The Dialect of Northumberland

🗺️Area Spoken and Number of Speakers

Northumbrian dialects are primarily spoken in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, County Durham, Northern Cumbria, Parts of North Yorkshire, and The Scottish Borders transitional zone

Major urban dialect centres include Newcastle, Sunderland, Gateshead, Middlesbrough, Hartlepool and Durham, while many conservative rural varieties survive in isolated parts of Northumberland and upper Weardale.

Estimating speaker numbers is difficult because most speakers identify their speech simply as “Geordie”, “Mackem”, “Pitmatic” or “Northern English” rather than “Northumbrian”. Broadly speaking, however, several million people speak dialects belonging to the Northumbrian grouping, although only a minority retain strongly traditional forms.

📜History

The roots of Northumbrian speech lie in the settlement of Anglian tribes during the fifth and sixth centuries. These settlers established the Kingdom of Northumbria, which at its height stretched from the Humber to the Firth of Forth. The language spoken there developed separately from the West Saxon dialects farther south.

During the Old English period, Northumbrian was one of the principal literary dialects of England. Works associated with figures such as Bede and Cædmon originated within the Northumbrian cultural sphere.

The Viking settlements of the ninth and tenth centuries had a major impact on the dialects of the region. Large numbers of Old Norse words entered local speech, many of which survive today. Later contact with Scots, especially after the medieval development of the Anglo-Scottish border, further shaped northern varieties.

Following the Norman Conquest, southern written standards gradually displaced northern literary traditions. Even so, spoken Northumbrian remained comparatively conservative and preserved many archaic Anglic features long after they had disappeared elsewhere.

Industrialisation during the nineteenth century created powerful urban dialect identities. Coal mining, shipbuilding and heavy industry helped preserve local speech communities, especially around Tyneside and Wearside. The twentieth century then brought increasing levelling toward Standard English, though regional accents remained strong.

⛲Origin and Main Sources

Northumbrian dialects derive mainly from:

• Old Northumbrian Old English
• Old Norse from Viking settlement
• Scots influence from border contact
• Later Standard English influence
• Minor Celtic substrate influences in some upland regions

Norse influence is especially strong in vocabulary and phonology. Words such as bairn (“child”), gan (“go”), kirk (“church”), fell (“hill”) and laik (“play”) reflect Scandinavian heritage.

Scots influence becomes increasingly noticeable farther north, especially in border dialects where the transition between Scots and Northumbrian can be gradual rather than sharply divided.

🏘️Varieties and Classification

The Northumbrian grouping contains numerous dialects and subdialects. Broadly, these may be classified into several major branches.

Northern Rural Northumbrian

Spoken in rural Northumberland and parts of the Borders.

Features include:

• Conservative vowel systems
• Strong retention of older vocabulary
• Rolled or tapped /r/ in some districts
• Greater Scots-like influence

Traditional Coquetdale and Redesdale speech belong here.

Geordie

Centred on Newcastle and Tyneside.

Features include:

• Distinctive diphthongs
• Glottalisation patterns
• Extensive local vocabulary
• Strong urban identity

Geordie is probably the best-known Northumbrian variety internationally.

Mackem

Spoken mainly in Sunderland and Wearside.

Compared with Geordie:

• Different vowel realisations
• Less extreme intonation
• Distinct lexical preferences
• Strong mining and maritime heritage

Despite geographic proximity, Geordie and Mackem speech are highly distinguishable to local listeners.

Pitmatic

Traditional mining dialects of County Durham and inland Northumberland.

Features include:

• Mining terminology
• Archaic grammatical forms
• Heavy use of regional pronunciation patterns
• Transitional features between rural and urban speech

Pitmatic has declined sharply since the collapse of the coal industry.

Teesside and South Durham Dialects

Spoken around Middlesbrough and adjacent areas.

These dialects show:

• Greater Yorkshire influence
• Reduced traditional vocabulary
• More levelling toward General Northern English

Border Transitional Dialects

Found along the Anglo-Scottish border.

These varieties may contain:

• Mixed Scots and Northumbrian features
• Shared vocabulary with Lowland Scots
• High mutual intelligibility with southern Scots dialects

Intelligibility

Most modern Northumbrian dialects remain mutually intelligible with Standard English, although strongly traditional rural forms can be difficult for outsiders.

Levels of intelligibility vary considerably:

• Geordie is generally understandable nationally, though dense traditional speech may present difficulty
• Rural Northumbrian can contain archaisms unfamiliar to most English speakers
• Border dialects may approach southern Scots in structure and vocabulary
• Traditional Pitmatic speech can be highly opaque outside the region

Northumbrian dialects are generally more intelligible with Scots than southern English dialects are, due to shared northern Anglic developments and Scandinavian influence.

