Yes, it's Little Britain, there's loads more characters the guys do. Daffyd the only Gay in the Village is my favourite. There's quite a bit of it on U Tube. An interesting insight rofl!
Hanging's too good for him - Chavspeare
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Yes, it's Little Britain, there's loads more characters the guys do. Daffyd the only Gay in the Village is my favourite. There's quite a bit of it on U Tube. An interesting insight rofl!
Here's another person who's got the English stroppy teenage chav off to a T! It's Catherine Tate, her characters catchphrase "am I bovvered?" is heard up and down the country now! On the one on the train you can imagine them reading the Chav Shakespeare, this is exactly how it would sound!
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Blimey! The first Catherine Tate sketch that made me laugh. To steal another iconic characters phrasing "I don't believe it!" 
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By the way, an utter aside here, who was it that thought it was a good idea to cast her as the new Dr. Who assistant? I'm not disrespecting her as an actress or nuffink but it's hard to disassociate her past 'characters' which proves a bit disruptive in the rather more dramatic setting she now inhabits.
.By the way, an utter aside here, who was it that thought it was a good idea to cast her as the new Dr. Who assistant? I'm not disrespecting her as an actress or nuffink but it's hard to disassociate her past 'characters' which proves a bit disruptive in the rather more dramatic setting she now inhabits.
I love learning new words, including slang from far away places. Perhaps you Tez, and you, Sukerkin could answer a question for me:
Cockney rhyming slang, dear God, tell me people don't actually talk like that, do they?
Cockney rhyming slang, dear God, tell me people don't actually talk like that, do they?
It depends, Don.
Some sprinkle their speach with some of the more common terms (apples and pears (stairs), trouble and strife (wife), brahms and list (pissed/drunk) etc). Some of these are not even part of the 'original' thieves cant (which is what Cockney Rhyming Slang actually is) but with use get appropriated into popular 'culture'.
There are those who still keep the cant alive, which is, I suppose, a good thing - my past profession in history doesn't like to see things vanish from sight, even when they irritate me.
You have to bear in mind tho' that I'm a Midlander and Tez is a Northener and our views on all things Southern Shandy-Drinker are suspect :lol:.
Some sprinkle their speach with some of the more common terms (apples and pears (stairs), trouble and strife (wife), brahms and list (pissed/drunk) etc). Some of these are not even part of the 'original' thieves cant (which is what Cockney Rhyming Slang actually is) but with use get appropriated into popular 'culture'.
There are those who still keep the cant alive, which is, I suppose, a good thing - my past profession in history doesn't like to see things vanish from sight, even when they irritate me
.You have to bear in mind tho' that I'm a Midlander and Tez is a Northener and our views on all things Southern Shandy-Drinker are suspect :lol:.
Interesting, scary, but, interesting. Thanks!It depends, Don.
Some sprinkle their speach with some of the more common terms (apples and pears (stairs), trouble and strife (wife), brahms and list (pissed/drunk) etc). Some of these are not even part of the 'original' thieves cant (which is what Cockney Rhyming Slang actually is) but with use get appropriated into popular 'culture'.
There are those who still keep the cant alive, which is, I suppose, a good thing - my past profession in history doesn't like to see things vanish from sight, even when they irritate me
You have to bear in mind tho' that I'm a Midlander and Tez is a Northener and our views on all things Southern Shandy-Drinker are suspect :lol:.
I stayed in a hostel in Inverness and was absolutely convinced that they were speaking a different language. Of course, this was after about a dozen pints or so...:drinkbeer:drinkbeer:drinkbeer:drinkbeer:drinkbeer:drinkbeer:drinkbeer:drinkbeer:drinkbeer:drinkbeer:drinkbeer:drinkbeer
Probably about as well as Californians can understand backwoods Georgians or Alabamians...
