Influences

1. Geordien. & adj. Brit. colloq. n. 1 a native of Tyneside. 2 the dialect spoken on Tyneside. adj. of or relating to Tyneside, its people, or its dialect. Oxford Dictionary.

2. Influences • Howay or Haway is broadly comparable to the invocation "Come on!" or the French "Allez!" ("Go on!"). Examples of common use include Howay man! or Haway man!, meaning "come on" or "hurry up", Howay the lads! or Haway the lads! as a term of encouragement for a sports team for example, or Ho'way!? (with stress on the second syllable) expressing incredulity or disbelief. • The literal opposite of this word is "Haddaway" (go away), which is not as popular as Howay, but has found frequent use in the phrase "Haddaway and shite". • The word hyem for "home" is inherited from the Old Norse and "gan hyem" (go home) sounds almost identical to the Danish and Norwegian for go home (gå 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 diminutive of tobacco (which is derived from Spanishtobacco). • 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). • The word gadgie for man (usually a pensioner) is derived from the similar sounding Roma word for a non-Roma.

3. Vowel Sounds • "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"). • 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‘. • Pronunciation of personal pronouns differs markedly from Standard English: Geordies use "yous" [juz] for plural "you", "me" (/mi/) for "my", "uz" (/ʌz/) for "me", "wor" (/wɔ:/) when emphasised) "our", /ʋɔr/

4. alreet (/'a:lri:t/ a variation on alright cannae for 'can not' canny for "pleasant" (the Scottish use of canny is often somewhat less flattering), or to mean 'very'. Someone could therefore be 'canny canny'. geet for "very" , also *muckle (used more in Northumberland) hyem for "home" deek for "look at" kets for "sweets/treats" knaa for "to know/know" divint for "don't" bairn/grandbairn for "child/grandchild" hacky for "dirty" gan for "to go/go" hoy for "to throw" toon for "Town" nettie for "Earth Closet, or toilet" neb for "nose" clart for "mud" as in "there's clarts on yar boots" hadaway for "get away" hinny a term of endearment - "Honey" haad for "hold/ ie keep a hadd/ keep a hold/ had yer gob/ keep quiet" divvie for "stupid person" tab for "cigarette" chor "to steal" chiv for "knife" nowt for "nothing" Dialect

5. Examples • 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 (/wɔk/) again. • Geordie : Work (/wɔk/)? Why man, Aa cannet even waak (/wa:k/)! • Phil Jupitus once told a Geordie joke demonstrating the dialect on an edition of QI about General Custer giving a speech to his troops before the Battle of the Little Big Horn. General Custer says "They've got war drums", at which point a young Geordie says "thieving bastards". He believes the enemy to have stolen their drums, because "war" sounds like "wor" the Geordie expression for "our".