Again, I've only recently discovered some of these terms, but a lot of them are words that I've gotten used to hearing and just forgotten to post. Still, it amazes me that, nearly three months in to my trip, I can still be learning new words IN THE (SUPPOSEDLY) SAME LANGUAGE. What's that saying? "The UK and US: two countries separated by a common language," or something like that - SO TRUE.
Foreign Words
lolly - sucker or lollipop
jumper - sweater
dreich - dreary
peckish - hunger
Slightly Different Usage
hamper - gift basket
motorway - highway
carriageway, as in "dual carriageway" - road ("two-lane road")
Increased Usage
dodgy - sketchy
fiver - five pounds (or dollars)
tenner - ten pounds (or dollars)
zed - the letter Z
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
Showing posts with label English. Show all posts
22 March 2011
26 January 2011
Linguistics of Scots
I'm sitting in lecture right now, so I'll keep this short, but I just had to blog about this huge revelation that I had to share:
Back story: In Linguistics last semester (one of the most interesting classes I've had at Furman), Dr. Cox touched briefly on dialect/regional differences. I found that my West Virginian "accent" was ever-so-slightly different than many others' accents. Our professor accepted all phonetic spellings, as long as we could back them up, and was not nearly so interested in the "proper" pronunciation as he was in our ability to diagram what we were saying. Some of the differences included my identical pronunciation of the words "cot" and "caught" and my minute difference in the pronunciation of wh- question words like "which" and "why" and their counterparts without h's, "witch" and the letter y.
Now: Our lecture today is on Language in Scotland, and so far, we've covered everything from the origins of Scots and Gaelic to their usage today. Just now, we discussed the difference between Scottish English and the "Queen's English," and just a wee bit more of the world makes sense to me now: Scottish English influence includes pronouncing "caught" like "cot" rather than [cat] (phonetic) and pronouncing the slight h in wh- question words.
I have Scottish ancestors, and I live in West Virginia, where many Scots have settled in the mountains.
THIS CLASS IS SO COOL.
Back story: In Linguistics last semester (one of the most interesting classes I've had at Furman), Dr. Cox touched briefly on dialect/regional differences. I found that my West Virginian "accent" was ever-so-slightly different than many others' accents. Our professor accepted all phonetic spellings, as long as we could back them up, and was not nearly so interested in the "proper" pronunciation as he was in our ability to diagram what we were saying. Some of the differences included my identical pronunciation of the words "cot" and "caught" and my minute difference in the pronunciation of wh- question words like "which" and "why" and their counterparts without h's, "witch" and the letter y.
Now: Our lecture today is on Language in Scotland, and so far, we've covered everything from the origins of Scots and Gaelic to their usage today. Just now, we discussed the difference between Scottish English and the "Queen's English," and just a wee bit more of the world makes sense to me now: Scottish English influence includes pronouncing "caught" like "cot" rather than [cat] (phonetic) and pronouncing the slight h in wh- question words.
I have Scottish ancestors, and I live in West Virginia, where many Scots have settled in the mountains.
THIS CLASS IS SO COOL.
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