Pitmatic
Pitmatic (originally
"pitmatical") is a
dialect of
English used in the
counties of
Northumberland and
Durham. It developed as a separate dialect from
Northumbrian and
Geordie due to the specialised terms used by
mineworkers in the local coal pits. For example, in
Northumberland and
Tyne and Wear the word "Cuddy" is an abbreviation of the name Cuthbert (particularly the local saint,
Cuthbert of Lindisfarne), but in Durham Pitmatic, as in Lowland
Scots, "cuddy" denotes a horse, specifically a
pit pony.
Traditionally, pitmatic, together with some rural
Northumbrian communities including
Rothbury, used a distinctive, soft, rolled "R" sound, produced at the very back of the throat. This is now less frequently heard: since the closure of the area's deep mines, and the subsequent dilution of the area's identity, many young people speak in a more generic north-eastern way. The softly throaty "R" sound can, however, still sometimes be detected, especially amongst elderly populations in more rural areas.
While in theory pitmatic was spoken throughout the Great Northern Coalfield, from
Ashington in Northumberland to
Trimdon in County Durham, early references apply specifically to its use by miners "especially from the Durham district" (
1873) and to its use in County Durham (
1930).
Nowadays "pitmatic" is an uncommon term in popular usage. Most people from pitmatic areas would probably describe their dialect as a form of Geordie or
Mackem. In recent times all three dialects have converged, becoming closer to standard English. English as spoken in County Durham has been described as "half-Geordie, half-
Teesside", and is quite accurately described in the article about
Mackem.
Other
Northern English dialects include
*
Geordie (spoken in Newcastle upon Tyne)
*
Tyke (Yorkshire)
*
Scouse (spoken in Merseyside)
*
Mackem (spoken in Sunderland)
*
British English*
Languages in the United Kingdom*
www.pitmatic.co.uk - newsletters February 2003
*
Durham Dialect website*
Dialect Poems from the English regionsDictionary of North-East Dialect, Bill Griffiths (Northumbria University Press, 2004).
