Posted by Quintal on August 19, 2007, at 16:16:42
In reply to Re: Do we actually know one another at all? » Quintal, posted by Meri-Tuuli on August 19, 2007, at 4:21:25
I think I'd better redirect this to Social lest I stand accused of hijacking the thread.
It's called Mackem, apparently from the ship-building days of the Tyneside docks, explained more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mackem
I think that Yorkshire Ripper tape was exposed as a hoax in the 80s because people in Sunderland recognized the Mackem accent, but of course cops in London and Yorkshire mistook it for Geordie. So that's your helping of Quintal's useless trivia for today.
>Now, I don't have an accent - its simply a matter of survival - nobody would understand me if I were to put on a proper accent either!
I put on a standard English accent when I'm speaking to people outside my village - it's the same thing, most people just wouldn't understand me if I spoke with the full accent. I've never really spoken the dialect, but my dad does, as do most other people over a certain age. In fact he sometimes struggles to express himself in standard English. It reminds me a bit of the Welsh and the Irish with their Gaelic, the younger ones are sort of bilingual aren't they? Yet some of their elders have only a basic grasp of English. I think most people of my age round here grew up understanding the dialect, but they only speak it to take the piss out of their elders. It's done tongue in cheek on certain occasions but not really used for everyday speech.
My accent wanders really, it changes considerably depending on who I'm talking to. Around 'posh' people it sounds very coarse and I feel slightly embarrassed of it, my friend who went to Uni (even though it was Newcastle University) felt the same way and she made a great effort to change it. To people from my own area I'm considered a bit 'hoyty-toyty', but if you could hear them talk you'd understand that nearly anything would sound posh in comparison.
>Anyway, where does the name georgie come from? Is it related to the fact that its in England, thus St George stuff? Hmmm. Hey, where does the accent change - I have a friend from Selkirk and he has a fine borders accent. There must be like a place with a scottish/georgie hybrid accent comes in? Somewhere like Jedburgh? Nah, thats borders land. Hmmm.
As usual, Wiki explains it better than I:
____________________________________________________Geordie generally refers to a person from the Tyneside region in northeast England, in particular the city of Newcastle and the adjacent areas, or to the dialect of English spoken by these people. Geordie has many, many various references of from Newspapers to video footage of originally representing the whole of the northeast for at least the last 180 years.
'Outside this region, the term Geordie is the popular choice in referring to anyone from the North East, although this may now be incorrect to some people, the people of Sunderland inparticular may find this offensive.'
When referring to the people, as opposed to the dialect, a definition of a Geordie is "someone born or brought up around the River Tyne communities" so this means North Tyneside (Wallsend, North Shields, Whitley Bay) (Walker), South Tyneside (Jarrow, Hebburn, South Shields, Boldon), Gateshead, Newcastle, etc. 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 three miles of the church of St Mary-le-Bow on Cheapside, the Geordie definition, by some, has been taken to mean only Tyneside. Another interpretation includes former areas of County Durham and Northumberland, including Ryton, Washington, etc. It must be noted that this particular defination of around the Tyne communities was not always the case, as Geordie has been documented for at least 180 years as meaning the whole of the North East of England. Though over the past 15 years people from Sunderland have accepted the term Mackem.
Geordie arguably derives much less influence from Old French and Latin than does Standard English, being substantially Angle tribe and Danish Viking in origin. The accent and pronunciation, as in Lowland Scots known as "Inglis", reflect more clearly old Angle pronunciations, accents and usages. There are also some pre-Anglo Saxon Brythonic influences as well. For example, Geordies are more likely to say "mam" (/mæm/) than the usual English "mum" (/mʌm/) or the more Gaelic "ma".
'Geordie' is widely perceived as one of the most distinctive (and, by outsiders, incomprehensible) of English accents. Citizens of Newcastle and the surrounding area have been accused of exaggerating their distinctive dialect for comic effect, or to bamboozle non-Geordies.
Pronunciation of personal pronouns differs markedly from Standard English: Geordies use "yous" (IPA: [juz]) for plural "you", "me" (/mi/) for "my", "uz" (/ʌz/) for "me", "wor" (/wɔ:/) when emphasised) "our", which probably comes from the Scandinavian word "vår" /ʋɔr/meaning "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 (which probably derives from the Angle word "man" meaning "person"), as in "howay man" (meaning "come on you"), or even "howay man woman"! Another common variant (which usually causes complete confusion to non-Geordies) is the phrase "How man woman man!" (which is used to either get someone's attention or, more commonly, express exasperation at the subject)
Vowel sounds are also quite unusual.
* "er" on the end of words becomes "a" (/æ/) ("father" is pronounced "fatha", both "a" sounds as in "hat").
* Many "a" sounds become more like "e" (/ɛ/): "hev" (/hɛv/) for "have" and "thet" for "that".
* Double vowels are often pronounced separately as diphthongs: "boat" becomes (/buət/) and "bait" becomes (/biʲət/).
* Some words acquire extra vowels e.g "growel" (/groʊʷɛl/) for "growl", "cannet" (/kænɛt/) for "can't"). This property of the dialect has led Geordie to be known for putting as many vowels as possible into a word.
* The "or" sound in words like "talk" becomes "aa" (/a:/ or /æ:/) hence "walk" becomes "waak" (/wa:k/ or /wæ:k/).
* "er" sounds in words like "work" becomes "or" (/wɔ:k/).
* The "ow" in words like "down" or, most famously, "town" becomes "oo" (/u:/), hence "the Toon" meaning 'the town' (Newcastle). In Sunderland which is on Wearside estuary, the "oo" in words like "cook", "book" or "look" becomes "uu" (/ʏ/), although this accent has come to be known as Mackem, not Geordie. This does, however, apply to some extent on some Geordie accents, with the exception of the word "look". A common phrase that Geordies utter to illustrate this when discussing their accent with non-Geordies is "Captain Hook's cook book".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geordie
__________________________________________________Someone said that the Mackem accent clips I posted were unintelligible, so I found some more that might just be decipherable to foreigners. As usual they contain strong language from the outset, and are not suitable for people who are easily offended, but others may find them 'entertaining'.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kt7g9D24f9II love the lyrics of the music on this one(!):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f26-y523wIs&mode=related&search=I was watching this spoof video of Mel B yesterday and reminded me of how you (mis?)-pronounce 'sell' 'sen' in Yorkshire:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMSU7KWR6cA&mode=related&search=
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44Pm-lmlorY&mode=related&search=Q
poster:Quintal
thread:777106
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20070803/msgs/777106.html