Survey of Yorkshire and Geordie dialects

INTRODUCTION

    Language is the most universal and important means of communication. The variety of languages is as great as variety of the peoples. Some languages have much in common – they belong to one family, other languages differ much and it seems that they have nothing in common but the thing that brings together all of them is that people use it to communicate and collaborate with each other. One and the same language may differ in different regions of the country. The most widespread reason is the influence of the other cultures. Such form of a language which is spoken only in one area with words or grammar that are slightly different from other forms of the same language is called the dialect /4, 167/. Dialects are such varieties of a language that contrast in pronunciation, grammatical patterns, and vocabulary and they associate with geographic area and social classes. The two main types of dialects are the geographical dialect-spoken by people of the same area or locality and the social dialect-used by people of the same social class, educational level, or occupational group. The development of dialect variations clearly shows that language is continually evolving. Sometimes, when varieties of a language change to the point that they are mutually incomprehensible, the dialects become languages in their own rights. This was the case with Latin, various dialects of which evolved into French, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian, and their different dialects. Although the term "dialect" is used popularly to refer to vernacular (i.e., non-standard) language varieties, linguists use the term in a neutral sense to refer to any variety - vernacular or standard.

           English language is the most prevalent and universally recognized. 402 million people all over the world speak English. It is widely spoken on six continents. In the British Isles, North America and Australia, where English is spoken as the primary language, the English-speaking population is fairly stable. In Africa, the Indian subcontinent and South-east Asia, where English is used as a secondary language, its future is uncertain. English speakers fall into three groups: those who have inherited it as their native language, those who have acquired it as their second language in a society that is largely bilingual, and those who have learned it as a necessary medium of their education or profession. In the entire world, one person out of seven now belongs to one of these groups.

    Almost every language has different variants of pronunciation that is why it is no wonder that there are: British, American, Australian or Canadian English. The linguistic variations of one and the same language differ from its dialects. These variations of English already are independent languages but their dialects will never become independent.

    The aim of the work is to evaluate and present the peculiarities of formation and development of British dialects. To achieve this aim we need to solve following tasks:

• to examine the most prevalent British dialects;
• to compare their lexis and grammar with those of Standard English ones;
• to indicate the peculiarities of British dialects.

    The object of this research paper is peculiarities of British Dialects.

    The subject of the given paper is comparative analysis of Yorkshire and Geordie dialects.

    The methods of investigation are analytical, selective, descriptive, overall selection, comparative.

    The theoretical significance is based on the works of Trudgill P., Kellett A., Cheshire J., Edwards V. and other linguists who contributed to the study of British Dialects.

    The practical significance of the given paper includes the opportunity to use obtained results in the course of lectures on lexicology and the history of language.

    The given paper consists of introduction, two chapters, conclusion, bibliography and appendix.   
 
 

1. GENERAL NOTIONS OF BRITISH DIALECTS

    A dialect is a variety of a language spoken by an identifiable subgroup of people. Traditionally, linguists have applied the term dialect to geographically distinct language varieties, but in current usage the term can include speech varieties characteristic of other socially definable groups. Determining whether two speech varieties are dialects of the same language, or whether they have changed enough to be considered distinct languages, has often proved a difficult and controversial decision. Linguists usually cite mutual intelligibility as the major criterion in making this decision. If two speech varieties are not mutually intelligible, then the speech varieties are different languages; if they are mutually intelligible but differ systematically from one another, then they are dialects of the same language. There are problems with this definition, however, because many levels of mutual intelligibility exist, and linguists must decide at what level speech varieties should no longer be considered mutually intelligible. This is difficult to establish in practice. Intelligibility has a large psychological component: If a speaker of one speech variety wants to understand a speaker of another speech variety, understanding is more likely than if this were not the case. In addition, chains of speech varieties exist in which adjacent speech varieties are mutually intelligible, but speech varieties farther apart in the chain are not. Furthermore, sociopolitical factors almost inevitably intervene in the process of distinguishing between dialects and languages. Such factors, for example, led to the traditional characterization of Chinese as a single language with a number of mutually unintelligible dialects.

    Dialects develop primarily as a result of limited communication between different parts of a community that share one language. Under such circumstances, changes that take place in the language of one part of the community do not spread elsewhere. As a result, the speech varieties become more distinct from one another. If contact continues to be limited for a long enough period, sufficient changes will accumulate to make the speech varieties mutually unintelligible. When this occurs, and especially if it is accompanied by the sociopolitical separation of a group of speakers from the larger community, it usually leads to the recognition of separate languages. The different changes that took place in spoken Latin in different parts of the Roman Empire, for example, eventually gave rise to the distinct modern Romance languages, including French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian.

    In ordinary usage, the term dialect can also signify a variety of a language that is distinct from what is considered the standard form of that language. Linguists, however, consider the standard language to be simply one dialect of a language. 

