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What are your pet peeves re English usage?

Forums: English, Grammar, Abusage, Pet Peeves, English Usage
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McTag
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 04:17 am
"Oh ye canny kick yer granny aff a bus..."

Whether can, cannae or canna, these aaa vowels in Scotland are all the same.

So, southerners are just silly.
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Clary
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 04:23 am
OK
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Joe Nation
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 04:43 am
I've never seen a reference to Northerner and Southener regarding England. Is the dividing line the Scottish border or somewhere else?

Are their Easterners and Westerners as well?


Joe
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Clary
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 04:55 am
No, west and east are not so distinguised. But we have a good big division of north and south (a novel by Mrs Gaskell called 'North and South' even)- no actual line - for Londoners it's said to be anywhere north of Watford (i e 15 miles away) but I guess it's really north of Birmingham. It's still thought that the north is more industrial, poorer - but like all generalisations, only marginally true.
Distinguishing feature really is the flat A in the north, in words like bath, can't, etc. Northist remarks prevail in the south - can't say whether the reverse is true, being an unrepentant southerner!
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Grand Duke
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 06:50 am
Clary wrote:
Northist remarks prevail in the south - can't say whether the reverse is true, being an unrepentant southerner!


Rest assured Clary, that Southist remarks are common up here. Having said that, the remarks would tend to focus on those from the south-east, rather than the people from your neck of the woods. Basically I think we try to bond together against the Londoncentrics.

There are some east-west divides in the north of England - between the Red Rose of Lancashire and the White Rose of Yorkshire. I have heard the expression "he's alright, for someone from the wrong side of the Pennines" several times in York.
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McTag
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 08:05 am
Joe Nation wrote:
I've never seen a reference to Northerner and Southener regarding England. Is the dividing line the Scottish border or somewhere else?

Joe


Scotland as Northern England?

Out of the mouths of....

forgive him, Father, for he knoweth not whereof he speaks. Smile
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Clary
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 11:52 am
Teehee! Must be a friend of GWB...


Yay, let's hear it for the anti-metropolitans and Londoncentrics. Anyone within the M25 orbital road might as well be on a different planet.
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George
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 11:57 am
...I need to get a map of the UK...
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Clary
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 12:18 pm
You do. There's probably a Stoneham on it, too. In fact I think I've seen a golf club called it in near Southampton. Perhaps your domicile is named after it.
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Grand Duke
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 12:26 pm
Stoneham Golf Club
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Noddy24
 
  1  
Reply Sat 6 Nov, 2004 03:31 pm
http://www.infoplease.com/atlas/country/unitedkingdom.html

http://www.europeexpress.com/site/map_country.asp?country=uk

http://www.merriam-webster.com/cgi-bin/nytmaps.pl?united_kingdom
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benconservato
 
  1  
Reply Sun 7 Nov, 2004 09:17 am
who doesn't say the L in vulnerable?
Is that an American thing?

Yes, people in Australia get confused with "hanged or hung" usually everything is just hung.
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McTag
 
  1  
Reply Sun 7 Nov, 2004 05:48 pm
No, many Brits now say vunnrable for vulnerable.

Not Scots, of course. Eddicated southerners.

from McTag in Hong Kong
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Merry Andrew
 
  1  
Reply Sun 7 Nov, 2004 08:48 pm
Yeh, 'vunnrable' is a recent Britishism; one seldom hears it in the States. I don't say 'never', but 'seldom'.
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Joe Nation
 
  1  
Reply Sun 7 Nov, 2004 08:57 pm
Just for fun I dug up this map of American English Dialects. Please note the complexity on the East Coast, how the language merges and emerges with the move west till just on the other side of the Mississippi it all blends together...............


American Map

Joe
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benconservato
 
  1  
Reply Mon 8 Nov, 2004 02:16 am
damn!
I guess it is the same everywhere...
0 Replies
 
kitchenpete
 
  1  
Reply Wed 10 Nov, 2004 12:36 pm
Clary wrote:
No, west and east are not so distinguised. But we have a good big division of north and south (a novel by Mrs Gaskell called 'North and South' even)- no actual line - for Londoners it's said to be anywhere north of Watford (i e 15 miles away) but I guess it's really north of Birmingham. It's still thought that the north is more industrial, poorer - but like all generalisations, only marginally true.
Distinguishing feature really is the flat A in the north, in words like bath, can't, etc. Northist remarks prevail in the south - can't say whether the reverse is true, being an unrepentant southerner!


Clary

I know that some Lahndenas (sic) think that North of Watford is North but I believe that's a misunderstanding of "Watford Gap" - the first service station to open on the M1:

Quote:
4.4.12 Why is Watford Gap so far from Watford?
Watford Gap on the M1 was the first service area in Britain to open. But Watford is a Hertfordshire town within the M25 and Watford Gap is fifty miles north of London. The answer is surprisingly simple: the services are named for the tiny village of Watford Gap, on the B5385 just outside Daventry.
From British Roads FAQ

Still, not really the North! Rolling Eyes

KP
0 Replies
 
Noddy24
 
  1  
Reply Wed 10 Nov, 2004 02:59 pm
Why do announcers pontificate: "In almost 2 decades...."

Eighteen/nineteen years is an easily comprehended span of time.

In most places "decade" is used as ostentatious literacy.
0 Replies
 
SCoates
 
  1  
Reply Wed 10 Nov, 2004 04:17 pm
Agreed.

Not even $200, but a mere 199.95!
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McTag
 
  1  
Reply Wed 10 Nov, 2004 08:43 pm
Noddy24 wrote:
Why do announcers pontificate: "In almost 2 decades...."

Eighteen/nineteen years is an easily comprehended span of time.

In most places "decade" is used as ostentatious literacy.


I disagree with that. I think decade and century are useful measures of time, along with dozens, scores and hundreds when considering numbers.
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