Where Does Newcastle's Geordie Dialect Come From?

The Geordie accent is one of the most well-known accents from the United Kingdom. Even some of the dialect words and phrases have become well known such as "howay man" and "wey aye." In this video I'll be looking at the origins of the Geordie dialect, looking at influences from Northumbrian Old English, Old Norse, Dutch, Scots, Romani and more.
0:00 - Intro
0:30 - Northumbrian Old English
3:39 - Old Norse Words In Geordie
6:17 - Middle English and French
7:57 - Newcastle: Jacobites and Geordies
7:25 - Germanic, Romance and Greek
9:55 - Dutch Influence In Geordie(?)
11:52 - Industrialisation and Immigration
15:05 - Romani Influence In Geordie
16:50 - Outro
Music:
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Dhaka - Kevin MacLeod
Lost Frontier - Kevin MacLeod
Suonatore Di Liutto - Kevin MacLeod
Teller of Tales - Kevin MacLeod
Folk Round - Kevin MacLeod
Big Mojo - Kevin MacLeod
Dub Feral - Kevin MacLeod
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#Geordie #language #english

[@user-sh5nq9gp3i]

I am a Scot who spent the second half of his childhood living in Newcastle. I came away considering myself an adopted Geordie although the accent faded over time when I returned to Scotland. I am now in my seventies and I still call my wife "Pet" and occasionally lapse into the odd colloquialism like, "Hadaway up the wall man". I loved the Geordies, fiercely proud of their heritage and rightly so. Thank you for this video as it brought back many happy memories.

[@xConoooR1]

Nah once a Scot always a Scot lol. Mad English wannabe🤣

[@graemewillis410]

I'm a Geordie who used to spent a lot of time working up in Scotland and we never had any bother with the Scots, like some English can, I think it's because we are closer to Edinburgh than London. Anyway, I picked up 'mind' and 'greeting' and still say it all the time, I don't know why but it drives wor lass up the wall when I do, but I can't help it now. Lol.

[@davidsoulsby1102]

Back then you could have a joke and the only difference seen was the accent. Now the SNPs loon getting upset. Worst thing to happen to Scotland was Salmon and his followers. Now its like a different place where before it was just more of us with a penchant for saving money. 😇

[@JamesHere-ou9xp]

And you'll always be welcome in the North, as far as this Geordie is concerned.

[@i_know_youre_right_but]

@@xConoooR1twat

[@juliegale3863]

I am an absolute southerner hailing from Kent with an RP accent. Being nearly 90 now I can catch several words used when I was young. Having a kip or going to the local hop. In early 50s I joined the WRAF. Meeting and going to the cinema with a young Geordie fella I had a very hard job understanding him. We walked down the cinema aisle and he stopped to say something like ‘Weel gang long this roow ‘. I was pushed into a seat and it dawned on me - we will go along this row. It took some days but I began to understand him. Funny, he could always understand me. I have been interested in accents and where our English words come from ever since.

[@albionmyl7735]

Hello from northwest Germany old home of the Saxons.... Hengist and Horsa.... .. we share the Saxon horse/Ross on our flag with Kent and lower Saxony in the north..... I have been many times in Kent.... I spent my holiday every year in England.. In 4 weeks I travel to Folkstone.... and afterwards to Hampshire the old kingdom of Wessex /Westsachsen.... 🌹♥️👏👏🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿

[@NSG_UK]

He would have said lang, not long

[@JootjeJ]

I'm Dutch and have lived as a student in Newcastle a few years in the '90s. It always amused me how I found it easier to understand Geordie than most English students. Your Dutch pronunciation is the best I've ever heard in any video about English language / history / dialects.

[@haresmahmood]

I think he's Dutch or at least has Dutch parents

[@lizzy66125]

I lived in the UK for 23 years(I am dutch)and Geordie was easy to understand for me.

[@koolade76]

There’s bits that sound like Frisian as well

[@JootjeJ]

@@haresmahmood yeah, I think he's Frisian

[@chrisstucker1813]

I'm not surprised you found it easier. The Geordie accent is quite a protected dialect. When the Anglo-Saxons came to England, the Angles came from Schleswig Holstein - which is modern day Northern Germany and Southern Denmark. Because the North East is quite isolated from the rest of the country, it has managed to stand the test of time.

[@pirukiddingme1908]

A lot of these words exist all across Northumbria, modern northern England. Crack, marra and deek are all common in cumbria. I’d always thought crack came from craic, some leftover of Irish or Celtic in the still predominantly Celtic parts of north west England. Scran is prevalent across Lancashire as well. I guess the north is more closely connected than our rail lines would have you believe

[@eoghancasserly3626]

I was actually shocked to learn that craic entered Irish as a loanword from Scots! Always thought it was a native Gaelic word since it's so popular here

[@reprobus7986]

Deeks the radge Geordie, pua ignored us, what a shan

[@ScotsmanGamer]

@@eoghancasserly3626 I'm from Scotland never known any Scot in my life use the word craic

[@aidy6000]

Although I am from West Yorkshire I often utilise colloquialisms from all regions of Britain, I think it's fun and language should be played with.

[@curtinj98]

@@eoghancasserly3626 I've seen other claims from Irish researchers that it came from northern England, specifically Lancashire iirc.

[@KBJ58]

I went to Newcastle with my Danish boss. On the way to the meeting, we passed a park in which there were some kids playing with a ball. One of them shouted 'Hoy the bal'. My Danish boss was amazed as he said, 'that's what we would say in Denmark'.

[@carolginsberg8392]

.

[@philipusher4282]

I'm calling bullshit on this. 'Hoy the bal' in Danish would be "Kast nu bolden ud til mig" or something like it. I am guessing your boss was Dutch not Danish.

