Northumbrian Language Society

"Keepin ahad o' wor tung"

Patrons: Their Graces the Duke & Duchess of Northumberland

Registered Charity No: 515179
President: Katrina Porteous FNLS

What is the Northumbrian Language Society?

The Northumbrian Language Society has existed since 1983 to promote, preserve, research, publish and enjoy those rich dialects from Northumberland to NW Durham (including Tyneside), descendants of the speech of the Angles, which have survived particularly in the Northumbrian 'burr' area. Meetings are held in different locations and recent publications include books and CDs by Katrina Porteous and Fred Reed.

Aims of the Society

To research, preserve and promote the Northumbrian language.

The Language

Everyone knows at least some of the words of "The Blaydon Races", that anthem of North-East England, while the sounds of the area's speech are now familiar to many outside the area through such T.V. programmes as "Auf Wiedersehen, Pet" & "When the Boat Comes In" and even radio's "The Archers".

But there's more to the Northumbrian language than "gannin alang the Scotswood Road" and "hawway the lads" -- this rich, lively and expressive language is inherited directly from the Anglian speech of the Venerable Bede, Saint Cuthbert and, later, Harry Hotspur, with its own ancient and continuing literature. As a means of communication within the Northumbrian community it has survived for one and a half thousand years.

Yet modern influences - greater mobility, compulsory education, national broadcasting networks and contact with other English-speaking countries - are ironing out local differences in speech, and a wealth of vocabulary and characteristic accents are in danger of dying out. National schools' inspectors have acknowledged that a locality's own language is just as valid as any other form of English and should not be deemed "inferior".

However, the decline in the use of Northumbrian words and pronunciations has been marked over the last century -- so, the Northumbrian Language Society was formed in 1983.

The Northumbrian Language

Introduction

Modern English is a mongrel language, made up of many linguistic strands. Celtic, Latin, Anglo-Saxon, Scandinavian and Norman-French are the principal roots, onto which have been grafted words and phrases from every part of the world during the last five hundred years. It is this linguistic flexibility which has helped to turn English into an international language that is universally known and used.

Northumbrian is one of the Anglo-Saxon languages. It is the direct descendant of the Anglian speech that was widely spoken throughout most of central and northern Britain in the centuries following the decline of Roman rule in the early fifth century AD. A proper understanding of the development of the Northumbrian language cannot be achieved without some knowledge of the historical background, but before embarking on that saga, a linguistic diversion is necessary.

Is Northumbrian a language, a dialect or an accent?

Those reasonably well versed in modern British culture may have heard of footballer Alan Shearer, or of actor Robson Green, or TV presenter Jayne Middlemiss, all of whom speak with a clear regional accent. The words they speak are mainly standard English, but they are spoken with a distinct Northumbrian accent.

Most British people are probably familiar with, and understand, the traditional Geordie war-cry of “Haway/Howway the lads!” and would accept that it is unique to Tyneside. The same is true for “Newcassel Broon Ale”. These phrases are clearly different from standard English, but they are generally understandable, and they can therefore be classified as part of the north east of England’s regional dialect.

But what about “Fornenst thi cree an abeun thi hemmel, wu’ll hev wor bait, an batten worsels, time wu watch wor bollen bellies graa tiv i muckle, yarkin size”? Individual words are recognisable as English, but what does the rest of it mean? If you can’t translate the rest into English, then you’ve come across a different language; and that language is Northumbrian. (See Appendix 2 for the rest of this piece, plus a glossary!)

Northumbrian is a language because it satisfies the comprehensibility test, which states that related dialects become separate languages when they are no longer mutually comprehensible, like Spanish and Portuguese. Speakers of Northumbrian are not very bothered about whether their speech is regarded as a language or a dialect, because it can be both. The important point to grasp however, is that whilst Northumbrian is an English dialect, it is not a dialect of standard English, because Northumbrian came into existence centuries before standard English was created. (See Appendix 1)

And now, back to the main story......

The Historical Background

Before the Romans conquered southern Britain in 43AD, the British Isles were peopled by the Celts, a vigorous and artistically gifted race, organised along tribal lines. This social structure was not destroyed by the Romans in those parts of Britain they conquered, but it was modified by them, and many of the Celts adopted Roman ways of life. As the Roman empire in western Europe disintegrated in the fifth century AD, the system they had created didn’t collapse: it simply withered away over the years. In some parts, the Britons carried on for many years living in the towns, and in the style, created by the Romans; in other parts, the Roman structure was simply abandoned and left to decay.

