In the Beginning
Last week’s post was a brief introduction to what this blog will consist of. This week’s will explore the origin of the Geordie dialect. A dialect that is famous for being energetic, friendly and charming. A dialect that is favoured in call centres. There’s no way you’re about to wage a war against Shelia from Sky … or maybe you would. I don’t really know you that well.
The Geordie dialect will be my primary area of study, but Geordie is just one dialect swimming in a pool of Northern voices. The North East region does not contain just one dialect. There’s the dialects of Northumbria, Wearside, and Durham. Then you can go just a little further south to explore the dialects of South Durham and Teesside. Each of these dialects differentiate from one another. If we collect them together we can think of them as a part of the North Eastern English “Language”.
According to my research, to understand the origins of the North East’s “language” then we must go back to the end of the fourth century. This is a tricky thing to do as time machines have not yet been invented. Luckily we have access to history books.
At this time in Britain, the Romans departed and left the Welsh- speaking Britons of Hadrian’s Wall country vulnerable to raids by the Picts. The Picts were tribal Scots. In return for protection from the Picts the Ancient British people gave land to a group of fierce pagans who became known as Angles and Saxons. The given land is thought to have been the same area that we now call Tyneside.
The Anglo-Saxons were successful in their battles against the Picts but began to covert more than living in the north and turned their attention south. The initial settlement of the north ultimately led to the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Bernicia which evolved into the Kingdom of Northumberland.
The Anglo-Saxon takeover of Britain is a major part of British history. Especially in terms of language. They were the forerunners of modern English but the language they brought went on to be changed with the introduction of Latin, Norman-French and other foreign languages.
My research has told me that the Angles, who originally hailed from southern Denmark, had a stronger influence on the valley of the river Tyne than the Germanic Saxons. And, the North East is the only part of Britain were the Anglo-Saxon’s language has survived to any great extent. The most notable dialects being, Geordie and Northumbrian. A whopping 80% of Geordie words are Angle in origin! If we compare that to Standard English the figure is much lower (30%).
Southern dialects in England are greater in Latin origin. However, just because we don’t speak a language that has not been romanticized by the former lingua franca or the French does not mean that Geordie is in any way sloppy. If anything is an antiquity of British history. A lot of words spoken by the Angles are still in use today.
For example, in Newcastle you might call an old woman an ‘ald wife’ (old wife). The woman you call may not be married, it doesn’t matter. WIFE is being used in place of WOMAN, the Angles also used WIFE in place of WOMAN. And, they used ALD to mean OLD. The pronunciation of most words in Geordie comes from the Angles too. Words like ‘deed’ to mean dead, ‘hoos’ instead of house or ‘strang’ meaning strong is largely owed to the Germanic and Scandinavian stuttering of the Angles.
Sorry for the history lesson. So here’s a joke! It is written as close to Geordie phonics as the alphabet will allow. ... A man with a bad back goes to the doctor. He says “Me back is killing is, doc”. The doctor asks “Can you walk?” The man replies “Walk? Ah cannit even waak”.