[@Liz66bee]

I'm a Londoner by birth, I remember being at some party when I was young and chatting to this bloke. I was sure he was Danish, so I said something like 'oh what part of Denmark are you from'? He just laughed and said - no he was from Newcastle! So to my ears the accent sounds Scandinavian. My great grandad was a Geordie who married a Dane. My uncle was the only person who had living memory of them and he said his nan talked a weird mix of Danish and broad Geordie - she'd say - 'we's gooin' doon toon flooer' before taking him out shopping with her, as he grew up in Lewisham and Crystal Palace, it must have sounded quite foreign to his ears!LOL 😄

[@howey935]

That means we going down the town flower.

[@WilliamThorpe]

I love being a Geordie, cuz I get to just talk like this all the time its great

[@gerryclarke9795]

My favourite English accent!

[@phemstros]

I am from London, have a very typical London accent, and I love the variety we have across our country. I have never understood the idea of looking down on accents, I just can't imagine doing it. I love to hear them around me

[@Shinathen]

Apart from Birmingham

[@Ninja-eh4cu]

wey aye man

[@jahazbrooga309]

@@Ninja-eh4cu Brilliant! Unfortunately for Google translate it means "yes, of course!"

[@daveash9572]

Interesting to note that a working class London accent is often looked down upon, almost feared as if it suggests a propensity for criminality, while most other "regional" accents (whatever that means) are lauded and respected as cute or charming.

[@phemstros]

@@daveash9572 I actually don't think that's the case at all. Issue is most often banter-matching, which takes time if you're not used to it.

[@jontalbot1]

Tyneside is quite isolated from the rest of the country and this seems the most likely reason so many older words have survived. I lived on Tyneside and l absolutely love the dialect (not just an accent). Geordies don’t just speak, they sing. They have a habit of raising and lowering the cadence of their speech and usually end sentences on a higher note than they began. And they have all the wonderful words and phrases you never hear anywhere else. The irony is a lot of people try to ‘correct’ their dialect to more standard forms. Geordie is truly a thing of beauty and if l ruled the world I would make the Queen larn hersel how to speak it.

[@crustyoldfart]

I made the comment above that the Cumbrian dialect and Geordie had different cadences, while sharing many words. Cumbrian is monotonic. You are absolutly correct when you say that Geordie is closer to singing. The Welsh have it to a degree - they go up ( high note ) and down ( low note ) alternately during a sentence. She's a braw lass an a canny lass, an she likes haw beah, her name's Cooshy Booterfield an Ah wish she wah heah.

[@Svensk7119]

Let me see if I can translate: "She's a brave lass, and a canny (cunning, sly, smart) lass, and she likes her beer. Her name is Cooshy(?) Butterfield and I wish she were here." I hope that is close enough? My only exposure to Geordie was from an episode of Castle and hearing Old English infinitives (and seeing them, in the subtitles) was fascinating!

[@auldfouter8661]

@@crustyoldfart There is a similar split in Scotland . East coast accents ( Edinburgh, Falkirk) do have rising intonation in the sentence while West coast accents ( Ayrshire, Lanarkshire, Glasgow) do not.

[@crustyoldfart]

@@auldfouter8661 Yes indeed regarding what we might call " Lalland " Scots. Would you say there is a similar difference in tonality amongst the " Chuchters " [ those whose mother tongue is the Gaelic ] and indeed amongst Gaelic speakers themselves. O, and BTW I appreciate your assumed name, which I would say translates as something like " Old bumbler " - am I correct ?

[@taylor2m4rc]

Isolated by international airports, helipads, the East coast Mainline, the A1 motorway and international sea-ways...

[@colinmccarthy7921]

I am a True Geordie.I was in Born in the City of Newcastle upon Tyne.It is the Best Accent in the UK.Howay My Lads and Lasses.❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️.

[@kayhoward8723]

Wey aye bonny lad we're all canny folks from Newcassel

[@marianwalters5241]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[@lukegilmore9949]

When on holiday in Croatia we met some danish lads and got talking about Newcastle when telling them some geordie words, I mentioned yem/yhem and they instantly knew it as home. Turns out it's home in modern danish.

[@jokir67]

Well I’m a geordie and apart from being mistaken for Welsh or Scandinavian (when away from home on a fairly regular basis) I was also once mistaken for a German but speaking a heavily accented version of English on a Greek Island! You also get used to saying everything twice, once in your own accent then the slower more English version when it’s obvious what word has been misunderstood. I do think a lot of it stems from how quick we tend to talk so words can sound like one long word rather that the five or so separate ones that you have just said. Throw in (or hoy in) the odd ‘bairn’ or ‘howay’ or ‘yem’ it’s hardly surprising people will struggle. I love all accents and dialects though - find everyone’s more interesting than mine! Love to hear speech/language that sounds different on holiday. Be a poor day when we all sound the same.

[@-XZY-]

I get mistakes with Scottish, Irish, Welsh and scouse they never can get it right the first time

[@bibleburner]

I grew up in Newcastle & now live in Scotland, the dialects are indeed similar.

[@alanfox691]

As a Scot myself I would say Scots, Geordie, Dutch & Fresian are all very closy related aswell as Old Norse. I have not heard enough modern Norse to comment on that. What makes Scots distinctive is the great The Great Vowel Shift between 1400 & 1700 this did not happen in Scotland I am not sure if it happened in The North East of England or not. But it most definitely happened in the south of England the thinking is that it made English easier for people from far of lands to understand. But as I say in Scotland Scots did not go along with that. Keep Safe.

