To boldly go.....

[Shyheels]

Actually I have heard kiddie used in that sense - and marvelled at it when I heard it - but as you say it was spoken by much older folk. A bit like some of the classic Australian slang which is so dated now as to be almost a parody of itself.

[mlroseplant]

In general mainstream usage, the term "bubbler" refers to a drinking fountain, not a bong. I've only ever heard older folks from the southeast U.S. use the term, and probably most of those people are dead. It possibly is used in the Northeast, but my extended family is from the Southeast, so I only have experience from that region.

Edited May 23, 2020 by mlroseplant

[maninpumps]

22 hours ago, mlroseplant said:

In general mainstream usage, the term "bubbler" refers to a drinking fountain, not a bong. I've only ever heard older folks from the southeast U.S. use the term, and probably most of those people are dead. It possibly is used in the Northeast, but my extended family is from the Southeast, so I only have experience from that region.

Please read this link https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/blog-bubblers-what-are-they-and-why-use-them-n863 .

[mlroseplant]

2 hours ago, maninpumps said:

Please read this link https://www.royalqueenseeds.com/blog-bubblers-what-are-they-and-why-use-them-n863 .

I'm not saying that the term hasn't come to mean other things in other circles, I guess I should have made it clear that in my personal experience, I have always known it to mean a drinking fountain. Like I said before, most of the people who would have used the word in that way are probably dead by now. It may be that most people's understanding of the word has passed me by. It wouldn't be the first time.

As an aside, I would think no one would be very excited about drinking from a bubbler these days!

[meganiwish]

On 2/19/2020 at 9:03 AM, Puffer said:

And the (almost traditional) space-filler in the local paper for a rural area: 'New bacon-slicer at village shop'.

Just heard today, possibly apochryphal, from the Irish Times, 'Cork Man Drowns.'

[Puffer]

5 hours ago, meganiwish said:

Just heard today, possibly apochryphal, from the Irish Times, 'Cork Man Drowns.'

Which reminds me of one of my Grandfather's puzzles: Where in the British Isles do men weigh least?   Answer: There are men of Ayr in Scotland and men of Cork in Ireland - but lightermen on the Thames!

[Isolathor]

On 5/22/2020 at 7:38 AM, meganiwish said:

I wouldn't speak Sussex to the Queen.

What slang is she talking? Queenish? 😉

[Shyheels]

52 minutes ago, Isolathor said:

What slang is she talking? Queenish? 😉

Sussex has - or had - it's own dialect.

The Queen isn't one for speaking in slang. 

[at9]

The Queen speaks in what is often called RP, Received Pronunciation. But RP itself has changed substantially over the years.

PS: I speak a rough approximation to today's RP which would be typified by today's BBC announcers on Radio 4 and Radio 3. The Queen's RP is close to what you would have heard on the BBC a few decades ago. It now sounds very upper class. But it probably sounded that way even back then.

Edited June 15, 2021 by at9

[mlroseplant]

I have, over the years, developed a style of speaking where I'll use poor grammar on purpose, either for emphasis or comic effect. For example, after seeing a photograph on social media the other day, I sent my shoe buddy a message which read, "I see you have got yourself some a them TikTok girl shoes." In reference to the block heeled, Lucite sandals which one often sees on fashionable Asian women these days.

[at9]

Every time I hear myself saying "for free" I wince slightly. I know I should say simply "free" or "for nothing". If I was from the north of England (I'm a Londoner) I might say "for nowt" and mean it. As a southerner I would only say that for comic effect.

"Would of" may be a lost cause. It's based on the way we nearly always say "would have" or "would've" but grates my gears when I see it written.

The young woman who complimented me on my shoes the other night (that's in another thread) had a lovely speaking voice. RP, a little posher than mine. From what I know of her, she's from a fairly posh and wealthy background, and speaks as one might expect.

[Shyheels]

Wasn’t Princess Eugenie was it?

[at9]

Not that posh! Just ordinary upper middle class or very low ranking aristo at a guess.

