Focusing on Tyne and Wear

FOOT vowel in <-ook>

'Newcastle' <buck, buk, boouk> 

'Sunderland' <bewk, boook, lewk, boowk>

The vowel in words ending in orthographic <-ook> is typically [ʊ] (e.g. RP). But in some accents of northern English, words with <-ook> in the spelling are pronounced with a long back vowel [uː]. The perceptual consensus here associates the shortened vowel with Newcastle and the unshortened vowel with Sunderland. Production evidence points to [ʊ] as the more widespread vowel, with some speakers (particularly to the south of the region) preserving the more traditional [uː] in these words (see Llamas 2001, cited in Burbano-Elizondo 2008: 285).

GOOSE vowel

'Newcastle' <skule, school, schoooool> 

'Sunderland' <scuel, skuil, schewel, scooell, skewel, skuool>

A common perception is that the ‘typical’ Newcastle pronunciation is the monophthong [u:] (or perhaps longer), whereas <schewl>, <scuel> etc. are attempts to capture a contrasting realization believed to be characteristic of Sunderland speech. One possible interpretation of these spellings is that this vowel is perceived as realized in Sunderland as a diphthong. Burbano-Elizondo (2008: 292) reports on a categorical use of the monophthong [uː] in her sample from the DECTE corpus. A monophthong was also very common amongst her Sunderland speakers, but it was frequently more fronted, approaching either [ʉː] or [Y:] or very occasionally [ɵ:]. Diphthongal realizations were very rare, but interestingly 40% of these occurred in the word ‘school’. It appears that there is some production evidence to support the claim that a ‘non-[u:]’ GOOSE vowel – particularly in the word ‘school’ – is a marker of Sunderland speech.

MOUTH vowel

'Newcastle' <toon, tuun, toooon, doon, broon, aboot, hoose> 

'Sunderland' <tawn, dawn, pouund>

Respondents offer a range of respellings to exemplify the pre-GVS [uː] in the MOUTH vowel, which is associated with Newcastle. In contrast, respondents generally use standard spelling to show Sunderland pronunciations. Standard spelling implies a diphthong, as might the semi-phonetic respellings. In contemporary North East English, [uː] is widely regarded as a traditional Tyneside pronunciation which Beal (2000: 348) maintains is limited to a small range of lexical items in specific contexts (in particular ‘Toon’ for the city of Newcastle, not ‘towns’ in general). Contemporary production evidence from the MMB points to the diphthongs [əʊ], [aʊ] and [ɛʊ] in fact being quite widespread (Pearce 2009: 179-184).

Initial [h]

'Sunderland' <at, oover, ula oops, ere, howls>

The presence or absence of initial [h] was an issue for some respondents. Beal (2000:352) suggests that “h-dropping is a shibboleth of Makkem speech”, and is salient mainly because Tyneside, unusually for an urban accent in England, is associated with [h] retention (Hughes et al. 2005:66). There is some production evidence to support this. The SED shows that County Durham was an area where [h] was variably dropped (although it was retained in Northumberland), and MMB data associates ‘h-dropping’ with south west County Durham and a narrow coastal strip extending as far north as Sunderland (Pearce 2009:183). Interestingly, Burbano-Elizondo’s research shows that despite its high perceptual salience, h-dropping appears not to be as common in Sunderland as might be expected, although it is more common than on Tyneside (2008: 215-16).

The vowel in 'make' and 'take'

'Newcastle' <maik, taik, myak, tyak>

'Sunderland' <mak, mack, tak, tack, makem, mackem, takem, tackem>

The prominence of ‘make’ and ‘take’ is due to familiarity with the phrase ‘We mak ‘em, you tak ‘em’ and its variants, which is widely believed to be the origin of the term ‘Mackem’ for a native of Sunderland or Wearside. Throughout the north of England, the vowel in the FACE lexical set – to which ‘make’ and ‘take’ belong – is [e:]. But respellings associate the vowel [a] with Sunderland. Spellings for Newcastle pronunciations include standard ones (suggesting ‘mainstream’ [eː]), together with some which perhaps point to a diphthongal realization of the vowel. SED evidence suggests [a] is more frequently found in County Durham than it is in Northumberland, whereas diphthongal realizations are more common in Northumberland (Orton and Halliday 1963: 1008-1011); MMB recordings also point to diphthongal realizations in Tyneside and south east Northumberland.

