English To English Translation Needed

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: r.padgett
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 07:00 PM

Yea not for the first time nor last
Remember Christmas Hampers did not materialise one year

Bad time of year for it too!

Ray

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,Eliza
Date: 21 Jan 12 - 07:29 AM

In Norfolk UK (and maybe elsewhere) people form a Christmas Savings Club, and put in a certain amount every week, paid to a trusted member who banks it and doles it out in December. This has always been called a Christmas Diddlum (or Diddle'em) the idea being that sometimes the 'trusted' member pockets the lot and vanishes!

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,AR
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 05:15 PM

As far as I know, 'BLIGHTY' derives from a Hindi word 'Belayati', referring to a 'foreign place' or, more specifically, Europe.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Les from Hull
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 05:01 PM

I see that the English cat has now exposed his roots. You might need to read this important folksong reference!

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 08:08 AM

Going back a few years, some E.London friends, when they thought a meal was overdue would say
What's the bobby on the frank
short for
Whats the Bobby Moore on the Frank Boff
rhyming slang for
what's the score on the scoff?
convential slang for
Any information about the feeding arrangements.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 07:49 AM

Some AUssie cooks on TV shows use

Harold - Harold Holt = Salt.

Harold Holt - ex Aussie PM/

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Scrump
Date: 29 Sep 06 - 07:10 AM

"Wick" (as in "Gets on my wick") - Hampton Wick : Prick

This one's a bit puzzling. Why isn't the expression "Gets on my Hampton" then?

I've certainly heard "Hampton" used for "prick", and the usual procedure with rhyming slang is to drop the part that actually rhymes, e.g. china = china plate = mate. Why is this expression different?

[I remember there was a song by the "Carry-On..." team (from the British series of vulgar comedy movies) called "The Day King Henry Got His Hampton Court", which was a play on the rhyming slang meaning of "Hampton"]

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 28 Sep 06 - 04:04 PM

...rhyming slang, which I seem to remember as only coming into fashion around the 1880s.

You are getting on a bit Bob Bolton!

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: JamesHenry
Date: 27 Sep 06 - 05:43 PM

"Back slang is used by butchers and to a lesser extent grocers and is still a secret language"

"NEE COCK"

Also used by Geordie butchers and grocers apparently.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Bert
Date: 27 Sep 06 - 05:31 PM

...ANY BLOKE WHO LIVES IN LONDON IS KNOWN AS A COCKNEY...

Strictly speaking a Cockney is someone born within the sound of Bow Bells. That's St. Mary Le Bow in cheapside and not the town of Bow further East.

Back slang is used by Butchers and to a lesser extent grocers and is still a secret language.

Rhyming slang was originally used in the building trade and has now become widespread with new words being added all the time. It is quite in order to make up one of your own and let people guess the meaning.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,IBO
Date: 27 Sep 06 - 05:27 PM

MOST PEOPLE IN LONDON COULD BE CALLED BANKERS,WHICH IN RHYMING SLANG MEANS THEY DONT SOCIALISE MUCH.YOUR RIGHT,IT IS FASCINATING.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Leadfingers
Date: 27 Sep 06 - 05:13 PM

What a pity I never looked at this thread before ! Fascinating stuff , but I dont speak Cockney Rhyming slang very much , Do I ??

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,IBO
Date: 27 Sep 06 - 05:04 PM

ANY BLOKE WHO LIVES IN LONDON IS KNOWN AS A COCKNEY,BUT IF HE MOVED TO NEWCASTLE IT WOULD MEAN HE HAD NO PENIS.NEE COCK

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Grab
Date: 27 Sep 06 - 04:54 PM

how in the world soes rhythming slang get created and propagated? Most of those would be totally opaque to anyone who doesn't know it.

Surely that's the point of a lot of region-specific stuff? Us-and-them...

Is there NEW slang all the time, or just a standard repertoire, like Music Hall?

Oh yes. Ask your average Brit how much an Archer is, for instance. (It's £2k, from the amount Jeffrey Archer paid a prostitute.) Probably it's not in wide use amongst younger people who don't remember it, but your typical cabbie or market-stall bloke would definitely know.