[@markcooper6042]

As a London born child I grew up in County Durham and struggled for years with my school voice which became 'geordie' and my home environment which was 'London' based. Your film is really great; I watch a lot of scandi drama's and always pick up the 'geordie' words (Gan Yem) and the cadence which often sounds like 'geordie'. You have brought back wonderful memories of school in the '70's in this fantastic part of England.

[@PaulEcosse]

Glaswegian here and yeah I use many of those words every day. Old Norse & Old English are just too good to let go. I don't think we ever will.

[@shutupworkid9735]

We wivin’t doon here either marra.

[@Lord.Kiltridge]

Please do a video on Scots. I recognise many of these words as being fairly common in Scots, sometimes called Lowland Scots or Broad Scots. To take a paragraph out of How the Scots Invented the Modern World Chapter 5 "For most Scots, learning to converse and write in English was as difficult as learning a new language. Mistakes in grammar, as well as accent, would constantly give them away. David Hume conversed in broad Scots all his life, but he always regretted that he never learned to speak English as well as he wrote it. He confessed that he and his fellow Scots were “unhappy in our Accent and Pronunciation.” It was not easy to pronounce night as nite instead of nicht, or say brite instead of bricht. It was hard to remember to say old instead of auld; above instead of aboon; talk instead of crack; a gathering instead of a rockin’; to say “It made me very glad” instead of “It pat me fidgin’ fain” or “I am angry” instead of “I’m a’ in a pelter” and “I have drunk a great deal” instead of “I drang a muckle.”

[@tomarmstrong5244]

bollox. Scots is derived from Northumbrian, Scotland being created by the Angles and Irish Scoti. And the Scotch did not invent the modern world. Far from it.

[@Lord.Kiltridge]

@@tomarmstrong5244 Calling us Scotch is offensive. It also indicates that your knowledge is limited and your opinion is worthless.

[@jackieking1522]

I've never met a Scot who was "unhappy in our Accent..." . Why would you be?

[@Lord.Kiltridge]

@@jackieking1522 Dude! I clearly said I was quoting David Hume, who died in 1776. Clearly you have no idea what either of us were talking about. To quote Neil deGrasse-Tyson, "Knowing enough to think you are right, but not knowing enough to know you are wrong." Just to confirm, Neil deGrasse Tyson said that. Not me.

[@davidmallon8300]

Well Scots did descend from Old Northumbrian. We Northumbrians and Scots are brothers and have much more in common than the English/southerners.

[@davidcrawford8583]

Thank you for clearing up the word etymology of the word 'crack'. The amount of times I've had to tell people it doesn't come from the Irish 'craic' is unbelievable, even from native Northumbrians.

[@triestodrum2215]

Ulster Scots use it as well

[@paulodingle2142]

I get told off off my missus for always correcting that when people spell it the Irish way

[@alexjeffrey4093]

An old man I know says that when he was a child, Norwegian sailors would come into Newcastle and they would talk to the Norwegians in Geordie and the Norwegians would reply and they could understand each other.

[@harrietgate]

Incredible! Thanks for sharing!

[@RachaelMorgan-om4xw]

That is absolutely true! Gan yeam... Gan doon the ruuoad...

[@philthompson8574]

I lived in Newcastle for 10 years and took the Geordie accents for granted . But only recently started to wonder I nobody else in Britain sounded remotely like the Geordies. Even though I've been away from Newcastle for 30 years people still asks me am I from the North East By the way if you go into a hospital in Newcastle and you hear the word 'norse' don't be confused they are not talking people from Scandinavia but talking about a nurse !

[@terryroots5023]

I love the distinctive 'tune ' of Geordie, and wonder how old that is, and how it came about.

[@user-he8sc4ib7e]

I was born in Darlington, but my family had relatives in Newcastle. I remember as a child visiting one of them and thinking he was speaking a totally foreign language. I always found the use of archaic 'thee' and 'thou' to be fascinating. Like being in a time machine.

[@Jakt92]

I’m a Mackem and still use many of these words today. Was just taking to my partner on how strong old Norse dialect is still here up north. Great video I learned a few things.

[@ThaliaVitalis]

I always love the similarities between Old English, Old Dutch and Old Norse 🤩🤩🤩 so fascinating

[@ronandodds]

"Would you like a piece of cake, or a meringue?" "Yer not wrang hinny, I'd love a piece of cake"

[@RachaelMorgan-om4xw]

Bobby Thompson!.... " I cannit sleep fo' debt...."

[@marianwalters5241]

Lol

[@DrJRL]

I grew up in West and South Yorkshire and lived in Newcastle for four years. All the words you mentioned in the Middle English bit as Geordie apart from Yem are used to this day where I grew up. Chuddy was also used in both areas. I have a bit of cross contamination though as my Great Grandfather came down from County Durham to work in the pits in South Yorkshire.

[@lightfootpathfinder8218]

I'm from South Yorkshire an I find the Geordie accent quite easy to understand in comparison to other accents say from southern England

[@Tiger89Lilly]

@@lightfootpathfinder8218 same here

[@lightfootpathfinder8218]

@@Tiger89Lilly are you from South Yorkshire luv ??

[@Tiger89Lilly]

@@lightfootpathfinder8218 yup Sheffield. My grandads lot was from near Barnsley

[@lightfootpathfinder8218]

@@Tiger89Lilly nice one I was born in Sheffield and grew up in Rotherham

[@shannonpearl]

I'm a mackem. With a very broad accent I also have Welsh and Scots ancestral roots. I spend a fair bit of time in Newcastle aswell and I bloody loved this video. Dialect amazes me and I've always been very proud to have the tongue I do. Even though when I was little my dad used to say 'stop talking slang' when my regional accent began to form - even though he was the mackemest mackem that ever mackemed 😂 anyways. Scottish accents are by far my favourite to listen to ✌🏻 what a class video. Keep on creating x

[@Hollows1997]

I’m in northern County Durham, so we get a mixture of mackem and Geordie as well as pitmac. I think you’ve done a cracking job explaining the dialect itself, I think it’s worth pointing out how a lot of these phrases are used interchangeably between the different areas and how some are different. Mak and tak for example being used less in Tyneside than Durham or Sunderland, whereas hoy (throwing something) is pretty universal across the North East.

