The C&H Linguistics and Etymology Thread

randylonghorn · 18-11-2010 7:15pm

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Old people in Mayo pronounce 'kettle' as 'kittle'.

That's an example of the Irish (as in Irish language) word / pronunciation having transmigrated into English.

QueenOfLeon · 18-11-2010 8:49pm

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Old people in Mayo pronounce 'kettle' as 'kittle'.

Ah the Wesht...."bowl" as "bowel", Reape as Rape, Brennan as Brannan, and loads of other surnames. Also in small little communities if theres a few women with the same name they'll say them with their husbands' names. On my road alone theres a Mary Paul, Mary Pat, Mary John and Mary Bert :P

jefreywithonef · 18-11-2010 9:19pm

Up here we tend to refer to 'cold' as 'caul', so "It's wil' caul" is a pretty common utterance. Actually "wil'" (as in "wild", pronounced "while") is basically our only adjective for things.

suitcasepink · 29-01-2011 1:37pm

<insert phrase/image/something about old thread being dug up>

I realised last night while talking to my dad that when we both say "sneak or sneaked" we say "snake, snaked" and even at that I kinda do a culchie on it and say "shnaked"

We're odd.

EDIT: That made no sense the first time round. NONE!

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 29-01-2011 3:36pm

I always wonder where the 'hey' at the end of Connacht and Donegal peoples sentences came from.

amacachi · 29-01-2011 4:52pm

"Hey" or "hi" is common in most country areas around here, seems to be common enough in some areas in the UK.
*EDIT* Just noticed I've used it twice since I posted this message. Sigh.

Namlub · 29-01-2011 8:39pm

In an, er, freakish coincidence, I've just been reading about Noam Comsky on wiki. What a man tbh.

Cows Go µ · 30-01-2011 10:28pm

I don't think I could even begin to write down all the weird ways I say things. Though the one that gets to me is I pronounce scone sc-on where as everyone here says sc-own. Where I'm from your way is considered ridiculously posh whereas here everyone says I say it the posh way.

Also I used to always pronounce maths as mas as everyone up north says it that way but no one here knows what I'm saying and I'm studying maths so have to say it a lot. Too many people though I was studying mass. Now I can't seem to go back and pronounce every letter properly but I miss my old way, I preferred it.

I say "how's you?" a lot, I even write it down in text messages and emails, it wasn't until I moved down here and someone pointed out to me that its really not grammatically correct that I even noticed there was something wrong with it. I don't care though, I'm sticking to my way

randylonghorn · 31-01-2011 4:39am

Cows Go µ wrote: »

I say "how's you?" a lot, I even write it down in text messages and emails, it wasn't until I moved down here and someone pointed out to me that its really not grammatically correct that I even noticed there was something wrong with it. I don't care though, I'm sticking to my way

I don't mind "how's you?" actually, and I can be a bit pedantic betimes! >_>

Sure, it's not good grammar, but it feels kind of friendly / informal or something ...

Davidius · 31-01-2011 4:46pm

Supposedly I use unconventional contractions. I can't think of any though so I wrote them off a lying bastard. A l'astard one might say.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 31-01-2011 7:42pm

Actually this is a good thread in which to discuss my habit of not finishing sentences. I often just stop talking in the middle of one as soon as my main point is made.

cheesefiend · 31-01-2011 10:49pm

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Actually this is a good thread in which to discuss my habit of not finishing sentences. I often just stop talking in the middle of one as soon as my main point is made.

I do this all the time except it's when someone asks me a question. I start talking and then just forget I was answering them and stop. My mam does it too which is probably where I got it from.

Insect Overlord · 01-02-2011 1:02am

Oh my god, I totally do that too, it's

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 01-02-2011 1:14am

Insect Overlord wrote: »

Oh my god, I totally do that too, it's

Davidius · 02-02-2011 12:37pm

I notice a lot of (mostly Dublin) people seem to say "schew-dent" and "Lit-trally".

Insect Overlord · 06-02-2011 7:13pm

jefreywithonef · 03-01-2012 6:28am

'Pronto' is a fantastic word.

eVeNtInE · 03-01-2012 6:31am

This post has been deleted.

jefreywithonef · 03-01-2012 6:46am

Reminds me of some confusion I caused a few weeks ago when I texted a friend saying "I'm away on", a phrase I've used all my life without really reflecting on it. I now realise that it makes absolutely no sense to an outsider. It's supposed to mean "I am going to continue onwards" but the recipient didn't have a clue what I meant.

True story.

