British propensity for dimunitive nicknames (tranny, addy, proggy, etc.)

So I will have to add tranny/trannie to this file for translating between USA and UK

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

I think the terminology may have originated in Australia.

For example, we (Aussies) don't have truckers, we have truckies. We don't have surfers (surf-board riders), we have surfies. But not every noun is modified the same way: oh, no ... that'd be boring :)

A couple of sites to browse through, at your leisure:

Cheers,

HT.

On Tue, 11 Sep 2007 15:20:48 -0500, msg put finger to keyboard and composed:

How did "arse" become "ass"?

Why do Americans pronounce "solder" as "sodder"?

What happened to the "h" in "human" and "herb"?

Why do Aussies say Bazza/Gazza/Shazza when they mean Barry/Garry/Sharon?

What is the point of Cockney rhyming slang?

Why do Kiwis say "sex" when they mean "six"?

Why do Chinese English speakers (for example in Singapore) say "spoiled" when they mean "damaged" or "faulty"?

- Franc Zabkar

1. an imperfectly made object, damaged during the manufacturing process.

Graham

Funny I suppose that you Brits refer to a CRT as a tube yet insist on calling a tube a valve.

Yes, I have also seen this in posts but it didn't grate as much as the odd use of 'doubt'.

Regards,

Michael

Indeed, some time back on some Usenet N.G. I read a post inquiring if the Brits called a CRT a 'picture valve'? There was no reply.

Regards,

Michael

Cockney rhyming slang has a long tradition in the east end of London dating back to when Sir Robert Peel's first police constables were put on the street. They were known as 'peelers' or 'bobbies', both for Robert Peel's name. The rhyming slang grew up, so the story goes, so that east end 'villains' could talk freely in the presence of these constables, using rhyming slang 'code', that only those in their 'group' would understand, and not the policemen. These days, it's a 'verbal badge' worn by anyone from that end of London right through into Essex, not just true Cockneys, born within the sound of Bow bells (the church of St Mary le Bow) - although even that is these days open to some degree of interpretation.

Many of the more well known rhyming slang phrases are used by people from all areas of the country now like "that's a really pony amp" - (Pony and trap - crap) or "Fred's on the dog for ya !" - (dog and bone - phone) or "Go take a butcher's at that !" - (butcher's hook - look)

Arfa

Back when I were a lad like, just doin' me learnin' in the TV repair trade, customers used to call anything that led to no picture, "the picture valve". On many occasions, I would go into a house and ask the customer what the problem was, and they would reply "Oh, me 'usband says it'll be the picture valve, me duck" ('me duck' is a sort of term of endearment, much used by older people in some parts of the country). So you'd go ahead and stick a new boost rectifier in, or a field output valve, or a tuner mixer valve, and then the customer would look knowingly at the old one and say " Ah, it was the picture valve then ?" But I can't recall anyone ever referring to the picture tube as anything other than that or CRT. Customers always knew it to be "The tube", and according to them, if it wasn't picture valve (or sound valve) trouble, then it must be that the tube's gone ...

Happy days !

Arfa

The reason for calling your tube a valve is because it has a current controlling effect. As in a water valve also controls the flow of water.

In the case of a CRT the control aspect no longer applies to some load part of the circuit so I can understand why it wouldn't be called a valve. Also we'd have to have a different acronym which would be a bit silly.

Graham

dating

and

even

"Go

My favourite is titfer for a hat, via "tit for tat" Who was Ruby Murray anyway ?

And contrary to the diminutive argument "apples and pears" , "dog and bone" etc are all longer than the original

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

process.

Only yesterday I had to correct my earlier misunderstood email reply to someone in the USA. I had earlier slipped into Brit-speak saying I'd posted something to him, wheras for USA I have to say I had mailed it to him. Americans pay checks with bills - we pay bills with cheques.

-- Diverse Devices, Southampton, England electronic hints and repair briefs , schematics/manuals list on

Singer 1950/60`s

Well, that's not strictly true in *proper* Cockney rhyming slang, where the actual rhyming word is left off, this being the part of it that makes it supposedly a 'coded' language derivative only for understanding by the initiated. So "apples and pears" only gets spoken as "apples" , "dog and bone" as "dog", "Ruby Murray" as "Ruby". Interestingly, there was a curry shop in my town called "The Ruby". A year or two back it changed hands, and became a take away fish and chip shop. It still bears the name "The Ruby", so that's a good example of how Cockney rhyming slang has spread out across the country (I'm about 70 miles from London) and been bastardised into something else, that is actually not understood by the people who have taken it on.

Indeed, in some areas of the country, there are newly created examples of rhyming slang that are 'in the vein of', but don't actually *quite* follow the rules of proper Cockney rhyming slang, presumably because they have been thought up by the ever-thicker youth of this country, who don't understand the 'rules' of this language variation. Such 'new' attempts may well be as long or even longer than the original plain-language word or phrase that they are replacing.These are also the examples where the 'rhyming' word is not very good, or the whole phrase is spoken so that even their dumber-than-them mates can still understand what they are saying ...

Do you really not know who Ruby Murray was ?

Arfa

I like the French for bills (US checks) it's l'addition ! Delighfully explanatory. :-)

In German it's somewhat more terse, die Rechnung (the 'reckoning').

Graham

Why is that ?

Graham

and what about a 'raincheck'

Ron

Pretty far off topic now, I`m surprised the usenet police haven't been round!

The same reason we drive on parkways and park on driveways.

If the plural of "mouse" is "mice", pluralize "house" and "spouse". (That latter one should make one think.)

Posh English folks pronounce house as hice

okay yah

Ron(UK)