🔎Features

Some characteristic Northumbrian features include:

• Retention of older Anglic vocabulary
• Strong Scandinavian lexical influence
• Use of bairn, canny, gan, howay and hinnies
• Frequent glottal stops
• Distinctive monophthongal vowels
• Non-standard second person plural forms in some areas
• Preservation of older pronunciation patterns
• Rhoticity in certain rural dialects
• Musical intonation patterns

Grammar also differs from Standard English in some traditional varieties:

• “Aa’s gan yem” (“I am going home”)
• “Divvent” for “don’t”
• “Yous” or “yez” as plural second-person pronouns

📡Effects on Other Anglian Dialects

Northumbrian has influenced neighbouring northern dialects for centuries. Features originating or preserved in the North-East spread into:

• Cumbria
• Yorkshire
• Southern Scots
• Urban Northern English dialects

Modern media exposure has also increased awareness of Geordie vocabulary and pronunciation across Britain. Certain expressions, particularly canny and howay, are now widely recognised nationally.

Historically, Northumbrian helped shape the development of Scots itself. Early Scots evolved from northern Anglic dialects closely related to those spoken in medieval Northumbria.

Northumbrian versus Scots

Northumbrian and Scots share common origins but developed along different political and literary paths.

Important differences include:

• Scots developed a substantial written literary tradition; Northumbrian largely remained oral
• Scots preserves more independent grammar and orthography
• Northumbrian is generally closer to Standard English structurally
• Scots contains broader divergence in vocabulary and morphology
• Northumbrian dialects underwent stronger influence from southern English standards

Nevertheless, border varieties can blur distinctions considerably. In some areas, the transition between Scots and Northumbrian forms a dialect continuum rather than a fixed linguistic boundary.

💬Samples:

Aa hevvn’t had a wink o’ sleep, Aa’ve been up and down aal neet, There’s bummlers buzzing in me heed, T’ say nowt about me aching feet. Aa’d just got snuggled down in bed, Me arm around our lass, When aal the cats from miles around Begun their evening class. They’d settled on our netty top, Lead be a mangy tom, Larning them t’ wowl and cry, They went off like a bomb. Aa shot downstairs and grabbed the brumm, From behint our watter butt, Went fleeing up our Lang backyard, In me linings and pit beuts. Aa hoyed the brumm up a height And when it clattered down, It dadded moggies left and reet, But missed that flaming tom. Up went next door’s bedrumm winder, ‘What’s gannen on?’, Aa heord him shout, Then, ‘Howway Mary luk at this, The harriers are out.’ That’s when Aa fairly lost me rag, Lost me heed and nivver thowt, ‘Geordie Thompson come down here And Aa’ll punch the in the snout.’ Noo seeing Geordie tops six foot And Aa’s just Five foot fower, Aa’d bit of mair than Aa could chow, So Aa run in and locked the door. But as Aa climbed the stairs t’ bed, Aa heord Geordie Thompson goller out, He’d catch us on the morn’s morn, And land me grit big gob a clout. The wife said, ‘Hinney nivver mind, Y’ knaw that Geordie’s soft as clarts, Keep weel away from him the morn, Cos sal he’s good at’s chasing tarts.’  We’d just got settled back t’ back, Gannen nicely off t’ sleep, When out the front aal hell brokk lowse, Dogs fighting on the auld pit heap. Aa craaled downstairs, went out the front, Waalked halfway up the raa, Picked half a brick up off the road And kest it wi’ a mighty thraa. It stotted off of one dog’s heed And dropped it wi’ a thud, The others didn’t stop t’ argy, They kennt that Aa waz efter blood. Aa turned around t’ gann back hyem And nearly took a fit, Cos Geordie just behint me yelled, ‘That’s. my dog thou’s hit.’ He fetched me lug such a clout, The bells aal started ringing, Aa tell the what that even now, Aa’ve got a lug that’s singing. Aa hedn’t time t’ chow the fat, So up the raa Aa flew, Wi’ Geordie pelting efter me, He’d ring me neck Aa knew. Aa beat him t’ the corner, Coined sharp in t’ the lane, When part way, he fell ower his feet, As Aa myed round the front agyen. When Aa riched me aan front door, Aa in and shut it quick, Dropped the sneck and shot the bolt; Aa nivver miss a trick. Then as Aa louped up the stairs t’bed, ‘What’s wrang?’ Aa heord her caal, So Aa collared her and haaked her out, And she stotted off the waal. ‘If Geordie’s soft as clarts’, Aa sayed, ‘Then get up off the floor And gann downstairs and pezzle him, That’s him braying in wo’ door.’  Efter Geordie chucked the towel in And went back hyem t’ bed, Our lass caaled up from down belaa, ‘It’s time fer Pit’, she sayed. So now Aa’m sitting here at bank, Waiting fer the cage, Sore heed, sore feet, a grit fat lug, And feeling twice me age.    Ron Oliver (Peterlee, 1988)

