Partner's slang language

[oreo2020]

My partner was born in 1970s and grew up in London. I am an immigrant.
He's now in his 40s and fairly professional and still uses a lot of slang language that he grew up with intermittently with friends and colleagues, for example:

Jack diddly squat
Brown bread
Bird (talking of me)
Snuff it
You get me
Bump off

And similar...

He also says 'Valentimes' instead Valentine's although he spells it correctly!

I don't correct him as English is not my native language but I find it somewhat stuck in 1980s and do think a grown up man would have grown his vocabulary as he was building up his life and career.
But maybe it's more common than I think?

That's because he's from saaaarf of the rivva!

The best side!

OP, do you actually know lots of Londoners? Or do you know lots of people who live in London? The two are not the same. And, unsurprisingly, they very often don’t sound the same.

Its colloqualisms

My DH is Sarf Lundon and says some similar things and three = free init

Lots of areas have similar language mutations/secret language etc.

Don''t get onto cockney rhyming slang...

Do you think translators could charge a Monkey??

@Camomila - eeeh no. Pure Lancky / Manchester that is

@Camomila - translation:

I was in the alley way behind my house yesterday and had forgotten to put the latch on the door on to prevent it locking. I only realised when I closed the door. No point crying as I was going for bread rolls anyway.

My brother lent mr a pound, which was nice of him. I got some fish batter pieces (the ones that float off while frying) from the chip shop but they weren't very nice. That chippy isn't very good anymore.

[quote BibbityBobbety]@unmarkedbythat

Because 'summat' is a different word. It's slang, it's a shortened way of saying it.

Aks is just ask mispronounced. If something was pronounced semothing, it would be equally wrong.

It's subtle but most people can tell when something originated because it's a clever shortening or play on words. Or because someone just misspelled or mispronounced a word.[/quote]
I'm not sure if you're trying to patronise me or if the way I'm reading your posts is just an unfortunate side effect of having this sort of conversation by text rather than face to face.

How on earth is 'summat' "a clever shortening or play on words"? Wiki asserts that it is a "dialectal variant of somewhat attested from the 18th century." What's clever about now using it to mean 'something'?

If something was pronounced semothing, it would be equally wrong.
Ah, so if someone who says 'aks' would also write 'aks', you'd be fine with it?
As for English and pronunciation- it always makes me laugh a bit when people hammer on about there only being one correct way of saying things. My mum and her family say 'bowl' totally differently to people where I live now, in their accent bowl has two syllables, and it's as valid as any other way of saying it. Plus, English is not phonetic, is it- I'm sure we've all seen the poem:

• take it you already know of tough and bough and cough and dough. Others may stumble, but not you, On hiccough, thorough, lough and through. Well done! And now you wish, perhaps, To learn of less familiar traps.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead – it’s said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.*

@ClaudiaWankleman

I can consider something incorrect but still not judge others for doing it. (unless they're my partner or child or doing business communications on my behalf). To each their own. However, we all have our own tolerances of what's slang/colloquialisms and what we consider incorrect. Otherwise why bother following any rules of grammar or pronunciation.

I use the word fuck a lot at home. Don't tend to use it at work.

Summat is used colloquially to mean something not somewhat.

Beware of heard, a dreadful word
That looks like beard and sounds like bird.
And dead – it’s said like bed, not bead.
For goodness sake, don’t call it deed!
Watch out for meat and great and threat.
They rhyme with suite and straight and debt.

Don't. We had EA for phonics today. Something like EA for TEA . First word was Bread.
T-ee
Br-e-d

Thankfully he's yr1 so he can sight read that but I do won't how the hell they teach it in younger years.

@BibbityBobbety

My partner is a 4th generation east Londoner and actually speaks very grammatically correct English, as do his family. He uses slang like we all do, some cockney colloquialisms (which i love) but no incorrect pronunciations.

Mispronounced words and wrong grammar are not colloquialisms to me. Saying 'aks' instead of ask or 'was' instead of were are just wrong English. The slang, expressions and the accent are colloquialisms and I find it endearing. But if that was all he spoke without much else of a vocabulary, I'd personally find it grating but only because he's my partner. I wouldn't judge anyone else for it!

