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BS: Mangling the English Language
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: robroy Date: 13 Sep 00 - 11:52 AM Always thought 'drooth' meant 'dry' in Scottish dialect. Interestingly amongst older folks in the northwest of England they used the word 'childer' for the plural of child (which I thought was a Germanic thing) Robroy |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Kim C Date: 13 Sep 00 - 10:48 AM Expresso instead of espresso. Interpretate. Somebody mentioned "axe" instead of "ask" ---- if I remember my Chaucer correctly, "axe" was "ask" in Middle English. Somebody please let me know if I am wrong here. I will confess, however, to using it in very informal conversation. :) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Crazy Eddie Date: 13 Sep 00 - 09:31 AM Johnny in Oklahoma City, Last of the summer wine is based in rural Yorkshire. That's pretty far north in England, but still a fair bit from the Scottish Border. One of the actors is also the voice of Wallace in the "Wallace & Grommit" animated films. If you haven't heard of Wallace & Grommit, you probably have heard of "Chicken Run" by the same animators.
For more of the Yorkshire dialect get any book by James Herriot, who was a vet (= aninal doctor, not military) there for many years. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny Date: 13 Sep 00 - 02:18 AM A couple more Midwesternisms, and a question for Brits. It's never simply "eye", but eye-ball. Never "pen", but always ink-pen. A strange turnabout: instead of, "let's see if we can find the key," it's "let's see if we can't find the key." For Brits ... I have been watching a Britcom called Last of the Summer Wine, about some old folks in a village. They are using words like "summat" for something, and "tha" for you. What part of Britain would this be?? Johnny in Oklahoma City |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: The Beanster Date: 12 Sep 00 - 11:32 PM Time four a second thread on this if youse ax me. Also, too, this here page takes to long too load. Making me disorientated. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST,John Bauman Date: 12 Sep 00 - 10:52 PM Two abuses that drive me to destracticability. "IRREGARDLESS" and "small little" as though small emphasizes the littleness as some adjectival adverb, which brings me to the ultimate abuse over which I may choose the life of a hermit. Latin/Greek derivative compound madethehellup words to make over the counter self-medication concoctions sound like real medicine "Developed in Laboratories by guys who talk like that" or, and more often, to make pseudointellectual guys like me sound like they know whatthehell they're blustering about. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Little Hawk Date: 12 Sep 00 - 09:51 PM Ah! Here's a glaring one. So many people now say "I could care less..." when what they actually mean is that they could NOT care less! If they COULD care less, then why remark on the matter at all? When I was a boy everyone used to say "I couldn't care less", and that actually means what the phrase is intended to mean. Somewhere along the line some people started saying it the wrong way, and now almost everyone says it the wrong way. Also, people used to lie down, not lay down. You lay down a carpet. You then lie down on the carpet, the bed, etc. The dog, too, does not lay down, he lies down. People used to say "a pain in the neck", they now say "a pain in the ass" (which is stupid, IMHO, except maybe in Spaw's case...ha, ha). People used to say "up the creek without a paddle", they now say "up shit creek without a paddle". Why does everything keep getting dumber and cruder? I suspect it is the cumulative effect of TV on a hapless public. It's like witnessing the decline and fall of the Roman Empire, courtesy of the dollar bill and American Excess (You know, the credit card...?). Baseball players used to wear baseball caps. Now dorks of every possible variety wear them, half of the time backwards, which results in a stupid little tan mark on the forehead. They should put a little bunch of cut-out letters in the hat opening through which the sun can tan the word @$$hole just under the guy's hairline. Ha! I'm gonna stop now. I feel a bit queasy. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Banjer Date: 12 Sep 00 - 09:33 PM "Where are you at?"???? Isn't that a dangling participle? I was learnt that 'Where are you' is all you need to axe. One that always causes me to chuckle a bit is when a question is asked and the person answering starts out, "Well, to be honest....." Does that mean any other time he or she isn't being honest? Or how about, "To tell the truth...." Does that indicate you can expect a lie any other time? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Lonesome EJ Date: 12 Sep 00 - 09:16 PM How about that question regarding your exact location: "Where are you at?" often shortened to "where y'at?" When I moved to Colorado,it was a long dry spell of summer,and everyone was talking about the "drouth"(drought). |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Mbo Date: 12 Sep 00 - 08:36 PM What I'm tired of is these "____ing ____" movies. I.e: Educating Rita Chasing Amy Stealing Beauty Etc... