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Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444
addict
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addict
Joined: Jun 2000
Posts: 444 |
Ah, punctuation! Maybe I really meant 'Just visiting Jackie'... 
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460 |
Perhaps Bridget and Jackie -- our two ladies of the street (grin) -- will be interested in another meaning of 'gutter': the space in front of a racecourse totalisator (from Baker: The drum [Australian character and slang]).
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Oh, I can't stand it! Ow, my stomach hurts from laughing so hard!!! First--Bridget, I don't recall issuing an invitation to my abode, but let me do so belatedly: you, and all, are welcome at any time.  I'll save some of my best garbage just for you! Now--paulb, living in the city that is the home of the most famous racetrack in the world, I am very much at home in that gutter as well! I went there all the time in my childhood with my dad. Placed my first bet at 15--the clerk didn't even look up.
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 11,613 |
Colemanballs reminds me of buckyballs--neat invention, even neater word!!
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460
addict
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addict
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 460 |
There's an old story from bureaucracy about a senior officer who, after reading a report, sent it to his superior with the word 'balls' written on it. The superior was not amused and reprimanded his junior.
Soon afterwards, he sent a similar report to his superior with the words 'round objects' written on it. It was returned to him promptly with the note: "Who is Round and to what does he object?"
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
Yob, schmobNo, I can't allow this to go unchallenged  OK, so it is the quasi-Yiddish habit to use "schm-" in front of any word to make a point, but the WHOLE point of "yob" is that it is cockney back-slang and is only comprehensible if you read it backwards - i.e, "boy." So what sort of a word is "bomhcs", already? The fact that the back-slang word has been taken over and its meaning perverted by the unwitting makes little difference to me - back-slang HAS to be comprehensible when re-inverted, else there is no point to its use. So take the occab out of your epip and put in the above and ekoms that !!!
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
take the occab out of your epip and put in the above and ekoms that !!! "?Siht si gnirts hcihw - trpos ,yad'G"
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204
Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 2,204 |
?Siht si gnirts hcihw - trpos ,yad'G" I submit that this is a perfectly proper string for my short course in Cockney Back-slang - (which you have not quite managed, although you are working on the right lines.) The distinctive Australian accent is derived, at least partly, from exactly the same source as is the accent of the East End of London (the only area that can truly be called Cockney: it does NOT really apply to all residents of that great city.) East London was populated mainly by internal immigration from Essex, Suffolk and, to a lesser extent, Norfolk, (the area generally is aka "East Anglia) and the disctinctive Cockney "twang" is an adaptation of the East Anglian accent. During the upheavals of the Nineteenth century in England, there was, from time to time, much unemployment and social distress in East Anglia (and indeed, many other places.) One remedy was for philanthropists, churches (espec. Non-conformist ones) Trades Unions and other organisations to sponsor emigration to the Colonies. The colony most favoured by East Anglia was Australia and very large numbers of immigrants came from that part of England, bringing their distinctive "twang" with them, of course. So Cockney and Austrlain have a lot in common, as far as their linguistic roots are concerned. Therefore, lessons in Cockney vocabulary and usage, I submit, are not out of place in this string. Maverick, your bit of back slang should more properly be transcribed thus: "Yadggee, torps -which ingstree is this?" Not all words inverted - mainly nouns and verbs, and word order maintained. It is the sounds that are inverted and corrupted/adapted for greater euphony. But as a first attempt it shows sympathy for the genre - C+
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 347
enthusiast
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enthusiast
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 347 |
There's nothing uniquely Australian about the usage (as far as I know), but several times during the Olympic coverage I've heard "medal" used as a verb. "The Americans are going to medal in this race". I was expecting some sort of interference to occur. Is this horrible development a recent one? What's next? Venus Williams cups at Wimbledon? (Now there's a novel thought!)  Tiger Woods trophies again? (Whilst the rest of the field atrophies?)
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Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Jul 2000
Posts: 1,094 |
I don't know how many of you noticed, mainly because a lot of you aren't from the US, but one of NBC's recent "Olympic Moments" was about Australian vs. American English. The host of the show basically had big cards with an Aussie term on one side and the American counterpart on the other and he went around Sydney asking what they meant. I found it rather amusing because it's one of the frequent topics of conversation here, but I can't say that I really learned much because I wasn't paying too close attention.
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