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In Newcastle you have the term “charver”, which has been usage for just short of ten years. I think it’s basically used to describe “dodgy bastards” and is really quite divorced from class issues as it’s in common usage within very working class communities to describe people who dress and behave in a particular way, and mostly tend to be annoying twats. It’s not really about “laughing at the poor people”, as the term is frequently and regularly used by people existing within exactly the same economic circumstances as the alleged “charvers”. It’s more about identifying a specific sub-group that does actually exist in the north east, in a way that it doesn’t elsewhere in the country in exactly the same way. They have their own language, which is like a modification of Geordie (itself, often an impenetrable dialect to non-geordies) with its own specific words and phrasing. “Waxa!”, “Dink!”, etc… I don’t think charvers really exist outside of Newcastle in quite the same way. You certainly don’t get them in London.
The more recent term “chav”, seems to be a bit different. I think it’s a much broader term, and seems to be inclusive of the concept of “townie”, which is in common usage by students in university towns to describe non-students. I think “chav” is a lot more classist and dubious, but it probably derives from the earlier Geordie concept of “charver”. |
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