| Pitmatic | |
|---|---|
| Pronunciation | /pIt'mretIk/ |
| Region | Great Northern Coalfield |
Early form | |
| English alphabet | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | – |
| Glottolog | nort3300 |
| Linguasphere | 52-ABA-aba |
 Map of 19th-century coalfields in Great Britain showing, near top-right, the Great Northern Coalfield, the home of Pitmatic.[1] | |
Pitmatic – originally 'pitmatical'[2] – is a group of traditional Northern English dialects spoken in rural areas of the Great Northern Coalfield in England.
The feature distinguishing Pitmatic from other Northumbrian dialects, such as Geordie and Mackem, is its basis in the mining jargon used in local collieries. For example, in Tyneside and Northumberland, Cuddy is a nickname for St. Cuthbert, while in Alnwick Pitmatic, a cuddy is a pit pony.[3] According to the British Library's lead curator of spoken English, writing in 2019, "Locals insist there are significant differences between Geordie and several other local dialects, such as Pitmatic and Mackem. Pitmatic is the dialect of the former mining areas in County Durham and around Ashington to the north of Newcastle upon Tyne, while Mackem is used locally to refer to the dialect of the city of Sunderland and the surrounding urban area of Wearside".[4]
Traditionally, the dialect spoken in rural communities in Northumberland used the Northumbrian burr [ʁ]. This is now very rare.[5]: 40 The variety spoken in Durham, while non-rhotic, is traditionally still subject to the Nurse-north merger in words like forst 'first' and bord 'bird', which came about as a result of burr modification.[citation needed]
- ^ Adapted from map on p. 203 of Redmayne, R. A. S. (October 1903). "The Coal-Mining Industry of the United Kingdom. II: Recent Development in British Coal-Mining". Engineering Magazine. 26 (2): 193–204. Retrieved 20 September 2024 – via Internet Archive.
- ^ Cite error: The named reference
Chronicle1873was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Sadgrove, Michael (3 July 2005). Mining for Wisdom (sermon). The Ordination of Deacons. Durham Cathedral. Archived from the original on 23 May 2014. Retrieved 26 June 2024.
- ^ Robinson, Jonnie (24 April 2019). "Geordie: A regional dialect of English". British Library. Archived from the original on 25 September 2020. Retrieved 25 June 2024.
- ^ Beal, Joan C.; Burbano-Elizondo, Lourdes; Llamas, Carmen (2012). Urban North-Eastern English: Tyneside to Teesside. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-748-64152-9. OCLC 793582295.