Mackem
Mackem is a term that refers to the accent, dialect and people of the Wearside area, or more specifically Sunderland, a city in North East England. Correct spelling of the word is actually 'Mak'em' but alternative spellings include "Makem", "Maccam". The word Mak'em means, "make them... (ships) and take them.. (to Newcastle to be fitted out)".
Theories of origin
The term may stem from either ship building or a drink produced at the local brewery. The term has come to represent people who follow the local Premier League football team Sunderland AFC.[1] Often, people from around the outer city areas are also known as mackems; such as people from Houghton-le-Spring and Washington. [2] In many cases, residents of the pit villages of the former Durham coalfield, including Seaham and Peterlee which lie on the outskirts of Sunderland and have strong social ties to the city, also call themselves Mackems, perhaps more because of the district's support of the football team.
The origins of the term are obscure and divided. One belief is that it was a term used by shipyard workers in the 19th century on the Tyne (see Geordie), to describe their Wearside counterparts. The Mackems would "make" the ship to be fitted out by the "Geordies", hence "mackem and tackem" ("make them" and "take them").[3] This belief is also supported on Teesside, where there was also a strong ship-building industry. People from Sunderland were encouraged to move to Teesside's shipyards for work, where the Teesside-based employers would "mack-em" ("make them") build the ships. However, this belief is rarely noticed beyond the confines of Teesside. The term Mackem could come from the local brewers Vaux who for centuries brewed a bottled beer called "Double Maxim". People who drank the beer would ask for a Mackem pronouncing the X differently. So a person would be called a Mackem who drank the local beer. The term could also be a reference to the volume of ships built during wartime on the River Wear, e.g. "We mackem and they sink em". Alternatively, this phrase may refer to the making and tacking into place of rivets in shipbuilding, which was the main method of assembling ships until the mid-twentieth century.
The earliest known recorded use of the term as applied to people from Sunderland, found by the Oxford English Dictionary occurred in 1988,[4] although "we still tak 'em and mak 'em" was found in a sporting context in 1973. This implies that the phrase was older, but there is nothing to suggest that "mak 'em" had come to be applied to people from Sunderland.
The two cities have a history of rivalry beyond the football pitch, dating back to the early stages of the English Civil War[5], the rivalry following on industrial disputes of the 19th Century and more recently political rivalries with the creation of the Tyne Wear authority, covering both cities.
Accent
'Mackem' refers to both the people of Sunderland and their accent.
It is worth noting that there is a small but noticable difference in pronunciation between the accents of North and South Sunderland, for the word something it is not uncommon to hear a Mackem speaker from north Sunderland use summat whereas a south Sunderland speaker may often prefer summik.
To people from outside the region the differences between Mackem and Geordie accents often seem marginal; this is especially the case between the younger generations of North East England, but there are many notable differences.
Some pronunciation differences and dialect words
- In Newcastle, Haway is spelled and pronounced as Howay. In Sunderland, it is Ha'way or Haway. The local newspapers in each region use these spellings. (Ha'way or Haway means "Come on").
- The word ending -own is pronounced [-ʌun] (cf. Geordie: [-uːn]).
- Make and Take are pronounced [mak] and [tak] (cf. Geordie: [meːk, teːk]). This pronunciation variation is the supposed reason why Tyneside shipyard workers coined the insult 'Mackem'.)[6] This pronunciation is also used in Glasgow.
- School is split into two syllables, and a short [ə] sound is added after the oo sound to emphasise the L, i.e. [skʉəl]). Note: This is also the case for words ending in -uel such as 'cruel' and 'fuel' which are turned into [krʉəl] and [fjʉəl], although 'vowel-adding' in this way is also a component of Geordie ('school' becoming [skjʉːl], &c). This 'extra syllable' occurs in other words spoken in a Mackem dialect, ie. Film becomes [fɪləm] and poorly becomes [pʉəli]. However, this is also prevalent within the Geordie dialect.[7]
- The word ending -re/-er is pronounced [-ə] as in Standard English (cf. Geordie [-æ]).
- The term Dolling off or Dollin' off to mean playing truant is unique to Sunderland.
- The word red-chester for register is also unique to Sunderland
- The word Dinnit (meaning don't) is used as opposed to divint in Geordie.
- Clazes or Claes to mean Clothes, also common in Scotland.
- We or Whey in place of Who is used in Sunderland, also, Glasgow and much of Scotland also uses this pronunciation.
- The word to is often pronounced as tae or tee in some sentences such as; where yae gawn tee? (translated to: where are you going to?)
- The word we is often pronounced as wuh, such as; Wuh knew wuh'd win (translated to: we knew we'd win)
- The use of the words "hyem" and "pyet" instead of "home" and "face" are used both in Mackem and Geordie dialects. "Am garn hyem tae wash me pyet", translated to "I am going home to wash my face".
Notable Mackems
See Category:People from Sunderland
References
- ^ UK phrases
- ^ "City Boundaries". www.phrases.org. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
- ^ "Makem and Takem". www.virtualsunderland.co.uk. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
- ^ "Mackem". Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
- ^ Derbies: Geordies v Mackems "Civil war". www.sunderland-life.co.uk. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
{{cite web}}: Check|url=value (help) - ^ "Mackem Accent". www.oed.com. Retrieved 2007-09-21.
- ^ "Mackem Accents". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2007-09-21.