FLEECE vowel

'Newcastle' <greeen, cappucceeno, jeens>

'Sunderland' <grein, cappucceino, jeins>

The mainstream vowel in the north of England is [i:]. But some respondents perceive divergence from this pronunciation (mainly in Sunderland but also in Newcastle). The respellings of ‘green’, ‘cappuccino’ and ‘jeans’ suggest a diphthongal realization of the vowel. In the LAE, maps record diphthongal realizations such as [ɛi], for the vowel in ‘green’ and ‘cheese’ for locations in the south east of County Durham, which perhaps supports the idea of a diphthong associated with Sunderland speakers.

LETTER and COMMA

'Newcastle' <computa, Peetaah, Amaandaah, borga>

'Sunderland' <compewter>

The quality of the unstressed vowel in the final syllable of words such as ‘letter’ and ‘comma’ is regarded as a marker of Newcastle/Tyneside speech by some respondents. Spellings such as <-aah> for the final syllable in ‘Peter’ and <-a> in ‘computer’ rather than <-er> are perhaps attempts to suggest an open vowel, rather than the more close vowel which is found in most non-rhotic varieties of English (RP has [ə], for example). Wells describes this ‘Geordie’ vowel as [ɑ~ɛ] (1982: 376).

GOAT vowel

'Newcastle' <lifeburt, herm>

Two respondents imply that the vowel in the GOAT set might distinguish Newcastle/Northumberland speech from Sunderland speech. The spellings <bert> for ‘boat’ and <herm> for ‘home’ suggest a centralized monophthong [ɵː]. The MMB evidence points to the presence of this variant only in locations north of the Tyne, thus supporting this perception. Elsewhere, the ‘mainstream’ northern variant [oː] is prevalent.

NURSE vowel

'Newcastle' <korb, borga>

One respondent respells ‘curb’ <korb> and ‘burger’ <borga> to represent Newcastle pronunciations of the vowel. This vowel is generally [øː] in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear, but [ɔː] – to which these respellings correspond – is recorded for Byker in Newcastle.

Possessive determiners

'Newcastle'  wor (our)

'Sunderland' our

There were several comments about perceived contrasting possessive determiner use. Most commonly, wor is associated with Newcastle and our (which is also the Standard English form) associated with Sunderland. Wales calls wor “a characteristic feature of present-day urban Geordie” (2006: 185). It is recorded for all the SED respondents in locations in Northumberland, and there is use of wor and our in County Durham, Lancashire and Yorkshire, suggesting that wor was once more widespread in the north of England (Orton and Halliday 1963: 960-61).

Object pronouns

'Newcastle'  we   wer  (us/me)

'Sunderland'  yous

A contrast is claimed for second person object pronouns: they [Newcastle speakers] say ‘with wer’ instead of ‘with us’ ; ‘With we’ (Newcastle and South Shields) instead of ‘with us/me’ (Sunderland). Here, pronoun exchange is regarded as a feature of Tyneside speech. Such an exchange is not evident in the SED materials for Northumberland or County Durham, but DECTE contains several instances of pronoun exchange in this particular prepositional phrase (e.g. ‘she still keeps in touch with we’; ‘there was the little one in with we’). Also, one respondent claims that the morphological variant yous (as in ‘I’ll clout yous both in a minute’) is more Sunderland.

