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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
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OK, here's a couple of examples.
If you live in Manchester then London is to the South. Most people would go "down" to London.
If you live in the South East of England, regardless of whether you live to the North, South, East or West you would go "up" to London.
If you live in Edinburgh which is 50 miles (80km) to the East of Glasgow - how would you describe your journey?
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Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004
old hand
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old hand
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,004 |
Also, if you're not a native Londoner, then you tend to describe the tube lines by their colours. No native Londoner would dream of talking about travel by the 'green' line or the 'red' line.
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Joined: Oct 2000
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member
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member
Joined: Oct 2000
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In highschool, when time for Prom came around all the kids who weren't local would complain that "Prom" wasn't a proper noun and should be refered to as "the prom". We never did manage to convince them that around here, it was Prom, not the prom.
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Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Sep 2000
Posts: 4,757 |
'going to the synagogue'I think this is definitely not a red herring – it’s the original article.  You have hit on an interesting one here, Lucy, and I agree it’s an insider-type issue. I think there is a complex unspoken thought process betrayed by this simple form of words: “ We go to (our place of worship) in order to partake of that community – but we could equally go to another (place of worship) as we are members of a whole network of such places; that other strange group of misguided souls go to the local (place of worship) , being the only example of this aberrant institution that has impinged on our consciousness.” Max, an example I can offer is more of a general rural dividing style from when I lived in Kent. If I said I was going to town, it would carry a different meaning to going to the town: the latter meant the local town, the former meant going up to London. PS - drafted before I had read your comment, jo!But most distinctions of Maidstone usage were far cruder. A car-driver stopped me on the pavement with the request for directions to “Mason iced pill”. Had I not been local I might have been confused; as it was, I correctly deciphered this as a synonym for Kent General Opthalmic Hospital (aka Maidstone Eye Hospital) 
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Joined: Aug 2000
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Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
Thank you all - I knew that there must be several examples of "insider" usage out there, and the ones you have provided are very useful. Xara, if I find myself 15 younger and attending high school in Mountain City(?)Tennessee, I shall be sure to say "Prom" in order to fit in. Shanks, if I ever find myself in London, (only marginally less unlikely), I shall scrupulously avoid referring to the Tube lines by colour. The only one I can't use is "up to London", as everybody knows that North is down! 
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
Shopping? Compare prices from around the web on Taumatawhakatangihangakoauau Classic! Very funny! Her's a URL that might be a little more enlightening: http://www.fire.org.nz/regions/eastern/stations/porangahau.htmIt's about 60 kilometres as the tui flies from my home.
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Pooh-Bah
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Pooh-Bah
Joined: Mar 2000
Posts: 1,981 |
As no-one dared a guess about how you get from Edinburgh to Glasgow, the answer is "through". I've never quite worked out "what" you go through to get to Glasgow but you definitely go "through" in "I'm going through to Glasgow."
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addict
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addict
Joined: Jun 2000
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>If I said I was going to town, it would carry a different meaning to going to the town: the latter meant the local town, the former meant going up to London<
When I lived in Leeds (Yorkshire, northern England) 'going to town' was not used in a geographic sense, only in the sense of splashing out. We used to 'go into town' if we went to the city centre.
AS for London, I think we used to go to London. I don't recall an up or down in the phrase.
On the other hand, when I lived in Harpenden (southern UK, just north of London) and we went into the town centre, we went 'down the village'.
(As an aside, what does it mean that we talk about towns when we mean cities, and villages when we mean towns?)
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Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146
Carpal Tunnel
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Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Nov 2000
Posts: 3,146 |
Hi - I've just joined this list, and I, too, was vaguely amused by Peter Ustinov's dropping of the definitive article when referring to the North Island and the South Island. It's common enough, even among people who have lived here for a long time. An ex-pat Dutchman I work with still does it. When I asked him about why he left out the "the", he replied that it a habit he formed when he first came here and had never managed to shake it off.
And, while I agree that the Maori names are mellifluous, the Maori name for the North Island - Te Ika e Maui - is a little unwieldy for everyday use, perhaps?
The idiot also known as Capfka ...
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Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409
Carpal Tunnel
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OP
Carpal Tunnel
Joined: Aug 2000
Posts: 3,409 |
- Te Ika e Maui - is a little unwieldy for everyday use, perhaps?Less so than Whanganui a Tara, no?
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