Graham.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 26 Sep 06 - 07:57 PM

G'day Paul Burke,

You wrote (above):
It's interesting to note in that respect that what constitutes a London lower- class accent seems to have changed radically since Dickens' time, say the 1830s/40s. Sam Weller particularly, and low-life London characters as in Oliver Twist etc., show no sign whatsoever of rhyming slang, in fact the main characteristic noted is a V/W inversion ("werry good, Sam Veller"). One assumes Dickens knew what he was talking about, he lived among them.

In Mayhew's books (~ 1850 - 1860) - perhaps the first systematic reporting of London's lower classes - he says the Cockney's 'secret' speech was mainly "back-talk" ... the important words (roughly) spelled backwards - as in the well-known "yob" for "boy". He gives many examples (the books are not where I am typing this) and it is noticeable that many of the words have moved away from a 'strict' backward spelling to less obvious forms. In the (~1980s ... ?) BBC TV series on the history of the English Language, they have 'footage' of Cockney traders at the morning markets ... still using "back-talk" (with subtitles from the Beeb ...) to discuss prices and bargaining. That suggests the "back-talk" secret speech had already endured for 1¼ centuries!

The same series may also cover rhyming slang, which I seem to remember as only coming into fashion around the 1880s. I also have heard that its main use is putting on a front for the tourists (or TV programs) - not covert discussion.

It's interesting just how "Germanic" the speech recorded by Dickens sounds ... Perhaps it is a real adoption of "The Queen's English", as Victoria was not taught English until she was 3 years old ... and I have heard that she never lost her German accent.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,Rowan
Date: 26 Sep 06 - 06:21 PM

While I was having a kip last night (at home and solo) I remembered another term used in Australia for one's sleeping place.

Donga, (pronounced dong-'ga rather than donger in the context where I learned it but recently I've heard much younger people pronounce it the latter way.

I first came across the word when I went to Mawson in 1969. I've been able to trace its etymology only as far as the Middle East and North Africa where it meant 'wadi', so I presume it was picked up there by Australian troops who would shelter in such places if possible, rather than in more exposed locations. I don't know whether the Australian sense of the term is used elsewhere and I've never heard any rhyming slang (Ancient or Modern) applied to it either.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: The Walrus
Date: 26 Sep 06 - 07:32 AM

On the subject of less than respectible rhyming slang terms in common usage, one could add:

"Wick" (as in "Gets on my wick") - Hampton Wick : Prick

"Cobblers" (used to mean nonsense, rubbish) - Cobbler's Awls : Balls

"Bottle" (moral fibre/courage as in "Lost his bottle") there is some dispute as to whether this rhyme (Bottle and glass) relates to 'class' or "arse" (relating back to the Georgian/Victorian term 'Bottom' to convey solidity or moral substance).

As to the original use of rhyming slang It is said that it was devised for use by the criminal element of society, but why would they drop the almost impenetrable cant for a 'code' that was fairly easily broken by anyone with a similar background. Personally, I feel it was more likely the domain of 'cheapjacks' and 'patterers', those who made their livings selling cheap or inferior goods, often using wit or a quick tongue as sales tools (think of the salesmen at the likes of Petticoat Lane Market in London.

W

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Paul Burke
Date: 26 Sep 06 - 04:48 AM

I suppose the short answer to 'berk/bark' is that Cockneys seldom use RP. It's interesting to note in that respect that what constitutes a London lower- class accent seems to have changed radically since Dickens' time, say the 1830s/40s. Sam Weller particularly, and low- life London characters as in Oliver Twist etc., show no sign whatsoever of rhyming slang, in fact the main characteristic noted is a V/W inversion ("werry good, Sam Veller"). One assumes Dickens knew what he was talking about, he lived among them.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Howard Jones
Date: 26 Sep 06 - 04:47 AM

Raspberry tart

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 26 Sep 06 - 04:39 AM

If the origin of 'berk' is as given earlier in the thread, shouldn't it be pronounced 'bark'? (Unless you are in California of course)

I still haven't worked out the 'raspberry' one.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Scrump
Date: 26 Sep 06 - 04:31 AM

The link to the cartoon above from Helen shows one of the characters saying "your china plate is a bit gormy". China plate = mate, but I've never heard anyone say that in full. With rhyming slang, you usually leave off the bit that actually rhymes, which is what makes it difficult for 'outsiders' to understand. It was originally spoken that way for this reason, i.e. to converse without being understood by eavesdroppers.

