So, I missed today's English lesson BUT I made some observations whilst on the trip to Southampton Uni.

Here is what I observed: 

There was a lecture taken by a woman who had moved from China to England and has lived here for 8 years.

I was paying particular attention to how she spoke.

WHICH WAS WEIRD - This is what studying English does to you! 

Anyway:   here's what I observed (finally getting to the point).

As English was her second language; she often omitted lexical parts of the sentence.

• When saying English words which are either pluralised or naturally spelt with an 's' - the 's' on the end was never pronounced
  
• She didn't include determiners - e.g. 'thinking outside box' instead of  'thinking outside of the box'
  
• Prepositions were omitted.
  
• She had emphasis on the second syllable of every word that she used.

Famous people with the Geordie Accent.

Alan Shearer.

Cheryl Cole

Ridley Scott

Rowan Atkinson

Sting.

What has had an influence upon the accent / dialect?

• The Newcastle 'Geordie' accent has been influenced by the invasion of the Anglo-Saxons in the 5th century.
  
• The influence of the Anglo-Saxons is clear as poems from the 5th century translates more successfully in Geordie than into modern day English.
  http://www.englandsnortheast.co.uk/GeordieOrigins.html
  
  
• Distinctively Geordie and Northumbrian words are more than 80 % Angle in origin, compared to standard English, where the figure is less than 30 %. Modern English words by comparison are predominantly of Latin origin because modern English derives from the dialects of southern England which were continuously influenced by the Latin and Norman French favoured by the educated classes of Oxford, Cambridge and London. 
  
• Sometimes a Geordie may appear to be using words incorrectly , but this may not always be the case. For example a Geordie may say Aaal Larn yer (meaning I'll teach you) as in the Anglo Saxon Laeran which meant teach. Other Geordie words of Anglo Saxon origin include Axe (ask) from the Anglo-Saxon Acsian, Burn meaning stream, Hoppings meaning fayre and Gan which is the Geordie and Anglo saxon word meaning to go.
  
  
  
  

Vocabulary common with the Newcaste 'Geordie' accent.

• Aa, Aye, Ai - Yes.
• Aboot  - About.
• Ahent - Behind.
• A'reet - Hello / Alright?
• Pet - A some what endearing term, like 'love'. 
• Baccy - Tabacco.
• Banter - Chat / gossip.
• Buk - Book.
• Chud / Chuddy / Chut / Chutty - Chewing gum.
• Dinnar - Don't know.
• Divvie - Stupid person.
• Gob - Mouth.
• Hacky - Dirty.
• Hinny - A term of endearment 'honey'.
• Hoose - House.
• Ma / Mar / Mam - A variation of 'mum'.
• Nowt - Nothing / None.
• Whey aye - Yes.
• Toon - Town.
• Wo / Wa / Woh / Wot / Wat - What.
• Ye / Yuh - You.
• Yous - You lot / all of you. 

From looking at this list of common vocabulary used by people with the Geordie accent, I can see that most of their words are pronounced phonetically.

Characteristics of the Geordie accent.

(taken from wikipedia.)

• Geordie is non-rhotic, like most Anglo-English dialects. This means speakers do not pronounce /r/ unless it is followed by a vowel sound in that same phrase or prosodic unit. The rhotic sound (/r/) in Geordie is pronounced as [ɹ].

• here is some differentiation in pronunciation in the Geordie dialect based upon the speaker's sex. For example, English sound /aʊ/, pronounced generically in Geordie as [əʊ], may also have other, more specific pronunciations depending upon whether one is male or female. Males alone often pronounce the sound /aʊ/ as [uː], for example, the word house (/haʊs/) pronounced as [huːs]. Females, on the other hand, will often pronounce this sound as [eʉ], thus: [heʉs].

• appearing at the end of a word (such as in sugar) is pronounced as [a]

• specifically in words with the spelling "ea" (such as bread and deaf) may be pronounced as [iː].

•  specifically at the ends of words, with the spelling "ow" (such as in throw and follow) is pronounced as [a] in monosyllabic words and [ə] in polysyllabic words (thus, window as [ˈwɪndə])

Research on the Newcastle 'Geordie' accent.

The Newcastle 'Geordie' accent is an accent that is commonly spoken in the North East of England.

"In most aspects Geordie speech is a direct continuation and development of the language spoken by the Anglo-Saxon settlers of this region."

"This Anglo-Saxon influence on Geordie can be seen today, to the extent that poems by the Anglo-Saxon scholar the Venerable Bede translates more successfully into Geordie than into modern day English. Thus, in northern England, dominated by the kingdom of Northumbria, was found a distinct "Northumbrian" Old English dialect."

The Newcastle accent is generally spoken in:  

North Tyneside, Newcastle, South Tyneside and Gateshead.

- What is your view on language change? 

I think that language change is a necessity. It is needed to accommodate technological advances and new features that will come along with it - otherwise, there will be no terms to 'label' such new inventions. 

In addition, I think new variations of English are crucial in order for the younger generation to express their individuality, as everybody knows that, as years pass, generation gaps are widening due to language change although the language use by each generation generally defines their personality, either as an individual or a group of the same age.

The language used by the older generation for example, reflects their high morals and traditionalism - due to this, they often believe that the English language should remain pure; in contrast to this, the younger generation firmly believe that language change is good (which is also my opinion) because new words are needed in everyday life and will continue to be common in future years. 

- What do you think are the most important influences on language change? And why might this be the case?

The most important and significant influence on language change is the media. 

This is because everyone is affected by the media, it's universal... television, internet, radio, newspapers - they're everywhere, and people often consume them subconsciously, either when they're walking past or just glancing at something - as a result of this the media influences language incredibly, often using the latest 'terms' and 'cool colloquialisms' - which can also result in the older generation feeling isolated as they don't feel as if they're 'up to date'.

- Do you think some of the more recent additions to the language will survive? (e.g. peng, bare, butterz, mandem, bbm, cba, lol, i-phone, i-pad, smart phones, fraped ....etc). 

Personally, I think that a lot of these terms will die out in subsequent years as a lot of them are time specific to current products, i.e bbm. i-phone, i-pad. smart phones etc. 

The same case with words like peng, bare, butterz and mandem ; these words are just the latest adjectives to relate to the words - beautiful, loads, ugly and gang - which over years often develop new labels - I think that within the next year, these words will probably be replaced with similar words, but these current ones will no longer be in existence.

In relation to the acronyms cba & lol , I think that they will continue to be used in the future, as far as I'm concerned, they've been around for years, I mean, I remember using them when I was like, 12..  and I'm almost 18 now and they're still being used so they're obviously standing up well in the 'cool language' league. 

As for fraped, I'm unsure as to whether it'll survive, I mean,  I think Facebook will continue to be popular and the word 'fraped' obviously refers to when someone changes a friend's status without their permission - which will clearly continue to happen.. but the term may change,as it is only used by the younger generation anyway.. my parents (who actually have facebook accounts, may I add) are unaware of the term 'fraped'... maybe it'll survive, maybe not...