[mlroseplant]

The first time I met my wife in person in Vietnam, we did all the fun, tourist-y stuff, and in our travels we met these two girls from Brighton. If they had been Americans, I would describe them as hippie chicks, but that's beside the point. They had, to my ear, the most smo0th and beautiful way of speaking the English language that I think I've ever heard in my life, and I told my wife that. She disagreed with me strongly about that, because she couldn't understand a damn word they were saying.

[at9]

Seems like they didn't have the local Brighton accent which is fairly rough and coarse.

[mlroseplant]

Hmmmm. I've met probably half a dozen people who at least claimed to be from Brighton, and they all sounded pretty much like these two girls. But I've never been there, so obviously I can't say for sure. I asked another fellow I used to know who also claimed being from Brighton, to describe his accent. He said something to the effect of oh, I suppose it's a Southern English educated man's accent. Nothing really remarkable about it.

There was, however, something really remarkable about his ability to play the piano. He was one of those people you could plop a piece of sheet music down in front of him, no matter how ridiculously difficult, and he could play the thing on sight. I have known only one other pianist in my life who has that ability to that degree, and she is not from Brighton.

[Shyheels]

I would not have said Brighton's accent was harsh or uneducated at all. I live only 35 miles from there and have been there often. In my town we have a lot of people from south London and they do indeed have a rather coarse accent, but not Brighton.

[meganiwish]

Careful!  That's my accent you're speaking of. 😉

I had a linguistics lecturer in the 1980s, Larry Trask, https://www.google.com/search?client=avast-a-2&q=larry+trask+obituary&oq=Larry+trask&aqs=avast.2.69i57j0l5.10772j0j7&ie=UTF-8 who told us that London was alone in replacing theta and thorn  with f and v.  I had to put him straight, because we did it too.  In the seventies there was this Big Idea of the London Overspill.  It meant our town lost its previous Sussex accent and regional dialect, which can still be heard in Bexhill.  Does anyone else know saying 'vainites' with crossed fingers to gain temporary immunity when playing tag?  Sussex will be Sussex, and Sussex wunt be druv.

---

[Puffer]

I've only just seen these interesting comments about accent and dialect.   As I have spent my not insignificant lifespan to date split into three roughly equal periods of residence in West Middlesex, Brighton and now West Kent, I have some close experience of the way people in those areas speak, although I do not claim to be another 'Henry Higgins'.   Brighton is often called 'London-by-the-sea', and with good reason: aside from those who moved there (as I did), its commuter, leisure and commercial links with London have always been strong and it is in many respects almost a suburb of London.   If you drive down the A23, you will not find a great deal of difference in speech once clear of South London (where the Cockney influence quite noticeable in Croydon wanes) unless you go 10 miles or so east or west 'into the sticks'.   Such differences in either accent or dialect as will be noticed are more a product of class or occupation rather than place of birth or residence - a Brighton barrister, bank clerk, shopkeeper or barrow-boy will each sound very similar to their counterpart  from (say) Sutton, Redhill, Crawley or Haywards Heath - but Horsham, Uckfield, Steyning or Lewes will be in some respects distinguishable, and beyond that many people will have a noticeable accent and use some unfamiliar words or expressions.   I don't believe there is a distinct 'Brighton accent'.

A good example of a dialect word that can often indicate a person's origins (regardless of accent) - and not just in the south of England - is the word they use for a narrow pedestrian passageway (i.e. as found between or behind houses).   In Middlesex and London, it would be an 'alley'; on Surrey or Sussex a 'twitten' - and in other parts of England are found such terms as 'passage', 'entry', 'lane', 'drangway'.   I have a theory that there must be a point where Surrey meets London at which people on opposite sides of the same road refer variously to 'alley' or 'twitten' - and having worked for 10 years in Sutton (just inside Greater London), I had colleagues from both areas who did indeed vary in their usage of these terms.

For the record, I do remember as a Middlesex schoolboy that a request for a truce or immunity during street games required one to utter 'fainites' (not 'vainites'), and with crossed fingers optional.  So, not exclusively an East Sussex/Kent coast expression, it seems.