As for "gormy", I've never heard it. What does it mean - "gormless"?

(Yes, "berk" was used in prime time shows like Steptoe & Son on BBC TV in the 1960s - I can only assume the BBC censors didn't know what it really meant. However, through such 'innocent' use, it has come to mean 'fool', or 'pillock' as Paul Burke says above.)

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Paul Burke
Date: 26 Sep 06 - 03:15 AM

It's not the only word in respectable usage that might be ashamed of its origins- rapberry (for the derisive noise) and burk or berk, for a pillock, would be less acceptable if users knew their etymology.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Forsh
Date: 25 Sep 06 - 05:05 PM

British people use kip to mean either a nap or a longer sleep; it can also mean the idea or act of sleeping, as in "Will you be quiet? I'm trying to get some kip in here!" It can also be a verb: "They kipped down for the night".

It's just possible that if British people knew more about its low- life origins they might not use it so much. The ultimate source is probably the Danish word kippe for a hut or a mean alehouse. It was first recorded in the middle of the eighteenth century as an Irish slang term for a brothel. The earliest example known is from Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield. As Goldsmith was Irish, educated in Dublin, the implication is that the word was first used in that city. It has long continued to be used there in that way, and appears in compound form in James Joyce's Ulysses of 1922: "I saw him, kipkeeper!". That word is remembered in a 1994 book with the title Dublin Tenement Life: "Now we didn't call them 'madams', the outsiders called them madams. We called them 'kip-keepers'. The houses that they lived in were called kips". Other names were kip house or kip shop.

By the latter part of the nineteenth century in Britain (as opposed to Ireland) the word had gone further down in the world to mean a common lodging-house for tramps and the homeless. Soon after, it transferred in sense from the place where you sleep to the act of sleeping itself (though in Scotland the word can mean a bed). In the twentieth century it shifted still further away from slang towards the modern informal or colloquial usage.

It does suggest that if you speak of a quick kip, you should be careful in what country you say it ...
SOURCE:http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-kip1.htm
That's my wee contribituion hiney, noo divvent gi is ony mar bither!

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Helen
Date: 25 Sep 06 - 04:52 PM

Creeping back to the original thread question: in the Get Fuzzy cartoon on Sept 23 2006 you'll probably get the point about needing an English to English translation when Bucky says that he'll finally have someone to talk to and then realises he can't understand a word.

Sorry for the backwards thread creep. I'll let go of its tail now and let it slide back to where it was. :-)

Helen

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: pavane
Date: 25 Sep 06 - 07:42 AM

Interesting about the Khazi/carsey being from Casa=House.
The Welsh call it "ty bach", from "house(ty) little (bach)"

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 25 Sep 06 - 04:54 AM

Bob Bolton!


Phzzzzzzzzzzzzzztttttttttttt!


I think THIS is the correct thread for your insult Bob! {:P

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 25 Sep 06 - 02:32 AM

G'day Fooles ...

There had to be an excuse for the Piano Accordion Mania ;-) ...!

I guess this is a generalisation, but we seem to have had three distinct "waves" of (~) German immigration if the 1800s:

1: The 'religious / economic' refugees of the 1830s. Scottish Presbyterian Settlement Societies sent all these lovely wine-growing types to South Australia - and sent dour Scots Presbyterians to New Zealand ... Hey, we're not complaining!

2: In the 1860s it was definitely refugees, getting away from Bismarck's Prussian thugs. Many came to South Australia - and found that Uncle Hans (&c) had already got all the nice vine-growing land - so they trekked (often having built their own 'trekking carts' ... what the Yanks think are Amurican covered wagons) up the Murray / Murrimbidgee River systems and pioneered much of our Riverina.