Here's an article re: "aks". It's dialect, not wrong English. www.latimes.com/opinion/la-xpm-2014-jan-19-la-oe-mcwhorter-black-speech-ax-20140119-story.html

Otherwise why bother following any rules of grammar or pronunciation.

Well the purpose of speech is communication. We are communicating successfully @BibbityBobbety despite the fact you didn’t follow the rules of grammar and include a question mark in your rhetorical question, so I would say that it has been successful.
The same idea applies to pronunciation.

How do you consider the realisation of ‘r’ sounds? For example in the word ‘car’.

@unmarkedbythat

I think you're taking this very personally when I made it very clear in my first post, that I wouldn't like certain pronunciations being used by my partner but wouldn't care if other people did. I don't think aks is a colloqualism since I mentor kids from the same East London estate - some will say aks, the rest all say ask. So if even they can't agree, I'm loathe to say it's a local dialect, as I'm not sure what area it is local to.

I think "aks" is very common in Caribbean accents.

@ClaudiaWankleman

You can speak however you want, and I may think it incorrect, but does it matter? Particularly if I have repeatedly said I don't judge other people for how they speak, even if I don't agree with it. The OP asked a question about what we thought, I replied with my opinion. I think we can agree to disagree that we have very different ideas of what constitutes a colloquialism.

There's really no excuse for using pacific when you mean specific!

It’s not just ‘speaking how I want’ though - it’s the way I speak. I can put on an accent where I say ‘th’ but it’s not natural.

It’s illogical to say I speak English wrong for it, especially when you seem to be perfectly happy to accept other people’s non RP accents just because they seem to be located in other parts of the UK (summat).

Agree some words are accent specific (pacific), some colloquial, some learned etc. Unfortunately, some can grate - which might be my problem. I wouldn't say anything though. A woman I used to work with said:

Pacific
Chimbley
Dracklia
Cackalog
Hogspickle
Ambliance
Pleece
Bockle, keckle etc

That was annoying!

@ClaudiaWankleman, but it is wrong. If everyone around you speaks the same then it is fine in that company, but people not familiar with it will make assumptions about you, and they won't be favourable.

[quote BibbityBobbety]@unmarkedbythat

I think you're taking this very personally when I made it very clear in my first post, that I wouldn't like certain pronunciations being used by my partner but wouldn't care if other people did. I don't think aks is a colloqualism since I mentor kids from the same East London estate - some will say aks, the rest all say ask. So if even they can't agree, I'm loathe to say it's a local dialect, as I'm not sure what area it is local to.[/quote]
I'm not taking it personally at all. I don't use the words you're slating. I use others you would no doubt find equally offensive, mind!

You aren't saying anything to convince me there is a difference between aks and summat that is significant enough to accept one as a colloquiallism and damn the other incorrect English. The argument that not everyone in one area uses aks in the same way doesn't fly either- not everyone in Wisbech uses frit for frightened, but it is definitely a colloquiallism.

@KirstenBlest

Leave him.

🤣

people not familiar with it will make assumptions about you, and they won't be favourable

I mean this is simply not true.

@KirstenBlest Could you please point me to a definitive and final source of what is ‘correct’ English? Don’t lazily point to the Oxford dictionary please, as their pronunciation guides clearly indicate that they only mark the pronunciation of RP, which it is highly unlikely any of us speak consistently.

Fink what you like Claudia, but I would think that you were uneducated.

@unmarkedbythat

But I'm not aiming to convince you. You asked me what I thought, and I told you. In my head it's very clear what is a colloquialism or not, and I'm happy with that distinction. If I were an English teacher I would find it very odd teaching children that the word 'ask' is to be pronounced as 'aks'. I wouldn't be teaching them to use the word 'summat' or 'innit' in a classroom. That is a slang they'll pick up at home. If a word isn't in the dictionary, people can pronounce it how they want, it's a colloquialism. If it is in a dictionary or text book, there's only one way to pronounce it.