    The size of the British Isles often leads people to assume that the language spoken in its countries of England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland is somewhat homogeneous and first time visitors are often surprised to find that they have difficulty in understanding the accents and dialects of certain regions. Even within the country of England alone there is great diversity of dialect both regionally and socially.

    In spite of the fact that Great Britain is not such a big country there is a great variety of different dialects on its territory. During the centuries, English language has changed enormously in different ways in every part of Great Britain. Nowadays it is almost impossible to find out how many dialects exist in England and classify them because they change gradually from one part of the country to another creating a kind of "continuum". Significant changes in dialect (pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary) may occur within one region.

    The four major divisions are normally classified as /25/:

• Southern English dialects
• Midlands English dialects
• Northern English dialects
• Scottish English and the closely related dialects of Scots and Ulster Scots (varieties of Scots spoken in Ulster).

    There is also Hiberno-English (English as spoken in Ireland) and the form of English used in Wales. The various English dialects differ in the words they have borrowed from other languages. The Scottish and Northern dialects include many words originally borrowed from Old Norse; the Scottish dialects include words borrowed from Scots and Scottish Gaelic. Hiberno-English includes words derived from Irish.

    There are many differences between the various British dialects. These can be a major obstacle to understanding between people from different areas. However, modern communications and mass media have reduced these differences significantly. In addition, speakers of very different dialects may modify their pronunciation and vocabulary, towards Standard English.

    The classification of modern British dialects presents serious difficulties as their boundaries are instable /25/.

England

Northern English

• Northumberland (Geordie, Pitmatic)
• Durham (Mackem)
• Cumbrian
• Yorkshire
• Lancashire
• Merseyside (Scouse)

Midlands English

East

• Derbyshire
• Nottingham
• Lincolnshire
• Leicestershire

West

• Black Country (Yam Yam)
• Birmingham (Brummie)

East Anglia

• Norfolk (Broad Norfolk)

Southern English

• Estuary English
• Cockney (London)
• Somerset
• Devon
• Cornwall

Scotland

• Scottish English (Scots)

• Highland English

Wales

• Wenglish
• Pembrokeshire          

Northern Ireland

• Mid Ulster English
• Hiberno-English

    On the map below we can discern dialects and languages on the territory of British Isles.

Appendix

    Among all the mentioned above dialects the most widely spread and of high frequency there is urgent necessity to distinguish Yorkshire and Geordie dialects.

1.1. Peculiarities of Yorkshire Dialect

    "There are no really sharp dialect boundaries in England, and dialects certainly do not coincide with counties. Yorkshire Dialect, for instance, does not suddenly change dramatically into Durham Dialect as you cross the County Durham boundary. Indeed, the dialects of northern Yorkshire are much more like those of County Durham than they are like those of southern Yorkshire. Dialects form a continuum, and are very much a matter of more-or-less rather than either / or. There is really no such thing as an entirely separate, self-contained dialect." /18, 6/

    Yorkshire is still England's biggest county. Once it was the heart of the Danelaw, the Viking kingdom in Britain. To this day, the lexicon of dialect speakers in the North and East Ridings of Yorkshire retains many words that derive from Old Norse. Scandinavian influence on the language does not stop with the end of the Danelaw, however: in the 19th and 20th centuries marine trade and commerce in the North Sea and the Baltic brought many Danes, Norwegians and Swedes to ports like Hull and Newcastle. The West Riding also has a large corpus of words of Old Norse origin. The Norwegian influence is stronger here, whereas Danish is more influential in the East Riding - there are more "Norwegian" forms than the "Danish" of, say, the East Riding. There is a historical explanation in the trade routes from Dublin, via the north-west coast of England, over the Pennine uplands to York, capital of the Danelaw. We see an illustration of this in the place-name ending -thwaite, of Norwegian origin, which is common in West Yorkshire, Lancashire and the Lake District, but rare east of the Pennines, where the Danish cognate -thorpe is far more common.

    The Yorkshire dialect refers to the varieties of English used in the Northern England historic county of Yorkshire. These varieties are often referred to as Broad Yorkshire or Tyke.

    In 2007, Ian McMillan published a book named “Collins Chelp and Chunter: a Guide to the Tyke Tongue”. This was a compilation of words that are used in the Yorkshire dialect as well as a few pieces of Yorkshire humour and illustrations. Many words are pinned down to specific areas of Yorkshire, or to specific towns or villages; one word is even ascribed to Grange Moor, a small village between Barnsley and Huddersfield. There is also The Yorkshire Dictionary, edited by Arnold Kellett, which is more comprehensive and contains several words that have fallen out of everyday use in Yorkshire. The Yorkshire Dialect Society exists to promote use of the dialect in both humour and in serious linguistics; there is also an East Riding Dialect Society. The dialect has roots in older languages such as Old English and Old Norse; it should not be confused with modern slang.

