Tyneside English, otherwise known as ‘Geordie ‘ , is one of the most typical and alone speech patterns of the United Kingdom. This essay focuses on the phonemics, lexis and grammar of this peculiar idiom, and the historical, societal and geographical factors which have influenced its typical characteristics. Phonologically, the characteristics analysed are TH-fronting, glottalisation and centring diphthongs, grammatically I have looked at 2nd individual pronouns and dual modals and the concluding characteristic I have analysed is a lexical characteristic, the term ‘netty ‘ . Several academic beginnings have been used in this essay and therefore a brief rating of the dependability of them have been discussed.
First, looking at the phonemics of Tyneside English, a dramatic characteristic is TH-fronting, which historically, is a amalgamation that occurs in several idioms, including Cockney and Liberian English. The labiodental spirants /f/ and /v/ are merged with the Early Modern English alveolar consonant spirants /I?/ and /A°/ , for case the adjectival ‘three ‘ is pronounced as the adjectival ‘free ‘ . A geographical factor which may hold influenced TH-fronting in Newcastle is a form of “ moving ridge or contagious disease diffusion ” ( Beal 2010:81 ) . TH-fronting is an “ constituted characteristic of London address ” and the characteristic is “ distributing due wests and due norths from London ” and therefore is “ merely merely get downing to be adopted in Newcastle ” . As Kerswill claims, TH-fronting is “ adopted subsequently the farther North you go ” ( Beal 2010:81 ) .
A societal factor which may hold influenced the spread of TH-fronting to countries like Newcastle from London is the popularity of the media, which have made people less unmindful than old coevalss of a big scope of speech pattern characteristics. Current grounds suggests persons and communities imitate people when they meet them and therefore follow new signifiers of pronunciation, which appear to be highly “ stigmatised characteristics ” ( BBC Voices ) . In add-on, bias and stereotyping may be another societal factor, as “ labiodental discrepancies have traditionally been socially stigmatised and hence be given to be avoided by middle-class talkers ” ( Schneider 2004:192 ) .
Another phonological characteristic of Tyneside English is that of glottalisation, for case the sonant alveolar stop consonant /p/ is accompanied by a glottal halt /E”/ in between vowels. An illustration of this is /h?E”pi: / , as opposed to the Standard English /h?pi/ . Beal ( 2010 ) states a geographical factor which may hold influenced this: the diffusion of Estuary English from London to urban countries much further North, such as Newcastle. However, an alternate position refering the beginning of glottalisation is that it was foremost observed in the “ west of Scotland every bit early as 1860 ” and did n’t happen in London until the “ beginning of the 20th century ” ( Perez-Guerra 2007:39 ) .
A societal factor which may hold influenced the distribution of glottalisation is the fact that Estuary English has been described as an “ speech pattern of prestigiousness ” ( Anonymous 2006:2 ) as it is associated with Standard English. The imposed norm hypothesis states “ the criterion assortment has come to be regarded as superior ” due to “ societal force per unit areas ” ( Long 2002:14 ) , hence arguably Estuary English has spread because it is perceived as desirable. Historically, “ the characteristic seems to hold diffused to urban Centres outside the south-east within the last 30-40 old ages ( Kerswill 2003:11 ) . In add-on, Beal suggests another geographical factor which may hold affected the distribution of glottalisation: diffusion of the “ urban hierarchal type ” whereby the discrepancy starts in larger metropoliss and so spreads out into the smaller towns ( Beal 2010:80 ) .
In footings such as ‘gate ‘ , which is categorised as a ‘face vowel ‘ in John Well ‘s Lexical Sets ( 1982 ) , talkers of the Geordie speech pattern usage the centring diphthongs /IE™/ or /eE™/ , instead than the Standard English /eI/ . Watt and Milroy ( 1999 ) discovered merely older, working category males used the diphthong /IE™/ , whereas younger Tynesiders used the monophthong /e: / ( Watson 2006:56 ) . Watt and Milroy suggest a societal factor which may hold influenced this: younger Tynesiders are signalling that they do n’t wish to place with their ‘old-fashioned male parents ‘ , but “ still wish to be identified as Northerners ” ( Beal 2010:19 ) . A historical factor which may hold affected this is the influence of Middle English. The diphthongs [ E›E? ] and [ E?E™ ] were a consequence of syllable prolongation, as the monophthong /i: / , derived from the Middle English /E›/ , was lengthened.
