MY CHICKENS ESCAPED

@farmerman,

Quote:

I did have a turkey that was my own and thos bird lived to be almost 15 years . It died about the time I left for college.
I wrote a story in my freshman english comp about that turkey and how he lived as my friend and died somewhat alone. There wasnt a dry eye in the room when our instructor decided to read part s of it.

You had a pet turkey for 15 years, farmer?
Wanna share some turkey stories from that time?
I'm sure people would love to hear them. I know I would!
Only if you're in a turkey story telling mood, of course! Smile

1 Reply

@msolga,

maybe sometime in the future I can dreg upsome DInner stories. He was a presence in my childhood. How many people have had a pet tirkey that was, by this pet status, spared from becoming a guest at a holiday featrs?
He was thus allowed to grow , molt and regrow these magnificent feathers of which he was rather proud.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

Like I said, farmer, when you're in a reminiscing mood.
Me, I just love good animal stories & am quite shameless in my efforts to extract them from unsuspecting A2Kers. Smile

Quote:

He was a presence in my childhood. How many people have had a pet tirkey that was, by this pet status, spared from becoming a guest at a holiday featrs?

How many indeed?
He was blessed!
Lucky critter.

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We had to feed the chooks when i was a liddly . . . we didn't cherish them as pets, we feared and hated them. We would dance with glee when my grandfather slaughtered them. Nasty chooks.

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@Setanta,

They sensed your fear and hate. Chickens are all emotion and are wired to react in the moment. They also can sense calm and "leadership skills". I am busy getting my peeps whipped into shape as a lean mean egg layin machine.
Whats the etymology of the word "chook"? Ive only heard the Ozzians use it till now. IS it a common term in Cqanadia too?

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@farmerman,

I'm not too sure of the etymology, but the word 'chook' spelt Chuck but pronounced 'chook,' is used as a term of affection in the North, especially Yorkshire. It's used in the Wallace and Gromit animation. I use it all the time when I talk to my daughter and her friends. (My parents are from Yorkshire) I remember as a child my mother would call a boiled egg a chucky egg. I imagine as it's a feature of Yorkshire dialect the etymology is more likely to be old Norse than Anglo Saxon

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Thank you. THere are two words that are peppered all over these threads
One is "chook"
and the other is "maths"

I like chook , it does come across as a term of endearment . But MATHS drives me nuts, since its more of a contraction that, to an AMerican, sounds all about mismatching of singulars with plurals.

1 Reply

@farmerman,

I know we've gone over this before but what the heck. We would assert it's maths because it's a contraction of a plural, mathematics. It's a plural because of the many disciplines encompassed in mathematics, arithmatic, geometry, algebra, calculus etc. Math drives me potty, but not as much as gotten. We're going to have to agree to differ.

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@izzythepush,

Wass mit "gotten" , its a word, Isnt it?

I take it that you either did or that you do teach language?

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@farmerman,

Is Falling Water surviving ok? I remember there was a bunch of trouble with it last I read, which was quite a while ago.

I don't suppose you still have the turkey story in your papers somewhere....

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@farmerman,

I don't know what breed of chooks we had, but both my grandmother and grandfather warned us that they were aggressive and would fly out at us. They did, too. My sister and i would carry the feed pail into the chicken run, each of us with a hand on the bail, and i would have a stick in my hand to keep the hens off while my sister poured the feed into the trough.

As for the Canajuns, i've never heard them use chook, and i find that despite their conceits, they are often singularly unimaginative. I used chook because you were speaking to Miss Olga, for whom chook would be a familiar word.

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@farmerman,

I did teach English. I stopped when my wife died of breast cancer leaving me to bring up two small children on my own. (I'm not looking for sympathy here, just letting you know my circumstances.) Gotten is a feature of American English, where you would say gotten we say got. The problem is with so much American television over here some of our kids are using it. If they use it in exams they'll lose marks. Anyway this is what my dictionary says.

chuck 1 a less common word for cluck. 2 a clucking sound. 3 a term of endearment [C14 chukken to cluck, of imitative origin]

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Quote:

Gotten is a feature of American English, where you would say gotten we say got.

