27/08/2015 Northumbrian dialects When we think of Northumbrian dialect, we might first think of The dialect of the Holy Island of the language of the middle and southeast of the county Lindisfarne ‒ with its characteristic sounds in words such as snow , hand , coat , dog , pub , boots The Roland Bibby Memorial Lecture ‒ and verb forms such as cannit , divn’t The Northumbrian Language Society But as you all know, Northumberland is quite a diverse county Morpeth linguistically 11 th October 2014 ‒ the urban dialect of Tyneside ‒ the Pitmatic of the coalfields Warren Maguire, University of Edinburgh ‒ the Cumbrian-like speech of the southwest of the county w.maguire@ed.ac.uk ‒ and North Northumbrian, where influence from Lowland Scotland is most obvious ( canna , dinna ) 10 km 793 AD Population: Her wæron reðe forebecna 162, less than half native Eyemouth cumene ofer Berwick Distance from the Border: Norðanhymbra land 7 þet Connected to the mainland by a Scottish folc earmlice bregdon: þet Holy Island causeway at ‘low waiter’, Borders Lowick wæron ormete ligræscas, 7 opened in 1955 wæron geseowene fyrene Industry: dracan on þam lyfte Traditionally fishing and farming, Thropton fleogende. Þam tacnum nowadays mostly tourism, with sona fyligde mycel hunger, some farming, lobster and crab 7 litel æfter þam þæs ilcan Northumberland fishing geares on .vi. idus Ianuarii earmlice heðenra manna Schools: hergung adiligode Godes One first school, now joined with Newcastle cyrican in Lindisfarenaee Lowick Middle and high school in Berwick þurh reaflac 7 mansleht. The 1971-3 recordings “The data consist of some fifty hours of tape- Reel-to-reel recordings of natives by Jörg Berger recordings,* of which 24.5 hrs, 10 main speakers (3F, 7M), born 1893-1914 (the • about two thirds are ‘older’ speakers), plus 1945M recordings made with usually one informant at a The recordings include: time … The remaining third conversations: contains recordings of • ‒ between Berger and Islander(s), or at least with Berger present conversations between ‒ sometimes several people at the same time, some recorded in the informants” (p. 20) pub, with lots of background, largely inaudible chatter discussions of local place-names (from a numbered map) “*The recordings were made in • answers to dialect questionnaires (e.g. the Survey of the years 1971-1973 and are in • the possession of the author.” English Dialects ) 1
27/08/2015 Other Holy Island recordings and DHIL Conversation types Two Millennium Memory Bank recordings (British Library): The speech in the recordings is of different types: 1926M (30 years in London), 1965F • normal conversational speech ( C ) • elicited speech – e.g. answers to dialect questionnaires, • On-going data collection by WM where the intention was for the speakers to give their broadest dialect forms (even if that wasn’t always the 1945Mb (in 2006), 1947M, 1963F, 1967M (in 2013) • result) ( Q ) Dialect of the Holy Island of Lindisfarne (DHIL) corpus (British In my analysis of the data, I’ve kept these two kinds of • Academy grant SG112357), 2012-2014 speech separate to see if there are differences between them time-aligned orthographically transcriptions • hosted on the Diachronic Electronic Corpus of Tyneside • English website (http://research.ncl.ac.uk/decte/dhil.htm) accessed via a password-protected interface subject to • completion of a user agreement form Berger’s speakers New speakers Speaker Occupation Source Types Speaker Occupation Source Types 1893F ‘Herring girl’ Berger Q and C 1926M* Merchant Navy, painter and decorator MMB C 1902F Shop keeper Berger Q and C 1945Mb Fisherman WM 2006 Q and C 1908F Housewife Berger C 1947M Fisherman, bus driver (on the Island) WM 2013 C 1903M Fisherman Berger Q and C 1963F* Hotelier WM 2013 C 1965F Priory attendant MMB C 1904M* Wireless operator Berger Q and C 1967M* Navy, publican WM 2013 C 1905M Various jobs locally Berger Q and C 1906M Fisherman Berger C The ‘younger’ speakers have very different life histories 1908M Driver Berger Q and C they went to middle and high school in Berwick (where they • 1910M* Fisherman, lifeboat man Berger Q and C boarded through the week) 1914M* Various, inc. Navy Berger Q they may have gone to college further away again • 1945Ma Fisherman Berger Q and C often worked away from the Island for substantial periods • ‘Older’ speaker sample in red; speakers marked * had higher status usually employed in the tourism and hospitality industry • jobs, typically involving time and training away from the Island 1905M: I've seen it, [when we] used to Int. And this is? 1945M: You dinna put any boxes upside 1965F : Yeah, i t ’s a lovely place for keep the articles here. You know what 1893F The door. down in the boat. B-, when you put your children to grow up. I know there’s no t them things is, George? Well, I'm going Int. And, and, and the thing at the empty boxes in they’ve got to be the a lo t of facili t ies bu t they’re not far to tell you. Now, there's an art, there's door? right way up. That used to be an old away and Berwick’s just easy to nip to. an art, uh, uh, uh, [you know] preparing 1893F That’s the handle, isn’t it, or man’s, an old man’s super-. If the box is There’s swimming pools and all those them first and cutting their throat. the -, aye, that’s the handle. upside down some of them would go kinds of facili t ies. They go to nurseries Now, if they didn't bleed right, you Int. Uh-huh. And on the other side, home again. If the box is upside down on, if they want to in Berwick. They buggers, they would never cure. You you know? These things, there. how the hell can you put anything in it? migh t actually star t a nursery up here if couldn't, they would never cure right. 1893F - The jambs of the door? Is Everything’s going to fall out . So that was there’s more children. But, yeah, when 1906M: Keep a woman out the road. that, do you mean the round a superstition. Another one. If possible we were small, there’s a beach as you 1905M: Well, there's something in that about - get away from your moorings without come on to the Island called the Chare and all. I dinna know w-, whether that's Int. No, uh, these? going backwards. You know? You’ve got Ends. And everyone, even my dad, my an old saying or no. 1893F Oh, that’s the hinges. to go ahead if you can . It’s no use going granny used to take my dad there when 1906M: No, it's quite perfectly true. Int. Hinges? astern . You know? That’s no bloody use. they were li tt le. Every day in the 1905M: It might be right. But, uh, uh, [I 1893F Hinges. Whistling. No allowed to whistle in the summer holidays if i t was fine, know] we used to keep them and I Int. And this is? boat. My father would, what, he would everybody took their children ou t there knew perfectly well as soon as they was 1893F Tha-, that’s the surroundings. bloody kill me for, “Do you no think and they all used to si t righ t along this killed and their throat was cut, if they Int. Surroundings? there’s enough wind ?”. Aye. “ Without beach with all the prams and push- didna bleed right, they would never 1893F Surroundings. blowing any more ?”. chairs and everything. cure right. Couldna cure them right. Int. Oh. Beautiful. 1893F Ye couldn’t understand we. 2
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