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Never mind the pronunciation...it is when a UK region changes the whole meaning of a word I get confused.
Posted by Uncle Wheaty on 27 October 2011 - 7:18pm.
I was born and bred in Norfolk (I know!).
As a wet behind the ears 18 year old I ventured off to Uni in Bradford and then got my first job in Leeds.
Now, I have always understood the word "while" to be used in the following way as an example "please do not cross the railway line while the lights are red".
In Leeds its accepted usage was as a replacement for "until" by many people I worked with e.g. "today I will be working 9 while 5".
I have always wondered why the death rate at level crossings in Leeds is so low!
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I was always similarly bemused when...
...a friend who lived in Edinburgh and worked in Glasgow would be described on the phone (if not in when I called) by his partner as being "through at Glasgow". Not "in Glasgow" or "over in Glasgow" or "down in Glasgow" but "THROUGH AT Glasgow".
Is this a common construction in Scottish English?
Yes
It is - it seems to carry the implication of 'distance'. You wouldn't go 'through to Grangemouth' from Falkirk (3 miles), but you might go 'through to Crieff' from Falkirk (35 miles). It's an expression my parents and grandparents used, and it caused me some amusement when I was a child ('Through what? The countryside?') - I don't live in Scotland now, so I don't know if it's a surviving expression.
"Just now"
in Scottish English means, er, now.
In English English it means a few moments ago.
In Welsh English
Now means soon, "I'll be with you now in a minute".
That appears to be both...
...an oxymoron and a tautology.
That's a hell of an achievement!
Better still, a Scottish person about to leave:
"That'll be me away then"
... bit of a tense salad there.
One more from Scotland
The question "Do you mind the Beatles?" means do you remember the Beatles, rather than do you like them, as it would in England.
Two more from Scotland
A dear Scottish friend of mine says "will we" when she means "shall we". And doing the shopping is doing her messages. These can be combined eg "will I do my messages before we're away out". Come back John Prescott.
Bristol
"Where's that to?" means "Where is that?"
Gor blimey
Cockney stuff is famously strange, but the one that stuck with me was older Londoners not saying "five twenty-five" or "twenty-five past five" but "five-and-twenty past five".
It's worse over in Holland.
"Half-seven" does not mean 7.30. It means 6.30 - half-an-hour TO seven. I nearly missed a business meeting through that one.
That's like German
Don't remember a great deal of GCSE German, but that certainly rings a bell.
That's what I remember of German too
It's also used by older people in Scotland - when I first said 'half-seven' to my mother, meaning 7:30, she thought I meant 6:30.
It's very logical: at 6:30, you've had all of 6 hours, and half of the 7th - so it's 'halfway to completing hour 7'.
It's the same
in Swedish. 'Halv sju' sounds like it means "half seven" but it's actually half past six.
I'm not sure
if it's still in popular use, but when I was growing up in Derry in the 70s & 80s, the word "yes" was used as a greeting - e.g. "yes John" meant "hello John".
"Hello there, Big Man!"
Can someone Scottish explain the "big man" thing to me? Doesn't seem to matter if you are big or not.
More Danger!!! I've thought in the past that if John Steed
and I were entering my house and Steed, sniffing the air and finger poised over the light switch, asked if I was sure I'd turned off the gas
And I replied "Oh I'm quite sure." (meaning I think so...maybe)
He, satisfied that I was quite sure (meaning certain to a post-war gent like Steed) would flick that switch and blow us up.
Maybe.
It's all in the intonation, luvvie.
... or the tempo. "Quite sure" said quickly means something different from "quite sure" said slowly, or just with the slightest hesitation between the words.
Yes. That's better. Thanks.
I still can't help thinking that if the only difference between my certain death and safety is a different intonation of the same word then perhaps the phrase is best avoided...
Quite good
I remember being just a little offended when an American colleague referred to a piece of work that I'd produced as being "quite good". My reaction was to think "Cheeky cow. You can do it yourself next time."
Turned out she meant "very good" rather than "meh".
Language, eh: rum innit?
Bacon butties
I mean, you only have to travel for half an hour from here to places where they will say they are putting your rashers in a teacake. What? With currants in it? Put the bacon in a barm cake, man.
Mind you. Whichever way you say it, it tastes grand.
I had funny looks
holidaying in Northumberland when asking the Scottish lassie serving in a pub for a couple of cobs (my local expression). I'd have felt even more uncomfortable asking for a couple of baps though.
Ah well, each to his own.
Have you got large white baps?
Some parts of the country that'll elicit the answer "Yes. Sliced?"
In others, a hefty slap.
You could always ask for a
Fadge
Potato bread eaten in Ireland, Scotland and parts of Northern England.
or Fadge
Vagina
In Dubai
Street signs saying 'Road controlled by radar' has been changed to 'Road monitored by radar' because many people believed the radar controlled your driving to prevent you breaking the speed limit.
Not sure all of these
are unique to Birmingham but:-
As a child I would hear 'I'm going up to London at the weekend'. We are 100 miles north of London, er shouldn't it be down?
I am going in to town at the weekend referring to Birmingham. Actually it is a city.
I am going home for my tea? You mean a cup of tea? No, I mean dinner.
(Some people even say supper).
The same on Merseyside
Except for the London thing. We just don't go there at all if we can help it.
Liverpool has always been 'town'. Funnily when I lived in Norwich for a while people got very upset if I referred to it as 'town'. "It's a City!!" They also did the 'five and twenty' telling the time expression there too.
I *think* the 'up to London' expression is pretty commonplace though, supposedly reflecting That London's status as capital city.
