In an try to be sure that her pupils don’t face disadvantages in later life, the top of a Teesside primary has asked parents to correct children’s local accents and grammar. Here a number one children’s author from the north-east responds.
Wen A woz a littl lad me parints yoosed te tell iz to taalk propa. The teechas did an aal.
It’s yes not aye, it’s child not bairn, it’s nothing not nowt.
It is i am going home and never Am gannin yem.
It’s not howay it’s come along.
We wer telt it woz aalreet to maintain sum of the acsent, of cors, cos it woz probly impossibil to do away with it aal. But ther woz sum that sed that the acsent should be purjed, lyk the sownd of it was a sine of sin. We did begin to taalk what they caaled propa, of cors. Nee surprize in that. We wer bairns. We wer gud at lernin. And tho it sumtyms mayd us cross we didn’t reely mind. The parints and the teechas was thinkin of our fuchers as they should.
Sum people chaynjd and neva lookd bak. Sum began to sownd lyk they cum from Surry or sumwer and never from the banks of the Tyne. But uthas folks cudnt leev the words and sownds behind. We didn’t wont to loos the feelin that they brung of wyldnis and transgreshon. The trooth is it woz luvly to assert the words that woz forbid. It woz luvly to run oot into the yard or into the playin feelds and as much as the wildaness abuv the toon and yell oot:
Am ganna ploat ye, ye littl bugga!
On me heed! On me heed!
Hadaway and shite!
And it woz luvly to tendaly wispa the words to eech utha.
They say he winnit mek it throo the neet.
Oh, examine that canny bint
Now Am a rita and A rite books that teechas reed to bairns in skools and the books is filld with words like spuggy and clarts and aye and nowt. Aav rit won book that’s aal misspelt and aal rit within the langwij of the Tyne. It’s telt by a lad that cannit spell but he trys to do the highest he can and he trys to make the langwij make sum sens, as bairns do, and he trys to make it sing, as evry rita must.
Langwij has to ecko at the air and it has to dyve doon to the hart an sole. The rite langwij could be the rang langwij for sum books. Sum ov the grate books of the area is rit qwite rong. Books by them lyk Billy Forkna, Russil Hoban, Jimmy Joyce. And the rong words is wot the aynshent tales were telt in, and the way aal the songs woz sung.
Aye, ye hav to knaa the words the realm thinks is rite and ye must knaa the best way to spel them rite an speek them rite. Othawize sum misgiyded folk mite think yor only a dope.
But ye neva hav to place the otha words away. Yev got to yoos them and speek them and rite them and keep them on the earth. Aav gorra digree in English, Am a rita, and these daze Am even a professa so Aav lernd sumthin abowt the right way to diy things rite. But thers still nee thrill lyk the joys of knowing wot the so-caaled rite word is and the way to rite it rite, but still to yoos the word the realm considas rong. Nee thrill at aal like ritin aye, bairn, clarts, spuggy, hadaway and nowt. Thas nae thrill lyk the fun of speakin the words, feelin the vybrashon of the sownds they make, feelin them dancin on yor lips and tung and breth.
Reed them now and speek them now and feel the luvliness that’s in them. Aye, bairn, clarts, spuggy, hadaway and nowt. Its lyk gannin yem, like gannin back to bein a bairn agen, like reechin back to where the langwij cums from. The words cum up from the blood and boans an from the grownd itself and the aynshent past and from the commin langwij, the langwij that must neva eva eva be forgot.
