Re: Why, Thank You Apostophes

Posted by Bruce Kahl on May 18, 2002

In Reply to: Re: Why, Thank You Apostophes posted by James Briggs on May 18, 2002

: : : : : : : : The link below is to a small site of 'Black Country' sayings. The 'Black Country' is the old industrial heart of England. Some of the Sayings I recognise as being used well outside that part of England. Do others use them too?
: : : : : : : : NB Please note lack of apostrophies!

: : : : : : : (West Virginia/Kentucky) The only one that is familiar to me is "Well, e's took 'is eggs to a fine market, ay 'e?" Only our version is "He drove his geese to a fine market." (Speaking sarcastically.) I think that's how it goes.

: : : : : : DRIVE ONE'S DUCKS TO A POOR MARKET -- To make a poor manager or to associate with the wrong people. Also to drive one's goose to a poor market. 'He's driving his goose to a poor market, Pa said.' (Jesse Stuart, (Kentucky writer) 'Plum Grove Hills') See also DROVE ONE'S DUCKS TO A PORE PUDDLE." From "Mountain Range: A Dictionary of Expressions from Appalachia to the Ozarks" by Robert Hendrickson, Facts on File, New York, 1997) And I've heard it said of someone marries an unsuitable person.

: : : : : I've heard "up the wooden hills to Bedfordshire" used down South, and "for two pins..." was I think very widespread. As for "lommock" meaning clumsy idiot, there's an apparent variation down in the South East, namely "lummox". There also seems to be a Scottish phrase (!) within that linked list, namely "mythering/mithering" to mean crying. I remember my mother, who is Scots, using that term during my childhood.

: : : : Lummox is familiar in the U.S.
: : : : And here are some extra apostrophes. """""""/

: : : WHAT a kind gift... except they aren't apostrophes... they're quotation marks, or possibly inverted commas, depending on how you're feeling.

: : He must be feeling tipsy. Did you check out that last one? (Just my slant on things.)

: In spite of all my efforts 'you' still found me at fault with the extra 'i'. I wish I could tell you that's the way we spell it in Bristol UK, but I can't - we only add 'l's to the end of words which seem to end in a vowel. Hence 'Brigstowe', the 'gathering Place by the Bridge' and the City's old name, became what it is today. My problem, after living nearly 40 years here, is how do the natives tell the difference between 'ideal' (idea) and 'ideal' (ideal)!?
: Fond regards to you all, in spite of the reprimands!

Thats' all right!
Whoop's.