[@auldfouter8661]

My Granny ( born Falkirk 1896) would refer to someone who was only a friend for what they could get off you , as a "McTak "

[@dianef4227]

The one that surprises me is that we call something very big as get wass, on Tyneside it’s gert walla.

[@pitmatix1457]

I'm from Stanley originally. Miss my old accent but you lose it quick when you're a kid moving south. 😞

[@kevincarterqw]

Our accent sounds rough as owt when you hear it. Still live in Stanley ​@@pitmatix1457

[@dreamyriver]

I'm originally from northern County Durham too, where my mam grew up, but my dad's family were from closer to Newcastle. Even though we'd only travel 10 miles or so to visit, it was like going to a foreign country and it would always take me a while to adjust to what my great-uncles in particular were saying. Unfortunately, my kids grew up in York (and then Australia), and group all those local Northern dialects together into "Geordie" even though I'm at pains to explain their error :D Mind you, they probably do it because it proper winds me up, lol. (Here in Australia, I have developed a very generic "NorthEastern England" accent, just to try and make phone calls and Macca drive-thrus a better experience - unless I've been talking to my mam, of course.)

[@tomdoughty1577]

Great video. As someone from the northeast, I found learning Norwegian to be fairly accessible because of our dialect. Bairn was barn which meant child in Norwegian, and "I'm gan yam" was very similar to "jeg går hjem". We have lots of words still similar to our Scandinavian ancestors.

[@igorgregoryvedeltomaszewsk1148]

Being Danish (despite my name) this video was really revelatory with its many examples of loanwords from Danish & Old Norwegian incorporated into not only Geordie but also present in Old English. Also a large portion of Dutch words are shared almost 1:1 with Danish.

[@tomdoughty1577]

@@igorgregoryvedeltomaszewsk1148 Yeah I was certainly surprised by the old English loanwords. Brilliant video

[@auldfouter8661]

If you can't get away on holiday , and someone asks where you are going this year Scots will say Oh Hameldaeme.

[@alanfox691]

We use some old Norse words in Scots like Kirk. Kirk meaning house of God in Old Norse. In Scotland a Church of Scotland Church is often a Kirk. We might say according to The Kirk as in The Chirch of Scotland's thinking on the matter is. Keep Safe..

[@JohnAlfwynn]

Hei! Jeg snakker norsk

[@Halfdanr_H]

I’m from Sunderland and this video is the perfect example of why people in London couldn’t understand me, even though I tried to adjust my speech to be better understood 😂 As for Kets, there’s an isle in Asda Hartlepool for kets, but I’ve not seen any other Asda with a kets isle

[@perovwellyz560]

The Asda in Hartlepool has one

[@Mloy95]

Also from Sunderland! There's an aisle in the Asda near me with the sign "Bairn" on it, full of supplies for babies and children

[@salim5394]

If you say some old English words with a Scottish or regional English accent you can see how we’ve arrived at the modern pronunciation

[@lynseypringle9585]

From Northumberland, born in Newcastle so technically a Geordie. I found this really interesting the origins of words I use on a daily basis. When working in London I’d frequently be asked if I was Welsh. One small correction… The Hoppings is on The Town Moor, not Gateshead.

[@The_Capri_Kid]

He might have been referring to Winlaton Hoppings which is part of Gateshead

[@lynseypringle9585]

@@The_Capri_Kid not the biggest travelling fair in Europe that’s on Newcastles Town Moor for a week in June every year for centuries, ah ok!

[@shorn9996]

@@The_Capri_Kid mate who wants to go to the Winlaton Hoppings ahahaha it's all about the Town Moor

[@eoghancasserly3626]

3:17 In Ireland the more traditional way to say old in English is "Auld" pronounced owl-d (like the animal). Irish people will often call a group of older men the "Aul fellas" at least where I'm from

[@monkeymox2544]

Some in the North of England - I'm from Cheshire, and even that far south you can still hear people referring to "aul fellas", though I think it's now more slang than anything, since I've never heard anyone say 'aul' in any other context. I suspect it used to be more common, but the 'woolyback' accent and dialect is nearly entirely gone From Cheshire, due to rich people migrating from the South and working class people coming spreading from Manchester and Liverpool.

[@eoghancasserly3626]

@@monkeymox2544 I only found out recently that "Dirty Auld Town" isn't about Dublin at all but it's actually about Salford. Until I read your comment I assumed it was probably written by an Irish immigrant but now I'm a lot less sure. There's also a song called "Dublin in The Rare Auld Times"

[@monkeymox2544]

@@eoghancasserly3626 On the other hand, it could be Irish influence from Liverpool that spread into Cheshire. It's so hard to untangle this kind of thing as a lay-person, but its fascinating. The Southern English accent has become so hegemonic that different English speakers are constantly surprised by these kind of dialectical and accentual similarities, but in a way it's the 'proper' English accent that is strange, historically speaking.

[@Findo_Gask]

'Auld' is also the standard Scots pronunciation of 'old', hence the nickname of Edinburgh 'Auld Reekie'. 'Reekie' is, of course, related to the first syllable in Reykjavik and the modern German word for smoke 'Rauchen'.

