First Approaches to the Unexplored Dialect of Sunderland

Abstract

In contrast to Tyneside or Newcastle English which has been thoroughly studied, Sunderland English can be regarded as a long neglected dialect within northeastern England —a gap that it is becoming necessary to fill. Sunderland English is a relatively young urban variety which is often confused with Tyneside English. One of its uses is to distinguish its speakers, Mackems, to distinguish themselves from Geordies (i.e. Newcastle people) and to reflect their strong local identity. Thus, this paper will firstly deal with some social issues that explain the Geordie-Mackem rivalry. It will then concentrate on some data from my MLitt research into Sunderland and Newcastle dialect vocabulary, which investigated the degree to which certain traditional dialect words recorded in the area by the Survey of English Dialects are familiar to teenagers nowadays. Similarities and differences between Sunderland and Newcastle dialect lexicon were found, but above all it was evidenced that Sunderland English needs to be thoroughly studied since more differences are likely to emerge. This is precisely the next step in my research.