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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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 Posted -
17/11/2004
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14:52
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Opening text too long so I've moved it to the first response.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk
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belle
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Posted - 18/06/2009 : 17:01
you could read it out loud Tripps that should sort it!
Life is what you make it |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 19/06/2009 : 07:42
You're both right because what we call dialect is the language of the common people, used every day and very fluid and expressive. There are none of the constraints of the printed word or artificial 'standards' like 'received pronunciation'. The thing that fascinates me is that despite all the attcks on it, dialect and slang survive. vernacular English may be changing but it is still alive and well and this topic proves it. It usually sparks a row but in truth, the attempt to standardise language involves strange changes like sucstituting 'E' sound for 'A' and is an attempt to signal class difference. I always remember Major Cross advising me in 1954 that there was no point going for a War Office Selection Board to become an officer in the army because my dialect would immediately bar me from consideration. True then, probably less true now but it still exists.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
tripps
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Posted - 19/06/2009 : 09:34
Michael Parkinson must have made a good job of hiding his Barnsley accent then, he was at Suez in 1956, and at the time was the youngest Captain in the army.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 19/06/2009 : 16:25
He must have been a better man than me! I never regretted missing out.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 20/06/2009 : 06:24
I was thinking about 'butcher', one who cuts meat up. I looked in Webster and found ME 'Bocher' for the trade and in Welsh, 'bwych'. The thing that triggered me off was that in the dialect round here we talk about 'butching' and animal and it struck me that the modern word 'butchering' is actually the name for the occupation of butcher rather than the activity of butching. A good example of how usage alters over the years. The Old French 'bouchier' for butcher is thought to derive from the name for a goat and Buccaneer, used for pirates is a reference to 'boucanier' which is the practice of air-drying meat on a frame to preserve it. Old Irish is 'boc'. Fascinating things words...
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 27/06/2009 : 07:29
Funny word is pundit. Have you ever noticed that the more you look at a word the stranger it gets?
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Cathy
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Posted - 01/07/2009 : 11:25
Heard the expression 'London to a brick' today,
Something to do with the brick being a ten pound note ... ??
Edited by - Cathy on 01/07/2009 11:27:17 AM
All thru the fields and meadows gay .... Enjoy
Take Care...Cathy |
truth finder
New Member
22 Posts
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Posted - 01/07/2009 : 11:55
http://www.koalanet.com.au/australian-slang.html
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Bradders
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Posted - 01/07/2009 : 13:54
That's a good Link TF......
"London to a brick"....meaning a certainty.
Do you think that comes from a betting (odds) background....
Or then again just an expression like "as sure as eggs is eggs"....?
BRADDERS BLUESINGER |
tripps
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Posted - 01/07/2009 : 14:01
Definitely a gambling reference. The American equivalent would be "dollars to donuts". Thanks for the link TF, interesting site.
PS - just remenbered the Army version...a pound to a pinch of ****
Edited by - tripps on 01/07/2009 2:08:13 PM
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 01/07/2009 : 16:28
The full army reference is p*****t!
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 07/07/2009 : 06:49
A new verb has surfaced to describe the people participating in Anthony Gormley's use of the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square. 'Plinthers' hence 'to plinth'! I quite like it.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
belle
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Posted - 07/07/2009 : 10:19
I think there may have been plinthing going on prior to this...in night clubs peopel used to get up on plinths to show their dancing skills..or so I am told!
Life is what you make it |
belle
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Posted - 07/07/2009 : 10:23
I just realised one of the great dialect terms I take for granted .."'appen" if you haven't got an idea of how it formed it must seem odd that people say "happen it will" when the non dialect speakers would say ' perhaps it will' my grandfather used to say 'appen per'aps' whether that was an attempt to get in both versions and make it clearer or whether 'appen is just the shortened version of that term i don't know.
Life is what you make it |
Bradders
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Posted - 07/07/2009 : 10:47
......and "as likely as not" has become shortened to "like as not"
Is that recent though, I wonder ?..........
'appen!
BRADDERS BLUESINGER |
Dialect and other regional matters.
