INSERTs

[i:]

According to the OED, ee [i:] - which it categorises as English regional (northern) - is chiefly used in speech or recorded speech 'to express a range of emotions or responses, both positive (pleasure, eagerness, surprise, etc.) and negative (doubt, consternation, dismay, etc.), as indicated contextually or by intonation.' It is a widely heard interjection in NEE, occurring with various degrees of vowel lengthening. This is captured orthographically in RTG.

(1) Ee I was creased the other day watching Come Dine With Me Couples (2015)

(2) Eee man, it’s ten o’clock and not a bairn’s been weshed (2019)

(3) Eeee, you’re good at this (2016)

(4) Eeeee well fuck me (2019)

(5) Eeeeee!! I never knew that! (2015)

(6) Eeeeeee a was there tonight hinny pet (2019)

Heslop defines ‘EE!’ as ‘an expression of delight or wonderment’ (1892: 263), though in current NEE speech its pragmatic range is much wider than that (meaning can vary according to pitch, intonation, volume, and so on). Heslop includes it (spelled <eee>) in an extraordinary list of items under the heading of EXCLAMATIONS (268-270). Most of these are no longer to be heard (e.g. ‘smash me hoggers!’; ‘boodyankers!’; ‘od’s fish!’) but some are still current, including how! (considered below in the section on greetings and attention getters) and hadaway.

Hadaway

First recorded by Brockett in 1825, hadaway, which is derived from hold + away (OED), is described by Heslop as ‘equivalent to begone’, or as an ‘exhortation of encouragement, equal to “go on,” “hold on”’ (1893: 352). Both meanings are preserved in RTG, though the first predominates, particularly in figurative use to convey disapproval of a belief or opinion.

(7) Hadaway man she’s lush! (2014)

(8) Hadaway and shite man (2019)

(9) Hadaway and bollocks man (2011)

(10) “Areet pet, hadaway in inside. You want a cuppa tea leek?” (2014)

Howay/haway

Related to hadaway is howay/haway, which combines how + way (OED). Heslop claims ‘howay is equivalent to come’ (1893: 352), though more accurately it should be seen as having a similar pragmatic effect to the exhortation come on!, which is how it is mainly used in RTG. Example 11 is one of the most characteristic chants to be heard at Sunderland AFC games, while 'Howay the Lads' is similarly popular amongst fans of Newcastle United FC. The variation in spelling reflects a widespread perceptual association of howay with Newcastle and haway with Sunderland (see Pearce 2012).

(11) Haway the Lads (2018)

(12) Haway then predictions for tomorrow? (2020)

(13) Haway Ross sort it out (2019)

(14) Haway man, get a grip (2020)

(15) Howay man is this you? (2020)

As well as <howay/haway>, other orthographic variants include <ho'way> and <ha'way>, with the latter used in the spelling out of the phrase using white seats against a background of red seats at the Stadium of Light.

The sociolinguist Julia Snell has a fascinating article which explores how howay is deployed strategically in the discourse of children on Teesside to construct a particular kind of working-class identity (Snell 2017).

How

Heslop records ‘how!’ as a greeting, ‘used alone, or in the very common salutation “How there, marra?” or “How there, lads?” (1893: 389). The respellings in the following RTG examples indicate either an [u:] vowel or a diphthong, perhaps in the region of [əu].

(1) Hoo Birch Lad! (2012)

(2) hoo there bally lad, still mad? (2012)

(3) Hew Ravers and Electro music heeds (2020)

(4) hew lad, whats that owa there in tha field? (2013)

(5) Hew marra you better watch your tone and language (2019)

The monophthong preserves the vowel found in OE hū.

All right

This greeting/response form is widespread in colloquial British English, but in NEE it usually takes the form areet or alreet. The spelling <-ee-> represents the survival of a pronunciation from an earlier period. The modern <gh> indicates that in words such as right, night and light there was once an /h/ phoneme, realised as [ç]. During the Middle Ages, the /h/ was lost, and the preceding vowel was lengthened in compensation. This means that spellings such as <reet> and <neet> reflect a pronunciation – [iː] – that was once general in English but which is now only preserved in certain dialects of Scotland and northern England, including NEE.

(6) Areet marra (2015)

(7) Alreet mate. Where ya been? (2018)

(See also vocatives below.)

'Yes'

The most distinctive positive response form to a yes-no question in NEE is aye. In SED, informants were asked ‘If I asked you: Have you met that man, you could say …’ (Orton and Halliday 1963: 965-966). For all locations in Du and Nb, aye was recorded (sometimes in the phrase ‘why aye’). The form remains in widespread use (particularly in northern England and Scotland), and is common in RTG.

(1) Aye that was class (2015)

(2) Aye I would, why wouldn’t you? (2015)

(3) Aye, I think it’s open at the minute (2019)

The phrase ‘why aye’ can be used as a forceful positive response, with a similar pragmatic force to ‘of course!’.

(4) last few places I’ve left I’ve asked if they’d have me back, feels canny good when they say why aye (2020)

Why aye has become a stereotype of NEE, with strong perceptual links to Newcastle, even though as a marker of assent used to 'lubricate the flow of discourse' (Wales 2010: 76) it is heard across the region.

Aye is first attested in English in the sixteenth century. Its origins are uncertain, though the fact that it is first spelled <I> suggests that it could derive from the pronoun I used as an expression of assent in response to a question. OED offers three further possibilities: a borrowing from Frisian ay/ajj (colloquial 'yes') in the context of trade or seafaring; a combination of the interjection ah plus yea; a semantic development of ay meaning ‘ever’. However, there is no incontrovertible evidence to support any of these theories. Brockett (1825: 63-64) describes it as ‘perhaps more characteristic of a Northern dialect than any other word that could be named, as it is nearly universal and uniform’.

'No'

As far as negative response forms are concerned, NEE generally coincides with SE no. But sometimes forms in -a, variously spelled <na, nah, nar, etc.> appear on RTG, reflecting pronunciations such as [na ~ na:], which are attested in the SED for Du and Nb (Orton and Halliday 1963: 966). This is an older, northern form (no emerged in Middle English as a result of the rounding of Old English long ā in southern and midland dialects, while northern dialects preserved the OE form na).

(5) I’ll be honest i nearly said ‘na, forget that’ (2012)

(6) Nah, never heard any Mackem say that like (2019)

(7) Am garna mak em an offer ee cannit say nar tee like (2017)

Northumberland Words (Heslop 1893: 491) attests to the presence of this form.

NA, no (negative adverb). The a very short, as in cat, pat, hat, etc. "Are ye gan win us?" "Na."

The syntax of negation (including contractions) is dealt with here.