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 03-01-2012 1:17pm

People are confused by my use of the word 'cuck' (If thats how it should be spelled). It generally means something is bad or undesirable.

Seren_ · 03-01-2012 5:00pm

jefreywithonef wrote: »

Reminds me of some confusion I caused a few weeks ago when I texted a friend saying "I'm away on", a phrase I've used all my life without really reflecting on it. I now realise that it makes absolutely no sense to an outsider. It's supposed to mean "I am going to continue onwards" but the recipient didn't have a clue what I meant.

True story.

My favourite saying ever. I'm awayyy oan hiiiii!!

I'm from Sligo, but went to school in Donegal and my mum is from there too so I tend to use a lot of Donegal phrases/slang. The confusion that used to occur when I spoke to people during first year of college *tear*

My family has a lot of random slang words for things too, ones that are used nowhere else

does anyone else's do that?

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 05-08-2012 7:09pm

Here's something I've been wondering... Why do I always say 'No Worries'? I've never even been to Australia.

Cruel Sun · 05-08-2012 7:26pm

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Here's something I've been wondering... Why do I always say 'No Worries'? I've never even been to Australia.

"Neighbors" and "Home and Away".

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 05-08-2012 7:28pm

Cruel Sun wrote: »

"Neighbors" and "Home and Away".

I don't watch them. I've no idea where I picked it up from, its just about the only noticeably foreign phrase I ever use.

Cruel Sun · 05-08-2012 7:35pm

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

I don't watch them. I've no idea where I picked it up from, its just about the only noticeably foreign phrase I ever use.

Haha that's weird, maybe someone you know uses it or something. :pac:

Duffy the Vampire Slayer · 05-08-2012 7:40pm

Cruel Sun wrote: »

Haha that's weird, maybe someone you know uses it or something. :pac:

Maybe I was Australian in a past life. For now, the mystery remains.

Jamie Starr · 05-08-2012 11:17pm

My favourite word is dollop. I like it especially because it is associated with ice-cream, charming food-stuffs of that nature, and as well as that 'd' and 'p' look the same upside-down, with 'ollo' in the middle, so it's a perfect looking word too. And it sounds so good too. Perfect word.

Davidius · 06-08-2012 1:27am

'Moreover' is a nice sounding word. Moreover, it's quite a useful word.

jefreywithonef · 06-08-2012 1:34am

Duffy the Vampire Slayer wrote: »

Here's something I've been wondering... Why do I always say 'No Worries'? I've never even been to Australia.

I say this all the time. Said it twice in succession earlier today. It's strange because everyone else just plumps for "no bother".

My new favourite word is 'rapscallion'. I bought a CD yesterday mainly because it features a song which makes prominent use of the word. Lovely.

Davidius · 12-11-2012 5:22am

Got linked to this http://chronicle.com/blogs/linguafranca/2012/10/12/one-for-the-usage-books/

They basically had a contest to see who could come up with the most convincing made-up grammar rule.

Top 3 wrote:

Mollymooly’s rule:

The pronouns “somebody” and “someone” are illogical, and one should use “a person” instead.

Reasoning: “Some” means either “a number of” (with plural nouns) or “an amount of” (with singular nouns). Since “body” and “one” are singular, “somebody” and “someone” mean “an amount of person” and is thus only appropriate for cannibals: “Would you like somebody? I’ve just taken a juicy missionary out of the oven.”

Makkapakka’s rule:

With verbs containing prefixes like in- or ex-, the corresponding prepositions should never be used. For example, “import” means to “carry in” so one cannot say “The drugs were imported into the U.K.” because this is equivalent to “The drugs were carried in into the U.K.” Instead, say “The drugs were imported to the U.K.”

The same applies to “enter into,” “export from,” “embed in,” “exit out of” and similar verbs, and to nouns derived from such verbs.

Ran’s rule:

“Because of” should not be used to modify a sentence in the future tense, since it is a logical fallacy to impute a cause to something that is not (yet) true. Rather, a construction such as “due to” or “owing to” should be used, or the sentence should be rewritten to be more clear.

For example, instead of “He’s going to Florida next week, because of a friend’s wedding,” one should write, “He’s going to Florida next week *for* a friend’s wedding.”

Writers who observe this rule thereby uphold an important distinction; a sentence such as “Because of the promised bonus, he decided to teach an extra class next summer” makes clear that the promised bonus is the cause of the *decision* (which has already happened), not the cause of the *teaching an extra class* (which hasn’t happened yet, so doesn’t yet have a cause).

The C&H Linguistics and Etymology Thread

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