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How to Speak Like a Geordie
From Auf Wiedersehn, Pet to Geordie Shore
If I am ever away from my native north-east England, my accent stands out. On hearing a Tyneside twang, the response of many people is to attempt the most famous, and overused saying in the Geordie phrase book, why aye, man, usually in an accent that bears no resemblance to that spoken by the good people of Newcastle.
I should stress at this stage that I am not a true Geordie myself, but rather a Northumbrian. However, being situated a mere twelve miles from the vibrant city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, I, and my compatriots here in Blyth, speak in much the same way as folk in Benwell, Benton and Byker.
In a recent online poll conducted by the language experts Babbel, the Geordie accent came top in the category, top regional accents we wish we had, and in the category dialects we think sound the most fun, Geordie came joint top alongside Northern Irish.
But while the north-eastern brogue may be pleasing on the ear, within it there are certain words that are unique to the region, and these can cause confusion. For example, when a young boy asks his mother to “Hoy me clarty gansey in the wesh,” he is asking her to throw my muddy jumper into the wash. The odd thing here is that the word gansey derives from Guernsey, a type of woollen jumper worn by fishermen in the Channel Islands.