3: The final refugees, as Bismarck conquered ... sorry ... united Germany came out in the 1880s ... and seem to have gone further north ... lots of their descendants around Toowoomba, these days.

I guess your 'German' maternal Grandfather and my 'English' paternal Grandfather marched along parrallel paths ... in both World Stoushes! Granddad came to Aussie, from the Manchester region, soon after his Dad died in 1910. He was made to work through his carpentry apprenticeship, before enlisting - then sailed with the Light Horse. It became clear this wasn't a cavalry war - not in Europe, anyway - and they were retrained as artillery ... so he came back as a Gunner / Driver.

He stayed in the Reserves (Artillery) and was straight back in for 1938 ... served with anti-Naval guns at Fremantle, then trained in Ordinance ... then was sent to guard Hay Prison Camp. He was senior non-com at Hay, at the time of the Japanese breakout from Cowra. (And, in my photographic employment, I worked worked with the bloke who was senior non-com at Cowra during the break-out!)

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,Rowan
Date: 25 Sep 06 - 01:00 AM

Now that we're engaging in thread creep I suppose I could mention that Northcote, where I spent a lot of my youth, had a thriving German community (north of Rukkers' Hill) at the turn of the 19th century; that German community created the grandest of the floral arches for the Duke (of York's?) State visit at around that time. At the outset of WW1 the whole lot of them was sent to the Wimmera (at that stage about as developed as the Simpson Desert is now) as 'internment'; most became wheat farmers. Some of the street names around Northcote got changed but the cemetery survived.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 24 Sep 06 - 10:58 PM

There were many German migrants - my relatives allegedly walked overland from Adelaide to the Mary River valley in SE Qld. There are many German Lutherans in SA and Qld, as well as areas in other states.

The dates are a bit vague for me, but easily 1840s-60s - my relatives came out of Prussia because of certain unrest there well before WWI.
My maternal grandfather tramped thru France in WWI, and served as a military prison escort guard in Oz in WWII. His wife destroyed out of fear a century old family heirloom - a silver ring with a swatiska.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 24 Sep 06 - 09:33 PM

G'day The Walrus,

That's "Swy = Zwei - German for "Two"(up). there are a surprising number of German words in the Australian slang ... from the Gold Rush Days, at the very least.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,Rowan
Date: 24 Sep 06 - 06:25 PM

The Walrus:

Yup!

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: The Walrus
Date: 24 Sep 06 - 04:59 AM

GUEST,Rowan,

"...the thin piece of timber (about 1" wide and 6" long) on which you balance two pre-dismal guernsey pennies before tossing them in the air at a swy game..."

Would this the the infamous game of "two-up" ?

W

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,Rowan
Date: 23 Sep 06 - 11:56 PM

Another meaning for "kip" is distinctively Australian; it is the thin piece of timber (about 1" wide and 6" long) on which you balance two pre-dismal guernsey pennies before tossing them in the air at a swy game. Supposedly illegal, swy games are commonly observed on Anzac Day.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 23 Sep 06 - 05:48 PM

Karzy

G'day MgGrath of Harlow,

(Posting Sunday morning ... after the 'Cat went 503 last night ...)

OK ... "Karzy" was the one alternative spelling I didn't try! (I tried "Khazi" (my most familiar spelling) - plus "kazi" (an Oriental magistrate!), "Kharzi", "Kharzy", "Kharzey" ... and "Carsey" ... which is the first citation in the OED - but didn't work in the 'headword' search!

I see they derive it from the Italian for house ... I guess that I was seduced by the belief we had a word of Eastern origin.

