As County Durham gears up for the 136th Durham Miners’ Gala later this year, it has sparked the age old debate - how should gala be pronounced?
Residents are divided on whether the event is pronounced ‘gay-la’ or ‘gar-la’ - and organisers say it depends on which part of Durham you come from.
Traditionally miners and their families from every corner of County Durham travelled to the annual gathering in Durham city centre and the Big Meeting still draws in huge crowds.
But experts and the general public are divided on how the word should be pronounced.
We went out into Durham and Crook to ask people how they pronounce the Durham Miners’ Gala.
The majority of people we spoke to pronounced it as the Durham Miners’ Gar-la, though a few people noted the traditional pronunciation is gay-la, including an ex-miner.
Newcastle University linguistic expert, Dr Danielle Turton, said those “in the know” were right to call the event the Durham Miners’ Gay-la.
She said: “If you are in the know, you call it the Big Meeting or the gay-la, but most people say gar-la.
“According to the Oxford English Dictionary, gay-la is the English pronunciation, while gar-la is the American English way to say it.
“A lot of people complain about the Americanisation of the English language but I think it is safe to say if there’s one group of people who aren’t likely to have been influenced by Americanisms, it would be ex-miners in the North of England.”
She said the two pronunciations come from the French and Latin roots of the word.
In old English, people would have taken the French word gale, and given it an English twist by pronouncing it gay-la, Dr Turton explained.
Pronouncing the word as gar-la would have been seen as an attempt to sound posh and upper class, as people tried to keep up with the French.
Dr Turton added: “Gay-la reflects the more down to earth, working class origins of the event, but unfortunately I think the pronunciation will die out as most young people in the North East say gar-la.”
So to settle the argument the word should be pronounced gay-la, to be in keeping with the working class roots of the event. Or we could all just call it the Big Meeting and be done with it.
