Question for UK members: tipping?

[Bob The Skutter]

A lot of American accents are based on Irish and Southwest and West England accents. You definitely hear the origins in these places.

I wouldn't say that's necessarily true. I mean in different areas of the US you can pick out dialects from Britain. Plus a lot are mixtures of various accents. Besides the fact there's a lot of other settlers from other nations to throw in to the mix, as well as the natural drift of British accents. There was a study that said a lot of southern American accents are actually close to 17th century British accents than most British accents today are. But who knows how accurate that is.

Thnaks for the answers. It seems like more study is required from my part. I have no idea how Southwest and West England accents sound and I probably haven't heard enough different US accents.

Here's a website, helpfully provided by the BBC, that has recordings of different accents from all over the country.

 

[Count Zero]

That's a cool website, Bob, and a recommendable project. I don't think anything like that exists for Germany. Despite all federalism, most public tv stations aren't concerned with local dialects. Then again, dialects generally have a bad rep here and some dialects are universally disliked. One tv station wanted to have more dialect speakers in their programmes but then a study found out that Saxonian is most despised dialect in this country.

Some of the Yorkshire guys are really hard to understand. It's like listening to a Frenchman for me, understanding a few words and maybe the general gist of what's being said. The same goes for Scouse, but I already knew that.

 

[Colonel Green]

In Canada such a sign would usually say "No Dumping", but oddly, the money you pay to dump stuff at the municipal landfill is generally called a "Tipping Fee"

 

[Bob The Skutter]

That's a cool website, Bob, and a recommendable project. I don't think anything like that exists for Germany. Despite all federalism, most public tv stations aren't concerned with local dialects. Then again, dialects generally have a bad rep here and some dialects are universally disliked. One tv station wanted to have more dialect speakers in their programmes but then a study found out that Saxonian is most despised dialect in this country.

Some of the Yorkshire guys are really hard to understand. It's like listening to a Frenchman for me, understanding a few words and maybe the general gist of what's being said. The same goes for Scouse, but I already knew that.

Hey, I'm a Yorkshire man... Hull if you're interested to see how bad my accent might be.

 

[JustKate]

Interesting. I'm not British, but I read that the word "gotten" isn't used in UK English anymore, but apparently it had been up until the late 17th century.

I don't think that one is true.

"By the time he'd gotten up, the postman had already been".

Yeah, that's not true. There are some weirdness with some words though, like snigger/snicker, apparently snicker is the original word, which over has morphed in to snigger, but not in the US.

I have had friends who live in the U.K. tell me how odd and old-fashioned "gotten" sounds to their ears, though. It must be one of those things that varies from region to region, or perhaps it's only in specific constructions.

The US squeamishness with coarse expressions is quite amusing. The universal use of 'bathroom' for toilet is one of them and 'going to the bathroom'; as in 'the dog went to the bathroom on the floor'.

But Deckerd, "go to the toilet" is also a euphemism - admittedly it's a bit less euphemistic than "go to the bathroom," but you aren't going in there just to say "hi" to the toilet, right?

By the way, strictly speaking, one should say "go to the bathroom" to refer to the room itself only in private homes. The public version would be "go to the restroom." Just sayin'...

But me, if the dog did something on the floor, I would personally be pretty darn blunt, as in "Your damn dog pissed/urinated all over the damn floor." There is a time for euphemism and a time to call a spade a spade.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I don't think that one is true.

"By the time he'd gotten up, the postman had already been".

Yeah, that's not true. There are some weirdness with some words though, like snigger/snicker, apparently snicker is the original word, which over has morphed in to snigger, but not in the US.

I have had friends who live in the U.K. tell me how odd and old-fashioned "gotten" sounds to their ears, though. It must be one of those things that varies from region to region, or perhaps it's only in specific constructions.

The US squeamishness with coarse expressions is quite amusing. The universal use of 'bathroom' for toilet is one of them and 'going to the bathroom'; as in 'the dog went to the bathroom on the floor'.

But Deckerd, "go to the toilet" is also a euphemism - admittedly it's a bit less euphemistic than "go to the bathroom," but you aren't going in there just to say "hi" to the toilet, right?

By the way, strictly speaking, one should say "go to the bathroom" to refer to the room itself only in private homes. The public version would be "go to the restroom." Just sayin'...

