Pitmatic

I was commissioned to write a piece on County Durham for a magazine, not specifically anything to do with language, and I came across Pitmatic, the old language of the Durham miners. I say 'language' but it's a mixture of Durham dialect and specialised vocabulary, most of which, unsurprisingly,is technical and mining-related. Examples include: corf-batters (boys who scraped the coal out of filthy baskets), hoggers (shorts worn by miners underground), poss-tub (laundry items - soap, scrubbing brush etc) and arse-loop (a rope chair which miners sat on when repairing shafts).

 

People from County Durham are not technically Geordies (who are, strictly speaking, Tynesiders). They are termed Pit-yakkers, and Pitmatic is, or was, also known locally as Yakka. Pitmatic was originally called Pitmatical, which was a reference to both the pit (coalmine) and reminiscent of the word mathematical. Perhaps the idea was to stress the precision and scientific nature of the mining work.

 

For more on Pitmatic and the Durham dialect, see this website. Michael Quinion's World Wide Words has a good section on it too -- here.

Comments

[John]

Susan,

Thank you for the effort of queuing all of these posts. They are, as always, fascinating and educational.

I trust that you will eventually post a link to your Durham article. Although I have difficulty saying what my most favourite part of England is, Durham is among the leaders; after Anfield, that is.

[Virtual Linguist]

Thanks, John. I've never been to Durham, I'm sorry to say.