Northerner! me! I only live here lol! I'm London born, Lambeth (Brixton) actually. I have what is known as a Service accent due to many years spent in and with the RAF. My other half is Yorkshire though and while his accent used to be Service years spent oop North has made him pronounce things Yorkshire again. Like a flat W in water so it comes out rhymes with latter. The people up the Dales are hard to understand, it's not so much the accent it's more they use different words as well. Their speech has a different cadence to it. Many of the words used are actually Norse and I had an interesting discussion with someone on MT from Norway about this a while back as he recognised many of the words used and were only slightly different from words used in modern Norwegian.
The RAF when I joined never had a problem with accents as such but did encourage you to speak so you can be understood lol! The problem now isn't accents which are great, the diversity is wonderful but 'lazy' speech. dropping letters off the end of words and 'swallowing' other words so it's sounds awful. Mick Jagger for example before he was famous spoke Received Pronounication (The way the BBC announcers speak) but like many other who want to sell to the yoof market started talking like he imagined East Enders did.
I work with the Army now and the range of accents is amazing, we have the Infantry recruits here for their training and I have to say the majority of them have the accent of their region rather than the chav speak thank goodness. We also have regiments from various regions ( British regiments recruit in their home region, the soldiers for the most part stay with that regiment so never lose their accents) at the moment we have a Liverpool Regiment, Scousers, very broad! We have a Yorkshire regiment, they recruit from around Leeds so their accent is different to the local North Yorkshire one and a Welsh tank regiment who are mostly Welsh speakers. The Royal Artillery regiment recruits from the West Country so we have lots of lovely soft west country accents (however many non west country men find it startling to addressed by another man as 'my lover' a common expression down there!). The Logistics,REME and Medical regiments however are recruited nationally so they have all tended to lose the edge off their accents.
The Army has been recruiting from the Commonwealth a lot too (mostly medical staff) so we have many Africans in who speak beautiful English circa England 1950s, they have manners to match as well! They have kept it seems the old school ways while our schools went 'modern'. They would speak Shakepeare's words wonderfully!
The Army also recruited a lot of Fijians, this hasn't been so successful. We've had a lot of trouble with fighting, rapes and violence. The Ghurkas are wonderful though, they come here straight from Nepal and again their manners are impeccable, it's refreshing. They learn English as part of their training.
I'm wondering you know about the correlation between speech and manners! I don't mean accents but if you speak sloppily is it a mindset that leads you to not minding your manners as well?
The RAF when I joined never had a problem with accents as such but did encourage you to speak so you can be understood lol! The problem now isn't accents which are great, the diversity is wonderful but 'lazy' speech. dropping letters off the end of words and 'swallowing' other words so it's sounds awful. Mick Jagger for example before he was famous spoke Received Pronounication (The way the BBC announcers speak) but like many other who want to sell to the yoof market started talking like he imagined East Enders did.
I work with the Army now and the range of accents is amazing, we have the Infantry recruits here for their training and I have to say the majority of them have the accent of their region rather than the chav speak thank goodness. We also have regiments from various regions ( British regiments recruit in their home region, the soldiers for the most part stay with that regiment so never lose their accents) at the moment we have a Liverpool Regiment, Scousers, very broad! We have a Yorkshire regiment, they recruit from around Leeds so their accent is different to the local North Yorkshire one and a Welsh tank regiment who are mostly Welsh speakers. The Royal Artillery regiment recruits from the West Country so we have lots of lovely soft west country accents (however many non west country men find it startling to addressed by another man as 'my lover' a common expression down there!). The Logistics,REME and Medical regiments however are recruited nationally so they have all tended to lose the edge off their accents.
The Army has been recruiting from the Commonwealth a lot too (mostly medical staff) so we have many Africans in who speak beautiful English circa England 1950s, they have manners to match as well! They have kept it seems the old school ways while our schools went 'modern'. They would speak Shakepeare's words wonderfully!
The Army also recruited a lot of Fijians, this hasn't been so successful. We've had a lot of trouble with fighting, rapes and violence. The Ghurkas are wonderful though, they come here straight from Nepal and again their manners are impeccable, it's refreshing. They learn English as part of their training.
