Cockin' a deaf 'un.

Christ, reminds me of a horrid joke.

Not my favorite phrase, but I always found it interesting how "tea" is supper/dinner. When British folk talk about having tea, or what they had for tea last night, they are talking about dinner.

I've almost had a brain hemmorage trying to explain this to Americans. They will continually say stuff like "Oh yeah, at high tea they will have scones, krumpets or cucumber sandwiches with their afternoon tea at 4pm".

NOOOOO. It is dinner. Tea = dinner. If you had a hamburger, fries, and a coke for tea at 7pm, there was no tea consumed at all.

Seriously, I spent about an half hour trying to explain this to people (one of them was French) and they kept on going -- well of course they eat something with high tea... It still bugs the crap out of me.

One British thing I find absolutely annoying is how they will pronounce words that end in "a" with an "er".

Like "China" becomes "Chiner".

And they look at us as some sort of linguistic savages? There is no damn "er" at the end of "China".

today i heard a lanc refer to something -

lanc wrote:about as useful as tits on a fish.

for some reason with mancunian inflection this was hilarious.

Can someone explain why some Brits pronounce "mother" as "muvva" or "brother" as "bruvva"?

One British thing I find absolutely annoying is how they will pronounce words that end in "a" with an "er".

Like "China" becomes "Chiner".

The British Isles (don't get me started)* are rich in regional accents, probably as much as any other country. Jump in and correct me, but I'd guess "muvva" and "bruvva" would be a midlands/northern accent, the "china" to "chiner"... a Manchester thing... help, anyone?


*Being Irish, "The British Isles" is a phrase i've always taken umbrage to.

6079smith wrote:

Can someone explain why some Brits pronounce "mother" as "muvva" or "brother" as "bruvva"?

One British thing I find absolutely annoying is how they will pronounce words that end in "a" with an "er".

Like "China" becomes "Chiner".

The British Isles (don't get me started)* are rich in regional accents, probably as much as any other country. Jump in and correct me, but I'd guess "muvva" and "bruvva" would be a midlands/northern accent, the "china" to "chiner"... a Manchester thing... help, anyone?

Nah mate, bruvva, muvva, having a barf... it's a cockney fing, innit? That's someone who comes from London to you, as opposed to 95% of londoners.

As for the Chiner thing... well, that's just how it's pronounced. We're English. Just cos you're American and you talk English don't mean you're talking it proper like what we is, alright?

Yut, a simple guide -

Uber posh - Breakfast, Lunch, (high) Tea, Supper.
Middle class - Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.
Common as muck (or northern) - Breakfast, Dinner, Tea.

(Staff who serve 'lunch' at the schools that posh children attend are nevertheless colloquially known as 'dinner ladies'.)

Flying in the face of aspiration, I've noticed tea has had a bit of a resurgence of late. There's a generation of people my age who have cosy memories of watching Ulysses over their fish fingers and go home for a spot of tea.

yut wrote:One British thing I find absolutely annoying is how they will pronounce words that end in "a" with an "er".

Like "China" becomes "Chiner".

And they look at us as some sort of linguistic savages? There is no damn "er" at the end of "China".

I was going to say that. I watch the BBC news and hear that all the time. I asked John Loder about it once, and he said he didn't know what I was talking about, like it's oblivious to "them".

I can't explain why but the R only comes into it if the next word begins with a vowel.

I have an affection for the outdated phrases that show up in Waugh and Wodehouse.

"Spondoolicks" for money.
"Oojah-cum-spiff" for everything being right with the world.
"Blithering oaf" for dipshit.
"Turn and leg it" for run away scared.
"Off your onion" for being insane.

Obviously you'd look like a pretentious jerk using them seriously in conversation, but they never fail to crack me up.

-A