The problem is with so much American television over here some of our kids are using it. If they use it in exams they'll lose marks. Anyway this is what my dictionary says.

Both American and Canadian English. I wonder whether it's used in Australia and New Zealand. I also wonder if the British kids who are starting to use it use it in the same fashion that it's used in NaE?

[I wonder if Ionus, the language maven, will allow a doubled 'use it use it'?]

But what goes around comes around, Izzy.

Quote:

A Misbegotten Myth

By Dyanne Rivers

Its [gotten] use is particularly frowned on in the United Kingdom, where, like the author I was dealing with, some people mistakenly believe that it is incorrect.

This is odd, because at one time, gotten and got were equally common in British English. Indeed, the -en past-participle ending is a time-honoured Old English form that continues to exist in words such as proven, broken, bitten, stolen and known.

Nevertheless, by the seventeenth century, got was starting to prevail in Britain. By then, however, British colonists had begun to arrive in North America - and had brought gotten with them. Though the word was gradually falling out of favour in Britain, its use in North America remained vibrant, and both Canadian and American usage commentators maintain that it's perfectly acceptable, especially in informal contexts.

http://www.sources.com/ssr/Docs/SSR55-2-Gotten.htm

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@JTT,

Hmm. I use "I got some chooks" but I have just now gotten some chooks or had gotten some chooks as present and past participles... probably all related to time and how much has passed and perhaps what I was going to say next, such as I had gotten some chooks, but then I gave them away two days later.

Edited to change cantalopes to chooks so the diversion is more fitting with the thread.

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@JTT,

I'm sure you're right. Language is a fluid thing. Your quotation said

like the author I was dealing with, some people mistakenly believe that it is incorrect.

It depends what English you're talking about. In American English gotten is correct. In Standard English gotten is incorrect, apart from the phrase 'ill-gotten gains.' If you're taking an exam in Standard English gotten will count against you. If you're taking an exam in American English you're expected to use it.

It's not just some American English words that grate. I really don't like the word 'mithering,' it's a Northern Yorkshire/Lancashire dialect word. That's probably because my Yorkshire aunt used it all the time. By the way it means moaning/complaining. We have phrases that grate with you. Most Americans don't like our phrase 'Go to hospital.' We don't even notice that you say 'Go to the hospital.'

It wouldn't be so much fun if we were all the same.

1 Reply

@JTT,

JTT wrote:

Quote:
Gotten is a feature of American English, where you would say gotten we say got.

Both American and Canadian English.

I don't think I've ever heard "gotten" used in a sentence here. Perhaps it's used in other regions of Canada.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

There really aren't any words/phrases that grate on me, Izzy. They is what they is.

Quote:

In American English gotten is correct. In Standard English gotten is incorrect,

It's not really a matter of correct versus incorrect. If it was teachers would take a more realistic approach. Trying to stop young people from acquiring natural language patterns is hopelessly foolish. If BrE had 'gotten' in the past, there's no reason that it can't get it again.

The older crew, the ones that are bothered by 'gotten', have had their language day. Language is, as you've noted, fluid, and the younger crew, as it always has done, establishes these new aspects of language.

Again, I wonder if the Brit kids' use of 'gotten' mirrors the NaE use or if it is being massaged slightly to "suit" BrE.

1 Reply

farmer, don't some of the chicks get pecked to death anyway?

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@ehBeth,

Exact word Google search limited to Ontario newspapers

"gotten" site:http://www.ottawacitizen.com/
About 45,300 results

"gotten" site:http://www.theglobeandmail.com/
About 5,660 results

"gotten" site:http://www.torontofreepress.com/
About 7 results

"gotten" site:http://www.thestar.com/
About 10,300 results

"gotten" site:Edit [Moderator]: Link removed
About 5,020 results

"gotten" site:http://www.cambridgereporter.com/
About 6 results

=================

Interesting, that what seem to be the more conservative newspapers show small numbers of hits. Perhaps this is because of the British influence that 'gotten' is a vulgarity.

1 Reply

Allow me to mention the American language here, simply because it's so easy to jerk the Saxons' chains by doing so.

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