    Yorkshire is generally not as stigmatised as other dialects, and has been used in classic works of literature such as “Wuthering Heights” by Emily Bronte. An April 2008 survey found that Yorkshire accents are now ranked above Received Pronunciation for inspiring confidence in the speaker /25/.

1.2. Main features of Geordie Dialect

    Geordie is a term used to describe a person originating from Tyneside (the city Newcastle-upon-Tyne and its surrounding area) and the former coal mining areas of northern County Durham and the dialect spoken by such people. The villages around Newcastle, until recently depending largely on the coal industry, are home to many of the broader dialect speakers. There are a number of rival theories to explain how the term came about, though all accept that it derives from a familiar diminutive form of the name "George". The word "Geordie" is said to date from the early XVIII century, when Newcastle people declared support for the English kings George I and II, in opposition to the rest of the population of Northumberland, who supported the Scottish Jacobite rebellions. Although the name is localised to the Newcastle area, the dialect here merges gradually into the Northumbrian and Scottish dialects to the north and to a lesser extent into Durham and Yorkshire varieties to the south. Geordie derives much less influence from French and Latin than does Standard English, being substantially Angle and Viking in origin.

    In recent times Geordie has also started to mean a supporter of Newcastle United football club no matter where their origin often including people from well outside the traditional area. This movement is opposed by traditional Geordies however both due to their desire to seem unique and the fact that many of them are supporters of the rival football club Sunderland.

    The relationship between the local dialect and Standard English like in other parts of Britain has not always been comfortable. Non-standard pronunciation and grammatical forms have been widely proscribed in school classes, and speakers of the dialect themselves will often express a view that their language is substandard or bad. Until very recently, there has been no educated role model on radio or television, and many people from the area feel that they are discriminated against on the basis of the way they speak.

    An alternative (and more likely) explanation for the name is that local miners used "Geordie" safety lamps designed by George Stephenson, rather than the "Davy Lamps" designed by Humphry Davy which were used in other mining communities. This is the version that is generally preferred by the Geordies themselves. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

2. SURVEY OF YORKSHIRE AND GEORDIE DIALECTS

IN DIFFERENT SPHERES

Vocabulary

Nouns

Pronouns

Verbs

Adjectives

Adverbs

Common phrases and greetings

Grammar

Possessive pronouns

    Probably the most noticeable feature of Geordie grammar is a confusing difference in pronoun forms. The term us is used to indicate a singular "me", while the plural form for "us" is wu or even wuz. So give us it means 'give me it' and give wu it means 'give us it'.

    "Our" is pronounced wor. Typical members of the family thus include:

wor lass  'wife'

wor kid  'younger brother'

wor fatha  'father', etc.

    In Yorkshire Dialect possessive pronouns do not differ greatly from those of Standard English. 

Demonstrative Pronouns

    In Yorkshire speech the pronouns this, that, these, those, are used dialectically much in the manner of standard English, except that yon is generally substituted for 'that,' and them for 'those,' as yon man (that man), them yows (those ewes). Yon is seldom used with a plural noun; though, in order to give them a more demonstrative force, yonder is frequently added, as: them bo'ds yonder (those birds there). In Geordie speech they use them instead of those. For example:

Them days you didn’t, you didn’t live with lasses

’ve got flat-irons here, haven’t you? Yes, there they are, them are my mothers, look at the candlestick are these the same ones?

Plurals

    Either in Yorkshire or in Geordie, plural forms are used without ending -s.:

Geordie                              Yorkshire                           

six pound                        two week owd 

six pounds                        two weeks old

    But in Yorkshire plurals of some nouns exist in their older form. For example:

childer children               hosen               stockings  

spice           sweets                       shoon/shooin     shoes

Prepositions

    Some prepositions differ very much from those of Standard English:

Present tense

    In Geordie Dialect Present Simple tense is formed with the suffix <s> which is added to all forms of the verb (I goes, we says goes, they asks). In Yorkshire Dialect the suffix <s> is added to singular forms of the verb.

Negatives

    ‘Nut’ and ‘nooan’ are the equivalents of ‘not’ Yorkshire speech, but in Geordie speech they use ‘neet’ instead of ‘not’:

Thoo’ll nut finnd owt                    Ah’m nooan bahn yonder

You’ll not find anything                I’m not going there

Yee winnet find owt.                      Ah’m neet ganin thor.

    Double negatives are quite common in Yorkshire Dialect:

’e nivver said nowt neeaways ti neean on ’em  

He never said anything at all to anybody

2.1 The decline of traditional Yorkshire and Geordie Dialects

    The available literature suggests that the main sources of pressure on traditional dialect are: the media, social change, geographical mobility, the educational system and social attitudes.

