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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Language and Identity
Carmen Llamas is a linguist from Middlesbrough. Whilst at Leeds University, Dr Llamas produced a paper on Middlesbrough English which makes interesting reading.
For the non-linguist, parts of the thesis are very technical.. I joke about linguists ‘writing about the language of the people in a language the people will not understand’ but, of course, this specialist language is very necessary for a disciplined scientific investigation of language. (There are times I regret I lack this expertise and often get very frustrated trying to describe speech-sounds of dialect using the standard alphabet)
Nonetheless, for the lay person, there is still plenty of interesting reading in the paper relating Middlesbrough language to Middlesbrough people’s sense of their identity. The 18c German dramatist/writer Friedrich Schiller wrote that ‘The language is the mirror of a nation’ (Die Sprache ist der Spiegel einer Nation)…just to show off I remember a bit of my school boy German!( Although really I must thank Valerie, another linguist, at Teesside University for finding the exact quotation for me). I think this ‘mirroring’ applies not only at the level of the nation but at the local dialect level also. I like Harry Pearson’s comparison of TeesSpeak with Geordie
In the South people said they couldn’t tell the Teesside and Tyneside accents apart. In fact the two are as different as Dutch and Italian. Geordie is full of pitches and swoops, the lilting tongue of people who love to talk. The Teesside accent is like the place that spawned it- it isn’t pretty but it gets the job done.
The Far Corner: Harry Pearson. Warner Books ISBN 0 7515 1058 0
Certainly here in the North East we sense a difference between the Geordie character and the Smoggy (Teesside) .( I go into this more on the page ‘On Not Being a Geordie’ )
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The Changing Names Game
From 1968 to 1997 Middlesbrough, and Teesside in general, were subjected to a series of local government reorganisations.First there was Teesside County Borough created in 1968 . In 1974. this was broken up again and, with the addition of Hartlepool, itself the result of a forced marriage between West Hartlepool and Hartlepool just seven years previously, was reformed into Cleveland County which was abolished 1997 to create four unitary authorities. To add further confusion to the changing-names-game, now Darlington, having ‘seceded’ from Durham County Council in the same year as Cleveland County was dissolved, has joined the four unitary authorities in a sub-regional partnership under the name Tees Valley. As Dr Llamas points out
“In the past 32 years, then, in terms of local government Middlesbrough has been assigned four separate identities.”
This playing around with boundaries and place-names mostly by Whitehall ‘Mandarins’ ,250 miles away, has not only caused bewilderment but even provoked a destructive and distracting antagonism between rival groups even at local council level. I was once actually heckled at one of my dialect talks. A lady spat her dummy because I referred to myself as a Teessider.
“Why do you call yourself a Teessider..there’s no such place as Teesside. It was abolished in 1974! You are a Yorkshireman.”
Of course, apart from describing me as a Yorkshireman with which I wholeheartedly agree,the claim that Teesside has been abolished is ill informed nonsense . The Teesside County Borough created in 1968 was abolished a mere six years later in 1974 but the term Teesside,or,perhaps more often Tees-side was current long before that local government reform and is still widely recognized now as the name of a ‘sub-region’ despite those trying to replace it with the posher sounding ‘Tees Valley’. But this lady’s outburst is an example of the confused perceptions caused by these reorganizations. I’m sure before this you could be both Teessider and Yorkshire ( as I think I am) or Teesside and Durham. They were ‘overlapping’ identities not exclusive alternatives.
Even the football world picked up on these confusing identities. Getting city status themselves Sunderland supporters jeered at Middlesbrough ,”You’re just a small town in Yorkshire”. When Middlesbrough subsequently thrashed Sunderland at their own ground Boro fans sang “Small town in Yorkshire. We’re just a small town in Yorkshire.” to the tune of Guantanamera. In the same season, however, Leeds jeered “Yorkshire Rejects!”
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Generation and Perception
Dr Llamas draws out an interesting contrast in Middlesbrough among the generations finding that the older group she interviewed still identified with Yorkshire , the middle aged group were more inclined to think of themselves as Teessiders whereas the youngest tended to think of themselves as Middlesbrough alone. This exactly mirrors the local government changes from Middlesbrough (postal address)Yorkshire pre 1968, to Teesside/Cleveland 1968-1997 and then back to a Middlesbrough, despite being returned to Yorkshire for ceremonial purposes, not being reconnected with Yorkshire in the minds of its younger citizens. The one point agreed by all age groups, however, was a dislike of being called Geordie |
A Name Confers an Identity
There has been, to my mind, a very significant development since Dr Llamas wrote her paper. We now have a name in 'the common parlance' A name confers identity. Just as Tynesiders are Geordies and Wearsiders are Mackems, we now have been labeled Smoggies , by our north east neighbours,.. Of course it was an insult term arising from football rivalries but it has been adopted enthusiastically by younger Teessiders. So, within the North East at least, we are recognized by our neighbours as an identity. Smoggy gives us a kind of parity with Geordie and Mackem. And, in the longer term, with Scouser and Brummie. As this term spreads throughout the football world, which it will, I would lay odds that it will do more to establish our identity in the national consciousness than all the ‘Tees Valley’ promotions even though many older Teessiders may object to the smoky, industrial image it conveys. (As an older Teessider myself I don’t…where there’s smog there’s work! I’m proud that here we still make things!)
Steve Form of Norton-on-Tees has created a business making Smoggy Tee shirts,running vests, caps car-stickers and so on donating the profits to local charities.
He writes:-
I for one, do not take the name as an insult but actually like the identity it gives me. Now, when I’m away on holiday and someone asks “Are you a Geordie?”,
I can say “Yer jokin' aren't yer! I'm a Smoggy”
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Accessing Carmen Llamas's Paper
What I like about Dr Llamas’s paper is that it operates at two levels. There is the technical discourse required in the world of linguistics but also, in its general theme , there is much to interest the lay person with an interest in language and dialect and the importance of local identity. Dr Llamas's paper can be downloaded from the Leeds University site. It is in PDF Format so you will need Acrobat Reader to read it.
Click on the link below to reach Leeds University Linguistics and Phonetics Site. Then click on WPL8 in the blue column on the left.
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