Fever cunning linguists

Jerzy Merino's post got me thinking about English dialects

As a lad coming over to NZ (fresh from Essex) I would always be saying "wotcher" to people - a typical English greeting (fully - "wotcher cock").  And it perplexed the buggery out of the Koywoys.

I always thought of this as a London/Essex/Southern English expression, but a few years ago a Geordie colleague informed me that "wotcheor" or "wot cheor" was a similar Geordie greeting (in the same way as "areet marra").

Any expats know how prevalent the greeting was over England?  I don't know if it is in use much these days.

I spent a summer living in Chelmsford and had a job that covered south east Essex and Southend. I quite liked it. Went to a couple of Ipswich Town games. 

Wotcha ant. Question is bro', did the locals understand youse? In your job, like. And at the footie. When you spoke Kiwi.

And it goes in reverse, too. After years in the UK I filled up my old man's car here in Auckland to then be asked by the (bearded & hairy) garage cashier if I wanted a "chest hair receipt". You wot? "A chest hair receipt?". You serious (you prick?). After the third time I realised he was asking if I required a GST receipt. If I wasn't a reasonable and well-travelled man things could've got a touch nasty.

Emma Chisitz?

I have always thought that this was a 'cockney' expression.

Thanks to the powers of google a nice bit of etymological sleuthing is here: http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/wotcher.html

"Back to 'wotcher', and, if it didn't originate as rhyming slang, how did it become so closely associated with 'darn sarf'? Step up, Albert Chevalier. Despite his mixed Welsh/French parentage, Chevalier was the archetypal Cockney and a celebrated variety artist, performing under the name of 'The Singing Costermonger'. He wrote and performed a catalogue of Cockney songs, many of which are still well known; for example, My old Dutch, and the song now usually called 'Knocked 'em in the Old Kent Road', but which Chevalier performed as Wot Cher!', 1892:"

"Stuff dis cunt."  Genuine mis-hearing of customer being told price then asking for "staff discount?" ( as related by a colleague in a Camden art supply shop).

As a variation, not involving speech so much as naive Kiwi action, when I went to watch the Millwall v Man U 2004 Cup Final (incl. P Ifill) at the Five Bells pub in New Cross Gate on the Old Kent Rd, there was a spare chair available in a corner. Grabbing it, I hoisted it above my head and weaved a path through the throng. The packed pub fell utterly silent and the manageress, who knew me by sight, came rushing over. "What are you doing?" she hissed. I told her I was moving my chair nearer to the screen. "But why are you carrying it like that?" So I don't hit anybody I said. "But we all thought that's what you WERE GOING TO DO!"

Yeah, well... that's sarf London innit.

I have family in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and spent many weekends visiting there when I lived in London and I can say that the words "English" and "Language" could be very rarely used together in the same sentence there!

More Franglais:

During work over here a few years ago I was talking to a guy about selling stuff to cash coverters which had turned out to be a bad idea. I said you really shouldn't have "flogged" the stuff. He kept saying "I never stole it", this went on a few times with the guy getting more agitated. Someone pointed out that to some Kiwi's "Flog" can mean to steal rather than meaning to sell. He thought I was accusing him of stealing the stuff he sold.

Mind you I usually see as being in the English sense to sell mostly over here. Eg, "Government is flogging state assets..." Maybe it was a Pacific Island thing rather than a Kiwi thing.

Haha. Impresses 14-yr olds apparently. Still can't believe he got away with it.

Also:

Chips = potatoes cut up into rectangular chips and deep-fried in oil.  Best served with similarly treated shark aka "fish".

Crisps = thin wafers of potato deep-fried in oil with lots of food additives and sealed in a rustly foil or plastic bag.

Chippies = slang for a group of carpenters (trades people, not the famous singing brother & sister duo from the 70s and 80s)

French Fries = p*ss off

See also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=x5hrUGFhsXo

Above link a dead end. Go to Youtube NZ for Flight of the Conchords EP 8 "Foux Da Fa Fa".

Fortunately, being from Glasgow, I never have any problem being understood anywhere in the World....

An elite football league found somewhere in Europe (or, to quote Doloras, "between Bangladesh and Indonesia").

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/06/herded-language-metaphor-war

Diplodocus

"De-plod-do-cus" or "de-plo-doe-cus"?

We used to say the latter when we were kids, but switched to the former as an adult.  Last night on Nightline Sacha McNeil and some paleo expert said the latter.

If Sacha says it, I'm inclined to believe it is the correct pronounciation.

How would Billy T say it?

"Depla...diplo.... the big dinosaur"