THE CLUB    Remember Aa felled Geordie’s dog, Aa think yea’d better hear the rest, What happened on the Saterday neet, The syem week poor auld Gyp went west. Our lass and me went t’ the Club, Her decked out like a dog’s dinner, Fox fur and a dut wi’ feathers in And high heeled shoes that cripple her. Aa got the drinks in at the bar, As she fund two empty seats, Some feul sayed they were syeving them, But she syun put them t’ reets. The wife sayed, ‘By there’s plenty in, It’s a good job we come syun, Thou’d a been down on thee hunkers, Aa dinnat knaa what Aa’d a dyun.’ Aa lit a tab fer me and her And hed a good sup at me beer, Then she hed t’ gann and spoil things, ‘Geordie and the wife’s in here.’ Aa sayed, ‘Aw woman howld yer wisht, Aa divvent want t’ knaa, Aa waddn’t put it past him, T’ waalk ower and dadd me jaaw.’  ‘Dinnat let on we knaa he’s here, Just listen t’ the crack’, Then a woman caaled, ‘What cheer Bob?’, And cauld shivers run down me back. Aa kennt that it waz Geordie’s Mary, She sounds like riving claes, ‘How’s thee lug feel, Bobby hinney, Is thee heed still in a daze?’ Our lass louped up and spilled the beer, Aal ower the baalrumm floor, ‘Aa’m gannen ower t’ fettle her, Aa’ll put her through yon door.’ Ivvery thing went aaful quiet As she stamped across the rumm, Then the drummer in the three piece band Give a Lang roll on his drumm. She stood ower Geordie’s Mary, Sitting chuntering in her gin, ‘Hev yea got enny mair t’ say?, Afore Aa dadd yer fyess in.’  ‘Aye’, says Mary, ‘That Aa hev, Your Bob’s a stumer on the nest, A man that hesn’t list t’ fight – Aa think yea knaa the rest.’ ‘Yea’re brazzened fond’, our lass replied, Spit out her lump o’ chuddy, Clipped Mary’s heed wi’ such a clout, It wadd hev downed a cuddy. Poor Mary’s eyes yowled up her heed, As she slid down off the seat And gin and beer couped ower her:  She’d dunshed the tyeble wi’ her feet. Then Geordie lost his rag for fairs, He flew ower t’ where Aa sat, Yarked us up be me ganzie front And then he shuck us like a rat. ‘Aa’ve hed enough o’ this,’ he sayed. Trailed me ower the baalrumm floor, Then hoyed us out, neck and crop, Strite through the Club’s front door. As Aa went sailing through the air, Aa thowt, why wasn’t Aa mair wary, It’s me that got hoyed through the door, Instead o’ Geordie’s Mary. Aa landed wi’ an aaful thud, Amang clarts and mucky watter, That clagged me claes aal our us, Like a fish that’s thick wi batter. As Aa picked mesell up off the grund, Three marras stotted in the muck, It waz Geordie and his Mary And our lass, run out o’ luck. Six committee men stood at the door, ‘Haddaway and divvent come back, Yea’re nee better than mad galloways, As members yea’re aal blacked.’ That’s how it comes, this Saterday neet, We’re sitting in the Trust snug, Paying tuppence mair fey ivvery pint, Cos we’re aal barred from the Club.   Ron Oliver (Peterlee, 1988)

😂

Hoo can Ah waurk, man???

A Geordie goes to a doctor complaining of a very painful hamstring. The doctor is booked out for several hours and is unable to see him at the moment.

He notices the man’s condition and states “I’m very sorry, I’m booked out until later this afternoon. You’ll need to come back later. Do you think you’ll be able to walk?”

The Geordie retorts “Waurk!!! Aure ye creeazy man? Hoo on orth kin Ah waurk when Ah kin baiorly waak?”

(Translation: Work!!! Are you crazy man??? How on earth can I work when I can barely walk??”)

🔮The Future of Northumbrian Dialects

Northumbrian dialects face many of the same pressures affecting regional speech throughout Britain:

• Influence from mass media
• Social mobility
• Standardised education
• Dialect levelling
• Decline of traditional industries

Some older rural and mining varieties are now endangered, particularly highly conservative forms once spoken in isolated communities.

At the same time, urban identities remain strong. Geordie especially continues to enjoy considerable cultural prestige and visibility through television, music, sport and online media. Younger speakers may no longer use the broadest traditional forms, but many still retain recognisably Northumbrian pronunciation and vocabulary.

There has also been growing academic and cultural interest in preserving regional speech heritage through dictionaries, dialect archives and local literature.

✅Conclusion

The Northumbrian sublanguage represents one of the most historically significant surviving branches of the Anglic dialect continuum. Descended from the speech of the ancient Kingdom of Northumbria, it preserves elements of Old English, Norse and Scots influence that have disappeared elsewhere in England.

Far from being a single uniform dialect, Northumbrian consists of a complex network of regional and social varieties ranging from conservative rural speech to modern urban dialects such as Geordie and Mackem. Despite increasing standardisation, these dialects remain important markers of regional identity and cultural continuity.

Although some traditional forms are declining, Northumbrian speech continues to evolve rather than disappear. Its strong local loyalties, rich linguistic history and continuing public visibility suggest that the dialects of the North-East will remain a distinctive part of the wider Anglic linguistic landscape for many years to come.