‘Not got a clue!’ People of the North East tested on Geordie phrases

We took to the streets of Newcastle to ask people to translate common Geordie words, phrases and terms.
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There are many Geordie phrases and slang terms used to describe certain things or convey certain emotions.

Words such as ‘canny’ and ‘mint’ have been used for decades and are still in many Geordie vocabularies today.

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We headed to Newcastle city centre to test the people of the North East on the Geordie words, phrases and terms to see if they could translate them.

Our first North East resident was a woman named Kathy, who seemed fairly confident as she read through our list and translated the phrases. “Bairn means child” she said, before continuing with even more confidence: “Haway means come on.”

Another Geordie term asked to translate was Monkey’s Blood, which is used to describe a red strawberry sauce that is drizzled over ice cream. However, the term actually originated in Hartlepool due to the legend that a monkey was hanged during the Napoleonic Wars after the people of Hartlepool believed the animal was a French spy.

Another woman, named Vicki took our Geordie phrase test and struggled with the term ‘why aye’, but knew that ‘bairn’ was used to describe a child. However, the woman who had a southern accent was confused by ‘haway’, and thought it might be another way for Geordies to say hello. When Vicki was asked what the word ‘radgie’ meant, she said: “Not got a clue! Never heard of it.”

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A man named RV took part, and confidently ran through the list before reaching Monkey’s Blood in which he was completely stumped by, and surprised to learn of its meaning.

The last person to take part was a woman named Gillian knew every single Geordie phrase and was able to rattle through them with ease.

The words that the people of North East were tested on were; ‘why aye’, ‘bairn’, ‘alreet’, ‘haway’, ‘radgie’ and ‘Monkey’s Blood’.

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