A morphosyntactic characteristic of Tyneside English is the differentiation between the singular and plural 2nd individual pronouns. In Standard English, no differentiation is made, as ‘you ‘ can mention to one individual or a group of people. On the contrary, talkers of Tyneside English usage ‘you ‘ in the remarkable tense and ‘youse ‘ in the plural tense. This is frequently perceived as ‘bad grammar ‘ by talkers of Standard English. However Katie Wales ( 2006 ) , suggests a societal factor which influences the differentiation is “ many idiom talkers have felt the loss of a singular-plural differentiation in Standard English to be a disadvantage and so hold initiated more plurals ” ( Wales 1996:19 ) . This is a valid statement, as the loss of the differentiation does look to be more “ debatable ” ( Beal 2010:40 ) , as no differentiation can sometimes be troublesome, as it is non ever clear to whom one is mentioning to. A historical factor which influenced the differentiation is perchance the influence from the big inflow of Irish people to Tyneside between 1850-1900. Geographically, Kortmann ( 2008 ) describes the term ‘youse ‘ as “ Northern ” ( Beal 2010:40 ) .
Harmonizing to Standard English, merely one modal verb can look in each verb phrase as they lack an infinitive and hence the phrase ‘he might could make it ‘ is ill-formed. However, in Tyneside English, this does non use, every bit long as the 2nd modal verb is ‘can ‘ or ‘could ‘ and therefore the old building is absolutely acceptable. Forms such as ‘he might could make it ‘ are non merely rather common, but besides serve “ specific matter-of-fact intents ” ( Fisiak 1997:1514 ) . Montgomery and Nagle ( 1993 ) suggest a historical factor which may hold influenced dual modals could be the American and British assortments developing in tandem from some inchoate grammatical construction in 17th century Scots, as the earliest recorded cases of today ‘s dual modals are in Scotland and Southern American English. ( Fisiak 1997:1514 ) . Sometimes, the significance of dual modals is different in Tyneside English than in Standard English. For illustration, the Standard English phrase ‘The lift ca n’t be working ‘ can besides intend ‘The lift must n’t be working ‘ in Tyneside English, intending “ misinterpretations are about guaranteed ” ( Keuchler 2007:19 ) .
Traveling on to lexical characteristics, a common term used in Tyneside lexis is ‘netty ‘ , intending an ‘outside lavatory ‘ ( British Library ) . A historical factor which may hold influenced this is the influence of loanwords, although this is unsure. It is extremely likely that the term comes from a Modern Romanic Italian signifier of the word ‘gabinetti ‘ , intending ‘toilet ‘ . However, John Trotter Brockett ( 1829 ) , connects the Geordie word ‘netty ‘ to the Modern English adjectival ‘needy ‘ . On the BBC Voices web site, Yaron Matras points out that “ many local idioms in Northumbria have incorporated words of Romani beginning into the local slang ” . Similarly, the British Library web site suggests a geographical factor which influences the distribution of the term, claiming “ There has been a Roma presence for centuries in the Borders country and so it is non surprising this has influenced address in the North East ” .
Whilst bring forthing this essay, the most helpful and dependable beginning available was the British Library Sounds Familiar? web site. With several audio cartridge holders provided to look into the Geordie Dialect and a case-study specifically on Geordie, the web site gives an in-depth survey on Tyneside English. Not merely does the web site allow the user to listen to voice recordings, it besides gives the Standard English equivalent and a elaborate account of the characteristic. On the contrary, a web site which was less utile, was the BBC Voices website. Although the writer of the web site is the BBC which is an academic establishment, the web site used anecdotal grounds to back up its claims. Furthermore, the information on the Geordie speech pattern was limited and specialist nomenclature is n’t used.
Another web site looked at was the Sounds Comparison ‘s web site. On one manus, this was a dependable beginning, as it had a whole subdivision dedicated to Tyneside English and allows the user to listen to every vowel and consonant in the Geordie idiom. In contrast, there was no lingual account to congratulate the sound recordings, which meant it was n’t helpful when analyzing the historical, geographical and societal facets of the variables. Finally, another beginning included in my research was the British Library Archival Sound Recordings web site, which was the least dependable of the four. Despite the fact it allows the user to listen to local people talking the Geordie idiom, the lone account given is the subject of conversation, instead than a lingual analysis. Overall, with the exclusion of the British Library Sounds Familiar? web site, academic books were more enlightening and dependable, in peculiar Joan Beal ‘s An Introduction to Regional Englishes ( 2010 ) .
In decision, the Geordie speech pattern has been described as a proud badge of cultural individuality, as invasions of the North-East meant Newcastle was “ linguistically stray ” from other developments in Northumbria. Furthermore, the River Tweed is a important “ Northern barrier ” against the influence of the Scots, intending Newcastle has resisted “ centralizing inclinations ” ( British Library Sounds Familiar? ) of Edinburgh. Tyneside English appears to hold resisted ‘dialect levelling ‘ which leads to a “ loss of peculiarity in idioms ” ( Beal 2010:2 ) as there are “ important differences ” ( British Library Sounds Familiar? ) between Geordie and other local idioms such as Pitmatic.
