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Featured book
See
if your a Geordie with this great new Quiz book. 500 Questions
over 10 themed sections!
Viz
Presents: Roger's Profanisaurus
A
dictionary of swearin from the famous Viz team, straight frem Nycassel.
New
Geordie Dictionary
Geordie
Dictionary(Frank Graham)
English
Accents and Dialects
Introductory
survey of the main regional and social varieties of English spoken
in the British Isles. Accent and dialect in the broader framework
of language variation
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| Whats
a Geordie you may be asking yourself, in essence its them canny fowk
from the North East of England sometimes wrongly but not surprisingly
mistaken for Scots or Irish.
One
opinion is that the name was born in the Jacobite Rebellion of 1745,
when the Jacobites bypassed Newcastle, which, as well as favouring
the Hanoverian King George, was also a well-guarded garrison. The
Jacobites then said that Newcastle and the surrounding areas were
all "for George". Hence the name Geordies.
Another probable school of thought thinks the name originated
from the coal mines of Durham and Northumberland, for many poems
and songs written about and in the dialect of these two counties
speak of the "Geordie". The Oxford English Dictionary
states that the word has two meanings: a guinea (which had the figure
of St. George on it) and a pitman. Whilst the name was applicable
to coal-miners it later became applicable to Tynesiders in general.
The third possible origin is from George Stephenson, who
in 1815 invented the miners' lamp. The Northumberland miners used
this lamp in preference to that invented by Sir Humphrey Davy at
the same time, and the lamp, and eventually, the miners themselves
became known as Geordies.
The last possible explanation also derives from George Stephenson.
In 1826, he gave evidence to a Parliamentary Commission on Railways
at which his blunt speech and dialect drew contemptuous sneers.
From that date, it is said that Londoners began to call the Keelmen
who carried coal from the Tyne to the Thames "Geordie".
Who is permitted to call himself a Geordie? Again there are various
viewpoints. Originally, it would appear that the name applied only
to miners (origin 2 and 3), Keelmen (origin 4) or inhabitants of
Newcastle (origin 1). Later it became applied to members of the
Tyneside Community at large. Nowadays, it would seem that anyone
in Northumberland, Co. Durham or Tyne and Wear can call themselves
"Geordie".
Links:
The
Northumbrian Association
ICNewcastle (news from The
Journal/Chronicle)
Newcastle City Council
Tyne Online
BBC - Tyne
The North East
For information on the yes campaign for a North East Assembly:
English to Geordie Translator, a humorous conversion of English
language to Geordie dialect
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