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?

Don't even know how to change my username, why would I ?

Slight derail but I saw a recommendation on here afew months back for a book called The Surgeon of Cawthorne. It's about the creation of the Oxford English Dictionary, and its mammoth attempt to standardise and record all words in use in the English language. Well worth a read if you're so inclined!

whiteroseredrose Feck does not have the same meaning as fuck. You can’t feck someone. So sorry the Irish shocked you like this, but unfortunately it was down to you not understanding the word.
And haitch is standard Hiberno English. To suggest that it’s wrong is racist.

’Feck’ isn’t really just a minced oath equivalent of ‘fuck’, though — it has no sexual connotation at all, so no ‘Come over here and feck me, big boy’, it has an older meaning of ‘to keep a lookout’ (from the Irish ‘feic’ , to see), and in more recent times, it’s widespread Hiberno-English slang for ‘to steal’ eg ‘He got thrown out of the shop for fecking pick’n mix’.

This blog entry is good on possible etymologies.
stancarey.wordpress.com/2012/09/12/the-meanings-and-origins-of-feck/

Mom is perfectly acceptable in the midlands and other areas. It isn’t just American. I am 49 and a mom. My mom is 90. Her mom was born in 1887. So definitely not a recent import.

Connebert but it isn’t an import to MY standard language maybe to yours these threads always assume that RP is the default. Posts that say I love a northern accent and Scottish accent just prove that. There isn’t one accent in any of these places. It is possible that it is more obvious outwith Scotland and Ireland because of places like Mumsnet where you are interacting with more people whose everyday language this is.

By saying it’s an influence of popular American culture again assumes that at least the majority of people using words like Santa and gotten are not Scottish or Irish. If I was posting on here I’d say Santa and there would be a good number of people reading it and inwardly tutting at me for my Americanism when I have never in my life referred to him as Father Christmas and neither have most people I know.

"And haitch is standard Hiberno English. To suggest that it’s wrong is racist."

I had no idea it was racist. I was brought up to say aitch because haitch was considered poor English.

I knew feck wasn't swearing. It was used in Father Ted all the time "Feck, Girls, Arse, Drink"

LoniceraJaponica I appreciate you may not have thought that it was racist, but there have been a lot of comments on the thread saying that haitch is wrong despite other comments pointing out that it’s Irish. I can’t see how it’s anything other than racism to suggest that the way an entire country does something is wrong.

@OkPedro - I tend to pronounce it choc-a-lat with the middle 'a' sound being a very quick tie together rypemsound if they makes sense!

I also came back to say I hate haitch too! Also some people say bretfast rather than breakfast .... my mum did it ... we're from the south east

Absolutely, LooksBetter, couldn‘t agree more. It‘s part of the system of your standard language but not of mine. In mine it‘s definitely an American borrowing from popular culture. In yours it‘s a hereditary form which is in no way marked.

Need gone, need cleaned, need washed. Etc.

It sounds so ugly and half arsed without the ‘to be’.

@DesperatelySeekingSense - it's not racist 👀
If people in the rest of the U.K say haitch then it's wrong, those HE'ers carry on as you were

Connebert, thank you for proving my point. LooksBetterWithAFilter, thank you for taking up the case in my absence, and better than I would have managed too!

Connebert, did you notice that this thread is about dialect? Ergo I wasn't taking about standard English?

Oh dear this thread isn't going well is it. I started reading thinking it was going to be a light-hearted piece of banter but it really isn't!

However, I am going to have my say. For me, it is marsh mellow. NO! It is spelled marsh mAllow, and it is pronounced marsh mAllow. My OH comes from Kent and it seems to be common usage in the area he was brought up in. (And it is definitely aitch and not haitch in England). I don't care about accents, I realise that he is never going to speak the same way that I do and that I probably sound a bit weird to the rest of his family with my standard received pronunciation, it is actually saying the words wrong that bugs me. And chester draws is just awful.

To all those arguing about racism with regard to pronunciation. It is not racism to observe what is part of a particular language system. In standard Hiberno- English, it is „haitch“. In RP it is „aitch“. If there are more people pronoucing it the other way because of immigration or whatever, then a change has occurred. What could be less complicated and less controversial than that?

@LooksBetterWithAFilter, did you realise you used one of my favourite words, which is one of my favourites because it's Scottish, but sounds like standard English? I didn't know it was Scottish until I may someone very confused by it on a training course outwith Scotland.

The word? I've just used it.

Outwith.

Oh yes, indeed, sorry, Elaina!

outwith is s useful word. use it all the time in reports and documents here in Scotland.

Bugbears for me are "I've went" and "I've seen" which are used up here, and "pacifically" for "specifically". It also makes me grind my teeth the way people pronounce "december" and "dizember"

Observing that in Ireland something is pronounced differently is an observation. Saying that that pronunciation is wrong is somewhat different...

Anyone else remember....

Ickle ockle choclut bockle,
Ickle ockle out.
Put a penny in the bockle,
Ickle ockle out!

I’ve been doing secretarial work on the side typing up minutes in the evenings and it’s really bloody hard

Bollocks. So you're saying people actually write 'hospickle' for hospital? And also that when they do, it really confuses you 🙄?

And that someone has wrote fickle sister for little sister.

I call bullshit.

I assume the OP is typing up audio-recorded minutes, and strugggles with peoples pronunciation.

Einsteins, we had

Eettle ottle black bottle
Eetle ootle out

No second part.

PositiveVibez, I would infer the OP does audio typing. You listen to a tape and type what you hear. :)

FWIW, many years ago, my bugbear for audio typing was someone pronouncing J as “jie”. It took me about a week to figure out what it meant (from context). Fortunately, I eventually heard the person (on tape) spell out a word containing J and twigged what they meant. No more having to guess their alphanumerical reference codes after that!

I've not heard that one before Elaina.

All the ....ckles in the OP just reminded me of it. Was a favourite in the playground.