I'm wondering you know about the correlation between speech and manners! I don't mean accents but if you speak sloppily is it a mindset that leads you to not minding your manners as well?
Oops! Sorry Tez - I shall have to fall back on my old excuse of late night posting on that regionalisation error :lol:.
I think I remember you telling me once before that you were originally from "dahn Sarf"; my apologies for not recalling that.
I don't know what my accent is like at present (it's been a while since I've heard my own voice played back to me (during an Oral History project I was doing when I was a curator)). I used to have a Received Pronunciation voice for some reason - it was only when I went to University that I realised this as everyone assumed I was a posh nob from London. I picked up the Stokie accent after a while - probably in self defence as I couldn't understand a word some of the older residents said :lol:.
I particularly like the last point you make about how sloppiness in speach tends to translate (yeah, linguistic pun attack!) out into other aspects of character.
I think I remember you telling me once before that you were originally from "dahn Sarf"; my apologies for not recalling that
.I don't know what my accent is like at present (it's been a while since I've heard my own voice played back to me (during an Oral History project I was doing when I was a curator)). I used to have a Received Pronunciation voice for some reason - it was only when I went to University that I realised this as everyone assumed I was a posh nob from London
. I picked up the Stokie accent after a while - probably in self defence as I couldn't understand a word some of the older residents said :lol:.I particularly like the last point you make about how sloppiness in speach tends to translate (yeah, linguistic pun attack
!) out into other aspects of character.
Tellner, I've met a number of people from the Free Nation of Yorkshire and I must've been lucky as, other than for ancient words I'd not heard before, I could understand them well.
The first resident of Stoke I met up with when I moved there was a different kettle of fish. I really couldn't pick out a word and had to resort to nodding and smiling after the third time of asking him to repeat himself :blush:. The same thing with the Scottish caretaker at Uni. You ear adapts after a while tho'; so the best advice I can give is to keep listening and, like that scene in "13th Warrior" where the dialogue switches from Norse to English, it'll start to come through.
The first resident of Stoke I met up with when I moved there was a different kettle of fish. I really couldn't pick out a word and had to resort to nodding and smiling after the third time of asking him to repeat himself :blush:. The same thing with the Scottish caretaker at Uni. You ear adapts after a while tho'; so the best advice I can give is to keep listening and, like that scene in "13th Warrior" where the dialogue switches from Norse to English, it'll start to come through.
It's also the speed at which people speak that hinders understanding. Most Americans I've heard speak relatively slowly as we do where the Latin and Romance language speakers speak rapidly. My French isn't bad if spoken at English pace lol but at French pace gets easily lost. I have a suspicion that the Japanese speak fast too which is why I can never pick out individual words that I know?
The funniest thing I've heard is Yorkshire kids with a very prounouced Yorkshire accent trying to emulate American gangsta talk!
Sukerkin, I meant to say I agree with you about Catherine Tate in the Doctor,she's very strident! ( that's another pet hate I have about language lol) However I was pleased to see Martha back this week!
The funniest thing I've heard is Yorkshire kids with a very prounouced Yorkshire accent trying to emulate American gangsta talk!
Sukerkin, I meant to say I agree with you about Catherine Tate in the Doctor,she's very strident! ( that's another pet hate I have about language lol) However I was pleased to see Martha back this week!
Quick OT - we missed Dr. Who this week (decorating the kitchen ) but hope to catch the repeat. Nice to hear Martha'll be in it ... innit :lol: {runs}.
) but hope to catch the repeat. Nice to hear Martha'll be in it ... innit :lol: {runs}.
Quick OT - we missed Dr. Who this week (decorating the kitchen
If I miss it I watch it on the BBC I-Player online. I'm not sure but I imagine anyone can log on and watch BBC (and all the British terrestrial programmes) online which would be an interesting way of listening and observing us Brits lol!
