The multicultural society

[CorneliaCarton]

Whit. Naebody fae bonny Alba?
Och, this is a fair blow tae the heid, so it is.
(anyone need a translation? hehe)

[Flynn MacCallister]

At the risk of confusing some folk here's a poem from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne written and spoken in the local dialect of Geordie

Funny Geordie Monologue by Gary Hogg

The only part of that that I can't understand is the punchline. "That bugger's done me for two shillins, and was never..."

Argh!

It refers to earlier in the poem when "Me father reached deep in his pockets, and fetched out a couple of tanners", to pay the gasman who'd come to cut them off, in the mistaken belief he was a boy scout on bob-a-job week.

Tanner=Shilling

I couldn't make out the actual words after "and was/we's never..."

Yeah, my pop grandfather calls them "tanners" when he's telling stories and talking about the old money. (I think his father was an immigrant from somewhere in Yorkshire...)

The line is

"That bugger's done me for two shillin's and we's never got a sticker or nowt"

And in 'proper' english

"That bugger has robbed me of two shillings and we never got a sticker or anything"

Aaah! Heehee. XD

[Athanor]

A "Tanner" was actually sixpence; a shilling was a "Bob". Don't ask me why, I haven't a clue.

A pound was a "Quid", giving rise to the legend that the English translation of the Latin word Quidnunc was "Please lend me a pound, uncle". A Quid was twenty bob (never "bobs"); and a Ten Bob Note was always, for some reason forever lost in the mists of time, called "'alf a nicker". Just a few of the idiosyncracies of the English language.

[Zeppelin Kapitan Fritz]

     Mind if I join this club. I love learning about other cultures and would be happy to answer any questions as well. I live in Atlanta, Georgia, USA.

[D.Oakes]

Noted Pennsylvania food and had to jump in. 

Food in Pennsylvania:  take German, take Irish, take Scottish, and stir together and you get Pennsylvania food.  Well not exactly, I would say it depends on the region of Pennsylvania.  Pittsburgh food is different than Philadelphia food which is different than Lancaster food which is different than the Appalachian food.  If you order a Reuben for instance in one place it will use cole slaw, but around here it is always kraut. 

Thanksgiving has always been one of my least favorite holidays now living in Dauphin county.  Past few years people got the bright idea to throw the organ meat in the gravy.  It always depressed me, nothing beats a good liver or a heart.

Our dialects vary too, in Lancaster for instance you "throw the cow over the fence some hay."  In the mountains we usually shorten the words a lot.  When I first came to the town I live in, half the time people could not understand what I was saying.  I have a friend from West Virginia and we will sometimes break into the dialect and it really confuses people.  For instance the town "Hollidaysburg" is properly pronounced "Holdeesburg."  And I always to this day get picked on because as much as I try to speak "proper" I will always maintain that I worsh my clothes and dishes.  As an artist, it is bad because I can't pronounce color the way I guess you are supposed to.  It sounds so awkward.  I say keller.   

Two more:  "It's all"- means you are done with a meal or there is no more of something.
"Out back"- As in "Where is the shed?"  "Out back."  Never realized it until middleschool that was not a common phrase.     

And the true way to tell a Pennsylvanian, ask them what state they come from, "P.A." is the usual answer. 

[The Squire]

Whit. Naebody fae bonny Alba?
Och, this is a fair blow tae the heid, so it is.
(anyone need a translation? hehe)

Bonny Alba, say ye? Och, lass, tae cheer up a dreich day, awa and boil yer heid.

(I dinna kin wha a say, boo a lak the sound.)

[Fairley B. Strange]

..."Out back"- As in "Where is the shed?"  "Out back."  Never realized it until middleschool that was not a common phrase...     

Not just a phrase in PA, it gets used a bit over here too.

I've spent a bit of time in our version, usually capitalised and with an article as 'the Outback' - which is basically anywhere beyond the east-coast urban and agricultural fringe.

[D.Oakes]

..."Out back"- As in "Where is the shed?"  "Out back."  Never realized it until middleschool that was not a common phrase...     

Not just a phrase in PA, it gets used a bit over here too.

I've spent a bit of time in our version, usually capitalised and with an article as 'the Outback' - which is basically anywhere beyond the east-coast urban and agricultural fringe.

I love linguistics.  There are so many words and phrases that appear cognates throughout vastly different cultures.  You use Outback on a national level, we use it out back on a private propety level, but meaning the same thing essentially just the geographic size is vastly different.  We'd use the term "The Sticks." 

[Miles (a sailor)Martin]

 how about "tank town"  coined to mean a town along a rail line that only grew up because of the water tank to serve the steam engines. i would assume that some towns in Australia and Africa got there starts the same way? am i correct or is this a purely Western hemisphere phenomenon?
                                             Miles

[D.Oakes]

how about "tank town"  coined to mean a town along a rail line that only grew up because of the water tank to serve the steam engines. i would assume that some towns in Australia and Africa got there starts the same way? am i correct or is this a purely Western hemisphere phenomenon?
                                             Miles

Where are you from?  Because truthfully I have not heard that term for a very long time.  It is not local to me.  Most of our towns have old train stations, sometimes where there aren't even tracks anymore. 

