Cheesy pick up lines!

When I was on holiday in Denmark I saw some Swedish TV with English subtitles. (Hotel telly with lots of different language channels.) The Swedish word for child was barn, (at least that's what it sounded like.) I did try to listen to Danish as if it were Geordie but I didn't get very far.

Funny this reminds me of a trip my friend and I took. We were young in our twenties and was sitting in a pub in Edinburgh. We started talking to these young men ... they said they were from WHickam ... I see it on this map. One of these guys we could not understand a word he said. We know he was speaking English but he talked so fast and he accent was so thick we had no clue.

I don't think it was the beer. Also we convinced the we were from Australia rather than Boston and they fell for it even though we didn't try to made our accents.

Sorry to change the subject but it brings up fun memories .

You just might be on to something.

Hi Jack.

Sometimes, actually a lot of times, they do it on purpose. I have family from the East Riding of Yorkshire, some of them deliberately talk in dialect because they think it's funny when you don't understand.

When I was little at the dinner table my grandfather asked me if I wanted some air. I didn't know what he meant, but that didn't stop my father telling me off for being rude. My grandfather then said, 'A bit mair (more) ham.' which he thought was bloody hilarious, but I still fail to see the joke.

Having said that in the Alan Partridge sketch the actor playing Geordie Michael originally spoke a lot slower but the director told him to speed it up to add to Alan's confusion for comic effect.

Abut 20 years ago I read a story in several newspapers about an old guy who came into a central London police station, obviously in need of help. Nobody could understand him. One of the cops on the desk thought he might be speaking Polish, so they gave him a cup of tea and sent for a Polish interpreter. Not Polish. Not Hungarian. Not Finnish. Not Russian. He was there for a long time before they discovered he was a Geordie who had lost his dentures, and missed his bus back to Newcastle.

In the Fat Slags movie the two Geordie boyfriends get picked up by a French lorry driver, who then gets stopped by the police. The Frenchman goes on his way but the two Geordies, with no ID, are put in an immigration pen, 'origin unknown.'

A Geordie gets invited to Buckingham Palace for tea with the Queen.

Queen: Would you like a piece of cake Geordie or a meringue?

Geordie: No, you're right. I'll have a piece of cake.

Strangely, that makes perfect sense to me.

An unfamiliar accent is like a dodgy radio signal, once you get your head round the vowel sounds you can get the right frequency. Sounds like you're starting to tune in.

Next thing you'll be claiming that the fog on the Tyne belongs to you.

Somehow bairn was passed to me as the word for child... googling origin.

It's a Geordie word. There are others. Gadgie for man. The Chronicle did a piece on it.
https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/geordie-words-phrases-sayings-newcastle-6466922<br /> <br />
I lived in N'cassle for three years so I can pass as a local. Bloody confusing when I first moved there though.

Back in the late 80s Gilbert the alien was a popular kid's TV character voiced by Phil Cornwall. Len McMonotony was his Geordie persona.

Sounds like (what I consider to be) a Scottish accent.

It's very different, and there's lots of different Scots accents too. Glasgow is not like Edinburgh.

Rab C Nesbitt is from Glasgow.



You'll probably be OK with the office worker but Rab's accent takes a bit of getting used to.

My Scottish colleague was amazed to discover that Maggie Smith ("Miss Jean Brodie") came from Essex, her Morningside (Edinburgh) accent was so convincing.



The first series was given subtitles by the BBC for showing in Britain, but (I believe) removed them for later series after complaints, mainly from non-Scottish viewers who enjoyed the fun of listening to him.

Me and my partner love Still Game; we have them all on DVD and after watching one (or some) we speak in cod-Glasgow accents and I call her "Hen".

I'm afraid I missed that one. Scottish comedy is good though, I'll probably catch it when it comes on Dave.

I do love Ivor Cutler.

That was oddly calming.

He was a real eccentric, there's loads of his stuff on youtube. Lots of Scottish sittingroom stuff. He played Buster Bloodvessel in Magical Mystery Tour.