Geordie

English Page 1

How To Use This Packet

This packet contains information on how to do a Geordie English Accent. The analysis of the
accent is divided up into 3 sections: Oral Posture, Prosody, and Sounds.

The first three rules of accent acquisition are LISTEN LISTEN LISTEN. Just as an actor may need to
read her script several times to find all the subtleties and shades, an actor needs to listen to
accent samples several dozen times. Audio clips are embedded within this packet, and are
playable through any Adobe PDF Reader. A free Adobe PDF reader can be found at
https://get.adobe.com/reader/

Other sound samples have been uploaded to https://soundcloud.com/parkervoice and the
Google Drive Folder - https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4PBn_xCRKp8b3M1aVRhMU03b1U
Feel free to download these sound samples and listen. Listen often. Listen with headphones, and
listen while allowing your mouth to make the same sounds silently. When you do this, you move
into the same shapes as the speaker, which is what we call Oral Posture.

Oral Posture is explained below, but it’s essentially the “shape” of the mouth made by the accent.
A great way to embody and master accents quickly is not to think of the sounds as letters, but as
shapes in the mouth. Just as an actor changes her character by the way she holds her body
onstage, so too does an actor change their accent just by the way she holds her mouth,
particularly the jaw, lips, and tongue.

Prosody is the “music” of the accent—the ups and downs of pitch, the speed, etc. Most actors
(particularly Musical Theatre actors) grasp these features intuitively. Again, the best way to find
these is to listen, listen, and listen.

Lastly, I’ve described several Sounds of the Accent. There’s a reason for putting this last, as it’s
meant to refine the discoveries made while searching for Oral Posture, not as a checklist. With
each sound I’ll use a phonetic symbol to describe the sound, then describe the sound using
description. Finally, you’ll be able to listen to speakers describing the features.

This packet is only meant to be Step 1 in the process. Step 2 is you, the actor, interacting with
this document and applying these sounds to your lines. Technology makes it easy for me to assist
you with Step 2, even if I’m not at rehearsal. Using your computer or your smart phone, feel free
to record any lines of dialogue or words you’re uncertain about, and text or email me that
recording. I’ll listen to it and get back to you with notes and suggestions.

Please don’t be shy about texting or emailing – it’s the best way to ensure that you’re getting
coaching even outside of rehearsal. I promise you will not inconvenience me! Instead, I will
celebrate your reaching out!!! I will respond to any text or email within 24 hours.

You can reach me at parkervoice@gmail.com or 720-464-5572. Please include your name and
your character with your recording. Thanks!!!

Jeffrey Parker 720-464-5572

parkervoice@gmail.com
Geordie English Page 2

Oral Posture

“Oral posture” refers to how the mouth is “held” during an accent. Every accent can be defined by the subtle
shifts in tongue, jaw, and lip positions. These positions create a pattern or shape, and that is what defines the
accent.

A great way to find “oral posture” is to listen with your mouth: Allow your mouth to move along as you listen
to your samples, either silently or out loud. Notice how your mouth feels different while doing this than in your
own accent.

EXAMPLES TO LISTEN TO:



Finding the oral posture is the simplest, easiest, most efficient way to find an accent, and to be able to stay in
the accent without having to think about each individual word or sound. The following is a guideline for the
Geordi Accent Oral Posture:

- Jaw is very open and relaxed
o Make sure to massage jaw open before working in accent– the jaw is more open than
most American accents
§ Massage the jaw downward, with the mouth open.

- Lips are very engaged, particularly the “corners” where upper and lower lips meet
o Notice the difference between what your lips do when you make an “ooooh” sound
and an “eeeeeee” sound. Geordies tend to hold their lips closer to the rounding found
in “ooooh”
o Practice rounding your lips on other vowels. What happens if you round your lips on
“eeee” “eh” “uh” “ey” or “ow”?
§ Practice engaging the lip corners and releasing them. Geordies are very good
at this skill, and it will help the accent greatly.

- The tongue rests lower in the mouth, and a bit further back than most American Accents.
o Allow yourself to yawn while speaking, and your tongue will move closer to where it
rests in the Geordie Accent

- Imagine holding a small hard-boiled egg in your mouth, vertically. Try to talk around that, and
you’ll be in the right position.
o If the hard-boiled egg doesn’t work for you, imagine something smaller being held
vertically between your tongue and the roof of your mouth. A lego, a tootsie roll, or
this image:

Note: I am not recommending ACTUALLY propping up
your mouth with a stick or food – it’s merely a tool to
help thinking about the mouth being that tall and
open.