Media

    Trudgill claims that, with regard to the products of national and international companies, the language of advertising in the media tends to display a uniformity of vocabulary relating to the objects advertised. Local words have a greater chance of survival where neighborhood companies and shops remain in business preparing and selling goods locally /18, 125/. Today's teenagers are also more likely to copy TV slang or adopt American urban street talk rather than use their own dialect.

Social Changes

    Trudgill claims that many dialect words were associated with rural life and non-mechanized working methods employed in agriculture /18, 125/. As these techniques disappear so do the words.

Geographical mobility

    Trudgill suggests that geographical mobility, resulting from improvements in transport facilities, is responsible for the loss of “regional diversity” /18, 126/.

Education

    Cheshire and Milroy claim that, within the educational system, recent thinking has emphasized the importance of teaching Standard English in schools, the aim being to broaden the pupils “linguistic repertoire” by furnishing them with the ability to use Standard English forms in addition to the non-standard forms encountered locally /3, 17/. The main consideration is that the individual child, by possessing such ability, will not be disadvantaged in “those situations where the standard is customarily used” and will accordingly not “find many areas of importance in our society closed to them”. Cheshire and Milroy suggest that “as things stand currently, proficiency in standard English conveys distinct social and economic advantages” /3, 25/. They conclude that “ignorance, prejudice and lack of understanding of the nature of standard and non- standard varieties have tended to compound the problems of linguistic and social inequality in the British Isles” /3, 31/. This view appears to be supported by the social attitude of many native English speakers.

Social attitudes

    Hughes and Trudgill refer to the fact that Standard English, which they describe as “the dialect of educated people of the British Isles” and as “the most prestigious British dialect”, is used for writing, for teaching throughout the education system, and as the language of radio and television /12, 9/. In relation to the notion of prestige, Cheshire and Milroy observe that although the standard variety has achieved importance and social prestige, it is not necessarily superior, linguistically speaking, to any of the others /3, 14/. They view it as more a question of social acceptability. Standard forms, both spoken and written, are used by people in positions of power and influence and are perceived to be indicative of education and culture, a view reinforced by the opinion that such forms are “correct” and “proper”. They consider that such perceptions have been internalized by “almost all native speakers of English” whether or not they are users of standard forms. Conversely, use of nonstandard forms such as I were or he knowed are seen to be bad English and thus devalued. Furthermore nonstandard forms of syntax and morphology are considered to be grammatical corruptions. With regard to this theme of social attitudes Cheshire and Edwards observe, in relation to accent, that speakers of Received Pronunciation (British Standard English which has no regional variation and which is sometimes referred to as “BBC English”) are seen to be more competent and intelligent than speakers of regional dialect, a perception shared by both speakers of Standard English and non-Standard English alike /3, 42/. Trudgill claims that it is “still considered acceptable to discriminate against people, especially young people, on the grounds of their dialect” /18, 126/.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

CONCLUSION

    The most widespread language in the world is English, which is considered to be the international language. During many centuries English was exposed to the influence of different cultures and underwent many changes. That is why this is not surprising that British English has so many dialects. Dialect is a complete system of verbal communication (oral or signed but not necessarily written) with its own vocabulary and/or grammar. It is used by people from a particular geographical area the size of which can be arbitrary. It follows that a dialect for a larger area can contain plenty of (sub-) dialects, which in turn can contain dialects of yet smaller areas, etc.

    According to the studied materials we have come to such conclusions:

•       The term dialect refers to a specific variety of a language, which differs systematically from other varieties in terms of pronunciation, grammar and vocabulary, but which is still generally comprehensible to speakers of other dialects within that language. Varieties of dialects can be distinguished not only by their vocabulary and grammar, but also by differences in phonology. There are two types of dialects: geographical and social. Geographical are used by people of some particular territory. Social are used in one and the same social class or educational group.
• As England is a big country, the dialects there seize 3 territories: Northern, Midlands and South. In these territories the dialects are spoken differently due to the impact of different languages and cultures.
• There is a great difference between Standard English and dialect speech. Thus two people from different counties of one and the same country cannot understand each other in spite of the fact that their mother tongue is English. Some words and constructions of sentences are absolutely incomprehensible.

    Language by its very nature is dynamic and constantly evolving, new words and expressions are almost daily being absorbed and some older words are falling into disuse and it is happening now not with Yorkshire and Geordie dialects but with the dialect all over the world.

    With communication and travel nowadays being so easy and fast, language is evolving more rapidly now than at any other time and some people are commuting daily over greater distances than they would have considered travelling for an annual holiday 50 years ago. People are moving house more often, they settle in new areas and thus the regional lines are becoming blurred. In the course of time dialects are mixing and their number reduces progressively. But this does not mean that dialects will die out someday. They will continue to exist and develop with people’s help. That is why it is very important to study and keep dialects.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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