[Miles (a sailor)Martin]

Grew up in Albuquerque ,NM, Father was from a Wetumka,OK, Mother from Painesville Ohio.   massive reader from way back ,  US rail history ,War between the States, WW1 and WW2, Korean Conflict,(father was army in WW2 and Korea),(did six years in the US Navy myself, five on sea duty), so picked up a fair number of anachronisms in my speech and writing patterns
                                                             Miles

[Fairley B. Strange]

..."Out back"- As in "Where is the shed?"  "Out back."  Never realized it until middleschool that was not a common phrase...     

Not just a phrase in PA, it gets used a bit over here too.

I've spent a bit of time in our version, usually capitalised and with an article as 'the Outback' - which is basically anywhere beyond the east-coast urban and agricultural fringe.

I love linguistics.  There are so many words and phrases that appear cognates throughout vastly different cultures.  You use Outback on a national level, we use it out back on a private propety level, but meaning the same thing essentially just the geographic size is vastly different.  We'd use the term "The Sticks." 

And I almost forgot - the same term was used in the more local sense as a term for the (now-rare) long-drop toilet positioned down the back of the garden as far as practicable from the house, as in "Just going outback for a while".

[D.Oakes]

Grew up in Albuquerque ,NM, Father was from a Wetumka,OK, Mother from Painesville Ohio.   massive reader from way back ,  US rail history ,War between the States, WW1 and WW2, Korean Conflict,(father was army in WW2 and Korea),(did six years in the US Navy myself, five on sea duty), so picked up a fair number of anachronisms in my speech and writing patterns
                                                             Miles

That definitely sounded to me to be more west of the Appalachians.  I like that term though. 


Oh...an OUThouse.  We had an outhouse, it was tore down just a bit before I was born.  My mom and aunt grew up in a house that did not have indoor plumbing at first.  That is how backwoods we are talking.  Believe it or not, I do miss the culture.  There was something about the food just being so fresh and amazing water coming out of the ground for free. 

[Zeppelin Kapitan Fritz]

     In Atlanta, rural areas are sometimes called "outside the bubble". There's an inside joke that a "bubble" surrounds the city, separating us culturally from the rest of the state of Georgia. The bubble is not a perfect forcefield, some things can and do penetrate it, but for the most part it's pretty effective.

P.S.

     I do not like living in "the bubble". It is the bubble that has caused my identity crisis about whether I should be "Southern" or "Midwestern" (my parents grew up in Chicago and raised me as one of their own).

[Fairley B. Strange]

Grew up in Albuquerque ,NM, Father was from a Wetumka,OK, Mother from Painesville Ohio.   massive reader from way back ,  US rail history ,War between the States, WW1 and WW2, Korean Conflict,(father was army in WW2 and Korea),(did six years in the US Navy myself, five on sea duty), so picked up a fair number of anachronisms in my speech and writing patterns
                                                             Miles

That definitely sounded to me to be more west of the Appalachians.  I like that term though. 


Oh...an OUThouse.  We had an outhouse, it was tore down just a bit before I was born.  My mom and aunt grew up in a house that did not have indoor plumbing at first.  That is how backwoods we are talking.  Believe it or not, I do miss the culture.  There was something about the food just being so fresh and amazing water coming out of the ground for free. 

Over here the colloquial term for the small outbuilding is a Dunny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunny

[Mercury Wells]

Grew up in Albuquerque ,NM, Father was from a Wetumka,OK, Mother from Painesville Ohio.   massive reader from way back ,  US rail history ,War between the States, WW1 and WW2, Korean Conflict,(father was army in WW2 and Korea),(did six years in the US Navy myself, five on sea duty), so picked up a fair number of anachronisms in my speech and writing patterns
                                                            Miles

That definitely sounded to me to be more west of the Appalachians.  I like that term though.  


Oh...an OUThouse.  We had an outhouse, it was tore down just a bit before I was born.  My mom and aunt grew up in a house that did not have indoor plumbing at first.  That is how backwoods we are talking.  Believe it or not, I do miss the culture.  There was something about the food just being so fresh and amazing water coming out of the ground for free.  

Over here the colloquial term for the small outbuilding is a Dunny.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunny

In Wales the name for a toilet is "Ty Bach" meaning "Small House"

[Miles (a sailor)Martin]

Various terms i have used or heard for a room comtaining a toilet, sink, and shower stall/bathtub;
  Privie, John.Crapper,head, bathroom, dumper.

if not connected to plumbing ; Latrine ,privie,outhouse and dunnie

                                               Miles