Geordie voice over – The varying levels of accent.
A voice over recorded in a Newcastle / Tyneside / Geordie Accent & dialect, could be as varied as our daily North East weather!
So it’s always necessary to understand your needs & tailor the level of accent & dialect to suit you, & most importantly your audience.
e.g. I can provide a full blown translation & transformation of your script into the Geordie dialect – replacing all of the standard “Proper English” words with our regional specific variants as appropriate.
OR
I can dial it back (& slow it down) to only provide a general “Geordie feel” with none of our regional words & only a hint of the “Geordie accent & character”. This ensures a broader National or International appeal, & helps with widespread comprehension.
CONTACT ME TO DISCUSS YOUR GEORDIE VOICE OVER NEEDS
The Geordie accent of the 70’s 80’s & 90’s.
Growing up in the North East in the 1970’s & 1980’s & even going into the mid 1990’s it was more common to hear someone speaking with a traditional full Geordie Accent than any other.
The children I went to school with were the sons & daughters of Engineers, mechanics, council workers, tradesmen, factory workers – & of course Ship Builders, Miners, and Pitmen. The accent and dialect we all spoke had been passed straight from parent to child – with very little outside influence. The same “lingo” a family used at home, was heard in the classroom & across the playground. It became entrenched into our vocabulary & part everyday life.
Take the standard Geordie greeting for example:-
A toss or nod of the head, accompanied with “Y’ Aareet” or even just “Aareet” was always a constant – whether given to a passing stranger or your closest friend. Depending on the “company” you met, it might have been supplemented with “bonny lad“, “pet” or “youngun” & was usually responded to with…..
“Aye Canny“
– or –
“Not se’ bad. – An’ Ya’sell?“
Sometimes even just “Aareet” was the reply – phrased as much as a polite rhetorical question as it was an answer.
But the thing was we spoke, & we talked to pretty much everyone. This set us apart from other areas of the country, &
yes, it caused others “discomfort” especially when we travelled, to places such as London.
That was how we were, so what better profession for a Geordie than to become a voice artist?
Well except maybe working in a call centre, – we’ve already got lots of those up here :- )
Geordie accents in the Media.
Beyond the regional based period dramas & sitcoms of the the early 70’s – like “When the Boat comes in” & “Whatever happened to the Likely Lads“. – It wasn’t until Mike Neville & George House poked fun at the differences between Geordie & standard English in their version of a “Larn Yersel Geordie” sketch that I heard Geordie being spoken at “full pelt” on TV.
A refreshing change to their normal presenting roles, where they suppressed the accent & vocabulary into almost non existence.
I must have missed “The paper Lads” as it took until 1983, & the first series of “Auf Wiedersehen Pet” that I next recall the North East dialect getting any degree of TV coverage & recognition. The first series of the show proved so popular it saw the lines & sketches being quoted in class, & acted out in the playground amongst my peers.
Having no shortage of kids who could sound like Oz or Dennis, I had to adapt & quickly picked up & mimicked the “Brummy” tones of Timothy Spall’s character Barry instead. To the point that I had one poor supply teacher convinced I’d just moved to the area. Sorry Miss ;- )
This new found regional ‘T.V. fame’ for our accent continued with “Super Gran” & “Byker Grove”, which of course brought Ant & Dec to our screens & attention. – Arguably still the best known of the current Geordie speaking presenters.
Aye, they’re still more famous than “wor Cheryl” (Cole) & “wor Alan” (Shearer) – but “wor Brian” (Johnson) of AC/DC fame probably still pips everyone for global reach.
The death of the “True Geordie Accent”
The changing employment landscape.
The 1980’s saw privatisation, driven by the government of the time it brought huge changes across the North East region. “Jobs for Life” – That’s when you left school & worked for one employer until retirement (or death), became a thing of the past.
The regions largest employment sectors – Mining, Ship Building, & steel production all suffered huge staff losses & closures.
And finally with the last coal shipment leaving the Tyne in 1993 the true Geordie accent, at least to me, seemed to start leaving too.
The changing family life
More families had cars, some times two, they travelled further for work, & as new industries moved into the North East so did employees from other areas of the UK, & the world at large. There was a rise in dual income households, long distance holiday travel, & children had TV’s in their bedrooms with “new age channels”. All of this exposed the previously isolated Geordie to voices that didn’t speak anything like them, or their parents.
Without the constant reinforcement of daily use, both heard and spoken, our regional accent gets further diluted. Eventually the dilution will become too great, & it will be lost forever.
The future & preservation of the Geordie Accent.
I’m proud to be able to do my bit, & to record Geordie accent voice overs for those local businesses and charities who cherish their North East heritage & wish to promote it.
Likewise it’s great to help any out of area organisations, who’s values & principles align with the sincerity, warmth & friendliness that Geordies are famed for worldwide.
AND, don’t forget, it wasn’t voted the “sexiest accent” in the UK for nowt ye knar! :- )
If you need a bit of Geordie patter or banter in your next project, “gan ern”, click the button below & get in touch.