Britishisms on the Rise
erco
Posts: 20,259
I visit the Bri-ish PicAxe forum on occasion (some brill sussers there too) and commented that I get a kick out of their expressive colloquialisms:
It's a lovely "bit of kit"
Gobsmacked...(Gareth used at http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?141149-3-Stepper-Motor-amp-Board&p=1134402&viewfull=1#post1134402 and "brill" 11 posts prior)
Works a treat
One forum member just sent me this BBC story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19929249
It's a fun read, nothing too serious, so don't get your knickers in a twist, Mate!
It's a lovely "bit of kit"
Gobsmacked...(Gareth used at http://forums.parallax.com/showthread.php?141149-3-Stepper-Motor-amp-Board&p=1134402&viewfull=1#post1134402 and "brill" 11 posts prior)
Works a treat
One forum member just sent me this BBC story: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19929249
It's a fun read, nothing too serious, so don't get your knickers in a twist, Mate!
Comments
It can get very confusing, for example if you say "I'm dying for a ***" in the states probably will get something other than a cigarette.
And whilst we are here, what's with the American use of the word "gifted" as in "I gifted my Propeller chips to my friend" when we already have the word "gave" for that and "gifted" actually means something totally different. That and a thousand other examples.
As George Burnard Shaw said ""two countries divided by a common language".
Oh, and check this out:http://www.allthatwomenwant.com/amuk.htm
Edit: Did you see what happened there?. The common English term for cigarette got bleeped out by the forum software. Can't imagine why.
We don't say "susser", just as one wouldn't use "groker"! Actually a lot of people have picked up terms from the Hacker's Dictionary both sides of the pond I think.
Now if only I could start a Stateside fad for pronouncing "herb", "solder" and "oregano" in the British (proper innit) way...
Have you noticed that Americans cannot pronounce the word "mirror"?
I've also just remembered Brit. bodge v. Amer. kludge (or kluge). I think the British tendancy would be to spell kludge as cludge (but I think only the Brits use a hard 'd' anyway). Bodging is originally a woodworking term in fact. Bodging is more about quick messy prototype than a specific coding workaround I think.
-Phil
Colour
Theatre
The 8 th letter of the alphabet
The last letter of the alphabet
The game of tic tac toe
The list goes on and on
...it's amazing we were able to survive our independence!!
Took me awhile to figure out what a Zed-Ex-Eight-One was.
When he first got here we would constantly tell each other to "speak proper english". As a joke of course...
P.S. I love the way they say Aluminum too...
Bean
Shocked, we asked what?
Then sussed she was looking for "Rubber Bands".
We had a great laugh about that.
Duane J
So what is it?????
(Don't ask?)
Duane J
Do tell!!!
So true. There are only so many words and thoughts to go around, and everyone puts their own spin on it. Variety is the spice of life.
When I travelled through Turkey many moons ago, I enjoyed chatting with the locals over chai (trying to sell carpets, naturally). On numerous occasions, we swapped jokes. I recognized many of their jokes as the familiar "Polish" jokes told here in the US, but instead of Polish, the joketellers substituted one of their own picked-on Turkish sub-groups.
So there are also only so many jokes to go around.
b. service road (30.46%)
c. access road (17.79%)
d. feeder road (1.97%)
e. gateway (0.09%)
f. we have them but I have no word for them (12.18%)
g. I've never heard of this concept (4.24%)
h. other (4.12%)
Where I came from in the Midwest, we called that a "post road." I suppose it was because that's where the rural mailboxes were located, but I have no way of knowing for sure.
-Phil
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81
They spell it that way, too: aluminium.
And why is everything so bloody?
And why did a once-upon-a-time vast global empire with almost exclusive access to the richest spices in the world resist getting any of them on their food?
My Mom, bless her heart, would cook in "loonyum" pans and occasionally put a quart of "awl" in the car! :-)
@
Isn't bland the sixth taste, after Umami? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umami
ElectricAye,
What makes you think they didn't?
Those empire builders did a good job of hauling spices back home. Remember those super fast clipper ships built to do just that? The Brits adopted a lot of food styles from China, India etc. You may notice now Blighty is covered in Chineese restaurants and curry houses. We love our hot spicy foods.
BUT if you are suggesting we put chilli or heavy duty spices on a traditional roast beef and yorkshire pudding you are crazy. Good quality, fresh, food that is not murdered by the cook needs no spices.
Because it IS now, thanks to that empire thing.
Any language it owned by the speaker. The only thing that matter is "the degree of communication" the use of the words conveys. The books, and all the dead people that USED to speak the language, have less influence than a large individual in front of me.
This is why on the south side of Chicago, we are allowed (even required) to use the second person plural pronoun [youse] in normal conversation.
As in "Youse guys are going to want to buy some protection".
Except for this minor detail. There is a country called England and the people living there are English and they speak a language also called English. By some sort of definition the "English" language is that spoken by the English. Anything else is something else.
I guess I'm just a bit miffed by the growing realization that some where along the line England committed suicide. It basically does not exist any more.
It was with the act of union of Scotland and England that both countries gave up their parliaments and a new parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, or whatever it is technically, called was formed.
It is possible that soon Scotland will have their independence and parliament back again. Scotland still "exists". However I don't see that when the "undoing" of the act of union occurs England will regain it's independence and parliament. It will still not exist.
Take a look at an Englishman's passport. There is no mention of England in the whole document. The only country name actually appearing there is Ireland as in Northern Ireland.
An English man has no English identity any more. Even the English language has been stolen from the poor old English.
And:
Peripheral is periphreal
Caramel is carmel
I assume that it's because width ends in a "th" that they have heigth
They don't go across the street, they go acrossed the street
Drowned is drownded
Burgled is burglarized
You don't lend them something, you loan it
"I could care less" is supposed to mean they don't care but is actually means that they DO care. We say "I couldn't care less"
"The proof is in the pudding" is supposed to be "the proof of the pudding is in the eating"
"I could've went but I didn't"
GWB wanted to "kill the tourists" because he was worried about a "nukiller" attack
And where the heck did "winningest" come from?
Mickster
And I am not even getting into dialects. It isn't as if every native Brit in the U.K. really understands one another.
And if the English want to complain about others using English, they have only themselves to blame and they heavily promote English as the world's foremost language in world trade and the leading 2nd language in the world (used by 2 billion people).
If you really want to speak and write acceptable English, use 'Mid-Atlantic English'.
IMHO, all language tend to vary greatly with a distance of a mere 50 to 100 miles. Gobsmack that!
American dialect. English dialect. Australian dialect. Hmm, I think more people might speak this dialect http://www.engrish.com/