[Corruption of It. casa house.]    = water-closet.
   1961 Partridge Dict. Slang Suppl. 1029/1 Carsey,+a w.c. 1965 Daily Mail 2 Oct. 5/4 Where do you spend a penny? (a) Toilet+(d) Karzy. 1966 D. Francis Flying Finish ix. 118, I was in the cockpit most of the time.+ I went aft to the karzy once. 1967 J. Burke Till Death us do Part v. 84 Have you seen the carsy? Just a bucket with a seat on top. 1968 T. E. B. Clarke Trail of Serpent xiii. 122 You made a real thorough search? Everywhere? Outhouses, karzey, the lot? 1969 K. Giles Death cracks Bottle iv. 38 Apart from a working pee none of my ladies nor me got out of here. There's only one door to the carsey. 1970 G. F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 262 Visits to the karsey

Regard(les)s,

Bob

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST, Topsie
Date: 23 Sep 06 - 04:05 PM

New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary (1993 edition) has:

"karzy n. slang. Also -ey, -s-, c-. M20. [Alt. of It. casa house.] A lavatory."

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Les from Hull
Date: 23 Sep 06 - 11:57 AM

The British-American American-British Dictionary

Curious Americans may also like to note that khazi has its own rhyming slang - 'Ille Nastase'!

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 23 Sep 06 - 06:29 AM

"khazi" not in the OED? I find that hard to believe, though it might be a matter of spelling.

Longmans has it under "kazi", with "karzy" as an alternative - neither of which I have ever come across in real life, unlike "khazi", which rather strangely isn't included.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: JamesHenry
Date: 23 Sep 06 - 06:20 AM

Perhaps "diddled" is a reference to the nursury rhyme, "Hey diddle, diddle, the cat and the fiddle" ??

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Betsy
Date: 23 Sep 06 - 04:45 AM

Hi Jerry,
"Cock-up" is from the time of early firearms where the forerunner of the rifle - more likely a blunderbuss or whatever it was called , was filled with gunpowder,and ball (or shot).
A small amount of gunpowder was placed in a compartment above the trigger mechanism , to be hit by the "hammer" which was pulled back into a "Cocked" (ready) position.The hammer would spark the powder , so that that the gunpowder in the chamber would ignite and fire the ball.
When the firearm refused to discharge, (these were early days of development don't forget) , the reason was usually that the trigger had not made the hammer fall due to a mechanical fault and therefore the "Cocked" position had remained up.
Cock-up is used when a SIMPLE action, situation , procedure, circumstance (which shouldn't REALLY happen) goes entirely wrong....

When I arrived at work I noticed something strange , the car park was empty , the whole place was quiet , Shit - it was Sunday - my day off - what a cock-up.
As for diddled , THAT has already been covered quite well BUT failing that the correct answer hasn't been yet provided I'm going for a typo. If he is in a queue for the khazi ( which usually a sit-down toilet in male-speak )perhaps "piddled" on ( or in ) me brolly would work. "Diddled me brolly" doesn't convey any meaning , perhaps he was just trying to say stole me brolly , but now we are going in for guesswork and slang is normally fairly accurate .

One thing for certain, by mistake ,accident, Empire or whatever ,the world was given a great language to have fun with, when it got English in its' many forms . Long may it live and enjoy the fun you and the thread subscribers appear to be having with it.

Cheers

Betsy.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 23 Sep 06 - 04:07 AM

G'day again Jerry (I shouldn't try to push my 2-&-2-halves-finger-typing skills too far ... when my darling wife is standing at the door reminding me that we should be at a friend's party ... NOW!),

What I meant to say, in the last paragraph, was:
Interestingly, when I read the text out aloud ... I find it hard not to give it all an "Ocker" (coarse/slangy Australian) accent ... and I could understand every word! Frankly, a lot of it sounds like a recycled version of Barry Humphries' Ocker parlance for his Barry ('Bazza') McKenzie character of the '70s.

I would have found almost everything the visiting cat has to say entirely in line with what "Bazza" might have said ... standing at the door, trying to cadge a kip and a beer or ten from a chance acquaintance in London's Earls Court ... back in the comic strips / novels / films of The Advemtures of Barry McKenzie.

Maybe the author of Get Fuzzy has been trawling through the wrong stack of old comics ... ?

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,Rowan
Date: 23 Sep 06 - 03:36 AM

In support of Bob's comment, I found the original quote quite understandable and have experienced, in Australia, several of the terms used; khazi (=dunny) and kip (=sleep) I usually associate with someone from England but others have used the words in Melbourne and its environs.

