By Eva, 17
In the great North East of England, you’d be surprised by how different the citizens sound 20 minutes up the road. Varying from Geordie- the most popular and what most southerners categorise the rest of the accents as, to Smoggie, found in the south of the county residing in Teeside.
But how can they sound so different? Dropping T’s and H’s, and words such as “clamming” and “bonny”- I’d say the North East as a whole has a canny little dialect.
Personally speaking, as a Mackem, I’ve heard it all. I’ve been told my Mackem accent sounds like a Durham accent, which isn’t too offensive. But it’s a stab in the heart for any person from Sunderland when our accent is mistaken for our ‘sworn enemies’- Newcastle.
I don’t have a problem with Geordies, however it’s in my nature as soon as I step off the Metro to change “Skewel” to “Schooul.” But those who are from the North East know that they are indeed different. Particularly the pronunciation of words, as a Mackem would say “Chaark” instead of Chalk, whereas a Geordie would say “Chork”, emphasising the ‘O” in words.
And not only do us Mackems drag out words, but there is a common theme of dropping, and adding H’s. My Nana Margaret, around Easter time, hosts the family “Heaster Hegg Unt” at her house, as in an Easter Egg Hunt. Eya man, it’s class!
Across the Wear and heading into Durham, their accents are proclaimed to be a posher variant of the Mackem accent, seen as less harsh than Geordie and Mackem but still with a distinct northern twang.
It’s rare you even find someone with a pure-bred Durham accent when you’re there since the university brings in heaps of Southerners who wouldn’t dare go near Newcastle from fear of being jeopardized for their RP accents.
Smoggie, the name originating from the industrial nature of Middlesborough, tends to leave outsiders (and even me, who lives 30 minutes from there) absolutely baffled. The Borough accent tends to have a bit more of a nasally, rougher tone- but the dialect itself isn’t too different, it’s the delivery that throws people off.
These accents are like home to me, but to anyone outside of the region they’re heard as complete gibberish blurted out in a working-class, ‘unprosperous’ stereotypical Geordie accent. There’s a wrongful belief throughout the nation that the stronger an accent equates to less intelligence and just less success overall, but that’s daft.
I mean, we don’t always sound clever exactly, but there are plenty of success stories about North East stars who didn’t let their accent stop them! Ant and Dec, Jill Scott, Cheryl Cole, all these big names were once canny little bairns now turned household names, proving you don’t need to swap ‘mam’ for ‘mum’ to get on the telly.
I think no matter the region, an accent is more than just a way of speaking- it’s a part of our identity. And I count myself lucky to be from the North East which is rich with culture, humour and enough slang to confuse half the country. So gan on pet, remember there’s nowt wrong with the way we talk!
This story was written by young people as part of the Headliners Young Journalist programme. This project was made possible by the Million Hours Fund.