Wh-words

'Sunderland'  whee, whey (who)  weez, wees, wheez, we’s (whose)

Contrasts were claimed for contexts where Standard English has who and whose. Sunderland is identified as a place associated with [wiː] and [wiːz]. The SED shows that [hwi:], [wi:], [hwi:z] and [wi:z] were historically widespread across the North East – but with a tendency towards aspiration north of the Tyne (Orton and Halliday 1963: 1078-79). As with wor it seems that a historically widespread form has become more limited in its perceptual associations (but this time the older form is associated with Sunderland rather than Newcastle).

Primary verbs

'Newcastle'  doing, divent, divnt (don’t)

'Sunderland'  deing (doing) dinnit, deent (don’t)

Variation in the verb do is also noted, particularly when it occurs with the negation clitic. Forms with [dɪv] are associated with Newcastle, and [dɪ] and [di:] with Sunderland. In the SED, when equivalents of SE ‘I don’t know’ were elicited, v-forms such as [dɪvənt] were recorded across Northumberland and the north of County Durham, whereas [dɪnt] and [dɪnət] occur in the rest of the county.

An account of the morphology and syntax of North East English can be found here.

Inserts

'Newcastle'   aye (yes); na, ner, nor (no); alreet (all right); howay (come on)

'Sunderland'  nar (no); a’reet (all right); haway, ha’way (come on) 

The SED shows aye forms (particularly [aɪ]) as widespread across the region (Orton and Halliday 1963: 965-66), and aye also occurs in transcripts of recordings Burbano-Elizondo made of her Sunderland respondents (2008: 162-63). A greater variety of negative response forms are mentioned by respondents, with some respellings associated with Newcastle. Some respondents associate howay with Newcastle and haway with Sunderland. The term has a wide variety of meanings/functions depending on context, the most common probably being an exclamatory exhortation to act (where Standard English has ‘come on!’). The respellings point to a different vowel quality in the first syllable. A contrast is also claimed in relation to the greeting/response form ‘all right’. In both versions, the vowel is the pre-GVS [i:], rather than a diphthong and the distinguishing feature is the presence or absence of [l].

Terms of address/endearments

'Newcastle'   mate, pet

'Sunderland'  marra, marrah; kiddar, kidda

Some respondents associate particular terms of address/endearments with the two cities. Sunderland has kiddar, marrow/marra; Newcastle has mate and pet. Production evidence points to a wider distribution for these terms, with SED showing both marrow and mate in locations in both counties, and the term kiddar also widely found (Griffiths 2005: 99).

Lexical nouns and verbs

'Newcastle'  yem (home); peeve (alcohol); gan (go), gannin, ganin, gannen, gannin’ (going), ganna (gonna)

'Sunderland'  peyet (head); clays, claes (clothes); kets (sweets); gawn, garn (going); doll off  (play truant); plodge (paddle/wade); pagger (break)

With these nouns there is evidence to suggest a wider distribution than is being claimed by respondents. For example, the SED records variants of claes in all locations in Northumberland and County Durham; and yem (pronounced [jɛm] or occasionally [jam]) is also generally found. Kets and doll off are described by Burbano-Elizondo as possible localized variants “distinguishing Sunderland English from Tyneside English” (2008: 164). Neither is present in the SED, although ket meaning rubbish is recorded for Northumberland and County Durham (Orton and Halliday 1963: 472). Peyet (‘pate’) for head is recorded in EDD (Wright 1905) and distributed widely across northern England, but the diphthongized pronunciation is associated with Northumberland. Gan is recorded for Scotland and the north of England in EDD. Its present-day distribution is, in England, limited to the North East (but within the region it is quite widespread – see Griffiths 2005: 65). Similarly, EDD records plodge in Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland and Yorkshire. Griffiths records this as being “in common use” in the North East (2005: 133). The term ‘paggered’ is not recorded in any academic studies of North East English, but anecdotal evidence suggests it is used across the region as a synonym for drunk/injured.

There's more on the dialect lexis of the region here.