The Great English Language

[thaibebop]

Has any Brit. out there in TV-Land ever heard of the Pitmatic English accent? An American colleague of mine simply can't understand how or why there are so many variations in spoken English in Britain. I mentioned a few to him, like Scouse, Geordie, Cockney, Brummie etc. and gave him a few smatterings of each(I'm quite adept at it ) . I came across the Pitmatic accent by chance, and was wondering if anyone knows anythin about it?

Cheers!

Whey aye, man, taalk it aal the tyme, lyke! Well, not here, though, but.

It's a derivative of Geordie, used by coal miners in the hey-day of the coal fields in the North East of England.

Pitmatic (originally "pitmatical") is a dialect of English used in the counties of Northumberland and Durham. It developed as a separate dialect from Northumbrian and Geordie due to the specialised terms used by mineworkers in the local coal pits. For example, in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear the word "Cuddy" is an abbreviation of the name Cuthbert (particularly the local saint, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne), but in Durham Pitmatic, as in Lowland Scots, "cuddy" denotes a horse, specifically a pit pony.

Traditionally, pitmatic, together with some rural Northumbrian communities including Rothbury, used a distinctive, soft, rolled "R" sound, produced at the very back of the throat. This is now less frequently heard: since the closure of the area's deep mines, and the subsequent dilution of the area's identity, many young people speak in a more generic "Geordie-like" way. The softly throaty "R" sound can, however, still sometimes be detected, especially amongst elderly populations in more rural areas.

While in theory pitmatic was spoken throughout the Great Northern Coalfield, from Ashington in Northumberland to Trimdon in County Durham, early references apply specifically to its use by miners "especially from the Durham district" (1873) and to its use in County Durham (1930).

Lifted from Wikipedia or something similar?

Well, the uk accents are regional ones, not those of immigrants who struggle to learn the language...

You think that is what makes up American accents? New York(all five barrows are different)

Er, 'barrows'? I think you mean 'boroughs', or in Yank-speak maybe 'boros' ... You American, perchance?

I feel like a dumba$$ now.

Yes, your spelling is correct, mine is way off and I was thinking with a mid-western mind. Yes, I am Yankee doodle Dandy, who is still feeling like a dumda$$. I know better than that I really do.

All you have to do is draw a line across England just below Brum and then all those above the line talk funny versions of English and those below the line speak correct English

And I thought it was Watford...

The accents in Watford aren't English ones... !

totster

Yers, vey're from Darn Sarf, where they say 'barf' for 'bath' etc ... and can't pronounce 'th', and where 'well' sounds like 'wew'.

[Nignoy]

Has any Brit. out there in TV-Land ever heard of the Pitmatic English accent? An American colleague of mine simply can't understand how or why there are so many variations in spoken English in Britain. I mentioned a few to him, like Scouse, Geordie, Cockney, Brummie etc. and gave him a few smatterings of each(I'm quite adept at it ) . I came across the Pitmatic accent by chance, and was wondering if anyone knows anythin about it?

Cheers!

Whey aye, man, taalk it aal the tyme, lyke! Well, not here, though, but.

It's a derivative of Geordie, used by coal miners in the hey-day of the coal fields in the North East of England.

Pitmatic (originally "pitmatical") is a dialect of English used in the counties of Northumberland and Durham. It developed as a separate dialect from Northumbrian and Geordie due to the specialised terms used by mineworkers in the local coal pits. For example, in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear the word "Cuddy" is an abbreviation of the name Cuthbert (particularly the local saint, Cuthbert of Lindisfarne), but in Durham Pitmatic, as in Lowland Scots, "cuddy" denotes a horse, specifically a pit pony.

Traditionally, pitmatic, together with some rural Northumbrian communities including Rothbury, used a distinctive, soft, rolled "R" sound, produced at the very back of the throat. This is now less frequently heard: since the closure of the area's deep mines, and the subsequent dilution of the area's identity, many young people speak in a more generic "Geordie-like" way. The softly throaty "R" sound can, however, still sometimes be detected, especially amongst elderly populations in more rural areas.

While in theory pitmatic was spoken throughout the Great Northern Coalfield, from Ashington in Northumberland to Trimdon in County Durham, early references apply specifically to its use by miners "especially from the Durham district" (1873) and to its use in County Durham (1930).

Lifted from Wikipedia or something similar?

Well, the uk accents are regional ones, not those of immigrants who struggle to learn the language...

You think that is what makes up American accents? New York(all five barrows are different)

Er, 'barrows'? I think you mean 'boroughs', or in Yank-speak maybe 'boros' ... You American, perchance?

I feel like a dumba$$ now.

Yes, your spelling is correct, mine is way off and I was thinking with a mid-western mind. Yes, I am Yankee doodle Dandy, who is still feeling like a dumda$$. I know better than that I really do.

All you have to do is draw a line across England just below Brum and then all those above the line talk funny versions of English and those below the line speak correct English

And I thought it was Watford...

The accents in Watford aren't English ones... !

totster

Yers, vey're from Darn Sarf, where they say 'barf' for 'bath' etc ... and can't pronounce 'th', and where 'well' sounds like 'wew'.

<Amusing but nothing really to do with the thread...KK>

Edited February 17, 2006 by kenkannif