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Branwen23 Date: 12 Sep 00 - 07:34 PM someone has probably already mentioned this one, but it's a bit of a peeve when people use "your" for "you're" and vice versa.... absolutely grates my nerves... -Branwen- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: MarkS Date: 12 Sep 00 - 07:21 PM Chimbley - A structure made of masonary built to keep a fire on the inside of a building and vent the smoke to the outside. At least in central New York State (and maybe other places as well). Not to be confused with a smokestack which is the same deal but made out of sheet metal. And did anybody else have the high school health teacher who cautioned his young male charges to avoid intimacy with young women so as to avoid the contraction and spread of gongarea? MarkS |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Little Hawk Date: 12 Sep 00 - 07:03 PM Allan Lamport, a big fat politician in Toronto City Council was once upset because certain allegations had been made against him in the press and elsewhere. "I deny those allegations," he thundered, "and I defy the allegators!" Pretty classic, eh? As for bodacious and hellacious...well, they aren't in Webster's. On the other hand, I have to agree that they are very expressive words, that convey the meaning effectively. If y' wanna use 'em, fine with me. Just don't let me catch you saying "disorientated"! Or NUCULAR! And, yes! Let's hear if for "whom". Whom do you love? Whom do you desire? Whom do you mean? trivia: Bob Dylan once inexplicably used "whom" where the word "who" would have been correct (in "I Pity the Poor Immgrant"). Maybe it was some sly humour on his part....maybe not, but it sounds kind of neat. In a piece of poetry once he said, "And I seen...or rather, I have saw." He was definitely poking fun at certain critics with that line...those who accused him of poor English, that is. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST,Luther Date: 12 Sep 00 - 05:26 PM OK, the word for the day is:
"Subliminable" (courtesy George W. Bush. Used without permission) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: mousethief Date: 12 Sep 00 - 04:26 PM You know, I think I've discovered the problem with "comprise." Look at the parts: COM - Latin for "with" or "together" PRISE - English for "to pull apart." To pull apart together? To pull together apart? No wonder nobody can use this word correctly. Sheesh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Bert Date: 12 Sep 00 - 04:05 PM It's KILO-Meter - if you must work in those stupid units at least get 'em right;-) It's aliminium 'cos it's a metal like chromium and sodium. Although that is a good candidate for leaving out the 'i' - SOD UM!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: sophocleese Date: 12 Sep 00 - 03:04 PM 'Course as kids we always called them klompters. Posters who type out a long list of different people, acts, or whatever and don't put in any commas. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Terry K Date: 12 Sep 00 - 02:45 PM Bill D - you reminded me of another of my pet hates - the British usually say kill-OMM-eter (in those rare moments when we recognise the existence of anything but miles, that is). I much prefer KILL-o-meter. I reckon kill-OMM-eter only works if you're also prepared to cent-IMM-etre. Cheers, Terry |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 12 Sep 00 - 02:18 PM Littlehawk, "bodacious" and "hellacious" are words of almost ancient vintage in American speech, and it seems to me came about NOT because of an effort to simplify but to inject life and energy into speech. Which they do. Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: mousethief Date: 12 Sep 00 - 01:26 PM "Who's" when "whose" is meant. (E.g. "Do you know who's guitar this is?") And I have long given up hoping that people will use "whom" instead of "who" in the objective case. Sigh. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Little Hawk Date: 12 Sep 00 - 01:25 PM Despite being an almost impeccable speller and grammarian (or is that "grammaratician", ha ha), I have slipped up on occasion. I once used the word quay (pronounced "key") in a song, thinking it was pronounced "kway", and I rhymed it with bay. Imagine my embarrassment when someone pointed out that one. I had to rewrite the verse. The song was an early one anyway...one of those adolescent unrequited love laments...a pretty lousy song. It has been recycled in the compost bin for quite some time. Another word I used to mispronounce was derelict. I pronounced it "derilect". The same someone caught me on that one, and I corrected it. NU-CU-LER is the one that bugs me most!!! Why the hell can they not say it the right way...New-Clee-Arr...I grit my teeth when I hear someone say "Nucular". AAAAAAARGGHH! Then there's "hellacious". Some marines seem to have come up with that. "Hellish" wasn't cumbersome enough for them, so they had to add an extra syllable. Not that "hellacious" doesn't convey the idea effectively, but it's wrong, that's all. "Bodacious" is another word that seems to have evolved in the same fashion. Duh! Same with "humungous", which used to be "huge". And "disorientated", which used to be "disoriented". And "at that point in time" (major Duh!), which used to be "at that point" or "at that time". If you read the book "stalking the wild pendulum", you will discover that there is in fact no such thing as a "point in time"...but I