacy statement. In future we would like to contact you with relevant information on our courses, facilities and events.
Please confirm you are happy to receive this information and indicate below how you would like us to communicate with you. Please note, this will overwrite any previous communication preferences you may have already specified to us. Phone Email SMS. Thank you for registering your interest. We will call you to follow up on your enquiry. Invented in Newcastle, the Southerners changed it. Wey Aye - Yes! Used when you really want to emphasise something; "Do you want to go for a drink?
Wey Aye man! Workie Ticket - Someone who's misbehaving. Usually used for kids. Clamming for me bait - hungry for my food. Giz a snout mate - Can I have a cigarette Here man, he's giving is hackies - he's looking at me funny Shy bairns get nowt - shy children get nothing Divvent get is wrang pet - don't get me wrong Areet wor kid? Share Facebook Twitter Pinterest Email. January 04, — craig finnigan Tags: Geordie sayings.
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