What is "pitmatic"

a. (context Northumbria English) Of or relating to this language. alt. The language spoken by inhabitants of the mining villages in Northumberland or Durham. n. The language spoken by inhabitants of the mining villages in Northumberland or Durham.

__NOTOC__ Pitmatic (originally "pitmatical"), also colloquially known as "yakka", is a dialect of English used in the counties of Northumberland and Durham in England. It developed as a separate dialect from Northumbrian and Geordie partly due to the specialised terms used by mineworkers in the local coal pits. For example, in Northumberland and Tyne and Wear the word Cuddy is an abbreviation of the name Cuthbert but in Durham Pitmatic cuddy denotes a horse, specifically a pit pony. In Lowland Scots, cuddie usually refers to a donkey or ass but may also denote a short, thick, strong horse.

Traditionally, pitmatic, together with some rural Northumbrian communities including Rothbury, used a guttural R. This is now less frequently heard; since the closure of the area's deep mines, many younger people speak in local ways that do not usually include this characteristic. The guttural r sound can, however, still sometimes be detected, especially amongst elderly populations in more rural areas.

While in theory pitmatic was spoken throughout the Great Northern Coalfield, from Ashington in Northumberland to Fishburn in County Durham, early references apply specifically to its use by miners especially from the Durham district (1873) and to its use in County Durham (1930). In 1973, a book Pit Talk in County Durham was authored by a local miner named David John Douglass, who later moved to South Yorkshire and published a series of socialist books.

Nowadays "pitmatic" is an uncommon term in popular usage. In recent times, all three dialects have converged, acquiring features from more Standard English varieties. English as spoken in County Durham has been described as "half-Geordie, half- Teesside" (see the article about Mackem).

Melvyn Bragg presented a programme on BBC Radio 4 about pitmatic as part of a series on regional dialects.

Other Northern English dialects include

• Geordie (spoken in Newcastle upon Tyne, Gateshead, South Tyneside and North Tyneside); see also Geordie dialect words
• Cumbrian dialect
• Yorkshire and Lancashire dialects both vary across the counties, and merge into each in border areas.
• Scouse (spoken in Liverpool)
• Mackem (spoken in Sunderland and County Durham)