digress. It's odd that rednecks, who are by nature rather inarticulate (generally), and who admire rough and inarticulate speech, will go to great lengths to make the language more complicated and convoluted than it already IS...in their search for simplicity! Gaaaaak! More examples: A country singer almost never simply says "my heart", he says "this heart of mine". Ha! Or to put it more specifically, he/she says "thiyis hooort of mahhhhhn". If he's really seriously country, he says "this here heart of mine", adding yet one more completely redundant word to the phrase. This is probably because he doesn't know that the word "this" already indicates "here", whereas the word "that" indicates "there". "Thiyis hyere hooort of maaahhhn, ayand thayat theyer hoooortt of yoooorn..." God, it's enough to make you turn in your antlers and retire to a monastery, there to ponder the vicissitudes of earthly existence on a planet where numerous visiting aliens have yet to find intelligent life, which is probably why they have avoided making direct dimplomatic contact thus far, especially when visiting Texas. They always keep all shields up on MAXIMUM when flying over Texas. If I made any typos above, forgive me. It's easy to do without noticing. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: LR Mole Date: 12 Sep 00 - 11:07 AM Something I've never encountered except in this town : "also,too" when only the first word is needed. Some stray Britishism, perhaps (they use the words interchangeably, as in, "Too, there's this topic to mention...), a thing I never hear in the U.S.) But "Also,too"? (Alsotu)? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Mbo Date: 12 Sep 00 - 10:57 AM I still detest "Or your money back." It is a fragment and makes no grammatical sense! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Grab Date: 12 Sep 00 - 10:51 AM My hang-gliding instructor, Steve, told us a classic colloquialism, common from northern England, which he was responsible for. His family had a tin under the telephone which they used for general odds-and-ends, so if anything was lost, they'd say, "Look in the tin." Anyway, they had a foreign friend staying with them. At some point, Steve needed to find something. His folks told him to look in the tin, but he said, "It isn't in the tin." This confused his friend. Being a northerner, what my instructor had _actually_ said was, "'T in't in t' tin." So his friend asked, "What is this 'tin-tin-tin'?" Steve was completely confused, bcos as far as he knew, he'd not said anything about a cartoon character with a dog called Snowy. They had to rewind the conversation back a few steps until they finally found what he'd actually said! Re the aluminium point, I apologise - I didn't realise you actually spelled it differently over there. Ah well. Another word which amuses Germans is when an English person takes a shot at something, and says, "Missed!" In German, "Mist" means manure. Somewhat along the lines of the German word for travel or a trip, "Fahrt", which is guaranteed to cause amusement at schools. Grab. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST,micca at work Date: 12 Sep 00 - 07:02 AM Languages are fun, ( the German post above is mine, I have no cookie at work) a friend pointed out that the Danish for king is " Kong" so in Danish does King Kong become Kong King? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Albatross Date: 12 Sep 00 - 05:51 AM Quite a few people say 'Chimley' instead of 'Chimney', not quite figured out why. In norfolk it's not uncommon to hear 'Whatfor hint you' meaning why havn't you. It may actually be quite old this, as it is not to different from the scandinavian 'Hvorfor ikke' or 'hvorfor inte' some remnant from the viking days perhaps. An equivalent to why is not used in scandinavian but instead they use hvorfor (what for or where for). 'wherefore art thou Romeo' in Norwegian would be 'hvor er du Romeo'. Oh aren't languages fun! |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Astorkhan Date: 12 Sep 00 - 05:01 AM Too long a thread...but, even it is repeats some of the above, here it is. Language mangling should be considered as a "brain sport" like Chess. There are 2 champions in that category: Mark Twain, in "Roughing it" shows how 2 successive translations can mangle things; An author whose name escapes me, who managed to rewrite in mangled french (but that makes some sort of strange sense) the well known Mother Goose Rimes. Think about L'ecurie des Curés d'Oc) Vive le bilinguisme, even if it mangles languages and tongues a bit. Salut, Astor |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST Date: 12 Sep 00 - 04:44 AM CamiSu, and Ebbie, The "free gifts" take on a real fun dimension if you have German speakers about as "gift "is the German for Poison!!!! a German Pharmacist friend visiting was chuckling all day over that , seen as a sign in the local pharmacy. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: KT Date: 12 Sep 00 - 01:57 AM "That's all the further it goes" in place of "That's as far as it goes." And the top of my grandmother's list- ANYWAYS
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Crazy Eddie Date: 12 Sep 00 - 01:26 AM People really annoy me when their putting there homophone's & apostrophe's over they're in the wrong place. But its OK if your doing it deliberately to tease you're readers!
