BS: New Speak: words they are achangin

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 17 Mar 20 - 12:47 PM

My dog has no nose. How does he smell? - worse than the joke!

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mrrzy
Date: 16 Mar 20 - 09:26 AM

My dog has no nose. How does he smell? Awful! is an old joke, Donuel.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 16 Mar 20 - 04:19 AM

sartorial affectation only. Political colour is that of pure unadulterated water (where found). Transparency rules OK?

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Mar 20 - 03:39 PM

God, you're funny. Thank God you're a red.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Mar 20 - 01:32 PM

Leave it orf? You? U is 'avin a larf innit?

There's the rub.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 15 Mar 20 - 11:50 AM

I often tell people here that challenging me on spelling or grammar here is likely to earn you a scornful response with more than a hint of ridicule. We're not writing legalese here and we can afford to be casual, and we all overlook others' errors most of the time. However, there was nothing wrong with my use of "thus." There was everything wrong with your spelling of "sentence" in a post that purported to chide me. There's the rub. Leave it off with me and I'll leave it off with you, innit.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: mayomick
Date: 15 Mar 20 - 10:25 AM

"innit" affirms a stated fact ; it is not a question.As in :"be careful or I'll mouth or I'll punch you in the mouth , innit."

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Senoufou
Date: 15 Mar 20 - 06:57 AM

Not 'new words' exactly, but they were new to me when I moved from Edinburgh to Glasgow in 1970 to teach eight year-olds. The introductory "See you...?" "See him...?" " See her...?" followed by a comment.

My young pupils often remarked, "See me Miss? Ahm swaitin'!" (Would you please open the window as I'm rather hot.)

"See him Miss? He nicked ma piece!" (Miss, that chap over there has stolen my playtime bread-and-butter.)

"See you? Ah cannae understond a wurrd ye say!" (Miss, your accent is far too English, which makes comprehension a little difficult.)

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Mar 20 - 06:21 AM

Well/Thus - don't get yer drift old boy. If I wus tu use thus, thus, I would mean thus. Well has a deeper meaning! To draw on.
:)

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 14 Mar 20 - 11:46 PM

"well" is a more proper word version of "hmmmmm"...

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Mar 20 - 10:48 PM

I use "well" a lot here. It's a faintly polite way of starting a sentence (spelled thus, by the way, Mr Red) in which you want to express disagreement with something said earlier. It has a slightly shrugging air about it. It can represent scepticism about something that's been said. It can express your opinion that the person you're responding to isn't properly in charge of the facts, for example if someone crows that the majority of the country voted for brexit, you can reply "Well, in fact only 38% of the electorate actually did so. So the majority of the country didn't, nothing like..."

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Senoufou
Date: 14 Mar 20 - 02:27 PM

I hate the word 'app'. I'm always being exhorted to 'download an app'. I don't even own a phobile moan. And what the blazes is an 'app' anyway? I'd really love a nap (in fact, I have one every afternoon after lunch)
Also, every site wants to know if I'll accept cookies. Of course! Hobnobs, digestives, and especially Tunnocks caramel wafers please. Thank you.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 14 Mar 20 - 01:17 PM

Well these smart cars - driving themselves, maybe they are too polite.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Donuel
Date: 14 Mar 20 - 08:48 AM

Why do inanimate things have a sense of smell?
The car smells.
I could see how a thing could stink but not smell.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 14 Mar 20 - 06:32 AM

So before every sentance - Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

well should invoke the same reaction, but barely registers. - Well, personally!

So why?

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 14 Mar 20 - 05:36 AM

Woman policeman.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: leeneia
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 07:28 PM

"If you will" means "If you accept my way of expressing it."

As in, "It's a bungalow boondoggle, if you will."

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 06:00 PM

Almost forgot:

Journal of the Royal United Service Institution (1867), p. 256:

"Something that is placed at a considerable distance from the friendly fire, the fire of the gun itself."


Journal of the Military Service Institution of the United States (May, 1910):

"What have we done to avoid their being shot to pieces by friendly fire? Absolutely nothing that we have ever heard of -- and yet this is one of the most serious problems that confronts the leader of troops. Courage before the enemy will quail before a fire from the rear."