[@eoghancasserly3626]

@@monkeymox2544 I'm inclined to believe that it came from Scotland or the north of England to Ireland for multiple reasons. The vowel sound in old exists in Irish, so I don't think the "au" comes from Irish, and even if it did that wouldn't explain auld also being used in Dublin which has a lot less Irish language influence on speech. However, similar words like cold and bold will be pronounced cauld and bauld by older people in the west of Ireland at least. My mother claims that she's getting "auld and cauld and hard to live with".

[@cptsuperstraight6924]

As an Aussie with ancestral roots in Boernicia, I enjoy imitating the various English accents, I cannot do the Geordie accent. Pity because it has a lively sound. I listen to Morgoth on KZbin and even he has trouble with some English words.

[@mick78ftm]

Morgoth is a legend

[@madbrowndog4887]

Greetings from downunder, (near Newcastle-upon-Hunter, actually). Not sure why I clicked on this vid, but thoroughly enjoyed it, and surprised to see many Geordie words I'm familiar with, without previously knowing their origin. Quite a few were commonly used by my late parents despite no Geordie heritage, but maybe explained by distant Scottish ancestry. Others are common in the military, eg kip and scran. In fact, today I learned that scran is a word in its own right, and not an acronym for S**t Cooked [by] Royal Australian Navy!

[@Americansaxon3619]

This is really interesting! My great grandfather’s family was from Newcastle upon Tyne

[@ste76539]

When I was a kid, my mum would often say "Stop slarpin in a slap ole" which was a corruption of the word 'clart' and 'clartin' and meaning 'stop playing in the dirt or similar'. Never heard it said anywhere since and I've lived all over the country. We were all from Yorkshire going way back. Our family has it's roots in Scandinavia and also France, but as far as we've been able to research there is no North Eastern influence. I can still remember hearing my maternal grandparents and my great grandmother (102 yrs old in the 1980's when I knew her!) speaking in Yorkshire dialect.

[@badmattam]

Worked away from home many years ago and shared a large house with two Geordie lads. I’m usually very good with accents having lived and worked around the UK including Wales and Ireland ( I’m Scots ) However, one of the lads’ accent was so broad I simply couldn’t make head nor tail of what he was trying to convey. This was where I came across the term ‘ pit-yakkers ’…apparently denoting people who are from ex-coal mining villages around NewCastle/ North east…who have very strong local accents, that even regular Geordies could barely ‘mak oot!’ They’re not exactly Scots and they’re not exactly English….they’re just, you know…Geordies! Britains finest imo.

[@anfieldreds_1892]

see what you did there 😅

[@violetmoonofthenorth]

Haha true

[@Leenufc]

As a proud geordie I loved that last bit . ❤❤

[@marianwalters5241]

My dad was a pit man all his life apart from WWII years. He used words like thee and thou frequently. Yeah pit yakka. Unfortunately, in these days I doubt this dialect and culture will last long.

[@zetectic7968]

Interesting video! My Lincolnshire aunt always called children Bairns. A hacking cough was a common expression in my southern upbringing as was gyp for a bad pain or persistent ache from a sprain or pulled muscle or rheumatism. my mother from Buckinghamshire would use Clarty to refer to food that was sticky and/or the taste would linger in the mouth. Kip was also common as a sleep or nap. Maybe WW2 caused the spread of some of these words.

[@louisekullar6629]

marra, clarty, are found in the North in general.. l've heard them used in Stoke and Nottinghamshire. There is some cross pollination due to the mining industry. My village had many people from Newcastle and Scotland because of the pit. The Miners Welfare and the working men's club (called the Geordie Club), used to sell Tartan Bitter!

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

We had the back of Maggie's hand Times were tough in Geordieland We got wor tools and working gear And humped it all from Newcastle to here --- Mark Knopfler

[@colinb8103]

A Glaswegian 😄😄

[@marianwalters5241]

❤️❤️❤️❤️ ‘Tonight we’ll drink the old town dry, keep wor spirit levels high! Brilliant! Aw man. Peter Green was my idol but Mark Knopfler is very close to my heart! As is Jimmy Nail. They do not get the recognition they deserve!

[@RideAcrossTheRiver]

@@marianwalters5241 I thought all three of those guys were quite popular--?

[@mowvu5380]

it's crazy that mainland britain is so small, yet we have such a variety of accents. you can travel 10 miles and find ppl speaking completely different. i live in south yorkshire, there are multiple distinct accents here. the town i live is doncaster, yet barnsley next door is a world away linguistically. same for sheffield and rotherham. we're all so close in distance, yet far apart in speech. i imagine it's the same in other parts of the uk. and other countries. fascinating

[@fintonmainz7845]

"mainland Britain" :)

[@hazelsanderson9200]

Born and brought up in Gateshead. I lived in Barnsley for a while and then Sheffield and as a "foreigner" even I could hear a difference between the two. Interestingly, laik (to play) is mentioned here - never heard it till I lived in South Yorkshire.

[@connortheandroidsentbycybe7740]

​@@fintonmainz7845aye. Not the islands, not NI, not colonial possessions. It's the mainland

[@fintonmainz7845]

@@connortheandroidsentbycybe7740 No part of Ireland is an offshore island of Great Britain.

[@connortheandroidsentbycybe7740]

@@fintonmainz7845 GB is England, Scotland & Wales

[@daanvisser2325]

Watching Geordie Shore as A Dutch middle school boy a lot makes sense and the link with Dutch is very noticeable

[@GrouRocks]

Er is een verhaal dat middenin een storm een vissersboot uit Newcastle eentje uit Harlingen ontmoette - ze konden elkaar prima verstaan

[@stuarthart3370]

I was under the impression that 8th century Northumbrian was the original source of English via Frisland. I worked in Delfzijl for a while and found many similarities with Northern Englishes.