Banjo Johnny, I had a protracted discussion with someone about preventative/ preventive once (my middle name is pedant). The consise OED listed only "preventive", but the three-volume edition in the local library also listed "preventative" as a rare but acceptable variant.
Ebbie,
ALSO "It costs between five to ten pounds"
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Ebbie Date: 12 Sep 00 - 01:18 AM You're right, CamiSu: 'free gift'; as opposed to a gift that I have to buy? |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: CamiSu Date: 12 Sep 00 - 01:00 AM We mangle for fun and often wondered if our kids would ever learn to speak properly. They did and even learned to pun...oh dear! But my pet peeves, fed regularly. Jewlery. Is jewelry that hard to say? And mis-used quotes. "Free" Well I guess nothing ever is. Apostrophes. I appreciate the idea that people put these in when a word scares them. Our school menu usually features Shepherds Pie and Taco's. My mother-in-law pronounced a word nye-veet. It took me a while to realise she meant naivete. And she was an elementary school teacher. Her son, (not hte one I married) will choose a mispronounciation and continue to use it in the face of any correction. "That's how it's pronounced here." Grrrrrrrrrrrrr! I don't tend to mind dialectical differences. Makes it fun to listen. CamiSu |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Mbo Date: 11 Sep 00 - 11:55 PM Don't forget: Fotherington = "Fungy". My German coalminer relatives & ancesters are sur-named Richards (as am I), we think it may have originally been "Reichartz" before Ellis Island changes. BTW, saw this on a shirt this morning (worn by classmate Kevin Richards who is NOT related to me!) Kelly's Irish Times Pub, Washington, D.C. : "Give me your poor, your thirsty, your befuddled masses..." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Bill D Date: 11 Sep 00 - 11:35 PM In searching, I found this gem: IMMIGRANTS FROM non-English speaking countries used translation-equivalent surnames such as Jaeger, which became "Hunter," and Bauer, "Farmer." English surnames like Cowper became "Cooper," Coke to "Cook." Featherstonehaugh was spelled and pronounced "Fanshaw," Cholmondely as "Chomley," and Colquhoun became "Calhoun." The following limerick mocks these changes:
A young man called Cholmondely Colquhoun |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Bill D Date: 11 Sep 00 - 11:26 PM well, as long as someone else brought up Briticisms......the Brits can slur words like Cholmondely and Worchestershire into 'Chumly' and 'Wusstersher'...yet, THEY are the ones who say..KILL-o-meter while we in the US seem to say Kil-om-eter...just sounds funny to me... but anything you are not used to sounds funny...I used to hear some kids in Kansas talking about a farmer plowing his 'filled' and I had to grit my teeth. (oh, by the way...I DO fret over how to tell someone politely that what they have posted is mis-said or mis-spelled,)[this does NOT refer to hurried typing errors!] I often see chuckling laughter spelled as "he he he" when it SHOULD be "Hee hee hee" to differentiate it from 3 masculine personal pronouns! And I do believe that way back up there ^ someone said "here, here" to signify agreement...sorry, but it's "hear, hear" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Parson Date: 11 Sep 00 - 10:00 PM OK, I'll add a couple (actually 3) more. (Sorry, it's a "Southernism.") How about using the word "Leave" when you mean "Let." As in "Leave us go to town." When you mean, "Let's go to town." Also I am told that the simple apology (in America) "I'm sorry." means just the opposite to the Brits. My Sister-in-law was in London recently & accidently bumped into another lady on the street. So she apologized by saying, "I'm Sorry." But the other lady was offended, thinking that my Sister-in-law was saying it was the Londoner's fault! But hold on with the expression, "I'm fixing to..." Only in the South can we say, "I'm fixing to get ready to go to town." That means I'm not ready, nor am I ready to get ready, but I'll be ready to start getting ready shortly." Makes perfect sense to me. You have to remember that we live by a slower pace down here. You might be interested to know that in Appalachia, any word that has the letter "A" is pronounced with a "Y" in front of the "A." So a "garden" becomes a gyarden. Why not? After all the Brits don't put their car in a garage, but in a garridge. It's just a part of the local dialect, I guess. Randall
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: GUEST, Banjo Johnny Date: 11 Sep 00 - 08:39 PM To be fair to JFK, "Berliner" does mean doughnut, but it also means a person who lives in Berlin. It would have been funnier if he had been in Hamburg. == Johnny |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: bflat Date: 11 Sep 00 - 07:59 PM Hey...like...chill...24/7...netspeak ain't gonna make it no better...IMHO...LOL Taken from the new unabriged English Rhetoric Textbook. :) bflat |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: mousethief Date: 11 Sep 00 - 07:02 PM Here's a briticism that I don't get -- our cousins from Old Blighty use "presently" to mean not "at the present time" (which is what it means in America and seems to this peasant to be the etymological meaning) but rather "in a little while." Can anyone explain this?
