I am teh winnar of this QOTW!
All of you, and I mean all of you... can quit your complaining this instant, for I live in Newcastle (bizarrely, out of choice) and as such have all of you beaten!

If someone would kindly explain to me how...

Tonight became "tha neet"
tomorrow became "tha morra"
my brother, my mate, my son, that bloke became "wor kid"

I could go on, I will go on...

going became "gannin"
going home, to go home, lets go home became "gan yem"

It is little wonder that the mention of Newcastle stirs up images of grown, bald, overweight, tattoo'd men fighting in the streets (topless - usually in winter) when the drivel and garbage that spews forth from their mouths in between swigs of "Newcy Broon" does nothing but support this stereotype.

Try going from well-spoken, Queens English Cheshire to unintelligable garbled Geordie nonsense over a few years and see how mad it drives you!

Rant over!

PS. "Howay" isn't, just isn't a F*CKING WORD, no matter what the context!
( Mister B is eating an icanhazcheezburger with lmaonaise, Sat 10 Apr 2010, 9:33, 14 replies)

Viz isn't satire.
It's a documentary.
( flake has nothing against your right leg, Sat 10 Apr 2010, 10:07, closed)

gan yem bears a remarkable resemblance to the Norwegian gå hjem, which I suppose would follow the explanation given on this page:

www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/GeordieOrigins.html

In fact, that page also gives a vaguely acceptable excuse for using "learn" instead of "teach" too.
(Freakmandu, Sat 10 Apr 2010, 10:27, closed)

Interesting article.

( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Sat 10 Apr 2010, 12:32, closed)

There's a guy at York
Name escapes me, but he's done a lot of research into the dialects of the north, and the influence of old Norse. Historically, a lot of the research into English has been from a southern perspective (to the extent that Old English is really just a dialect of Wessex), which given the importance of towns like York, and the history of England, is rather short sighted.

Most of the north was under the Vikings/Norse/Danes who spoke old north germanic, whereas the southeast was controlled by the Saxons/Angles/Jutes who spoke west germanic languages.

Since England came to be ruled from the south east, it was the dialects of the south east that became the language of power and 'proper' English.
( Sextant goes to him is emotionally erect, on this day, Sun 11 Apr 2010, 12:10, closed)

It is also suspiciously coincidental
that the geordie for "baby" is "bairn" and the Norwegian for "baby" is "barne".
( Amish Information Systems hates misplaced, commas, Mon 12 Apr 2010, 17:59, closed)

I like regional accents
Having married into a Cheshire/Lancashire family, I am not irritated by but rather fond of their regional variations of the Queen's English. I remembered being surprised in a pub in Middlewich when someone said "Eh up" because I was in the way. Until then I hadn't realised that Northerners actually said that! My inlaws also say things like Aal Reet (all right) "Luke in the buke" (look in the book), "How Bist" (how are you). They call Sooty "Suity" and Barth (where I now reside) bath.
What a boring place the world would be if we were all the same!
Regards
Cut-glass of Sussex
(biscuitsocks random gene expression, Sat 10 Apr 2010, 11:07, closed)

As opposed to
the drivel and garbage that spews forth from, oh, just about anyone who was brought up in the provinces?

Regional diversity is brilliant, if everyone spoke Queen's English using Received Pronunciation, then the rest of the world's stereotype of the UK as bowler hat wearing, tea drinking colonialists would be not too far from the truth.

Howay, man, gerra grip on yersel. Gan doon the pub an sink a few bevvies. An leave yer curt at hame, y' divven't need it ya soft, southern, shandy drinkin poof!
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Sat 10 Apr 2010, 12:27, closed)

Davros...

We both know it's "puff".

Cheers
( Legless Mister Stabby - shanks for the memory, Sat 10 Apr 2010, 12:32, closed)

Yeah, but I'm not a proper Geordie remember?
I'm from the borders and so can be excused the odd lapse.
( Davros' Granddad a voice of calm reason in a world of spastics., Sat 10 Apr 2010, 12:34, closed)

I've lost count of the number of times...
...I have been called a Geordie by southerners - I actually hail from Darlington. I like having a northern accent :) it's better than everyone sounding the same!
(Lord of Balrogs, Sat 10 Apr 2010, 13:10, closed)

You would be more right to ask
how "tha morra" became "tomorrow".

The Geordie dialect has preserved a lot of archaic English that has been lost to the rest of the country, as well as a certain amount of Viking-era Danish. Where I grew up in Wearside, the locals still use "thou" and "thee".
( Moon Girl Technologies horrendous beanbag, Sat 10 Apr 2010, 16:19, closed)

Dialects
It's because you're hearing a dialect of English that has been strongly influenced by Scandinavian settlement and invasion.

Bear in mind that modern, standard English is actually derived from a dialect spoken in the Midlands. Southern English lost out, as did the Geordie version.

If there had been no Norman invasion English would have sounded very much like Dutch - in fact the current closest spoken language is West Frisian. Scots English is also very much like Middle English...listen to Rab C Nesbitt in full flow and you're hearing REAL English.
(Audax Victor, Sat 10 Apr 2010, 18:40, closed)

Holdovers
As in - "I shall see thee upon the morrow" - we elided the two words into one in mainstream English, but in Scots and Geordie, they've remained separate.

In Scots dialect, you'll get "I'll see you the morn's night" for "I'll see you tomorrow night"

Gannin for going has just stayed closer to the root word - German still has Gang for going.
(Leo Sasquatch hates being the grown-up, Sat 10 Apr 2010, 19:23, closed)

Howay man...
It's a dialect, just like yer poncey Queens English fucking Cheshire speak.

And you know damn well that howay means 'come on'...

Get yer heed oot of yer arse man
( His Popiness the Hole Invaded Poland on, Tue 13 Apr 2010, 21:47, closed)