Fine-Tuning 15, British English/American English

McTag, i've lots of friends in the ould country, and would remind you that dead men tell no tales . . .

Y'know - I was just thinking that yesterday. And this ain't the ould countree boyo.

Could be a horrible genetic mismatch between the evil ETs and Satan, tho.

Mickey, dint ya tell ye have some friends . . . ah . . . in the antipodes, as it were? Well, i got a little job fer 'em . . .

"Don't make love at the garden gate, because love is blind, but the neighbours ain't", Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer said ..... too late.

I was t'inking that I was livin' in them there Ant-tip-odees I'd be t'inking of moving to somewhere the likes of Orstralia or Noo Zeelund, bedad!

Reminds me of Paddy and his proctologist . . .

Ah, Doctor Darlin', fer all the good them suppositories done, i might as well shoved up me arse . . .

McTag, I have been to an indecent men's store -- they don't sell trousers!

Or me old mate Seamus, found dead at the bottom of a cliff still holding that tiny bird.

"You can fook that budgie jumping", thats what I was telling 'em at the poob.

While we're on the subject of pants and trousers, what Americans call suspenders, we call braces. (Or in Scotland, galluses.)

And a brace, as we know, is a pair.

So when I want "a pair of braces", am I asking for four of something?

Just wondering. Hoo would have thought haberdashery could be so Hintoxicatingly Hendlessly Hentymologically fascinating?

Galluses, eh? I wonder if there is any relation between that and the Americanism of referring to rubberized overshoes as galoshes?

"Galoschen" means the very same in Germany - although, referring to s.o.'s "old galoshes" means, she/he is wearing old, worn out shoes.

Originally, 'galoche' is just the gallic word for 'shoe'.




"Dae ye no think yir dad'll be lookin fur his galluses?"

I've herad them refred to as "galluses" in parts of the American Southwest as well. It is, of course, possible that all of the speakers were of Scottish descent.

Well, that's possible. We do know that the Grand Canyon was dug by a Scotsman who dropped a nickle . . .

Not true! It was an Irishman, looking for the keg of whisky he'd buried thereabouts earlier.

I think there were Scots in the southwest before Jock Ewing (from TV's "Dallas", for younger readers).

Crawford is a Scottish name, BTW.

A lot of the finance for early development came from Edinburgh, I have read.

The soda phenomenon:
Every drink that's carbonated and brown-colored in the south is called coke, unless otherwise specified.
For instance, I don't drink coke. I've always clung to Dr. Pepper like an addict to his fix of choice. This does not stop me, however, from referring to whatever drink I've got in my hand as coke. People say soda to be generic and neutral here and pop is just unheard of (except when used in jest against certain northerners :wink: ).

In the teenage world where I live, all pants are either jeans or khakis, there is no way around it.

Pidgin blows my mind. As far as I can gather, they have but one preposition, bilong or belong or something. On a funny note, their word for valley is "ples i go daun" (spelling?) as in "place I go down".

Welcome, Looknorthward!

The 'soda phenomenon' has a vast number of permutations in regional dialects. It's not a north-south thing; the variations are quite localized. They do call it 'pop' in parts of Florida, for example and you hardly ever hear it called that in New England. (If I recall correctly, I've heard it referred to as 'pop' in East Texas, too.)

Hereabouts (Boston, MA) any brand of cola is called 'coke', but Dr. Pepper (my own favorite, too) wouldn't fall into this category. It would be a 'soda' most everywhere in the Northeast, except in Greater Boston. Bostonians with a bit of linguistic insight might also call it a soda, but some of the die-hard old-timers might call it -- believe it or not -- 'tonic.' Only place I know of where 'tonic' does not necessarily mean quinine water but is used as a generic term for any kind of carbonated soft drink.

It;s not meaningful to speak of 'pidgin' as a generic term, btw. There are several kinds of pidgins. A person brought up with Papua-New Guinea pidgin would have a hard time understanding Hawaiian pidgin, for example. Not only would the vocabulary be somewhat altered but, more importantly, rules of grammar would change as well. If I said to a Hawaiian, 'Dispela go look-look house blong all,' he/she would probably have no notion what I was talking about whereas a New Guinea native would immediately know that I just said, "I'm going to the museum."

Jamaican pidgin english is something else altogether. To my ear it sounds like english shorthand with rythym. I blame the pirates!

We call it pop up here but in eastern canada it's soda.
Drinks are ordered as Rye/rum and Coke no matter if its coke or pepsi. For some stupid reason it seems to matter. Does anyone know what a seven and seven is?
We call braces the metal/plastic thingys orthodontists put on to straighten a patient's teeth.
Coincidentaly, did you know tonic water/quinine glows under black light.

Ceili -- A seven and seven is Seagrams Seven blended whisky (technically not rye whiskey at all, though some call it that) and 7-Up. At least that's the original meaning of the name of the drink. Nowadays you're just as likely to get any brand of Canadian whisky instead of Seagrams and, if the bartender is dull, ginger ale instead of 7-up.

It's late evening in an igloo in the far north & it's freakin' cold. You are whacked, dreaming of a warm bed & loving arms. First tho.................
How about a large Firewater & Iceburg whildt up Canadia way, served by a bottle blond Polar Bear & playing in the background some Celine Dion music. Oh yeah and a fresh caught salmon to chomp on as you thaw out