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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 5, 2009 1:58:36 GMT
I don't want to get into the same tired discussion of words like bonnet/hood (for cars) that are always cited when discussing different usages around the English-speaking world.
However, I'm reading a book by Kate Atkinson that takes place in the present somewhere around Edinburgh. I've run into a few terms I don't know so far. Here's a thread for us to do mutual translations. I promise to use my best "American" if anyone has questions.
In the meantime ........ in the book I'm reading:
.... she found half a stale sliced white loaf in the breadbin, made [highlight=Pink]a Jenga tower[/highlight] of toast and jam from it and turned on the television in time to catch the seven o'clock headlines on GMTV.
What's a "Jenga tower"? I assume GMTV is a network in Scotland?
(breadbin in the US would be bread box)
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Post by cristina on Sept 5, 2009 2:55:34 GMT
Bixa,
I recall jenga as a game that involved building a tower of wooden planks, where one had to remove a plank from the middle without tumbling the tower.
Does any one else remember this?
I can see the 1970's commercial in my head as I type...
(So in your novel, the character clearly made and stacked a lot of toast.)
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 5, 2009 4:29:40 GMT
Ahhh. Makes sense, but I sure don't remember that toy. Thanks!
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Post by tillystar on Sept 5, 2009 12:19:01 GMT
GMTV is Good Morning TV, its on all over the UK between 6am and 9am. 50% of the population watch that (and apparently like the annoying bloody woman that presents it) and the other half watch BBC Breakfast.
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Post by tillystar on Sept 5, 2009 12:19:30 GMT
MOre! More! I like this game!
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 5, 2009 17:07:44 GMT
It's great reading contemporary novels that take place in different English-speaking countries because they're insights into how people speak and live on a daily basis.
It seems that US English and UK English are much closer than they used to be. I note the television is generally called the tv and OK is used a great deal. On the other hand, a supermarket cashier in the book looking forward to her afternoon break for "tea, Twix, and a fag, lovely" is not something you'd hear coming out of an American's mouth.
A woman in the book drives a blue Saxo. What's that? I figured out that "boxroom" is "storage closet", but who are The Tweenies?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2009 18:05:51 GMT
I had to translate a British play into French once and was stumped by at least half a dozen words. One that I recall was "tannoy".
It is some sort of radio speaker, if I recall correctly.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2009 18:06:47 GMT
Oh, a Saxo is a model of Citroën.
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Post by patricklondon on Sept 5, 2009 20:47:15 GMT
Tannoy is a brand name for a public loud-hailer, either handheld or the type that's fixed high up in stations or any big public event. The Tweenies - a children's TV series: www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/tweenies/ |
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 5, 2009 22:37:08 GMT
Ahhh, then tannoy = bullhorn in American.
I'd have to install RealPlayer to get the full value of the Tweenies website. Let me wait until I feel stronger to do that. I have a feeling it's going to affect me the way Barney does.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 5, 2009 22:38:23 GMT
Bullhorn or loudspeaker.
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Post by bixaorellana on Sept 5, 2009 22:44:03 GMT
Yeah.
I'd say a bullhorn is handheld, and a loudspeaker is the kind affixed to a pole or something. A bullhorn can also be called a loudhailer.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 9, 2011 18:06:13 GMT
Sometimes we are faced with the original version of something being in English, then translated to another language, and then translated back to English by somebody with no access to the original version. Such as...
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2012 8:15:15 GMT
I was reading my orange juice carton this morning (yes, my life is really exciting), and as is often the case on European products, there were indications in all sorts of languages.
In English, it said that it was "fresh squeezed orange juice with cells." Is that really what the British call what some of us other English speakers know as "pulp"?
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Post by mickthecactus on Feb 15, 2012 9:34:57 GMT
I was reading my orange juice carton this morning (yes, my life is really exciting), and as is often the case on European products, there were indications in all sorts of languages. In English, it said that it was "fresh squeezed orange juice with cells." Is that really what the British call what some of us other English speakers know as "pulp"? Not me - never heard of that before. |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 15, 2012 10:36:00 GMT
That's a relief!
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 15, 2012 15:04:35 GMT
I think it's been badly translated.