The Romans never set foot in Ireland , and their influence had never been as widespread in Wales and Scotland as it had been in England. When word of the Roman departure spread to these areas therefore, these tribes began to infiltrate into the previous Roman province of Britannia, looking for whatever plunder they could find. It was these raids that prompted the romanised Celts to look for allies, just as their recently-departed Roman masters had done. They chose other raiders from Europe to act as their mercenary defenders. According to tradition, it was these Angles, Saxons and Jutes, led by Hengist and Horsa, who eventually turned against their employers, and began to settle in large numbers throughout southern and eastern Britain.

These invaders were of Germanic stock, and the language they spoke was very different from that of the Celts. They came from northern Germany and southern Denmark. The Jutes settled in Kent, the Saxons in southern England, and the Angles eventually spread throughout the north, east and and centre of England and southern Scotland. The Angles were the most numerous of these invaders. The words England and English reflect this dominance.

In 547, the Anglian chieftain Ida is traditionally credited with the establishment of the kingdom of Beornica at Bamburgh in Northumberland. Within fifty years, Beornica had united with another Anglian kingdom, Deira, based at York, to form the joint kingdom of Northumbria (Northanhymbre - the people who lived north of the Humber). Over the next two hundred years, Northumbria grew in size until it occupied all of Britain north of a line from the Humber to the Mersey, and south of a line from the Forth to the Clyde. (See Appendix 3) The Viking raids of the eighth and ninth centuries destroyed Northumbria’s political power, but surprisingly, this led to its period of greatest influence in art, education, religion and literature.

The foundation of the new kingdoms of England and Scotland in the ninth and tenth centuries led to the rapid decline of Northumbria. Deira was overrun and settled by the Vikings, and the Scots took Lothian and Cumbria, until all that was left was the area between the Tweed and the Tees, covering the modern counties of Northumberland and Durham.

If the truth be told, we Northumbrians are a right stroppy lot! It took the Normans until 1095 to bring us to heel after their successful invasion of England in 1066. That’s one of the reasons why Northumberland and Durham don’t feature in the famous Domesday Book which was compiled in 1086. And then, after the battle of Otterburn in 1388, the Percys fell out with the English kings in London over the payment of ransom fees, and there was a rebellion in the north led by one of our local heroes Harry Hotspur. The Pilgrimage of Grace in 1536 in the time of Henry VIII began in the north of England. It was supposed to be a protest about the king’s religious reforms, but it soon developed into another rebellion which was savagely suppressed. Finally, during the reign of his daughter Elizabeth I, another rebellion by the northern earls had to be put down violently in the 1580s.

For the rest of the period from about 1100 until the Act of Union of 1707 which united England and Scotland, the area was virtually ignored by both London and Edinburgh unless one or other of the monarchs saw that an advantage could be gained from fomenting trouble between the communities on either side of the border.

It is important to realise that the border between England and Scotland is political and not cultural. The people on both sides of it are of the same basic racial stock - Anglian, and they speak the same basic language - Northumbrian. The ancient clan system survived for centuries, and different branches of the same family were to be found throughout the borders. This meant that many of the feuds and disputes split families and clans, and the governments in London and Edinburgh exploited these cynically for generations. This was the period of the border reivers which has been preserved in the celebrated border ballads. The often romantic picture of these times depicted in the ballads was in sharp contrast with the reality, which was violent, uncertain and profoundly depressing.

The union of England and Scotland brought this period to an end, but it took a long time for the suspicion and devastation of centuries to lessen to the point where the area could be regarded as peaceful and settled. From the eighteenth century onwards, however, Northumberland and Durham became, in a real sense, part of modern England, and they were subjected to the full blast of the industrial revolution, with all its attendant problems and opportunities. It is still the case however, that the north east of England is the least well-known part of the country, and there is considerable ignorance about our unique history, culture and heritage.

The Development of the Northumbrian Language

The Anglians who settled in this part of the country came from the area around the Danish/German border, and spoke an Old Germanic dialect. It is generally accepted now that they generally settled amongst the native, Celtic-speaking British peoples rather than displacing them completely, so that there would have been some mixing of people, languages and dialects. The Anglians were the dominant group however, and this is reflected in the language which is still predominantly Anglian, though with some Celtic influences.