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Lighter
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 04:40 PM

The Illustrated War News (London) (Oct. 3, 1917):

"Their barrage might be falling...short of the required distance....perhaps endangering [their comrades] with friendly fire."

Coconino Sun (Flagstaff, Ariz.) (Sept. 20, 1918):

"I must not forget the first time I came in proximity with artillery fire. This was friendly fire."

N.Y. Times (Oct. 11, 1918):

"A machine gun barrage laid down on the enemy emplacements was friendly fire from a unit ... acting without orders to cover their advance."


Ibid. (Apr. 3, 1944):

"Admiral Nimitz disclosed that thirteen Americans had been killed and forty-six wounded by friendly fire in another ‘tragic episode’ of the war."

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Senoufou
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 01:51 PM

Or 'an octopus n sum uvvers an orl'.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 12:24 PM

The plural of octopus is "an octopus and another octopus."

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 12:07 PM

Octopodes. - or Octopussies

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Senoufou
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 10:35 AM

Didn't Flanders and Swann sing "A regular army of hippopotami..." in 'Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud' ? :)

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mrrzy
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 08:38 AM

Octopodes. Mattri, waitri, though.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 06:03 AM

So what is Pi in Octal then? I could work it out (approx) but I am running for a bus at the local nexus wot ain'ta nexus - wot doo ya call a temporary nexus?

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 05:30 AM

Or nexi, along with fora and viri. Not to speak of hippopotami and octopi. :-)

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Manitas_at_home
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 05:23 AM

It's a station on or along a railway. It would make sense if we had adopted the term 'bus station' for bus stops but language is inconsistent. Bus stations are not necessarily termini for all the routes so perhaps they should have been called nexuses instead.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 05:07 AM

so if it's a place where buses gather it's helpful to have the word "bus" in there for identity purposes.

IMNSHO you shot yourself in the foot there. A Rail Waystation is a place where trains congregate. So no different from bus or coach. You could say that a Rail Station is a place where rails meet, but only if there are points. If you get my point!

Then again, is it not, technically a rails station, unless it has a monorail? And wot abart a halt? Language, especially (English) English, conveys concepts - if you want precision try computer languages - the real home of the pedant.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Senoufou
Date: 13 Mar 20 - 04:42 AM

Oh Freddy that's fascinating! My Hong Kong friend at University taught me quite a bit of Cantonese, and 'innit' could be translated into 'hai-mhai' (is/isn't it?) which is rather similar to the Hindi you mention.

But as a child in West London, we all spoke with rather a Cockney-type of accent, and I remember my father smacking my bottom for such utterances as, "It's raining innit?" But the 'innit' was only used strictly as a substitute for 'isn't it'. I love 'innit' when it's used for any and every kind of question or statement. It always makes me giggle innit!

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: FreddyHeadey
Date: 12 Mar 20 - 07:33 PM

Senoufou ,,, 'innit'

"A dictionary of the hybrid language has been gathered by Baljinder Mahal, a Derby-based teacher and published this week as The Queen's Hinglish.

...And the dictionary identifies how the ubiquitous "innit" was absorbed into British Asian speech via "haina" - a Hindi tag phrase, stuck on the sentences and meaning "is no?".
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6122072.stm

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 08:03 PM

Know wharram sayin'?

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 06:52 PM

I really like 'ting'. It's London Jamaican for a casual girlfriend.
There's a pop song by Ramz called 'Barking', and he sings about 'linking his ting from Barking' (ie getting together with his bird in East London.)
The word has other meanings too. 'Dat's mah ting' could mean 'That's what I'm doing/what I'm interested in' etc'. 'Thing' is so boring in comparison! Innit? Yeah!

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Rusty Dobro
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 06:40 PM

'Nahmean?' always appears at the end of a statement so simple and straightforward that its meaning could never be mistaken, as in 'I'm goin' for a beer, nahmean?'. It could be rendered as 'do you know what I mean?', but never is.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 06:40 PM

Ha Bonzo, yes! The pronunciation of these gruesome new expressions is excruciating, but interesting too.

