AIBU: TO REALLY STRUGGLE TO UNDERSTAND PEOPLE... (Title edited by MNHQ)

[Penisbeakerismyfavethread]

This week at work I have heard “Lickle”, “Hospickle” and “Punkin” used instead of little, hospital and Pumpkin, and it really confuses me. So wibu to ask if there are any words like this that really get to you?

My personal dialect bugbear is when people try to tell me that certain words are recent Americanisms when they've been used all my life. And I'm not young.

I am a native English speaker but not originally British. I have never heard lickle nor hopspickle. I wouldn’t know what the person speaking would mean.

Similarly, first time I heard “haiitch” I had to ask them to repeat it as I didn’t have a clue. That one really gets on my nerves. “sumfink” drives me crazy, cannot stand it - equivalent to nails on a chalkboard.

Elaina would you elaborate?

Adore of course you'd know! Are you telling me that if someone with perhaps a Northern accent said "Oh....look! How cute is that lickle outfit?!"

You wouldn't know what the person meant? Of course you bloody would.

This is why basic linguistics should be compulsory in schools.

The one that crops up on here all the time is 'gotten'.

Perfectly normal word, but because many people in England haven't heard it prior to an American used it, they think its an Americanism.

It's not.

Actually, Elaina, no. It has been reimported as an Americanism. It has been disusec in British English for 2 centuries. It‘s a recent borrowing now.

Disused, I mean.

I’m a mama but can’t stand mam.
My friend puts a random d in the end of demon which really annoys me.
I was taught haitch in school.

No fastwindow, I wouldn’t know a lickle outfit meant little, As I’m not British, how would I know it doesn’t refer to another thing such as a style, brand etc? Lickle in no way sounds like little. In fact, when I read it above, first thoughts were an ice pop. You lick an ice pop.

By the way, where I am from there are (or were) local pronunciations. When I realised others wouldn’t really be able to understand my speaking, I now enunciate and use words people will understand. Think pitcher v jug, saying drawer and not saying draw (always knew correct spelling).

Totally agree with previous poster about school providing lessons in speaking correctly. Wish I had them, would’ve saved a lot of embarrassment. We had vocabulary but of course that’s not quite the same.

Adore, it‘s useful, if not essential, that everyone knows how to speak and write a standard language well and it isn‘t incompatible with local dialect - it‘s a question of appropriateness to situations, or register.

'Pleeese' rather than 'Police'. 'Praytest' rather that 'protest'.
I suppose these are more accent issues really, but 'praytest' in particular has had me really confused in the past!

Schools are required to teach standard English as part of the curriculum. However, we also try to show sensitivity to the local dialect. It is a fine line between correcting a grammatically incorrect statement (ie. we done our homework) and squashing a local dialect in favour of standard English. Even more difficult when many people will in the area habitually use the incorrect form.

We also do teach basic linguistics, in that we teach a great deal of syntax in primary school. It is taught very explicitly, far more so than I was taught it- and I had quite a formal education.

I love accents and dialects (I studied linguistics at university) and feel a bit sad that I’ve lost mine. There’s no discernible trace of my Geordie roots at all.

*I love a Northern English accent.

Which one?*

If you're a Londoner, it's the one north of the M25!

Dialect and accent are two different things. When I started teaching in Yorkshire there was a bus strike planned and I told my class 'It won't kill you to leg it for once', they were astonished. I discovered that whereas 'leg it' in Lancashire mean walk, it means truant in Yorkshire!

ma'am

Should rhyme with spam.

"Leg it" means to scarper.

Love the English language and it's curiosities. I suspect though that this thread was started as a Friday night goady bunfight.

Adorethebeach - haitch is Irish.

Gotten is not a recent reimport it’s continued being used in Scotland all this time. Another one that will crop up in at least 45 threads next month is the Santa/Father Christmas one with lots of people complaining at the Americanism of Santa and it should be Father Christmas when her in Scotland it’s been Santa all along.

Lots of these things that are seen in England as American imports are actually Irish and Scottish in origin.

It is a recent import into the standard language even if it‘s been used elsewhere, though, surely? Otherwise, why would it suddenly stick out?

And I don‘t think the source is Scotland - isn‘t it more the influence of American popular culture? None of which detracts from the fact that it never actually died out in Scotland.

I am from the North East. I have a Mam.

My husband is from the Midlands. He has a Mom.

My kids call me by a weird hybrid - they write Mum but say it more like Murm/Morm, because they hear DH say 'Ask your Mom' and DM say 'ask your mam'.

But of course Pedro aitch for South of the Watford Gap, Haitch elsewhere, is it so?

No. I’m from the North of England and I always say aitch. My friends say aitch. My family say aitch.
It’s not exclusive to the South of the Watford Gap, you know 😄

The Irish use of 'feck' rather than 'fuck'. 'What the feck are you doing?' Feck it' etc. Was shocked when I visited Ireland with an ex. No no no I said feck not fuck! Pretty much the same meaning just semantics.

Oh and it's aitch! Aitch aitch aitch!! Aitch is the name of the letter H. We don't say wubble woo for W just because of the sound.

...and its either Mum or Mam here in Manchester.

I said Mum, my sister said Mam.

Thought of another. Sawt instead of salt. There's no w in salt.

“Mam is lovely and is probably said by more of the country than mum”

I don’t think so. If that were the case there would be Mothering Sunday cards with “mam” on them. MIL (in Northumberland) used to complain that there weren’t any “mam” cards, and that they all said mum, mummy or mother. I said it wouldn’t have been worth setting up a short print run for the minority of the country that said “mam”. I don’t think “mam” is common at all BTW.

I love local dialects. Being born and brought up in Surrey, married to a Northumbrian and now living in Yorkshire I really notice accents and dialects. I don’t understand the fuss that some people make about Steph McGovern’s accent, or complain that Sarah Cox’s accent is too strong for radio. They need to get out more.

I love the richness of our vocabulary and local idiomatic expressions. However, I do find incorrect grammar irritating, and “haitch”and “gotten” make my teeth itch, sorry.