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On Sun, 16 Aug 2009 11:57:43 EDT, "Bill Pragnell" <bil### [at] hotmail com>
wrote:
>
>Well actually if you'd asked me for directions you'd hear a generic southern,
>possibly south london accent - I don't originate from these parts!
>
Phew! :)
>I think a lot of the difficulty with understanding brits (I'm sure this holds
>true in other languages too) is the huge variation in vernacular and idiom.
It is strange going abroad to English speaking countries who have their own
idioms. In Nigeria I spent ages greeting people with "Howdy" when actually they
were saying "How day" or "How are they" meaning "how are your family?" a
traditional greeting. Or nearer home in Aberdeen where they say "Fit like ma
loon". In Glasgow we say "no bad" when we mean it's good.
>Rhyming slang in particular, a great deal of which has been absorbed into
>standard english without many people noticing - there's a brilliant and
>hilarious scene in Guy Ritchie's 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' where a
>minor character relates a story using well over 50% cockney rhyming slang. Even
>the english versions of the film subtitled that scene!
>
>
Cockney rhyming slang is beyond the pale (the English controlled parts of
Ireland in the 15th Cent.) China.
--
Regards
Stephen
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