The growth of the unified kingdom of Northumbria spread the dominant Anglian language throughout what is now northern England and southern Scotland. This is the period of the great Northumbrians such as Oswald, Aidan, Cuthbert and Bede, whose influence took the language all over Britain and further afield into Europe. These years have been referred to as “Northumbria’s Golden Age”, and it is significant that, as Northumbria’s political power declined, its cultural influence grew steadily. It should always be remembered that our greatest contribution to the development of British society has been in the fields of religion, education, art and literature, and more recently, industry and commerce.

Throughout this period, despite the wars and political intrigue, there was a great mixing of peoples and cultures. As well as the Anglians and the Celts, many Scots from Ireland settled in the region, particularly in Dumfries and Galloway, and members of the Northumbrian ruling dynasties regularly lived in Scotland and Ireland for part of their lives, either in exile, or as part of their education or a political alliance. The record shows that many of the ruling elite spoke more than one language, and this familiar contact with other languages contributed positively to the development of Northumbrian.

The Northumbrian language has been spoken continuously throughout the area for more than 1,400 years, but like all languages, it has undergone significant changes in that time. The first happened during the Viking invasions which began in 793 with the raid on Lindisfarne. Within a century, Northumbria as a unified kingdom had ceased to exist. The Danes settled mainly in the south of the kingdom, in what is now Yorkshire, and their dominance led to the absorption of many Scandinavian words into the language, which effectively took it in a different direction until it lost its uniqueness and became the Yorkshire dialect of today.

Shortly after this shock, the political collapse of the kingdom, and the emergence of a Scottish kingdom in the north led to the gradual loss of the Lothians. Over the years, this has resulted in the language there also taking a separate route into Lowland Scots, which, like the Northumbrian of Yorkshire, is part of the Northumbrian family of languages, but with its own distinct dialect and vocabulary. Applying the comprehensibility test mentioned earlier to Lowland Scots however, makes it possible to state that Scots is now as distinct a language as Northumbrian.

In the northeast of England, the Vikings never settled north of the Tees, nor did the Scots venture very far south of the Tweed, so that Northumbrian was left alone to continue its own development. The border skirmishes of the middle ages, and the neglect of the region by both Edinburgh and London, meant that the people were more or less left to their own devices, and in this situation the language survived many of the centralising tendencies that were taking the English spoken in the rest of the country towards the standard format we know today.

The days of the border reivers, so destructive of the economic and social fabric of the region, actually enabled the language to survive in a much purer form than would otherwise have been the case. This was the second decisive period in the language’s development.

The third and final decisive period began in the middle of the nineteenth century, and continues today. This was the period of the great erosion of the language as a result of the spread of education and the rise of the modern state. These two developments have created the British nation, with a common language, standard English. As society progressed in terms of transport and communications, people were able to travel more easily. The more remote parts of our region were gradually brought into the mainstream through the railways, the development of modern roads and other methods of transport, through the growth of towns and industry, mass employment in factories, and the spread of universal primary education.

All of these developments brought native Northumbrian speakers into regular contact with other forms of English, particularly standard English; and the advent of compulsory schooling for the masses accelerated this into an almost unstoppable force for conformity of speech. The final blow was the invention of the BBC, which promoted received pronunciation as the only acceptable way of speaking English, and people who wanted to get on were encouraged to suppress their regional dialects and accents which were often regarded as “common” or “slang”. This ignorant attitude persists today. Finally, the development of radio and television, and other forms of mass communication and entertainment, is rapidly leading to the establishment of a universal culture based on American English, which is leading to the further erosion of regional accents and dialects.

Conclusion

It is not all doom and gloom however. Enthusiasts like the Northumbrian Language Society exist to preserve our unique regional dialect, and to encourage all Northumbrians to become bilingual, using the language amongst family and friends, and using standard English in more public situations. It is also the case that as society becomes more like a “global village”, more people are turning to the distinct cultural and historical features of their local communities in order to establish an identity that gives them a sense of belonging and value that is often absent in their public lives.

The Northumbrian language is uniquely placed to contribute to this trend. It has an unbroken history stretching back more than fourteen hundred years. Although its use has declined in recent years, it nevertheless has a long and vigorous literary tradition, both oral and written, which preserves its essential features. It forms the basis of our regional culture and heritage, and when linked to our own unique musical instrument, the Northumbrian smallpipes, provides a powerful and effective means of transmitting the culture to successive generations.

When these facts are added to the many other forms of regional life which mark us out as different, it is no surprise to learn that the calls for regional government in England are strongest in the north east. The history of our region has marked us out as unique, and we are determined, through our language, to retain this uniqueness far into the future.