[@ballsack6547]

Dundee accent would be interesting as it's quite unique, love Newcastle by the way , love the city setup on the medieval layout on the hill .cracking place and people.

[@tas9551]

I'm a Geordie living in Valencia. I love going back home and just listening to our beautiful dialect. Some try to put our dialect down: I think it's just envy. Ours is one of the most beautiful areas of the British Isles.

[@marianwalters5241]

I’m getting on, should be retired but my paltry pension won’t let me live the life I would like to be accustomed to. 😊 But. I get in my car and set off to work in North Durham. Doesn’t matter how down I feel, when I see the countryside I thank the Lord I live here. I’m not particularly religious but nothing, absolutely nothing, no matter how glamorous would make me feel that I wished I lived elsewhere.

[@badofcheese]

This is the most I’ve heard your Geordie/North East accent come through. Not just on the actual Geordie words either. Your knowledge is amazing. Another great video.

[@brusselssprouts560]

I can't remember you touching on the lovely term of endearment of "pet". Said with love which it would almost always be done, it is a lovely creamy way to be referred to similar to " canny lad" or "canny lass", and of course being "bonny", but I do miss being called pet. If you know its origins I would love to know.

[@stumccabe]

I watched a documentary several years ago about the Gordie dialect. I believe they mentioned several words related to the landscape and several farming terms which were clearly from Old Norse.

[@lucylane7397]

Beck fell etc

[@kidcreole9421]

The word scran was used a lot in Preston, Lancashire where I grew up. I've always thought it was just slang but now I know the origin. Also, I have heard hacky, Gyp/Jip a lot as well growing up.

[@heneagedundas]

It's also not unusual to hear it used in the armed forces.

[@musiqueetmontagne]

Excellent presentation, most interesting, especially as I grew up on Tyneside. Keep them coming. 😊

[@daddyov2]

Really enjoyed this! Even with you saying the big Hoppings was in Gateshead when it’s on the Town Moor near Gosforth!

[@RachaelMorgan-om4xw]

I'm just glad that one thing is in Gateshead, and not in Hebburn... the Angel of the North 😬

[@markw1london1]

That was a fascinating video. I’m amazed how many of the words used in the N.E. are also used over in the North West of England. I also speak a bit of Dutch and can now see how many words from the Netherlands have entered Northern English speech. What stunned me the most was the Romany words that have entered our speech, no doubt as they traveled across the country they left us with a plethora of words like, Chav; Gyp etc all of which we still use too. I love learning how words came about and also how to identify where place names come from and again the influence left by the Norsemen. Great work, thank you.

[@andyleighton6969]

Geordie is as much pitch and rhythm as anything else. My Dad was born and brought up in Walker, so I was well familiar with a Geordie accent - though he had joined the Navy, been all over the World and settled in the Midlands for work, so no doubt somewhat moderated - but when we went back up to Newcastle it always took a couple of days to "get my ear in" with Gran, Uncles and Aunts.

[@michaelstraker1027]

Thanks for the video. Very interesting! As a Geordie, I recognised most of the words but not all. It's fascinating to see how the language developed. Nice one, marra!

[@tahiti1]

Fantastic video!!! Love it!! Geordie & scouse are my 2 favourite English accents/dialects. Long may they continue & thrive!!

[@jordielovesyou1]

Really interesting video, love seeing our history or anything about our region. Keep it up. Was expecting romanie to be in our dialect but makes sense, we still have alot of them around in the summer. Your right about the migrants to the toon, My 3rd great-grandfather was a Swedish sailor who jumped ship and stayed.

[@Peternkirk]

I thought this was fascinating. Really good research and delivered with passion

[@j_vasey]

The hoppings is in Newcastle, on the town moor. Great video, is nice to learn something new as well as reassuring to know some of the things I already understood to be accurate.

[@clionamoore8365]

Fascinating. Thanks for your hard work !

[@nirnman]

I am from Northern Ireland and we use many of these words among the Ulster Scots population to this day

[@elizabethtaylor5802]

Thank you for this video , very interesting English is such an interesting mixture of languages which in turn gives us an enormous vocabulary.

[@dianejohnston3733]

Many similarities to Cumbrian dialect - excellent viewing- thank you 👍

[@christopherellis2663]

I was in Denmark when I first learnt Geordie spoken. For the first few minutes I took ot to Banish, until it miraculously became English.

[@thejapanexperience6317]

What a great video. I'll definitely watch more thanks

[@movingpicutres99]

Thank you. Wonderful presentation!

[@rdwwdr3520]

Very interesting. I'm going to go back and reread some of my old issues of The Viz and see if I can make out more of it. lol. But seriously, really good video.

[@jonathanscott7372]

It is a pity my grandfather is no longer with us. He lived 50 years in the South, but his South Shields dialect remained strong, and I often had to ask for a translation. Some of the words I knew, but I could not translate them in my head as fast as he spoke them. I had the same problem with another grandfather, (I come from a complicated family) but he spoke almost totally in Cockney rhyming slang, and I was always 3 or 4 seconds behind the conversation.

[@paulodingle2142]

I went to work nearly 40yrs ago in South Shields (I grew up in Sunderland) could barely understand them when they went full shields when I first started. One lady in particular I remember said she lived in west star and I hadn’t a clue where that was it was westoe. And I had the Mackem accent so they sometimes couldn’t understand me! Not sure the accents are so strong now sadly

[@Findo_Gask]

My favourite phrase in Geordie and Scots is 'bairns bairn' meaning grandchild. This is actually still the standard phrase for grandchild in Scandinavia 'barnbarn' or 'barnebarn'.

[@pulchralutetia]

I'm from Newcastle mesel like. Really enjoyed this video. Thanks for sharing, hinny.

