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Alan Knighting
Posts: 4120
Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France

Post by Alan Knighting »

Brooke,

You may be wondering what's this about Geordies and how they speak. Well, here's a little local story.

During the Middle Ages, a young member of the Lambton family chose to fish on a Sunday despite warnings that it was unlucky. On this particular day he caught nothing but a worm and in anger, threw it into the well.

Some years later, while Lambton was away fighting the Crusades, the worm emerged from the well, a huge and ferocious beast. It devastated the land killing all in its path and continued to grow, coiling its massive body around the hillsides. On his return from the Holy Land, the brave young Lambton sought help from a witch on how best to slay the beast, but he was told that if he killed the creature, he would have to slay the very next living thing he met. The worm was killed but sadly, it was Lambton's father who passed by, and the young crusader, unable to murder him, reneged on his promise to the witch and condemned his family to a curse of untimely deaths that continued for nine generations.

This is all told in the song of the Lambton Worm.

One Sunday morn young Lambton
went a-fishin' in the Wear;
An' catched a fish upon his huek,
He thowt leuk't varry queer,
But whatt'n a kind a fish it was
Young Lambton couldn't tell.
He waddn't fash to carry it hyem,
So he hoyed it in a well.
Chorus
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
Aa'll tell ye aall and aaful story,
Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs,
An' Aal tell ye 'bout the worm.

Noo Lambton felt inclined to gan
An' fight in foreign wars.
He joined a troop o' Knights that cared
For neither wounds nor scars,
An' off he went to Palestine
Where queer things him befel,
An' varry seun forgot aboot
The queer worm i' the well.
Chorus
But the worm got fat an' growed an' growed,
An' growed an aaful size;
He'd greet big teeth, a greet big gob,
An' greet big goggle eyes.
An' when at neets he craaled aboot
To pick up bits o'news,
If he felt dry upon the road,
He milked a dozen coos.
Chorus
This feorful worm wad often feed
On calves an' lambs an' sheep,
An' swally little bairns alive
When they laid doon to sleep.
An' when he'd eaten aal he cud
An' he had has he's fill,
He craaled away an' lapped his tail
Seven times roond Pensher Hill.
Chorus
The news of this most aaful worm
An' his queer gannins on
Seun crossed the seas, gat to the ears
Of brave an' bowld Sir John.
So hyem he cam an' catched the beast
An' cut 'im in three halves,
An' that seun stopped he's eatin' bairns,
An' sheep an' lambs and calves.
Chorus
So noo ye knaa hoo aall the folks
On byeth sides of the Wear
Lost lots o' sheep an' lots o' sleep
An' lived in mortal feor.
So let's hev one to brave Sir John
That kept the bairns frae harm
Saved coos an' calves by myekin' haalves
O' the famis Lambton Worm
Chorus
Noo lads, Aa'll haad me gob,
That's aall Aa knaa aboot the story
Of Sir John's clivvor job
Wi' the aaful Lambton Worm

To hear the strange English we Geordies use go to

http://ngfl.northumberland.gov.uk/engli ... efault.htm

and there, click "Hear the Song" - it will play in Windows Media Player if you have it.

Is that English as you know it?

Alan
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Sue Dyer
Posts: 2562
Joined: Sun Sep 19, 2004 2:26 pm
Location: Belford, Northumberland

Post by Sue Dyer »

okay then... here are some Geordie jokes to illustrate the language that probably only Geordies will understand...

A German ship is in the River Tyne on a very murky foggy night. A geordie bloke is on the quayside and shouts "what is the name of this ship"? A German sailor shouts "Anna", the Geordie asks again, "what is the ship called" and again gets the answer "Anna"... The Geordie now loses patiences and shouts "I knaa ye knaa but I want to knaa"..... Ha!!

Second one:
Geordie bloke goes to the doctors and says "Doctor, everytime I lift my arm up my armpit smells like coconut" The Doctor replies "It's bounty"....

I know, they are so bad - sorry :oops:
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vrooje
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Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:48 am
Location: Burgundy, France

Post by vrooje »

:!:

*speechless*



Alas, I don't have windows media player (they don't even make it for Linux)! But I think I may have heard the accent before -- agreed, completely bewildering.

I was staying at a B&B in Wales once and sat next to a gentleman for breakfast who spoke to me for about 30 minutes about... something... I still haven't the first clue what he was talking about the entire time! It took me about 5 minutes to realize that he was speaking English at all! I just tried to always have food in my mouth so that I had an excuse to only nod or shake my head depending on his tone of voice. :)

Of course now I wonder if that was a Geordie or Welsh accent...
Brooke
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paolo
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Joined: Thu Jun 17, 2004 1:18 pm
Location: Provence, France
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Post by paolo »

soodyer wrote:Geordie bloke goes to the doctors and says "Doctor, everytime I lift my arm up my armpit smells like coconut" The Doctor replies "It's bounty"....
The full power of that joke will not be felt if you don't know that a Bounty is a chocolate bar with coconut in the middle. Also, I don't know if that is the extent of the joke, or is the Geordie pronunciation of 'bound to' the same as 'bounty'?

I am now at an age where I don't understand regional accents, or young people's accents. Thank goodness for the written word.
Paolo
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vrooje
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Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 2:48 am
Location: Burgundy, France

Post by vrooje »

Ah -- I presumed it was the "bound to" thing, but now I think I actually get it! :)

Sheesh, I am so culturally illiterate. I wonder what American-style jokes are told around here that foreigners don't understand. I'm steeped in it, so it's hard for me to recognize it.
Brooke
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Alan Knighting
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Joined: Mon Oct 18, 2004 7:26 am
Location: Monflanquin, Lot-et-Garonne, France

Post by Alan Knighting »

Paolo,

To explain............ "bounty" is a foreshortened version of "bound tee" which is what a Geordie says when he means "bound to" in terms of "its inevitable".

Easy when you know how, or is it?

Alan
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