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Benedict Arnold

British English, American English and ... Strine

A woman at a Sydney book signing said to author, Alastair Morrison, "Emma Chisett" and he wrote, "To Emma Chisett with best wishes..." She was annoyed. She had really asked him, "How much is it?" but enunciated it so badly that he thought she was giving her name. 

As a result he wrote a book called "Let Stalk Strine" (Let's talk Australian) and used the pen name Afferbeck Lauder (alphabetical order).

How does language get mangled where YOU live? Want to share some examples?

Posted - February 11, 2017
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Responses


  • You are a witty chap.. are you sure you ain't derrived from good old English stock? Of course we being Brits cannot be accused of getting it wrong, we invented it :P  Erm mind you the way kids speak nowadays you'd think they talk a different language!
      February 11, 2017 2:00 PM MST
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  • My father was Welsh but my maternal grandfather was English. And somewhere in the mix there were a pair of convicts who were deported from Mother England for crimes unspeakable. 
      February 11, 2017 2:08 PM MST
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  • Unspeakable crimes are always the best ones :P
      February 11, 2017 2:21 PM MST
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  • Oh, and getting it wrong? Henry Higgins would disagree. "An Englishman's way of speaking absolutely classifies him, whenever he speaks he makes some other Englishman despise him..."
      February 11, 2017 2:10 PM MST
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  • Well there's that but then again we all know that we don't all go around speaking like HH :P  And he was a bit of a snob, I am sure that's the last thing I could be accused of :P
      February 11, 2017 2:22 PM MST
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  • 154
    Being from the Deep South we have our own language. 
    Anything from real sloooow to real fast.

      February 11, 2017 2:19 PM MST
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  • I'm familiar with the slow but haven't run across the fast. 
      February 11, 2017 2:22 PM MST
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  • 53504
    Slow: "Y'all don't reckon y'all be back long before dawn?"

    Fast: "C'mon in hea n' git sum' teet!"  (sum' teet = something to eat)

    ~
      February 11, 2017 2:39 PM MST
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  • 53504
    There are many people from foreign countries who have emigrated to the US living in my vicinity, so there are dozens of examples from which I can choose. 

    One particular group refers to paperwork as paperworks whenever it involves more than one sheet of paper, often confuses the pronouns "his" and "her" because that concept doesn't even exist in their language, says "at the back" instead of "in back of" or "behind", and doesn't thank clerks, cashiers and storekeepers after a transaction because in that culture, the fact that the person has a job and receives a salary is their thanks. 

    Another group mangles the pronunciation of "babysitter" and "babysitting" to "baby city", says "I born" instead of "I was born", and never uses the past tense of an English verb for a future event, such as, "the article will be released once all the details have been researched" becomes "the article will be release once all the details have been research".  Members of that same group, when speaking to their siblings, refer to their own parents as "my mother" or "my father" instead of "mom/mama" or "dad/daddy": Sibling A asks Sibling B, "Had my mother returned from shopping yet?"  Sibling B responds, "No, not yet, but my father just left to give her a ride home."  I used to think they were in blended families, but it turns out that they're each talking about their own biological parents that they both share in common, not step-parents or anything like that. 
    ~
      February 11, 2017 2:19 PM MST
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  • Clearly, you know these people very well. I've also run into that kind of thing. (We have lots of migrants, too.)

    Working for the Japanese was educational. Apart from mixing up their Ls and Rs (insert apostrophes if you need them) which is completely understandable they came up with some corkers. I saw financiator used for financier, sticked for stuck, and one day, "Your comment is insencible". 
    And two longer ones, the first by our esteemed Mikado himself: "The cost should be borne by the assaulter." Nobody had been mugged; he was talking about a car accident.
    And probably the best example: "This will be beneficial cost wise, quality wise, otherwise wise." I kid you not. :)

      February 11, 2017 2:30 PM MST
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  • 53504
    That last one is classic!

    :)
      February 11, 2017 2:34 PM MST
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  • 17261
    I love this one, but unfortunately have none to share. I'm sure there are some, but can't come up with one right here and now. Jeez, I love this question having friends all three places. :-)
      February 11, 2017 2:23 PM MST
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  • It's always good to have you aboard. Something might provoke a memory as you read on. 
      February 11, 2017 2:31 PM MST
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  • 17261
    :-)
      February 11, 2017 2:38 PM MST
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  • 2219
    Not to mention Scots, Doric, Lallans, Buchan, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Scouse, Cockney, Estuary  etc etc 
      February 11, 2017 2:28 PM MST
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  • Typical Englishman. "Scots?" Whaddabout Glasgow, whose accent is quite different from Edinburgh, just 40 miles away, and then Aberdeen?

    But I take your point. Those are all quite different (I don't recognise them all) and some are way out there. Barely English.
      February 11, 2017 2:33 PM MST
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  • 2219
    Yes I'm Scots not English (clue is in the kilt).

    Apologies to the Weegies, but Edinburgh and Aberdeen are just about Lallans and Buchan.

    Perhaps I should also have mentioned my native Dundonesian .
      February 11, 2017 3:00 PM MST
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  • We're getting there. 

    I was standing at a football game with a Scots friend and, well, he liked his football and was giving voice. Another man, speaking with an Austrralian accent, said, "Where are you from?"
    "Aberdeen."
    "Thought so. I come from there, too." 
    And George said, "Good God, man, what have you done with the accent that God gave you?"
      February 11, 2017 5:22 PM MST
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  • 34253
    I went to school with a guy. Who instead of saying you're lying, would say you're fairytaling. I don't know where he was from.
    My bro in law is says The in front of a store name. He going to the Wal-Mart or the Target. 
      February 11, 2017 2:29 PM MST
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  • Thanks 2C. Good examples. "The" might be a little old fashioned. It's something my parents said on occasion.
      February 11, 2017 2:34 PM MST
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  • How do I mangle thee? Let me count the ways!


                                      "Seven different sounds for the letter "A"
      February 11, 2017 2:33 PM MST
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  • Excellent video, Alf, and very appealing lips. Even I didn't realise there were so many 'a' sounds. I know them all, of course, but didn't think about listing them. 
      February 11, 2017 2:38 PM MST
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  • Just the "tip of the iceberg," my friend, as I've shown you before. 
      February 11, 2017 2:43 PM MST
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  • My best friend is from a small, backwoods town about an 8 hour drive from where we live. I had always thought that she just spoke English in her own weird way. After we took a weekend trip to her parents house I found that her speaking manner was the way of area.
    Here's a conversation between her and her mother:

    Daddy boughten a new kitchen zink today. After dinner, you red the table and we'll warsh the dishes together.
      February 11, 2017 2:34 PM MST
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