Jeffrey Parker 720-464-5572

parkervoice@gmail.com
Geordie English Page 3

Prosody

Prosody is a fancy word that describes the musical features of an accent – speed, pitch variation, and other
qualities. Likely these features were some of the first you noticed in the listening.

PITCH: Geordies tend to use more pitch variation than American speakers. It’s not uncommon
to hear a lot of “up and down” variation, with a sentence ending with an upward inflection

EXAMPLES:

SPEED: The Geordie speakers will speak quite quickly until they get to an “operative” word, or
an “important” word. On the “operative” or “important” word, a Geordie will lengthen the vowel
substantially, and noticeably. One accent expert defined this pattern as “ba-dink, ba-dink, ba-
daaaaa”pattern.

EXAMPLES:

Sounds of the Accent

Described below are the sound changes one hears in Geordie. These descriptions are a
combination of Phonetic Symbols as governed by the International Phonetic Alphabet and
descriptions of how each sound is made with the lips, jaw, and tongue. http://www.ipachart.com/

If you had Skinner-based Speech training, some of these symbols may seem a bit different. Should
you fall into this category, please reach out to me and I’ll be happy to “Translate” the IPA into
Skinner phonetics. If you have no idea who Edith Skinner is or what Phonetics are, please don’t
worry about it for a moment. Symbols are just shorthand – knowing them makes the process
easier, but they’re not necessary for understanding or performing accents.

In addition to the Phonetic Symbols, I’ll also be describing the sound changes and including audio
samples that you can click on.

When describing sound changes, the American sound will be on the Left, and the Geordie sound
will be on the right.

Jeffrey Parker 720-464-5572

parkervoice@gmail.com
Geordie English Page 4

Vowels

STRUT [ʌ] -> [ʊ]

In the Geordie dialect, the vowels in words like STRUT are realized as something closer to the
vowel in FOOT. In other words, “putt” sounds like “put”, “buck” sounds like “book”, and “huck”
sounds like “hook”.

Try going back and forth between “putt” (STRUT) and “put” (FOOT).

Native Speaker Example(s):

Example Words: PRACTICE TIP: Insert the
Strut, Nothing, Fun, Bloody, But, Up, Touch, Stuff, Something, word “put” or “book”
Sunderland, Front, Shut, Come before each example word
– make sure the vowels
Practice Sentences: are the same!
Look out Tucker! Lucky looks stuck!

Just my luck. Someone touched my stuff.

BATH / TRAP [æ] -> [a]


In the Geordie dialect, words that a Londoner or an RP speaker would pronounce with a “long a”
are pronounced with a “short a”, just as an American would. However, because the jaw is so
much more open and the tongue lower than Americans, this sound is realized slightly differently.
To find the vowel in BATH and TRAP words, say the word CAT and hold the vowel out. Then open
your mouth taller to lower the jaw and tongue, and notice how the sound changes. This “lower”
/a/ sound is a signature sound of the Geordies, and is worth practicing. Practice with your jaw
relaxed open, and notice that the sound is still made in the front of the mouth!

Native Speaker Example(s):

Example Words:
Bath, Trap, Dance, Sanctimonious, Class, Atlas, Ballet, Packed, Hands, Have, Grand, Had, Bag,
Back, Family, Scab, Maggie, Thatcher, Pasty, Lacks, That, Mank, Landing, Dad

Practice Sentences:
My master passed the dancing class in Bath
Maggie Thatcher’s cat trap lacks that grand smashing flash.

Jeffrey Parker 720-464-5572

parkervoice@gmail.com
Geordie English Page 5

FACE [eɪ] -> [e]

PRACTICE TIP: Practice
When Americans make the vowel sound in the word FACE, they make it the vowel sound in FACE in
as two vowel sounds. Say or listen to the word FACE or SHAPE very slow motion. Super slow
slowly, and you’ll hear how the vowel changes from “eh” to “eee”. This motion. Linger just on the
is known as a diphthong, or “two vowels together”. first part of that vowel, the
one that sounds like “eh”.
Like a Scottish or an Irish speaker, the Geordie speaker only makes the Practice the example
FIRST of these two sounds, and lengthens the vowel. words with just that first
vowel. Try singing it – it
Native Speaker Example(s): makes it easier.

Example words:
Face, Place, State, Trainers, Thank, Waste, Space, Baked, DeTained, Wanker, Favorites, Thank,
Stage, Tape, Table

Practice Sentences:
This place makes Jane complain

Frank’s place was on stage with his mate, Jake.


GOAT [oʊ] -> [o]


Much like in the FACE set of words, Americans realize these sounds as diphthongs (two vowels
together), and Geordies lengthen just the first sound.

