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Comparing Geordie (English dialect) and Danish

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Jimmymac
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 Message 1 of 13
25 November 2009 at 5:26pm | IP Logged 
Geordie is an English Dialect found around Newcastle Upon Tyne in the north east of England. It has a very distinctive vocabulary which was reportedly influenced by the Danish. For example the Geordie word 'yem' is more closely related to the Danish/Norwegian word 'hjem' than the word 'home'. And the word 'bairn' meaning child is from the Danish word 'barn'. Apparently us Geordies have maintained a stronger heratige with old English pronucniation and vocab than other parts of English.

Would anyone be so kind as to see if any of the below words have similar sounding words with the same meaning in other languages.

bairn 'child'
burn 'stream'
bonny 'pretty'
muckle 'very'
keek 'peep'
howay 'come on'
sweer 'obstinate'
donnered ' stupid'
clarts, clarty 'mud, muddy'
gulley 'large knife'
cuddy 'horse'
sackless 'stupid, useless'
sneck 'door latch, nose'
stot 'bounce'
spuggy 'sparrow'
spelk 'splinter'
glaiky 'slow-witted'
howk 'dig'
dottle 'cigarette ash, droppings'
cushat 'wood pigeon'
hadaway 'go away, you're kidding'
aye 'yes'
gob 'mouth'
give over   'stop it'
chuffed 'happy'
wisht 'be quiet'
nowt 'nothing'
nigh on 'nearly'
bullets 'sweets'
stanners 'stony river margin'
lonnen 'a lane'
chare 'a lane'
pet 'term of address for females' (e.g. "thanks, pet")
mairk 'maggot, pest'
gowk 'apple core'
dunsh 'push, bump'
deek 'see, look at'
bowk 'belch'
lop 'flea, louse or their eggs'
ket 'rubbish'
marra 'friend, mate'
bait 'food'
bubble 'weep'
hoppings 'funfair'
proggy mat 'kind of woven or patchwork mat'
hacky 'dirty'
lowp 'jump'
bool 'wheel (e.g. pram)'
ten o'clock 'morning snack'
hoy 'throw'
hockle 'spit'
cree '(bird) cage'
kiff 'very good (see folk-singer Ian Anderson's song "Muckle kiff")'
get 'stupid person'
netty 'toilet'

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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 2 of 13
25 November 2009 at 6:53pm | IP Logged 
I've always thought that northern (or Scottish) English in general had a larger part of Scandinavian loan words (not especially Danish).

Selected Scandinavian loanwords surviving into modern English

Where is the list from? Are those words that you assume have a Danish origin, or is it stated somewhere? Many of them are roughly the same in Swedish and probably Norwegian too.
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 Message 3 of 13
25 November 2009 at 7:18pm | IP Logged 
Have there been genetics studies to compare rare genes found in this region with those of Denmark?
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Iversen
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 Message 4 of 13
25 November 2009 at 8:02pm | IP Logged 
Yes, I have seen a program about that, and the general result was that the 'Nordic' genes were more common around certain towns, but always at a fairly low level.

In the list below there are only a few recognizably Nordic words (bairn 'barn', muckle 'mikill' (Icelandic), lop 'loppe', keek 'kigge'), but more words that don't ring any bell st all. I wonder where for instance a word like 'burn' comes from - as far as I know it is also used in Scots - 'aye' for yes, 'bonny' for pretty also has that Scottish connection. There are also words that I recognize from other English words, such as 'gob' from 'goblet' and 'gobble up' and 'bait' that has a related, but more narrow meaning in other kinds of English - heavens know where they originated, but probably not in the Nordic countries. 'Hoy' is known from the maritime Danish expression 'hiv og høj' (dragging sails upwards), but most maritime words in Danish come from Low German or Dutch.

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Hencke
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 Message 5 of 13
25 November 2009 at 8:24pm | IP Logged 
I see the following similarities with Swedish in that list (including meaning where it differs):

bairn 'child' - barn
muckle 'very' - mycket
keek 'peep'    - kika
sweer 'obstinate' - svår (lit. meaning difficult)
sneck 'door latch, nose' - snäcka (meaning shell)
stot 'bounce' - studsa
spuggy 'sparrow' - sparv (the Swedish is closer to std. English than Geordie here)
spelk 'splinter' - spjälka
mairk 'maggot, pest' - probably no connection but similar to mörk (= dark)
lop 'flea, louse or their eggs' - loppa
lowp 'jump' - löpa (meaning run - akin to leap in English)

Edited by Hencke on 25 November 2009 at 8:28pm

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jeff_lindqvist
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 Message 6 of 13
26 November 2009 at 1:00am | IP Logged 
wisht 'be quiet' - viska?
deek 'see, look at' - I wonder if it's German (ent-)decken, no real Swedish word, though
dunsh 'push, bump' - duns?
bait 'food' bete

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Jimmymac
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 Message 7 of 13
26 November 2009 at 9:15am | IP Logged 
Hi Jeff,
I took the words from this site but being a Geordie I chose ones that I use regularly. I wasn't sure if they were related to Danish or other Scandinavian languages to be honest I was just curious about their heritage.

There's a Geordie word that I haven't heard anywhere else and haven't been able discover it's etymology so maybe one of you could help. It's 'geet' which more or less means 'very'.

Also the term 'howay' meaning 'come on' is one that non-North Easterners love to make fun of so it would be great to have some pretentious response about its etymology.




Edited by Jimmymac on 26 November 2009 at 9:17am

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Hencke
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 Message 8 of 13
26 November 2009 at 8:19pm | IP Logged 
Jimmymac wrote:
It's 'geet' which more or less means 'very'.

This is far-fetched and most probably no connection to your "geet", but there's a slight similarity to Swedish gott which is the neutral-gender form of "good".


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