Click the mouse for my homepage: |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: catspaw49 Date: 11 Sep 00 - 06:12 PM Along with the hairy chest Liz, you must have one helluva' blower too. What a feat! The entire language up your nose. I bet you're real popular on sunny days huh? Wasn't that song written about you? You know, "The Shadow of Your Nose." Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Lonesome EJ Date: 11 Sep 00 - 05:53 PM and "redundant"...another Britishism that I find funny.When someone is released from employment,he is declared redundant.Sounds very insulting on a personal level,doesn't it? I'm sorry,old chap,you'll simply have to go.You've become quite redundant,you know." "But....I thought that was what I was being paid for!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Branwen23 Date: 11 Sep 00 - 05:33 PM i'm with you on "continue on", guinnesschik.... it's incredibly redundant... drives me nuts. -Branwen- |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: guinnesschik Date: 11 Sep 00 - 05:24 PM This really is a fun thread. Down here in Texas, and pretty much across the south, "I'm fixin' to" do whatever is common usage. Of course, I never say that... Another "mangualtion" that creeps up my posterior is "continue on." As in, "He continued on working for the plant for many years." Sheesh! I hear newscasters say this sort of thing all the time. It drives me crazy.
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Liz the Squeak Date: 11 Sep 00 - 05:11 PM Ah, two nations divided by a single language..... LTS Oh, and langwidge - that gets right up my nose.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Uncle_DaveO Date: 11 Sep 00 - 05:06 PM "Staunch". when "stanch" is meant. Correctly, "My staunch friend Joe was able to stanch the flow of blood from my wound." As a court reporter I've often heard witnesses use "license" (British licence?) as a plural. "The judge took away my license, and I haven't got them back yet." Dave Oesterreich |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: mousethief Date: 11 Sep 00 - 04:54 PM Feb-you-erry. Drives me nuts. On aluminum vs. aluminium: The M-W online says it's from "alumina" -- not sure how the "i" crept into the root for you Brits, but you're not alone.
Spanish: aluminio Isn't the internet a wonderful thing? Still, words do change and mutate, and why should someone be so upset that Americans pronounce things differently than the Brits? 'Slife. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Steve Latimer Date: 11 Sep 00 - 03:32 PM Geez 'Spaw, I can't see you being ignored by anybody. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Melani Date: 11 Sep 00 - 03:31 PM "Artic" for "Arctic" rather annoys me. There is actually a letter missing there. My husband was in a class at the University of Chicago taught by an Indian professor with a heavy accent. He asked the students if they understood the proper use of a "messopotometer". When they all looked blank he began raging, "What? You're all biochemistry majors? The university just spent $10,000 on a brand new messopotometer and you don't even know what it is?" With that clue, the whisper began to go around, "Mass spectrometer!" (I hope I've spelled that right!) I recently heard a radio piece where a linguist commented that the English language is constantly changing, especially in pronunciation--or "pronounciation" as my Canadian friend used to say. She claimed it was another Britishism, but I've never been sure. I assume she meant how you pronunce things. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: catspaw49 Date: 11 Sep 00 - 03:20 PM Leej, I have several words that I say diffently each time to Karen and then swear I never said it the other way. "Graffitti" is one and I have about 4 ways and then swear "I never said that!" Drives her nuts......or it used to.....now she just ignores me. Spaw |
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Subject: RE: BS: Mangling the English Language From: Pseudolus Date: 11 Sep 00 - 03:11 PM This is an Expecially fun thread. Thread's like this are funner to read then anything elst I read. Frank
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