[@crustyoldfart]

" Hinny " I think is real Geordie, but in Glasgow they say " hen " - meaning the same thing .

[@williamnethercott4364]

From the viewpoint of an old Wallsender, you did a canny job. I spent all my working life communicating with non-Geordies and people who spoke English as a second language, so my accent has been diluted up to a point. I guess the dialect changes with time. Some words I used to hear in my youth seem to be seldom heard now but I've been struck by how many words we have in common with Danes and Germans and how the way their languages work reminds me of how my grandma used to speak.

[@christate590]

Thanks for this video. I found it soooo interesting as I and my grandfathers from all the way back to 1405 have been traced back to then. Cheers!

[@catroger1722]

Loved this mate ,yes I'm a fellow geordie, I inherited the words "as weel" meaning as well, and wey/wei meaning 'with' fom my grandfather he came from gateshead but his parents were from Cumbria, scottish/English great vid.

[@SairyFairy]

It wasn't that long ago I was searching for this exact video 😄 I was always curious about the origins of certain sounds and phrases, now I know

[@pnyarrow]

Really canny interesting like! Thank you so much for sharing it was most enteraining. Stay safe. ATB. Nigel

[@leighcanham763]

Another informative and interesting presentation Hilbert. Excellent. Will Cumbric Brithonic have had an influence? I visit friends in West Cumbria often. I have come to know the words ''yam'' 'twine', 'clarty' and 'marra', used in every day speech around countryside Workington along the Derwent. My friend usually greets male friends with, 'Allrite marra'. Or would Geordie have had an influence in Cumbria over the centuries. As a Welsh speaker who studied the development of the Welsh language from Brithonic, I understand written Cumbric very well. Two of Wales's earliest poets, Taliesin and Aneurin, hailed from that part of Britain from Strathclyde (Ystradclud) to Leeds (Elfed/Elmet). Thanks again for an excellent lesson, and I look forward to your next presentation.

[@walkermitchell4444]

Canham😜

[@Aritro77]

Fascinating. Great video Hilbert.

[@davidalen2590]

Wonderful. Thank you for sharing!

[@davidbarlow431]

I'd love to see something similar for the Liverpool dialect. In the video I heard quite a few words that are also common in Liverpool. I grew up in an area with a tributary river, that was then just a stream at the bottom of a deep but clear river bank. Local legend told that the river was once much deeper and wider, and used by the vikings to raid the local area. This was dismissed as myth until viking artefacts were dug up as the land started to be developed. Sadly, its all been built on now and the river diverted. I suspect the local dialect has been influenced in a similar fashion to geordie.

[@lisapinfold506]

That's interesting. People from outside the area have thought I'm from Liverpool I'm actually from Worcestershire. Go figure 😮

[@stephenmcg4299]

Excellent! Really interesting video. I was aware of many of the commonalities between Geordie and Scots, but some of the origins of words - keek, gadgie, barry - were quite a surprise.

[@marrrtin]

It is interesting to me that English Northumbria fought off the Vikings, and with the Vikings taking Yorkshire, old English dialects were separated for a period, until united with England under the kings of Wessex. Because, when I was a kid growing up and england's northernmost county was called Northumberland, and then later in adulthood finding that Northumbria literally means north of the Humber, while Northumberland was miles from the Humber, and also geographically speaking, this territory covered much of modern Lothian in Scotland, and the current England Scotland border at Berwick established quite a while after England was recognised as an entity.

[@triestodrum2215]

Don't be telling the SNP as they'll want it all in Scotland. Lol

[@lauradavison4044]

I found this fascinating. Some of the words and origins I knew about . I am a Geordie but although I know the words I dont have a 'thick' accent and although understanding them don use them everyday. |I love learning about accents and were the words originally come from and why. My favourite is Gadgie. Would love more on this topic.

[@memofromessex]

Talking about traders visiting Newcastle from around the North Sea - I found that I am (my dads from Newcastle) descended of a Dutch man - way back in 17th century, but up near Berwick

[@nellythevegan854]

Hello thanks for an interesting video on linguistics and the Geordie language. I love the accent and how smooth it sounds. A distinctive sound almost lyrical it was interesting to show where the different types of words origins came from or began. I found it interesting and considered you included words from the Romani language. as an English native born in the South East of England to mixed English and Welsh Romani people (the word Gypsy was given as the theory of being mistaken for Egyptian people due to the foreign language and the colour of their skin (our original country was India 🇮🇳 and there are several theories as to why we left) Just wanted to say like the different regional accents differ around the UK it is the same for Romani too. The word Gadje for instance you pronounced it slightly different than I would have done. Scran is also used but hobben is also a Romani word meaning for food. Chavi /Chavo is a child similar to the Spanish using o for male child and I for a girl child. Our language has had several changes through out history depending on where we sought a place to live. So you will find many words from Sanskrit Hindi Punjabi and interesting that I also use kip for sleep. As I was raised speaking Romani and English I assumed some words were English or old English but they were Romani.. The producer of this video has certainly been working hard on this.. Thanks for sharing.. Kushti bokt (means good luck in Romani)🍀

[@dianef4227]

I was brought up mostly in the North East speaking Roma, English and the local dialect (which my Roma granny would smack me for using)

[@BarryThundercock]

Cool video, I hope you continue and do other regional dialects like West Country & Cockney

[@bernadettemurray8260]

I am from Sunderland a few American's have asked me if I was Scottish, however an Asian man in London thought the same

[@micahistory]

never heard of this dialect before but this is certainly an interesting topic

[@raydriver7300]

That was very interesting. I was brought up in Newcastle and have noticed the change in words and accent as you travel through Northumberland, through Berwick into lowland Scotland. How the Northumbrian roll their ‘r’s in the back of the throat to the Scots on the front of the tongue; and the use of ‘Barry’ Bairn in Berwick to ‘Bonny’ Bairn in Scotland. Thank you for taking the time to share 🌞

[@ZoltanF1LH]

This video was awesome, I always wondered where these words came from, now I know 🙂

[@FinnMacCuhl]

This is pure gold. Grew up in Teesside and even though I’m a smoggie I used loads of those growing up. ‘Lakin’ for playing was used by cousins in Knottingley, West Yorkshire so shows how far that spread. But the best word origin was ‘gadgee’ - used that all my life and always wondered where it came from. Of course, Romani folk travelled and still do every year to Appleby and beyond so makes sense.

