AIBU to ask English people not to say poorly?! (lighthearted)

[SliAnCroix]

It sounds a bit moany and weak. Can't get to grips with grown women saying their husband was poorly. It would be like saying my husband took a week off work because he had a bubu. I know we all have our own slang and some Irish slang probably sounds strange outside of Ireland in the next village

I am not speaking on behalf of everybody outside of England, I do realise this.

And full disclaimer, the word dodi makes me wince. I have done my best to eradicate that word. Service to my country.

They asked in the quiz if you say sofa/settee/couch/some other versions of it. I've always wondered about this. In my family we always said settee, my partner and his family say sofa - though I think one of his brothers says couch actually, most of the people I went to university with said couch - is it just a regional difference? My partner and I are both from London but my parents are from Newcastle and Durham so maybe that's why we said settee and he says sofa? But I think most of my school friends said couch and they were from London, and my uni friends who said couch were from various places . This is something I've wondered about for years now.

Actually, if anyone does know why we all have different words for settee/sofa/couch, I'm also curious about living room/lounge. I've always said living room, partner says lounge. Though I have a vague recollection of my mum calling it a sitting room when we were younger, but I might be misremembering.

I would say sofa and sitting-room. When I was little it was called the front room and only used on Sundays and special days. This was because it was too much work / expensive to light two fires. South-east of England.

I have a sofa in the living room but used to have (I think) a couch in the lounge when I was growing up 🤔 We definitely had a living room.

Aaaagh! Lounge. We definitely had a lounge.

Mum
Settee
Living room
Poorly (only to my dcs said in a sympathetic tone)
Put rhymes with but.
Tooth has an 'oo' sound not an 'u' sound.
Grandma and grandad.

We don't say "poorly" in Scotland either

Another Scot living in Scotland who uses ‘poorly’.

I've always said living room, partner says lounge.

It's the sitting room in our house.

No, they don't rhyme.

But rhymes with putt.
Put doesn't.

Maybe not to you, but they do to others.

I say but and butt in the same way, and put and putt - they sound exactly the same. Other words that would rhyme when I say them are soot, foot, hut, shut, rut, cut and mutt, but not boot, loot or hoot.

I grew up in the North, but have lived in the South for over 30 years.

Yes, that's a standard northern accent (I mean I'm sure yours is very area-specific, unique and beautiful but the 'u sounds a bit like o' so that putt might sound like put pronunciation is standard across northern England).

But the statement we were all discussing and disagreeing with was ..i cannot for the life of me ever remember anyone ever making put and but NOT rhyme. Given that anyone who's ever heard a southern / RP-speaking English person speak, has heard the open 'u' in but and putt that does not rhyme with put (and soot and foot).

If you're really posh you can have MORE grouse shooters on your MOOR, pronounced exactly the same. Whereas the locals say moor like 'moo' er, for moor, and 'maw'er for more.

In Yorkshire, at least my late MIL, they would talk about the Earl of Harwood who lived at Harewood House, even though both words were written Harewood.
This thread demonstrates a few things, in a small country there is plenty of variety in pronunciation and also that for many MNers the only 'right' answer is their own!
In the NW when we were children my mother would say poorly-sick on two chairs!

Boris was ever so poorly.

❤️ it.

also lush, mush, crush. But not bush... The U in put rhymes with the U in bush, push
Eh? Lush, mush, crush, Bush, push, hush, rush, shush, tush all ryhme here. Along with whoosh.

Think it was just your late MiL mrsBtheparker. I know the family say Harwood but I've never met another person who does. I grew up just down the road and to many it was (probably still is) 'airwood 'ouse.
Not me,of course. I had my dropped aitches knocked back in at an early age

How does but not rhyme with put.
To my ears they are both u t at the end.
So p u t and b u t
The oo can be pronounced in 2 ways. Either oo as in moon, or oo as in book which makes an uck sound so look and luck sound the same.

May have accidentally -deliberately- used poorly in a thread a couple of days ago.

Strike through fail!

I'm Scottish living in England and I cant stand it either! From a child it's ok but not an adult and certainly not from my employees calling in sick!

There's no oo in luck. That's how!

It's an 'uh' sound, which, were it exaggerated and extended enough to sound like any other ovwel, would ent otwards an 'a', not a an 'o'.

Think of the Queen saying 'my husband and I' . The 'u' is an open 'uh' without any hint of an 'oo' sound.

ooops, that's 'tend towards an a'

For example, if you imagine an RP speaker, or more so, someone with an Essex or estuary accent saying 'fuck'. It can sound like 'fack'.

No Boris would not have been ‘ever so’ poorly. He’d have been a bit poorly or pretty poorly,

We don't use poorly where I am in Scotland either thank god.

I love ever so. I worked with a lad in England who thought Aha were ever such nice young men.

The quiz gets me exactly right. Most round the region I am from, with a smattering around the area I lived for a number of years.