Overview

Pitmatic brings together a wonderful regional pit language – its words, jokes, stories and songs that are fast disappearing from our culture. This book helps attest to the remarkable vitality of the region's dialect and the inventiveness and humour of its speakers. The last major mine in the North East region closed in 2005 and with it went a way of life. Through dialect words, humour, stories and songs Pitmatic will help you to understand the everyday lives and work of miners. Miners who provided fuel, helped sustain an economy, consolidated communities and created a unique and rich regional culture. This book is a joyous celebration of the history of the North East bringing together the words spoken by miners and their families and how they related to the wider languages of the world. AUTHOR: The late Bill Griffiths was a poet, scholar, archivist, pianist, historian as well as a champion of the North East, its people and heritage. Born in Middlesex, he read history before graduating in 1969. Bill ran his own independent press and published political pamphlets and essays on the arts and poetry. After gaining a PhD in Old English he left London and settled in Seaham where he embraced the northern way of life. SELLING POINTS: . A well-researched guide for anyone wanting to know more about the people, the dialect, the humour and of course to better understand the way the way of life in the North East coal mining communities . Other titles in the series include Stotty 'n' Spice Cake: Stories and traditional recipes of North East Cooking and Whare de yea belang? A Dictionary of North East Dialect 15 b/w illustrations

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9780857162724

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Reviews

‘It is hoped the book will preserve the dialect for future generations’, BBC Breakfast News. ‘An exceptionally rich combination of borrowings from Old Norse, Dutch and a score of other languages with inventive usages dreamed up by the miners themselves’, The Guardian. ‘Fills a huge gap in present day knowledge of the subject and at the same time it is an exceptional read’, Beamish Museum. 'A seminal dictionary of North East dialect', The Independent.

'It is hoped the book will preserve the dialect for future generations', BBC Breakfast News. 'An exceptionally rich combination of borrowings from Old Norse, Dutch and a score of other languages with inventive usages dreamed up by the miners themselves', The Guardian. 'Fills a huge gap in present day knowledge of the subject and at the same time it is an exceptional read', Beamish Museum. 'A seminal dictionary of North East dialect', The Independent.

Author Information

"Born into a distinguished musical family in Middlesex, Bill trained as a classic pianist, before studying History at University College, London. Later, he completed a Doctorate in Saxon Literature at Kings College, University of London. He was at least a scholar, archivist, translator, pianist, historian as well as a distinguished poet, described recently by one national newspaper as 'Great Britain's least known major poet', and his poetry was included in the influential Oxford University Press Anthology of 20th Century British and Irish Verse. He was also a prolific author and had 67 separate entries in the Cambridge University Library. In the 1990's, Bill moved from London to the North East, where he took up residence in Seaham. He chose the North East to aid his studies into Old English, and was fascinated by the continuation of Old English in North East dialects. He quickly re-invigorated serious scholarship on regional dialect, and within a short period had published three important books on the subject to include 'A Dictionary of North East Dialect', 'Stotty 'n' Spice Cake: The Story of North East Cooking' and 'Pitmatic: The Talk of the North East Coalfields'. Bill was also a key player in the local history scene, and wrote numerous small books and articles about the Durham Coalfield area, particularly Seaham. Colleague and friend Dr Bill Lancaster, Head of the Centre for Northern Studies, Northumbria University, said: ""Bill had a genius for carrying out serious scholarship of international quality which also had an appeal to a popular audience. He has been the first scholar in a long time to treat North East dialect with a seriousness of purpose, and this has contributed greatly to the renaissance of North East regional culture over the last decade or so."""

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