Mrrzy,my poor Ivorian husband spoke only Malinke and French when he first came to the UK. He had the devil's own trouble trying to get English versions of 'n'est-ce pas' correct. Isn't he? Don't they? Hadn't we? Wasn't she? It drove him mad. Sadly he still gets them wrong, but substitutes 'hein?' and a head tilt.

In spite of my teacherish and snobby attitude to language changes, I'm secretly enchanted by new words, accents and expressions. I can't resist copying them and using them in conversation.
I love Norfolkisms too. A man yesterday outside the village shop asked me if I'd like to 'coax' his dog. That's Norfolk for 'stroke'. I immediately coaxed and coaxed the animal!

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 05:17 PM

...than having to *concorder* [can't make italics here] the tag question to the main phrase (did she, haven't they, etc). Just like n'est-ce pas. Simple.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 05:15 PM

I always liked the British "innit" as being so much simpler

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 04:43 PM

Senoufou - "whatever" in Croydon has morphed into "wha'evaaaaar" from the melting pot of languages!!

"innit" without the t being pronounced of course - an absurd nightmare!!

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mrrzy
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 04:29 PM

Forsooth!

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: JennieG
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 04:22 PM

Charmion - "I was like" reached the sunny shores of Oz several years ago. The world is doomed, I fear.

I would like to know when a helpful hint (meaning an idea, as in "she gave me a hint for using those over-ripe bananas") became a "hack". "Hack", to me, denotes a rather nasty cough.

However, I quite like the way language is continually evolving and changing. If it didn't, we would all still speak in the style of Chaucer and his forebears.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: punkfolkrocker
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 01:29 PM

"Epicentre".. so it's not the main local retailer for Epiphone Guitars...???

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 01:22 PM

"Epicentre" is almost universally misused. That should be an automatic prison sentence.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Charmion
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 12:02 PM

"I was like" typically indicates a paraphrase, at least among the denizens of Ontario.

As for "focal point" -- don't get me started!

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 07:23 AM

Well, Mr Red, on roads you can have bus stations, coach stations and petrol stations, so if it's a place where buses gather it's helpful to have the word "bus" in there for identity purposes. Not needed for railway stations. "Train station" is an ugly Americanism that we've let creep in.

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Donuel
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 07:12 AM

collection of best words

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 04:38 AM

who is also a Geordie, - only if from Newcastle. From Sunderland they is Makems

'cos Newcastle built the boats, but Sunderland made them (fitted them oot)

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Mr Red
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 04:26 AM

And it's railway station, not a bloody "train station..." - and the distinction is?

How are you on bus stations? Not a bloody roadway station**?
Anyway Gloucester doesn't have a brand spanking new bus station it is a Hub. and buses arrive via a one way street (except buses) that is called a bus gate - wot is that all abart then?
So well thought through that they still have to use streets around as bus termini, or did I mean terminals?

Just as a wind up, would you care to opine on rail waystation. Factually correct and IMNSHO more correct!


**in Stroud they bulldozed the bus station and use the street as the focal point for all buses. That would be a roadway station I submit. We just call it bus stopsssss

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Senoufou
Date: 11 Mar 20 - 03:42 AM

It's 7am the next day Steve, and I've just spilt my morning tea reading those! Hahahahaaaaaagh!

I also find "I was like..." irritating. I assume it merely means "I said..." in which case why not use that? Examples:-

She was thirty minutes late and I was like, "Where have you been?"
The dog ran into the road and I was like, "Oh no!"

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Mar 20 - 07:38 PM

Now then, Eliza, we could do with an idea shower in order to identify the low-hanging fruit. Let's put the record on to see who dances. The main thing is to not let the grass grow too long on this one. Let's put in the overtime and discuss this at lunchtime al desko...

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Senoufou
Date: 10 Mar 20 - 07:27 PM

Pwaaaahaaahaaagh Steve! Love it!

Subject: RE: BS: New Speak: words they are achangin
From: Steve Shaw
Date: 10 Mar 20 - 07:25 PM

I love to get my ducks in a row before I start cooking, Eliza. Can you jump in the pool with me and swim with that?