Dialogue and the Oddities of the English Language

[jannifer]

One of the wonderful things about the English language is its richness. There are so many regional variations -- not just among British, American, Australian English, but within those countries. Some of these expressions are wonderful and could offer something special in dialogue within our fiction. Other things are just interesting little bits.

I've added some new comments with more goodies I remember my grandmother using. Yay!

UPDATED QUESTION: Could some kind speaker of UK English explain the meaning of the phrase "no better than she should be"? I have the basic idea, but some clarification would be helpful.



In the conversation following the release of Chapters 51 and 52 of VLSV, ScaryLady and Lenna mentioned a few of these phrases in regards to having a fight or throwing a fit (as we might say in the States).

From ScaryLady -- "Caerwyn throwing an almighty paddy at the uncaring archdemon made this chapter for me.

'Oi, AD, quarter to four, school gates. I'm 'aving yer out.'"

In a later post -- "having a strop? throwing a wobbler? losing his rag?"

From Lenna -- "Duking it out. Scrapping. Busting someone's ass. Giving a knuckle sandwich. Opening a can of whoopass. Er, uh... Kicking the shit out of someone?"

Now, because this post and its attendant comments have the potential to wander waaaaaaaaayyy off the DA topic of this community, I've written a post over on my journal which offers up a few of the turns of phrase I've heard here in my little corner of heaven. I'd like for you to stop by and add your various regional expressions, turns of phrase, metaphors and slang. I'm sure that some of these expressions will be useful in dialogue and some won't be. All of them will be great fun!

Please, join the discussion! You may comment here or at http://jannifer.dreamwidth.org/2172.html

Comments

[niniane]

I agree, I find it fascinating. Linguistics is really, really interesting.

California, of course, has a huge variation due to all of the different immigrants. I'm intrigued by how (esp. in the central valley) you can often guess socio-economic status by the accent. (Like, those with the Okie accent tend to be poorer than those with the more coastal accent.)

I'm multi-generational Californian, grew up in the Bay Area (which is a mix), but have the "older" SF accent, which is semi-similar to the Kiwi accent due to the mining influence in both areas from the 1850s, from what I've been given to understand. Both my parents are from the south central valley, but back prior to the Great Depression, so the accent is semi-similar between what they use natively and what's spoken on the coast.

I don't think that the Don/Dawn or the cot/caught merger is complete. I say them faintly differently, I guess. There's a bit of a dipthong for caught and dawn that there isn't for don and cot, but it's similar enough that I had to say the words aloud to hear it.

Yeah, the pacific Northwest is entirely different...it gets crazy up there in some areas!

[jannifer]

In my area, I'll sometimes hear older speakers pronounced "bed" and "red" as "bid" and "rid." (Both my sisters did so a small girls.) And there's no distinction in the pronunciation between "pen" and "pin." I do say "PAIN-ting" with the first syllable pronounced like the word "pain."

[niniane]

I hear that too, mostly in the central valley (and, as you said, among older speakers). Language is so funny...

[jannifer]

And endlessly fascinating....