LL-L: "Names" (was "Etymology") LOWLANDS-L, 06.NOV.1999 (03) [E]

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From: Ian James Parsley [parsley at highbury.fsnet.co.uk]
Subject: LL-L: "Etymology" LOWLANDS-L, 05.NOV.1999 (08) [E]

Pat,

I studied in Newcastle upon Tyne for four years, so can say with some
authority that a "Mackem" is usually a resident of Sunderland. The
Newcastle-Sunderland soccer match is always billed as "Geordies v. Mackems".

I think we've discussed the term "Geordie" on this list before, but "mackem"
is entirely different.
You're not far off, in fact. It refers to the now-defunct shipbuilding
industry up in Sunderland. They used to say to southerners about their ships
"We mak 'em, you tak 'em".

Hope that helps,
-------------------------------
Ian James Parsley
http://www.gcty.com/parsleyij
"JOY - Jesus, Others, You"

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From: Sandy Fleming [sandy at fleimin.demon.co.uk]
Subject: "Etymology"

> From: Pat Reynolds [pat at caerlas.demon.co.uk]
> Subject: LL-L: "Makentak" [E]
>
> This was written by a friend, on another list (in Nordhymbron
> (Northumbrian):
>
> Ha'd on there, bonny lad! Just div vint start:  If we'ya taaki'n
> dialects heeya, it'll be nae tym at aal befower sum soft Suthna
> [Lyk  a Tyke,  or  a Makentak , or even a bliddy  Tynesider] oppens
> there gob; then naebody will knaa what the Hell anybody's taakin'
> aboot!
>
> The word that caught my eye was 'Makentak', which my friend says is a
> resident of Durham, with the etymology "if they cannat
> mak' it, they'll tak' it".  Has anyone come across this before?

Usually someone from Sunderland is called a "Makem" [mak at m]. This expression
originates with the Tyneside shipbuilding industry where (rather like at
Clydesdale in Scotland) expert shipbuilders would build magnificent ships
which were never seen again, having gone either abroad or to the major
seafaring ports on the south coast of England. Hence the expression "We mak
'em, you tak 'em", giving rise to the Geordie epithet "Makem" for
Sunderlanders specifically, or "Mak 'n Tak" for any "other" Geordie, i.e.
Sunderlanders or County Durham as opposed to the Newcastle area. Of course
there's a certain amount of tribalism here - Novocastrians worked in
shipbuilding just the same as anybody else, nevertheless this is their name
for the "foreign immigrant workers" from Sunderland and Co. Durham!

Sandy
http://scotstext.org

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