Practice saying the word GOAT in very slow motion. Notice how you likely make an “o” and and
“oooh” sound back to back. Practice extending just the first sound, the “oh” rather than the
“oooh” . Just as with the FACE sounds, it helps a great deal to “sing” while practicing this sound

Native Speaker Example(s):

Example Words:
Goat, Show, Notice, Only, No, Over, Open, Post, Home, Know, Mold, Roll, Smoke, Don’t, Know

Practice Sentences:
No, I don’t know.

Nobody wrote notes at Joe’s show.

Jeffrey Parker 720-464-5572

parkervoice@gmail.com
Geordie English Page 6

MOUTH [aʊ̆] -> [ɛ̈ʊ̆]

At long last, we’ve arrived at a diphthong that’s still pronounced as a diphthong! (Two vowels
sounds together for both Americans and Geordies.) Say MOUTH in your own accent, in SLOW
MOTION. Close your eyes, and notice where your tongue is in your mouth when you begin the
sound, and that the tongue moves backwards and up towards the roof of the mouth on the
second sound. You may notice that the first sound of MOUTH in an American accent is the same
sound as BATH or TRAP in a Geordie accent.

To correctly pronounce MOUTH words in a Geordie accent, instead begin the vowel with the
vowel in the word DRESS. Start to say the word MESS and halfway through, decide to finish the
word as MOUTH. You’ll likely hear something that sounds like “MEHHHH----UTH” An example is
embedded here for your listening pleasure:

Native Speaker Example(s):

Example Words:
Mouth, Out out out, Pound, Down, House, Now, Power, About, ‘round,

Practice Sentences:
Shut it down! Now!
The mouth has power ‘round downtown.

commA, lettER [ə] -> [ɜ] or [ɐ]

The final sound in a word like “Comma” or “Letter” is realized as a stronger vowel in Geordie. The
sound is held out longer, and the tongue (and jaw) are slightly lower.

You can find this sound in two steps. Begin with a neutral, dumb “uh” sound, and open the mouth
a bit more. That extra space will lower the tongue and create the strong central “uh” sound found
at the ends of words like Comma and Letter. As you’ll read below, final /r/ sounds in words like
“Letter”, “Water”, “Near” “Square”, “Cure” etc. are dropped in favor of this open central “uh”
sound.

Native Speaker Example(s):

Example words:
Comma, Letter, Water, Daughter, Better, Matter, Hour, Nutter, Dancer

Practice Sentence:
My better daughter lost her letter in the water

Jeffrey Parker 720-464-5572

parkervoice@gmail.com
Geordie English Page 7

Consonants



/r/ dropping [ɚ] - [ə]

When an /r/ follows a vowel sound, it is usually dropped. An /r/ at the beginning of a Word or a
Syllable remains. So, in the words “Harry Potter”, we would hear an /r/ in the word Harry (the /r/
begins the second syllable), but we wouldn’t hear it at the end of the word Potter (the /r/ vowels
a vowel).

Native Speaker Example(s):

Example words:
Near, Cure, Square, Nurse, North, Force, Start, Secure, Somewhere, Father, Bugger, Work, Here,
Nearly, There, Girls, Rehearse, Turn, Arms, Star, Better, Nowhere, Where, Upstairs, Matter,
Welfare, Cars, Morning, Dancer

Practice Sentence:

The girls started their work in North Square, which is better than nowhere.


GLOTTALIZING (abruptly stopping) /p/, /t/, and /k/


When a /p/, /t/, or /k/ occurs at the end of the word, it is “glottalized”. “Glottalized” is a fancy
word for “stop the sound abruptly.” In the example, below, listen for the difference between a
“normal” final /p/ /t/ or /k/ and a “glottalized” one (HINT: The second sound is always glottalized)

This can also be found with /t/ sounds in the middle of words, like “better” or “letter”

Native Speaker Example(s):

Example words:
Let, Stop, Don’t, Night, Back, Letter, Kite, Better, Nutter

Practice Sentence:
Scott didn’t stop at the bank

Blake’s letter was caught by a cop.

Jeffrey Parker 720-464-5572

parkervoice@gmail.com
Geordie English Page 8

Challenger Sentences:

These sentences are nifty little “challengers” that incorporate many of the features above (and
some that we didn’t discuss, but may reveal themselves through Oral Posture)

That grass down there is putting up a fight

No girl ever made history by hiding her light under a bushel

A lot of cats and dogs ate the steaks at the party

With Batman on our team, we’ll surely be the greatest softball players.

Me Dad and me Mam shut up me mouth with soap.

Jeffrey Parker 720-464-5572

parkervoice@gmail.com