English and american language !

My friend "Big Ed Wilbur " from Sacramento raced down in Aussie in the late 70,s & early 80,s , he would get on the Mic & tell every one to "Get off their Fanny,s & Root for him " .
He new both translations of his statement . He sure did get the crowd a roaring ..................
 
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Well I could be wrong here but the fingers gesture "two up" with the knuckles towards the recipient... basically meaning Fu* k you [similar to the bird] dates back to the English tormenting the French when the archers would still show they had their fingers, which if caught by the French where removed!
Im having a great time reading some of these.. having a class of plonk was one even I hadn't heard in some time.. Right Im off to shag me misses..or I could say root me misses.. AHahahaha..
 
Already clarified what the two finger gesture was, your right in your post, it stems from an English archery thing. But has become more friendly. In my mind, the bird means f@#k you, the two fingers is more like "bugger off" nowhere near as abrasive as the bird.
My Mum would use the two finger gesture, never The bird.
I also will never and have never used the bird, I find it far too vile. And I have quite a potty mouth.
Martin.
 
Language differences are really interesting. Sometimes there are inconsistencies within the same language, too. Has anyone but me ever wondered why we PARK on a driveway but we DRIVE on a parkway?
 
What things are call vary between countries, and also across generations. Years ago if you called something "Sick", it was a bad thing. These days to tell someone that their car is "Sick", it's a complement. Also, all my kids that range between 32 years old, and my youngest being 16, ALL of them call a TV remote a "Clicker" and they have NO understanding as to why. It doesn't make any "clicking" noise. But, myself as a kid when TV remotes first came out were not digital, they were sonic, and made a clicking noise that the sonic receiver picked up and converted to a command for the TV functions. We called them "clickers" because of that noise they made. My kids never even seen, or heard one of those 1st generation TV remotes. But, they call them clickers because that's what I always called them.
 
Quite a while ago I was working on an English Tigre Moth biplane, installing a rebuilt cylinder. Slid the cylinder on the inverted six's piston and when to the English service manual to find the correct torque for the cylinder base nuts. The manual stated "spin the six cylinder base nuts on the studs by hand and then tighten smartly with a spanner". Never did find out how tight smartly was .......................
 
Graeme / New Zealand said:
GB = "To the allies V for Victory". " And this ones for you Mr Hitler"

US = to Hitler or at least one of his Generals "NUTS!"
Click to expand...

The "nuts" thing is so colloquial that I doubt that the German General knew what McAuliffe meant. Probably just thought it was in the negative.
 
Now heres one :- Rattle your "Dags" !!! whats it mean --- I know !
"Dags" = dingle berrys
then , i have some guys at my work that I call "Dags" , but in this case it means =Dumb *** gang !
 
Bill......SMARTLY is positively, with vigour (vigor in Yankee lingo?) but not heavy handed. A bit like in the old days when you were able to give one of your kids a smack
on the *** (arse in English).....his eyes would then smart......CONFUSED ?
 
Tiger ,you're even confusing me now.


The E language is morphed all over the place....southerners talk differently to northerners and then it splits into local dialects....it's a kind of custom language that fits a lot of places...I meet country folk with almost indecipherable ways of speaking and people with clipped 'so called proper tones'..and that's just here on the Island.
 
TonyM said:
The "nuts" thing is so colloquial that I doubt that the German General knew what McAuliffe meant. Probably just thought it was in the negative.
Click to expand...

Still one of the greatest calls made in WWII. The Germans took it up the line and back down again and after a bit of "research" they knew exactly what McAuliffe meant. Have to admit when I first heard about it I had to read up on it.

Here's another one.

GB = "Jerries", Us= "Krauts"


GB
 
Don't get me wrong, but the most I hear (I hear it a lot since I'm a vintage Ford guy)

Fix Or Repair Daily
Found On Road Dead
Fxxxed Over Rebuilt Dodge

Also being a vintage Jeep guy, which I also agree with since Jeep used many parts from various manufactures,

Jeep: Just Everyone Elses Parts
 
When was the last time anybody DIALED a phone?

Sometimes I think the across-the-pond differences are minor compared to some of our own homegrown USA dialects.

I was raised in Brooklyn, NY. I can understand the deepest hardcore Brooklyn accent, but some of the southern US stuff leaves me confused.
 
I am a southern boy, born and raised even though as a kid I moved to South Chicago. I remember in the 70s we lived right next to a Polish family that was full Poll, and all had Polish accents and lingo (even the kids). I ran around with the boy my age from next door even though we could not for the life of us understand a word we said to each other. The biggest for me was my "Reckon", "Yonder", "Fixin".. i.e. I reckon we are fixin to go over yonder..." [translation: We are soon to go over there...]. Up north they couldn't figure out the "fixin" concept the most.

On the other hand, up North they would say something to the effect: "Do you want to go with?" My reply was always, "With what?" The way I would have said the same sentence was: "Ya wanna go with me?"

Contrary to popular belief, a Texas dialect is much differnt from a south eastern dialect. It is MUCH different. Myself being from the south east, and my wife being from Texas.
 
On the same note, serving in the Air Force, I was stationed in Germany. I spoke German (although not fluently. I took German in high school). I went over there with confidence speaking the language. However I was stationed in the Hunsruck area, which is a very different dialect than the German I learned in HS. It is about the same as the difference from the King's English, and United States English. I would speak the proper German I learned in HS, and the Husnruck people had a hard time understanding me. I actually picked up their dialect though and started speaking more to their style of German. It was kinda cool.
 
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