Originally posted by paceaj: Naomi, This Website might provide an answer. Read down about half way. Ann
As an aside
Not all Australian or Leichhardt (Little Italy) restaurants make the mistake of putting seafood (frutti di mare) in mariners' pasta/pizza; though most do. Probably marinara is the one word they think they recognise, whereas very few know the meaning of puttanesca, boscaiola, cacciatore, or carbonara.
We use the French meaning for entree; but I have also learn't the salad is a course before the main course, when I expect to eat it with the main course.
John "There are two types of problems: those that solve themselves, and those which you can do nothing about" Isabel Allende's grandmother
Posts: 1582 | Location: Mullumbimby, NSW, Australia | Registered: 26 March 2003
John, running round in the back of my mind is a metaphor for sending someone off on an impossible mission - involving a rolling (and it must be an American-style one) doughnut...
Here's another curiosity. I've noticed some US posters on a certain other message board occasionally asking "How is.." of a place. This sounds very odd to me. You'd say it of a person, of course, if you were asking after their health or what was going on in their life; but not of a place. Any thoughts?
Well, I don't know about the UK, but here people will anthropomorphise almost anything without even noticing, it seems to me — anything from a car to a city to a sandwich — so maybe it's an extension of that.
But let's try a concrete example. If we wanted to know about the weather in Houston at a certain time of year, we'd probably ask: "How's Houston at this time of year?"
How would you phrase it?
Qualification 1: We might also say, "What's the weather like in Houston..." Qualification 2: "How's Houston at this time of year?" could refer to characteristics other than weather, obviously, depending on the context.
I've just come across this website (WordReference.com Language Forums) that I thought might be of interest to those of you who read this thread. (Couldn't get the link to work, sorry.) It apparently has several language-specific forums.
I found it when I searched for the word "reckon." Here's why: It occurred to me that there are a number of words which are still in common use in BE but which are generally considered colloquial in AE and not used much outside of the American South. "Reckon" is one, but I think it may be used somewhat differently in Southern speech than in the UK. Around these parts, people who use it are generally expressing some degree of uncertainty as in, "I reckon I might do that" (but I'm not sure). How is it used in the UK?
Another word in this category is "yonder," as in, "He lives over yonder." (Yes, I do know some fine mountain born-and-bred folks who talk that way.) What about in the UK? How commonly is it used and in what sense?
"I reckon" is not unknown in the UK, but it sounds increasingly old-fashioned. I don't think it's used on its own as a simple agreement with what someone else says (which is what vaguely recall straw-chewing sages saying in American films), but it certainly used to be used as "I think.." or if used in the third person it can often imply "He thinks that.... (the fool)".
"Yonder" is definitely archaic in the UK now: if used at all since Thomas Hardy, it's meant rather archly.
Well, John and Patrick, you've reinforced the understanding that I've had for quite a while, namely, that in many parts of the rural US South, perhaps particularly in the Appalachian region, words or expressions are still widely used that would be considered archaic, not only in the rest of the US, but in other areas of the English-speaking world as well. (Now I wouldn't put Greensboro in that category today, John. Particularly since we left there in 1984, it's become, along with most of the Triad, rather yuppified.)
Now, how about this one: "hit" for "it," especially at the beginning of a sentence, as, "Hit's a long time since I've been there." Many people in this area still use this form. Is it at all prevalent in the UK or Australia any more?
Patrick, you'll just have to come visit us here in the NC mountains so we can take you to visit some of our friends whose families have been living here for generations and listen to their speech (and hear their tales as well).
Incidentally, while trying to find more information on these expressions, I found a very good, if lengthy, article online by a linguist at the U of So Carolina who has tried to find, more rigorously than others in the past, the actual origins of some of these Appalachian expressions. If you're interested, I can send you the link via e-mail.
I searched and found what I was looking for. Here is a free audio recording of our late friend, Ray Hicks, the premier traditional Appalachian storyteller at the time of his death four years ago. Go about one minute into the recording to hear Ray. Now, some of his speech is idiosyncratic, but a good deal of it reflects the kind of speech patterns I've been talking about. Hope you enjoy it.
The "not quite glottal stop" at the end of words like "heat", and vowel sounds like "paypul" for people is very like the kind of accent you'll hear in East Anglia, but you can also hear something similar in some sorts of Devon accent.
