..... whereas I speak properly Following Sunderland around the country, for 40 odd years, I've met supporters from all over the NE. I'm from the Durham/Consett area and have nothing to do with the town of Sunderland, other than the club ..... so I find the accent & slang quite different to my own. I've never lived closer than 20 miles away, further than the distance between Sunderland and Newcastle. So it's funny to hear some of the slang, from 'Townies', and from the other areas. The coastal 'pit villages' are different from the town but different from the 'Durham' area and Weardale etc. My Dad was from further north so used words my Mam didn't ...... he'd say ower yonder & what fettle, she'd say vexed & hinny. People I've known, on my travels abroad and now in the south, think all the NE accents are identical but we know different. There are big differences in a matter of miles. Lads I know, from the Easington/Horden area, still use thee & thou ..... my relatives in the Derwent valley laugh at that and when people from the other side of the Tyne say 'wuh' when they mean 'us'. I had a ex-fighter pilot mate from Chile, who's now an instructer at Farnborough airport, to stay for a week recently. He was saying that, in his home country, everyone speaks Spanish and almost all with the same accent & slang. Why are there so many regional accents, in the NE, in such a small area?
My reply seems to have disappeared. It was----- Look at the size of Australia and they seem to all speak the same. ( please put me right anyone with better knowledge of Oz than I have )
You're right and wrong mate. They don't speak the same at all but it's like they don't have different accents, simply difference in strengths of the same accent. The Territory... Strongest. Queensland... Strong. Tasmania... Strong. WA... Strong. NSW... Getting weaker. SA... Weaker again. Victoria... Quite neutral. Then it varies from city to country quite a lot as well. They're an interesting lot.
I suspect that it's just the same all over the UK. For example just about everybody who lives in and around London is a 'cockney' to me. I gather they spot huge differences. Heading north, to Scotland, I expect most of us can tell the difference between Glasgow and Edinburgh but not between Edinburgh and Perth.
The difference along the NE is very, very big to me. Geordie is way different to Mackem and both are nothing like smoggy speak! I always say, if you want to know where someone is from in the NE, get them to say curry! Durham is a bit posh anyway. I'm eyeing up propert in Coxhoe. That's a lovely area
"Pizza" is also a good word for showing someone's accent; makes it tough for anyone with a broad Mackem accent to blend in at a Newcastle takeaway though!
The Geordie version is a lot sharper on the vowels, and the Sunderland version is more drawn out (hard to explain just by typing though).
It's incredible how the accent changes. Seaham and Murton are neighboring towns/villages, but have very different accents. Within the boundaries of the city of Sunderland the accent has many variations. Washington folk have a bit more of a Geordie twang, whilst Houghton people are somewhere in between Mackem and Durham. I'm a Ryhope lad and the accent there is nothing like the accent in Hendon and the likes of Castletown is different again..
Just bought a house 5 miles from there, if that. Give me a shout when you are all settled in as I'd like to have a beer with you in Durham one day.
Haha You mackems man. Can I have a 12 inch peeeeeza please hahahahaha A portion of chips and chicken kerry as well please. What.. . The.... ****
I'm from Yorkshire and my wife is from Gateshead, to me any accent from Durham to Alnwick is indistinguishable but to her she can tell exactly where anyone from the NE is from. Alnwick rum is nice btw.