A perceptual dialect map of North East England

The perceptual landscape

The method used to derive perceptual dialect areas and boundaries is a modified version of the ‘little arrows’ technique, which was used in the earliest perceptual studies carried out in the Low Countries (see Goeman 1989/1999: 138-139). A questionnaire was devised which asked respondents to consider fifty-one locations across the North East of England (see Figure 1 location key). Participants were asked to think about the speech of people in each of these places, assessing the extent of its similarity to or difference from the speech of people in their own hometown. The responses of each participant from each location were scored. A judgment that people in location A speak ‘the same’ as people from the respondents hometown were scored 1, while judgments that people in location A speak ‘completely differently’ were scored 6. Scores of 2, 3, 4 and 5 were given to intermediate judgments. To convert the scores into a map, completed questionnaires were grouped according to the hometowns of the respondents. Then, for each of the hometown locations with five or more respondents, the median judgment score for each of the fifty other questionnaire locations was calculated. The scores are converted into arrows linking locations (see Figure 1). A thick arrow represents a median score between 1 and 1.5 (‘the same’); a thinner arrow represents a median score between 2 and 2.5 (‘very similar’). ‘Reciprocal’ links are shown with a two-headed arrow.

The little arrow mapping exercise reveals a perceptual landscape consisting of three broad areas (‘sectors’) which can be further subdivided into smaller perceptual ‘zones’.

Sectors and zones

The northern sector

• This sector contains the south east Northumberland coastal plain, together with the entirety of Tyneside, a conurbation of some 880,000 people (2001 census), with Newcastle at its heart.
• It is a perceptual linguistic area corresponding closely to the borders of “Geordieland,” as popularly understood. Beal, for instance, in her discussion of “where 'Geordies' consider their homeland to be,” claims that, beyond Newcastle, “Geordies can be found throughout Northumberland and even in the northern part of the old County Durham, at least in Gateshead and South Shields” (2004: 34).
• The Tyne seems to be of particular significance in popular conceptions of Geordie territory, and the quantitative findings appear to confirm the Tyne’s centrality. Of the 21 locations in the northern sector, 16 lie within five kilometers of the river’s urban reaches. But it is noteworthy that there are fewer northern sector locations south of the Tyne than north of it, suggesting that Geordie territory remains more strongly associated with “old” Northumberland than it does with “old” County Durham.
• There is also some correlation between the shape and extent of the northern sector and current political boundaries. All the locations in the sector either lie within Northumberland or the metropolitan county of Tyne and Wear. Indeed, of the five metropolitan boroughs constituting Tyne and Wear, only Sunderland lies outside the northern sector, and it is the only one that is not contiguous with the River Tyne.
• People’s dynamic interactions might also have a role to play in influencing the shape and extent of perceptual areas. Mooney and Carling (2006: 5), in their analysis of regional economic flows associated with work, shopping, and leisure, report that Tyneside’s “catchment areas … tend to stretch a long way to the north, but rather less far to the south.” Furthermore, they maintain that the River Tyne acts as a barrier for all types of flows, singling out the limited interaction “between South Tyneside and North Tyneside, despite their obvious geographical proximity” (at its narrowest the river is 200 meters wide between North and South Shields). The economic “catchment” of Tyneside described by Mooney and Carling corresponds quite closely with the shape of the northern sector.

The central sector

• This sector is roughly coterminous with County Durham and the Wear portion of Tyne and Wear (the metropolitan borough of Sunderland).
• In the east is the Durham limestone plateau, a low upland area containing most of the East Durham coalfield. It is roughly triangular in shape with its apex on the coast near South Shields, and its base running from Darlington to Hartlepool (Aalen & Muir 2006:213).
• In the west, bordering on the Pennines, is the Durham coalfield Pennine fringe. Between them is a narrow area of low-lying land which contains the north-south stretch of the River Wear and also carries the main north-south transport links in the region (the A1(M) road and the high-speed railway link between Edinburgh and London).
• As with the northern sector, there is a correspondence between the sector’s shape and political areas. This is especially so in the south where the perceptual boundary follows quite closely the border between County Durham and Tees Valley.
• The sector is made up of three first-level perceptual zones. Zone D consists of eleven linked locations, mainly on the Sunderland and Durham coast, but extending inland as far as Houghton-Le-Spring. Nearly all of these locations lie on the east Durham plateau. Indeed, the western boundary of the zone corresponds roughly with the plateau’s prominent western escarpment. All the locations, with the exception of Washington, lie to the east and south of the Wear, and to the east of the A1(M). The locations share a common industrial heritage. The influence of coalmining on both the physical and internal mental landscapes of County Durham has been enormous. By 1911 there were 152,000 miners in County Durham – 30 percent of total employment (McCord 1979:117). Mooney and Carling (2006:5) suggest that, despite the last mine in east Durham closing in 1994, the self-contained and somewhat insular nature of these communities persists, resulting in limited economic flows outwith the area. This insularity is perhaps reflected in respondents’ perceptions of dialect (note the dense network of arrows linking locations in Zone D).

The southern sector

• This sector is divided from the central sector by a boundary that roughly follows the political border dividing the unitary authorities of Hartlepool, Middlesbrough, Stockton-on-Tees, and Darlington from County Durham. The five locations in this sector are situated in the Tees lowlands, a broad plain through which the River Tees meanders.
• The Tees is often regarded by dialectologists as of significance in delimiting dialect areas in the north (Wales 2006: 17, 42), and historically the river formed the boundary between County Durham and Yorkshire. Some respondents from the southern sector refer to the Yorkshire element in their perceptions of dialect: In south Durham we get a bit influenced by Yorkshire; People south of Middlesbrough … sound proper Yorkshire types. It appears that these respondents see themselves as occupying a transitional area between the North East and Yorkshire, and this is reflected in their perceptions of dialect.
• Such perceptions are probably being reinforced by patterns of economic flow: Mooney and Carling (2006: 27) identify “clear links between parts of the south of the region and North Yorkshire.”
• There is only one first-level zone within the southern sector, formed by the link between Billingham and Stockton-on-Tees. That these locations should be so closely linked perceptually is probably a consequence of their proximity, their position north of the Tees in the Stockton unitary authority, and a shared heritage of heavy industry (which is now in decline).

An account of the perceptual dialectology of Tyne and Wear can be found here.

References

Aalen, Fred and Richard Muir. 2006. Mosaic of Landscapes. In England’s Landscape: The North East, edited by Fred Aalen and Colm O’Brien, 201-224. London: Collins.

Beal, Joan. 2004. “Geordie Nation”: Language and Regional Identity in the Northeast of England. Lore and Language 17, 33-48.

Goeman, A.C.M. 1999/1989. Dialects and the Subjective Judgments of Speakers: Remarks on Controversial Methods, trans. Betsy E. Evans. In The Handbook of Perceptual Dialectology, vol.1., edited by Dennis Preston, 135-44. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

McCord, Norman. 1979. North East England: The Region’s Development 1760-1960. London: Batsford.

Mooney, John and Jon Carling. 2006. Spatial Analysis of Economic Flows in North East England. North East Regional Information Partnership. www.nerip.com.

Wales, Katie. 2006. Northern English: A Cultural and Social History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.