Hmm - yes, well.... that's an American 'country' song. I once went to a (school) performance of My Fair Lady in which Freddie Eynsford-Hill sang On the Street Where You Live in an American accent!
Apparently, and according to my OH who did so, English is actually easy to learn as a foreigner. There are very few inflections and virtually no gender to worry about. She also says that the vocabulary is simple, but I'd dispute this.
I have a lot of colleagues from the US "reaching out to me". I also have some UK colleagues wanting to "square the circle", "touch base" and "take a helicopter view".
My most recent teeth grinder is colleagues who buy time while they think of what to say by saying "what it is is" - drives me potty along with "at the end of the day" and starting every sentence with the word "fundamentally"!
It can be like one long tedious episode of The Apprentice in my office sometimes.
I'm coming late to the party - just been reading back!
Did my teaching practice in Derbyshire, loved the way the kids greeted each other when they met with 'Ay oop!', 'Oop thissen!' And at a sheep sale on the moors spent almost as much time listening to the local farmers as looking at the sheep, though could have done with an interpreter. They still used 'thee' and 'tha' and had such soft accents and a specialised vocabulary, calling rams 'tups' and young, unmated ewes 'theaves'. Someone ahead of me in a queue was told 'Dinna fash thissen', when they go a bit impatient
'Tup' and 'tupping time' is still used round here, but the old farmers are all dead or dying now and the youngsters have grown up with television, and isolated communities like the mining village where I did my teaching practice are almost non-existent, so travel round the country will get less interesting .
I started collecting words for alley or alleyway, there are so many! Ginnel, as someone said, jitty, snicket, wynd, twitten - anyone got any more?
I hate it when people say noogah. It's nuggit. And what's a zeeebra?
It's noogah in English, nooget in American. I've never heard of nuggit.
I say ahmond, never heard the l pronounced until recently on TV. I was taught to say zeeebra when I was young, but have changed to zebra as it's more logical.
Someone said no one speaks like the Queen. I've been told several times that I speak like the Queen. But not sure whether it was a compliment or not!
Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
Posts
Hmm - yes, well.... that's an American 'country' song. I once went to a (school) performance of My Fair Lady in which Freddie Eynsford-Hill sang On the Street Where You Live in an American accent!
Apparently, and according to my OH who did so, English is actually easy to learn as a foreigner. There are very few inflections and virtually no gender to worry about. She also says that the vocabulary is simple, but I'd dispute this.
Her language, Dutch, is very hard.
I have a lot of colleagues from the US "reaching out to me". I also have some UK colleagues wanting to "square the circle", "touch base" and "take a helicopter view".
My most recent teeth grinder is colleagues who buy time while they think of what to say by saying "what it is is" - drives me potty along with "at the end of the day" and starting every sentence with the word "fundamentally"!
It can be like one long tedious episode of The Apprentice in my office sometimes.
I'm coming late to the party - just been reading back!
Did my teaching practice in Derbyshire, loved the way the kids greeted each other when they met with 'Ay oop!', 'Oop thissen!'
And at a sheep sale on the moors spent almost as much time listening to the local farmers as looking at the sheep, though could have done with an interpreter. They still used 'thee' and 'tha' and had such soft accents and a specialised vocabulary, calling rams 'tups' and young, unmated ewes 'theaves'. Someone ahead of me in a queue was told 'Dinna fash thissen', when they go a bit impatient 
'Tup' and 'tupping time' is still used round here, but the old farmers are all dead or dying now and the youngsters have grown up with television, and isolated communities like the mining village where I did my teaching practice are almost non-existent, so travel round the country will get less interesting
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I started collecting words for alley or alleyway, there are so many! Ginnel, as someone said, jitty, snicket, wynd, twitten - anyone got any more?
Jigger (one of many meanings of that word) is supposed to be what they're called in Liverpool, but I've never heard it other than in a song.
Tup may well have originated in Derbyshire but is now used more widely, so it may not die out. Never heard of yeaves, but hoggs and wethers.
Just remembered, anyone else ever come across the silly rhyme about the young motorcyclist, can't recall the start of it, but he had a new bike and:
He took his girlfriend for a drive,
His joy was plain to see,
He hit a bump at ninety-five,
And rode on Ruthlessly!
We get " now then " said a lot in north Lincolnshire / South Yorkshire
In Hinckly in use to get called " me duck "
Seeing a man about a dog is going for a pee. As are many other phrases!
I forgot about this thread, just read pages of it, but haven't reached the end yet. Feeling confused
Maybe I won't dare to speak any more!
Picked up the odd comment
It's noogah in English, nooget in American. I've never heard of nuggit.
I say ahmond, never heard the l pronounced until recently on TV. I was taught to say zeeebra when I was young, but have changed to zebra as it's more logical.
Someone said no one speaks like the Queen. I've been told several times that I speak like the Queen. But not sure whether it was a compliment or not!