[@lilliedoubleyou3865]

I’m super intrigued now. I’m from the American South, and I grew up hearing older folks say “afore” quite often. I’d heard it was an old Irish expression, and most of us here in TX have Irish ancestry.

[@onecar13]

Im from newcastle and i really enjoyed your vid. I think ya did alreet mate. Gan canny ya'sel mate. Laters😃👍

[@TheGrayExplorer]

KZbin found the most interesting rabbit hole today! Awesome video

[@jurgenwesser2894]

My grand parents in western Germany talked some "nether deutsch"°. They had some words I recognize here, like kieken (look). ° I don't appreciate the traditional denomination of all these languages/dialects as "lower Saxon". It's a big language family that occupied half of Germany , from the Mecklenburg/Vorpommern line to Hamburg, and the line directly north of Aachen/Köln. Very nice video! Thanks 🙏

[@Iazzaboyce]

I was born grew-up in Cornwall (South West England). My parents were from the Tyne area of Gateshead/Newcastle, so I was quite familiar with the Geordie way of speaking. In the 1980s I was working on a fishing trawler when a new crewmember joined the boat - I thought he was a Geordie - turned out he was a German.

[@ipoopexelence]

I'm from southwestern Virginia and what's interesting about the word "hoppings" is that my family will say, "this joint is hoppin'" or "a-hoppin'"if a party or bar is crowded and Appalachia is full of the descendants of people of northern England and southern Scotland so I can't help but wonder if we brought that with us or if it came about independently.

[@harun5358]

Is that the Virginia in Liberia?

[@canesvenatici4259]

'southern Scotland'? I think you mean the Scottish Lowlands.

[@ipoopexelence]

@@canesvenatici4259 yep

[@ipoopexelence]

@@harun5358 what?

[@martavdz4972]

I'm not sure it's just Appalachian, might be in more regions. I'm Czech and I majored in English and American Studies and I remember encountering these expressions quite often. But the origin is totally plausible.

[@ColinHarperSummerson]

Brilliant, really enjoyed it, thank you ,👍😎🙏

[@jasonyoung2160]

Hilbert back with another BANGER

[@Toontex]

Thank you .Great video.

[@anarchodolly]

Another word you missed which I think is from Romani is "shan" meaning unfair, though I've not really heard it since the early 90s. I'm a Mackem meself, but most of the examples you used are in everyday use in Sunderland too, though I've never heard any Mackem use "deek" or "mickle" and have never even heard of "laik". I was also a bit baffled by "tada" as we'd say "ta-ra", but thinking about it I have heard Geordies use it. It's funny really: the intolerability of small differences. 🤣 I've often heard from people outside of the region that they can't tell lthe difference between Mackem and Geordie, but to me it's immediately obvious. Geordies don't drop their aitches; Mackems usually do. The famously Geordie long "oo" sound in "doon the toon" gets truncated in Mackem to "dun the tun". I know Geordies are always amused by Mackems pronouncing "who" as "whee", but then they also pronounce "do" as "dee" and (in some contexts) "to" as "tee". I think probably the most obvious difference though is the extra emphasis Geordies put on the second syllable of some words that in standard English are monosyllabic, like "here", "fear", "steer": the splitting into two syllables also happens in Mackem but it's less stressed, and from a Wearside perspective this is THE stereotypical feature of Tyneside accents: "Hee-YAH man, wha' ya garn on aboot!?" In Mackem the same phrase would be "'eeyah man, wha' ya garn on about!?" See? Totally different! 😆

[@Hollows1997]

On the rare occasion that a southerner can tell the two apart I’m always impressed. They’re usually pleasantly confused yet simultaneously impressed that such similar sounding accents can have as many differences when I’ve been asked to explain.

[@YourGayOverlord]

Exactly, totally different! Not virtually identical to the untrained ear at all!

[@shutupworkid9735]

I’m the same as a geordie mate🤣it’s immediately obvious when mackems start talking. I’m a younger person and still hear “Shan” being used all the time.

[@courtilz1012]

Interesting, I don't remember shan being used much after the early 90s either. You are right that Sunderland accent is clearly different to Geordie, and both are different again to Durham.

[@bigwig2659]

Geordie=HHula HHOOPS. Mackem=ula oops

[@chrisdryden2345]

Great video mate! Im originally from Northumberland, now living in Newcastle-upon-Tyne and i have seen the deviations in colloquialism from one to the other. Mainly due to the Northumberlands pit towns. A heavier "pit yacker" accent remaining truer for longer.

[@stevebradley704]

Ashington has a distinct accent.

[@russelljenkinsfearn]

Great video thanks. The word that stuck out to me was Chuddy. It's one of those words that's completely obvious to me despite not using it or hearing it for decades. Chuddy was Chuddy in rural East Yorkshire in the 70's !

[@auldfouter8661]

.... and in 1960s Ayrshire too.

[@nickrobinson2023]

Thank you. I enjoyed that very much. :)