Northumbrian dialect

• Northumbrian Old English, an Old English dialect from which Modern Scots is descended
• Geordie, perhaps the most famous dialect of English spoken in the region, largely spoken in Tyneside, centered on Newcastle
• Mackem, a dialect of English spoken in Wearside, centred on Sunderland
• Pitmatic, an older slang or lexicon used in mining towns in Northumberland and Durham
• Northumbrian dialect, a disappearing English dialect or Anglic language variety spoken in the counties of Northumberland and Durham, linguistically closest to.

Phonology

Consonants

• In Northumberland and northern County Durham /ɹ/ is traditionally pronounced or perhaps even , a feature known as the Northumbrian burr. Once a widespread feature, the burr was associated with Newcastle and Durham City in the 18th century. This sound is now largely confined to older residents in rural areas in Northumberland.
• In contrast to most Northern English varieties, traditional dialects spoken north of the Tees are largely H-retaining. However, H-dropping is now reported on Wearside.
• As with most dialects of English, final sound is reduced to e.g. waakin for "walking".

Vowels

• The vowel typically becomes ,and so work would rhyme with fork in Northumbrian. For instance, certainly becomes sortainly and surge becomes sorge etc.
• The letter "i" in words like find, blind or pint is pronounced as , as opposed to , and so "find" would rhyme with wind or stint.
• Occurring throughout much of north & west Northumberland, the vowel "oʊ" in words like "phone" and "tone" moves closer to a "ɜ" sound, so "phone" would be pronounced the same as the word "fern". Amongst those with stronger accents, the same process can happen to the "ɒ" sound, so "cod" would be pronounced as "curd".
• The vowel sound as in call corresponds to . And so call, walk and talk are caal, waak and taak in Northumbrian.
• *This creates some minimal pairs based upon phonemic vowel length, such as te tak /tak/ vs. te taak /taːk/
• The diphthong in words such as down and town corresponds to the long vowel , therefore down and town are "doon" and "toon" in Northumbrian. However, it is shortened to when followed by , so "pound" and "found" are "pund" and "fund".
• Long vowel in words such as book and cook typically corresponds to other sounds, such as or , as in the word skeul.
• Lack of foot-strut split, as in other Northern English varieties.
• Dipthongisation of Northern Middle English to i+e or i+a, producing forms such as byeth, styen and hyem for "both", "stone" and "home".However, older forms such as baith, stane and hame, which are shared with Scots, survive in some Northumbrian dialects.

  Diphthongs

Berwick-upon-Tweed

Classification in relation to English and Scots

Grammar

• Northumbrian includes some strong plurals such as ee/een, coo/kye and shough/shoon that survived from Old English into Northumbrian but have become weak plurals in Standard Modern English – ox/oxen and child/children being exceptions. Regular Northumbrian plurals which correspond to irregular in Standard English include laifs, wifes and shelfs
• T–V distinction: Use of the singular second-person pronouns thoo or tha and thee, particularly in Durham and west Northumberland.
• Aa's for the first person present form of the verb "to be". North Northumberland remains an exception, favouring am as in Scots and Standard English.
• In Northumbrian the definite article is unreduced as in Standard English and Scots. Notable exceptions include Weardale and Teesdale, where the definite article is reduced to t' as in Yorkshire and Cumbrian.

  Vocabulary

• aa / aw - I
• aboot - about
• aalreet - a variation on "alright" or "hello". The "l" sound is also often dropped, meaning it is pronounced as "aa'reet"
• aye - yes
• bairn/grandbairn - child/grandchild
• bari - "good" or "lovely"
• banter - chat/gossip
• belta - "really good", used in the film Purely Belter
• bess - "please ya bess" for "please yourself"
• te boule - to roll, however te boule aboot means to "mess around"
• bray - to overpower or defeat someone, usually in a physical sense
• cannit or canna - cannot
• canny - "pleasant", or like in Scots "quite"
• chud - chewing gum
• clart or clarts - "mud" as in "thar's clarts on yor beuts"
• cuddy - a small horse or a pony
• te dee - do
• deeks - "look" as in "Gi’z a deeks" - "Gimme a look"
• divvent, dinnit or dinna - "don't"
• divvie - an insult, referring to a stupid person
• doon - down,
• ee - oh, an exclamation of shock
• fitha, faatha or fadder - "father"
• te gan - to go
• gadgie - man
• git awesh - "go away"
• geet, varry - very
• gie's- "Give me", compare "Gimme"
• haad - "hold" example: keep a haad means "keep a hold" or "luck after", and haad yor gob means "keep quiet".]
• hev or hae - have
• hacky - "dirty"
• haddaway - "get away"
• hairn - similar to "hinny", see below
• hinny a term of endearment - "Honey"
• hoose - house
• ho'wair, ho'way or ha'way - "come on"
• te hoy - to throw
• hyem - "home"
• us- me, for example Pass us the gully meaning "Pass me the knife"
• ket - sweets
• te knaa - know
• lekky - electricity, or electric
• te lend - often used for borrow,
• like - used in many sentences; usually every other word, e.g. like, is he on aboot me or like, summat, like?
• mair for "more"
• mam/maa a variation of Mother
• man - often used as a generic term of address, as in "Giv uz it heor noo man" or "haway man"
• marra - Friend. Used like "mate" - aalreet marra meaning "hello friend")
• me or ma - my
• mollycoddle - overprotect, "wrap in cotton wool"
• muckle - similar to "canny", in the sense of meaning "quite". It can also mean "big", for instance "Yon hoose hez a muckle windae" means "that house has a big window"
• ner, na or nar - no
• neb - nose
• neet - night
• nettie - toilet
• nivvor - never
• noo - now,
• nowt - nothing
• owt - anything
• pet - a term of address or endearment towards a woman or a child
• plodge - to stomp about or wade through something ungracefully
• radge or radgie - crazy
• sel - "self" as in mesel = myself, yersel = yourself, hesel = himself, horsel = herself, waselves, thaselves
• shuttin for "shooting" thus simply shortening the "oo" vowel sound
• snek - nose
• spelk - a splinter
• stot - to bounce. A well-known local bread bun called a 'stottie cake' receives its name from the fact the dough is 'stotted' about when being made.
• summat or summick - something
• tab - cigarette
• tiv or te - to. The former is usually used when the following word begins with a vowel. Thar's nowt tiv it - "there's nothing to it"
• thae - they as in "What are thae deein?" meaning "What are they doing?"
• toon - town
• wa - "our". used in a more general sense unlike "wor" below as in "Divvint touch wa bags" means "Don't touch our bags"
• willent, winnit - "won't"
• wor - our, Used primarily to denote a family member, such as "wor bairn"
• wu- "us" as in What ye deein te wu? means "What are you doing to us?"
• yark - verb meaning to hit or move abrasively. Believed to be a corruption of "jerk"
• ye or 'ee for you as in What are 'ee deein meaning "What are you doing?"
• yor, thee - your