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Joined: Jan 2001
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
As an American I am all too painfully aware of how unmusical we are on this side of the pond compared with the British, the Irish and the Scots. What are some of your favorite British Isles expressions? Here are some of mine:
"Thanks, luv." (spoken by the female porter on the 19 bus in London)
"Right!" exclamation, sounds like "roit!"
"You're mad!"
"You can't be serious!"
"Oh Jesus!" Irish, sounds like "Oh Jaysus!"
"Good evening, and welcome to 'Masterpiece Theatre.'" Deeply imbedded in my synapses from youth.
"You bastard!" John Cleese as irate chef in restaurant
"Terribly sorry!" mumbled by a banker who has inadvertently stepped on your toe
"Sod this!" don't say it in front of the Queen
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Joined: Sep 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Respectfully submitted:
"What ho, Jeeves?"
"In the year that King Uzziah died ..."
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Anonymous
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Anonymous
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*nothing* beats the sincere, arduously well-pronounced and melodious way the jamaican people say "you are welcome".
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,439
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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As an American I am all too painfully aware of how unmusical we are on this side of the pond Perhaps in the clarity of pronunciation the Brits we hear on imported radio and TV programs have an edge. But there are parts of England I visited where the English is hard to understand at best and incoherent at its worst. I found some Scots accents quite sexy but I met just a few Scots at a party. Irish accent can be musical (Kildare) high pitched (Kerry) broad and flat (Cork) or very hard to understand (Galway.) Barry Fitgerald who played Michaeleen in "The Quiet Man" had a west Ireland accent. While here in US of A I have heard some delicious Southern accents, rugged western accents and the Indiana accent of my late husband was enough to raise goose bumps! To my ear, "upper class" British accents, in some cases, lack any vestage of what could be called warmth. For an example send a private, ok? So, I guess I take a friendly, poking the Borax, kind of umbrage.  wow
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Joined: Nov 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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It's totally subjective and hardly worth arguing about! 
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Jan 2001
Posts: 1,819 |
Who's arguing?
I know what wow is talking about with the Socttish accents. Some of them are impossible to decipher. In a pub in northern Scotland, an older man accosted me and kept asking me something that I couldn't understand. I felt embarassed to have to keep saying "What?", and it didn't help matters that the fellow looked rather...irate. Finally his words became clear to me. He was asking "Are ye a German, lad?" To which I replied, "No sir I'm an American." Instantly his face blossomed into a smile and he clapped me on the back and said "Ah, you're a Yank are ye!" I got the impression that a "German lad" wouldn't have been very welcome in that particular pub.
It wasn't the only time I was mistaken for a German. In a train station I was accosted by a pan handler, and I stared at him blankly until he said half to himself "Oh, you're German! You don't understand a word I'm saying!" and walked off.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Has anyone else in N. America seen this as a supposed pronunciation of Brit-speak? My British friend had no idea what I was talking about, and says no one there says the word 'very' that way. I believe that, wherever I read it, it was attributed to the upper class.
Hi, Alex.
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Joined: Mar 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
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Jackie, I think it's related to the "tara" thang (hi, Jo!): we interpret the Brit flapped R to be either the voiced or unvoiced alveolar plosive (D or T) and hear "ta-ta"
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Joined: Apr 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Apr 2000
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Ta-ta and tara (pronounced more like turrah) are both used in the UK, although I associate tara mainly with the NE and London. There was a radio programme (I don't rember it myself) called TTFN -- Tata For Now.
Bingley
Bingley
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Joined: Dec 2000
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old hand
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old hand
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there's always 'toodle-loo'
some of my other Brit favourites are
Crikey!
to be knackered
to take the mickey
and the timeless..
Tickity-Boo
(I'm sure the Brits will offer translations on demand)
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