Thursday, August 17, 2006

Geordie dialect under threat in.........Newcastle.

"Whisht! lads, haad yor gobs and aa'll tell yer aall and aaful story" (*) and this is it:

The City fathers, aka the local Council, have seen fit to bar their employees from using two delightful Geordie words of endearment, "hinny" and "pet" , when dealing with members of the public.

Now it would take a dyed in the wool hard-line feminist to be offended by these colloquialisms but in our modern world of political correctness the Council is clearly running scared of potential law suits from the hyper-sensitive.

* from the Lambton Worm




1 comment:

Steve Newson said...

It's so sad that political correctness is going to ruin local identity to the point where there won't be anything left to distinguish Geordie's from say... Mancunian's or Brummie's (shudder!).

One of my favourite little stories is about going to University in Sheffield, getting on a Number 52 bus from the station to my hall of residence and a little of lady who sat next to me calling me "duck" for the first time. It's one of my abiding memories of Sheffield.

When identity is beaten out of every local community, what's left?
Greyness. How sad!