I grew up in the London suburbs
and we always said going into town when we were going into central London. Mrs BP grew up in Iver, Bucks and thinks this is weird, especially as I still say it and we live on the Sussex coast.
People from all over the country talk about going up to London.
It's mad, I know. Like coming "down" from Oxford or Cambridge (meaning after you've graduated).
People talk about "going into town" in every city, no matter how big, I think. You would only say "going to the city" in London, with reference to The City. (I wouldn't bother today... all those tents)
Railways
That's a railway thing. All 'up' lines are the ones into London and 'down' lines the ones out of London.
Not sure why, but I know many people that would.
"Almost true"
Said the railwayman.
But it was more the case that the lines went up to the main station, which just happened usually to be in London. So, the ex-Midland Railway lines go 'up' to Derby. My home station used to be the focus of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, so all lines head up to Manchester Victoria. That means that they swap from up to down halfway along the platform which is very interesting.
Hey, you at the back, wake up.
I'm awake!
And grateful for the infomation. Thanks!
Yes
I grew up in a suburb to Stockholm and we always said that we were "going into town".
Now I live "in town" but I still use that expression. To me it still means a very specific small area of Stockholm, centered around the subway station T-Centralen. Not at all far away from where I live!
While
It must be a Yorkshire quirk, because the "I'm working 9 while 5" thing is in common usage in Sheffield too.
So is all that "five and twenty past six" business.
While
Have slipped into it myself. It happens around Manchester too.
Reckon on
I remember watching Jack Rosenthal's Bar Mitzvah Boy years ago and being mystified by a scene in which the hero has a conversation with his sister about whether they "reckon on" various people they know. I think I worked out that it means "fancy" as in "find attractive". Am I right?
Is this a north-west thing? Is it still in use?
She's a bonny girl
Where I'm from 'bonny' means 'fat'. Where I live now it means 'attractive'. Minefield.
Driving in Birmingham
If you come to non-filtered traffic lights and you are making a right turn and there is a car coming the other way also making a right turn my understanding is you pass that car to the right of it. Apparently elsewhere in the country you would pass it to the left. Don't know whether I have explained this properly but I think it is right.
Anyone shed any light on it?
I refer the honourable gentleman to the Highway Code...
Apparently either are acceptable... I always use the 'non overlapping' method myself though...
Motorbike
I just did the motorbike theory test and they are definitive that your should be right to right as your view of the oncoming traffic is unimpeded. Which means you don't pop out from behind the car and someone flattens you.
Quite,
but the road markings often contradict this. If you pass on the left (right to right), you can both see ahead. I once had a contretemps with a driver who tried to do left/left when I was trying to do right/right. (Not to the point of getting out of the car and doing full-scale road rage, but still somewhat awkward - I don't think he understood why).
Round my bit of Leeds
You just go, and sod everyone else.
First and second person.
In Portsmouth, first person verbs are expressed in the second person, e.g. "I likes that, I does."
Horrible.
Belay! You do be goin' into that Pirate speak.
Get thee to Somalia.
Sayings from Northern Britain
In Glasgow we say 'Nae danger' to mean both 'It is no bother' and 'no way am I doing that'. The big man thing comes from the (wrong) impression that Glaswegians are of diminutive stature and, therefore, every one (male) is bigger than them hence 'big man'. I work in East Lothian (quite near Edinburgh), only 50 miles away, and the different parlance is amazing. Most remarks made by my colleagues could be construed as a question, e.g. 'I start my shift at eight, eh?' or 'I cannot carry out that task, eh?' In Glasgow/ North Lanarkshire we also say 'that's me away to work' to a wife/ partner/ family member as we part. As if we are pointing at ourselves and describing where we are going.
Incidentally, reading all the posts above I can get and understand what is being said without too much bother. And I don't mean reading it, I mean hearing it verbally as well. I put that down to having a lot of English & Welsh colleagues. And attending lots of meetings in Englandshire. However, I do need to slow down my speech and annunciate better in their company. Otherwise I would need to sign or have subtitles whenever I speak.
I think you mean enunciate.
... I think....
I used to...
priDe my self on getting my grammar, and speling correCt but. Now I get it rong. i knows it's enunciate, sorry bout that.
Thanks Gerry
Your comment about understanding things when you hear them makes me think of the friends and family I have in Ireland. Once you pick up on the *way* things are said, then usually all is well. Like "will you not be staying for a cup of tea now?"
I still dont understand...
I lived in Scotland in the mid 70s, & quite often the time was " the back of seven, or back of eight or whatever"
What the fuck did "the back of" mean?
It means
'just after'
Simples.
I mentioned this
on another thread, but the verb "to barrack" has exactly the opposite meaning in Australia and the UK.
Down under, people go to football matches to barrack for their favourite team.
It's a strange one and no mistake. I've heard various theories about the origins of this. The most plausible being that the early AFL teams were based around (or grew out of) the Melbourne army barracks.
'root'
On the other hand, I very much doubt that Australians 'root' for their favourite team as we do in Britain, as in "who are you rooting for?".
Mike Harding
had a routine, and an album titled after, about the Australian meaning of "Rooted."
As did Jasper Carrott re. Sellotape. "Roll of Durex, please?" "A ROLL?"
Cont'd..
In Caernarfon, the Welsh for 'Cunt' is 'Cont', and is used as a term of endearment, e.g. 'S'mae cont' (How do cunt).
Let it be noted that Caernarfon is in one of the constituent nations of the UK, not a region.
Diolch.