I've seen pulp being called "bits" here but that leaves a world of double entendre.
sometimes, the juice without pulp is called "smooth".
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 15, 2012 16:16:57 GMT
"bits" ~~ snicker.
Those little bitty pieces that make up a segment (aka "carpel") of a citrus fruit are called vesicles. Marketers probably realized that shoppers wouldn't snatch up juice cartons marked "now -- with even more vesicles!".
I like detective novels. In the British ones, it always seems to me that people are not friendly to the police, but have never been sure that I'm interpreting the written conversations correctly. One thing that's said that always throws me is how the cops (or maybe everyone?) are invited into the house:
"You might as well come in." Is that said with a big sigh, the way I read it?
Another one I've noticed, also about people being invited in, is "Please come through" or even "You might as well come through". This always makes me think the person is being led through to some utilitarian area, such as the kitchen, or even out the back door to the yard. (aka "garden", right?)
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Post by onlymark on Feb 15, 2012 18:02:05 GMT
Is that said with a big sigh, the way I read it?
More or less, yes. An invitation with resignation that the Police will come in anyway and there's not a lot you can do about it other than stand with them on the doorstep with all the neighbours seeing your business.
Many houses had the best rooms at the front of the house, as you would expect. You don't want favoured guests having to traipse through the rougher bits to get to the 'best room/front parlour' (usually a room, even in small houses, only used for special occasions like funerals, the vicar, prospective in laws, rich old aunts, the squire etc) so those of ordinary standing or reluctantly admitted may well be led through the hallway to the 'living room' or even to the kitchen to do what is necessary.
Familiar guests like neighbours or family may well come to the back door anyway, thus negating the need to 'come through'.
Many terraced houses had the front door as part of the front room so on entry you'd possibly go through that to get to the more comfortable part of the house towards the rear.
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Post by auntieannie on Feb 15, 2012 19:59:27 GMT
and you would have to go "through" the door, wouldn't you? as in step (which phrase construction to use now?) inside within the door frame? if you know what I mean? I am getting muddled here to try and explain clearly.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 15, 2012 20:47:42 GMT
You would have to go through the door but I'm certain that's not how it's meant.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 16, 2012 7:35:45 GMT
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Post by bjd on Feb 16, 2012 8:46:18 GMT
Interesting video, Mark. Funny that the narrator pronounces "intellectuals" with such (deserved in this case) contempt. I bet none of those proposing to put people into those ugly boxes lived in one themselves.
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Post by bixaorellana on Feb 16, 2012 15:56:45 GMT
Thanks, Mark. So I was reading it correctly. I asked a pretty-much-full-of-shit English friend of mine about it & she claimed that was just the way people spoke. I always doubted that answer. Also thanks for the video. (thread-related: to which I had to listen closely) I particularly liked that shot right at the end that showed the actual size of the gardens behind those Victorian row houses. You could see there was much more space than would appear from the engravings. The video mentioned garden cities. This might interest you: anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=paris&action=display&thread=3627&page=2 starts at #31. |
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Post by mickthecactus on Feb 16, 2012 16:17:35 GMT
Thanks, Mark. So I was reading it correctly. I asked a pretty-much-full-of-shit English friend of mine about it & she claimed that was just the way people spoke. I always doubted that answer. Also thanks for the video. (thread-related: to which I had to listen closely) I particularly liked that shot right at the end that showed the actual size of the gardens behind those Victorian row houses. You could see there was much more space than would appear from the engravings. The video mentioned garden cities. This might interest you: anyportinastorm.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=paris&action=display&thread=3627&page=2 starts at #31. There is a garden city near me , Welwyn Garden City (pronounced "well in") which is rather nice.. I'll take some pictures on my next visit (assumimg I remember my camera). |
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Post by Deleted on Feb 16, 2012 18:24:33 GMT
I thought that video was really interesting, but I felt that certain elements of British housing were left out, probably on purpose. In so many of the social dramas, you see a lot of those awful run down tall housing estates with the long balcony along the front that serves as the corridor. Maybe I blinked at the wrong time, but there seemed to be no mention of them.
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Post by onlymark on Feb 16, 2012 20:18:53 GMT
3' 46"?
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