Introduction
Location in the North East
Location in the U.K.
TeesSpeak:An Urban Dialect
words: alley to bleb
words : bogie to butterloggy
words:-cack-handed to clammin
words:-Clarry to dut
words:-eariewig to get
words:-Geordie to knackin'
words: lace- -mozz
words: mell- -mozz
words:nab to parmo
words: parkin to rully
words:sackless to Stee-as
words: steelie to tungie
words:village to youse
Regional Stereotypes
Gravel Voiced Gadgies
Nowt by Gob
East Cleveland
East Cleveland Dialect
East Cleveland Dialect 2
Teessiders' Origins
Smoggy
Norman Connections
Discussion Page
Northern Dialect Societies
From both ends of the Tees
Local History Sources
On Not Being a Geordie
Then and Now
Familiar Places with Strange Sounding Names
BBC VOICES PROJECT Listen to Teessiders
On Being Canny
Middlesbrough's Language & Identity
The Iron Miners
Links for Lower Tees Dialect Group
Guestbook
Mail Form
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Sample of Middlesbrough Speech
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Sample of Hartlepool Speech
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Does TeesSpeak Really Sound Like Scouse?
People often suggest Teesside speech sounds very like Merseyside speech. In one book the Teesside twang is described as the 'illegitimate offspring of a Scouse father and a Geordie mother'. It is true that one or two sounds are very similar. The Teesside 'Me father wairks in the wairks' and Liverpool 'Whair's me shairt?' demonstrate one vowel sound in common. However there are also noticeable differences. Ask a typical Scouser to pronounce 'cook' and then ask a Smoggy to say the same word and you'd have no doubt which was which. I also remember when I stayed in Liverpool the locals seemed to find the way I pronounced the 'ay' sound in words like day. shape etc. particularly amusing. To my ear their pronounciation of this vowel sounded more Southern than Northern.
Irish and Welsh Connections?
Teesside had a large influx of Irish as did Merseyside also. A recent study of surnames found that the Middlesbrough area has 33% more Irish surnames above the national average. So perhaps this is the connection. It should also be noted that the Welsh formed a sizeable element of the Victorian Liverpool population. Teesside also attracted large numbers of Welsh at the same time. (two-fifths of all skilled iron-workers in Victorian Teesside were Welsh). Are there 'common echoes' from one or both these groups in the speech of Merseyside and Teesside?
Listen to a sample of Merseyside speech and compare.
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Other Comparisons
There may or may not be some connections between Teesside speech and Merseyside speech but I still feel that the dialect has evolved mainly from the traditional speech patterns of North Yorkshire and South Durham. I have found very few dialect words exclusive to Teesside i.e. not shared with North Yorkshire and/or South Durham although some have acquired a slightly different meaning in Teesside. Comparing Teesside with big Yorkshire towns, to my ear, the most similar is the speech of Hull. I may be wrong. Others may hear it differently but, to me, Hull sounds more like Teesside than Leeds does. Hull is an East Yorkshire city. Teesside, south of the River Tees, is in North Yorkshire. Leeds is in West Yorkshire . It is recognised that the traditional dialects of the East and North Ridings of Yorkshire are closer to each other than either are to the West Riding.
Also it should be noted that not only are Hull and Teesside both important seaports they are seaports on the same coast. Perhaps this accounts for some shared features in their dialects.
The 'line' between the North/East Ridings Dialect and that of the West Riding runs to the south and west of the traditional border between the three Ridings. |  |
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Listen to Leeds
Samples of Leeds Speech |
South Durham
Unsurprisingly , the sample of speech from South Durham has many similarities with the speech from Hartlepool and Middlesbrough. |
Audio Tour Of Britain
Take an audio tour of Britain courtesy of the BBC Voices Project.
Outside of Yorkshire and Durham the speech which shows some similarities to Teesside to my ear is the sample from Barrow-in-Furness . They seem to use there for they just as many do on Teesside.
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