Cheers, Rowan
Who has been known to lampoon such slang with such terms of approval as
"Bonzer! Ripper. Ock!

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 10:33 PM

G'day Gerry,

Way up above, Emma B thought that "kip" was of Norwegian origin - brought to British ports by sailors looking for a bed for the night.

The Oxford English Dictionary (when my computer installation of the full 22-volume OED works - after I've remembered to ... again ... kill Billy Gates's Windows XP "Security" Update XP KB17422!) gives the source as even closer to your ancestry: Danish "kippe" = hut. The English sense for a bed (for the night) is grouped with a sense meaning a brothel ... "horekippe" in Danish.

I'm surprised to find no entry in the OED for "khazi" ... I'm quite familiar with it in Australian usage (and yet it is also missing from Oxford's Australian National Dictionary!). had always thought it was a soldier's term ... probably from the Middle East ... brought back after the First or Second World War.

Interestingly, when I read the text out aloud ... I find it not to give it all an "Ocker" (coarse Australian) accent ... and I could understand every word! Frankly, a lot of it sounds like a recycled version of Barry Humphries Ocker parlance for his Barry ('Bazza') McKenzie character of the '70s.

Regards,

Bob

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 10:30 PM

Kip has many meanings, including a brothel or doss-house(18th c. English).
To kip, or take a kip, meaning a nap, seems to have come from kip as a name for a lodging house, lodging, or, a bed. These were used in England in the 19th century and may still be used.
Kip seems not to have had common usage in North America. In the 19th c., it was a name for a bundle of hides but I think this usage has died.

Get Fuzzy was in the Sunday comics of our local paper, but we stopped out subscription, and I haven't seen it since.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,Rowan
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 09:54 PM

Just thought you'd be interested to know that Julie Andrews couldn't do a cockney accent for her part as Eliza in My Fair Lady until she was taken aside for a couple of days and taught it.

By an American.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Jerry Rasmussen
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 09:40 PM

Yeah, this is definitely BS... just forgot to include the prefix. Maybe just as well... some of you who aren't bottom feeders might never a looked at it.. :-)

Jerry

A clone is welcome to move this, without my written and duly notorized permission.

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 08:39 PM

"It sounds like the sort of dialogue an American would write for a supposed Brit (reminds me of that bloody awful character in Frasier"

... and that sort of garbage is what used to annoy Aussies about Hollywood's portrayal of Aussies...

The problem always traces back to the assumption (by Americans themselves!) of the incredibily low intelligence of Americans, rather than the (European style) faith of generally pitching things just a little ABOVE the average to encourage self education of the masses.


"shrimp"

Argggh! Don't come the Raw Prawn with me! We Aussies don't have "Shrimps" - although the English do (potted shrimps) - we only have "Prawns" - and if we did have "Shrimps", they would be tiny things - "Prawns" are HUGE... often an ounce or two EACH PRAWN...

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 05:46 PM

I don't think the dodgy Manchester accent in Frasier was the fault of fault of Jane Leeves, who played Daphne. I think teh people making the show rejected the accurate Mancester accent she offered them in favour of sonmething they thought Americans would be more likely to understand. And she wasn't born in Surrey, but in Ilford in Essex (though they've changed the county boundaries now to make out it isn't).

................
how in the world soes rhythming slang get created and propagated? Most of those would be totally opaque to anyone who doesn't know it.

That was the general idea originally, and I think it'd still be seen as a bonus to have it baffle an outsider. A lot of the old expressions have settled down so no one thinks of them as rhyming slang these days. I mean, I doubt if many people describing someone as "a berk" are thinking of the term as an abbreviated version of "Berkshire Hunt".

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: r.padgett
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 05:44 PM

Thanks Les didnt know that one Its very funny!!

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: GUEST,lox
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 05:40 PM

I've always understood diddling to be what girls do when they ain't got a man (... no not knitting! ... or eating chocolate! ...)

Subject: RE: English To English Translation Needed
From: Charmain
Date: 22 Sep 06 - 05:38 PM

P.S is this thread music related? appears more B.S to me!!