Lexical and discourse features

I have researched two of the region's most well-known discourse features: geet/git and canny. I have also studied attitudes towards the sociolinguistic variable mam/mum in the North East.

Canny

Although the word canny occurs in varieties of English around the world, it is particularly associated with Scots and Scottish English. But canny also has a long, well-attested (though perhaps less well-known) history as a feature of dialect in North East England - a history which I have explored and which you can read about in this English Studies article. In addition, I consider the significance of canny as a cultural keyword and explore its usage in contemporary speech, literature and online discourse. The role of canny as an intensifier is also considered in the section on adverbs in my grammar of North East English.

Geet/git

This feature is used in speech (and informal writing) in a variety of interesting ways. It can be an intensifier (functioning much like 'really' or 'very'), as in 'I'm geet lazy'; it is also used as a discourse marker, as in 'She was geet my geet manager in teleclaims'; and it sometimes performs a quotative function, as in 'Stacey was git 'Where's me burger then?'' When people write the word down, it is spelled either <geet> or <git>, and this reflects a perceived difference in pronunciation.

The role of geet/git as an intensifier is also considered in the section on adverbs in my grammar of North East English, while its use as a discourse marker is outlined in more detail here.

Over 140 people across North East England completed a survey on geet/git. I asked people to choose the spelling which best reflected the speech of people in their hometowns. The map shows the geographical distribution of the two variants. Blue markers show locations where the majority of respondents identified /giːɁ/ (spelled <geet>) as the common variant, while /gɪɁ/ (spelled <git>) is indicated by red markers. As you can see, the long vowel is associated with Tyneside and the north, while the short vowel is associated with County Durham and the south.

Mam or mum?

The technological advances associated with Web 2.0 allow people to interact in online ‘communities’ built around shared interests and concerns. I have explored an online messageboard virtually located in North East England, looking at the ways in which participants’ beliefs about and attitudes towards sociolinguistic variation emerge through discourse. In this article in Sociolinguistic Studies I focus on a single ‘conversation’ about the sociolinguistic variable mam/mum, revealing the language ideologies which inform the sociolinguistic awareness of participants, and use the concept of ‘late modernity’ as an interpretive frame to help understand what is happening as people appropriate a global technology for local social action.