But me, if the dog did something on the floor, I would personally be pretty darn blunt, as in "Your damn dog pissed/urinated all over the damn floor." There is a time for euphemism and a time to call a spade a spade.

I know plenty of people who say "I'm going for a piss/pee/wee/shite/shit/dump" It's just not considered very polite.

As for gotten, it may just be the pronunciation, or as you say, the context it is being used in.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

Slightly related: thanks to the continual exposure to American pronounciation of "route" on Star Trek- "reroute the blah blah to the blah blah", I'm now equally comfortable with "rowt" or "root", whereas before it was always "root".

 

[JustKate]

^ I actually use both pronunciations - it depends on the context. "Rowt" I use for sentences such as "Reroute the blah blah," but I use "root" sometimes when it's the name of a highway, as in "Route 66." In other contexts, either one could come out of my mouth, e.g., "What's the best rowt/root?"

 

[Thor Damar]

Slightly related: thanks to the continual exposure to American pronounciation of "route" on Star Trek- "reroute the blah blah to the blah blah", I'm now equally comfortable with "rowt" or "root", whereas before it was always "root".

And 'Lootenant' instead of 'Leftenant'. Although I'll be damned if I know why we say it that way.

 

[trampledamage]

"off of" is another American phrase that I don't think has a UK usage (apart from people who've picked it up from TV). In Britain we generally just say "off"

Although I've never seen it written down, so I don't know if that is actually what Americans are saying or it it's just what it sounds like to me.

umm... an example...

"I picked the toys off of the floor" - see, that looks totally wrong to me.

Now I think it's just me going crazy .

Do people in America say "off of"?

 

[Thor Damar]

^ Must do I've never heard of anyone using that term over here.

(and I keep seeing a swear word preceding 'off'. What a crude bunch us Brits are.)

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Slightly related: thanks to the continual exposure to American pronounciation of "route" on Star Trek- "reroute the blah blah to the blah blah", I'm now equally comfortable with "rowt" or "root", whereas before it was always "root".

And 'Lootenant' instead of 'Leftenant'. Although I'll be damned if I know why we say it that way.

I believe it's based on medieval French for some reason...

 

[Thor Damar]

Slightly related: thanks to the continual exposure to American pronounciation of "route" on Star Trek- "reroute the blah blah to the blah blah", I'm now equally comfortable with "rowt" or "root", whereas before it was always "root".

And 'Lootenant' instead of 'Leftenant'. Although I'll be damned if I know why we say it that way.

I believe it's based on medieval French for some reason...

When what would become modern England was part of the Plantagenet Kingdom?

 

[Bob The Skutter]

And 'Lootenant' instead of 'Leftenant'. Although I'll be damned if I know why we say it that way.

I believe it's based on medieval French for some reason...

When what would become modern England was part of the Plantagenet Kingdom?

No idea. It's one of these random facts I remember from various documentaries I've watched. Wiki says something similar... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lieutenant#Etymology

 

[Thor Damar]

Ah yes, a place holder in the military. Neat, and it'll piss off those bloody UKIP morons to know that most of our language comes from abroad. I love it

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Ah yes, a place holder in the military. Neat, and it'll piss off those bloody UKIP morons to know that most of our language comes from abroad. I love it

I reckon fully 75% of our language is based on various world languages. We're language thieves.

 

[Chekov's Phaser]

"off of" is another American phrase that I don't think has a UK usage (apart from people who've picked it up from TV). In Britain we generally just say "off"

Although I've never seen it written down, so I don't know if that is actually what Americans are saying or it it's just what it sounds like to me.

umm... an example...

"I picked the toys off of the floor" - see, that looks totally wrong to me.

Now I think it's just me going crazy .

Do people in America say "off of"?

I say both. It's not strange for someone here to say, "pick that off of the floor" or "pick that off the floor". It's used interchangeably in my experience.

I also say interchange "root" and "rowt" for the pronunciation of route, though I probably pronounce it "root" more often.

 

[Thor Damar]

Ah yes, a place holder in the military. Neat, and it'll piss off those bloody UKIP morons to know that most of our language comes from abroad. I love it

I reckon fully 75% of our language is based on various world languages. We're language thieves.

And damn proud of it sir!

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Ah yes, a place holder in the military. Neat, and it'll piss off those bloody UKIP morons to know that most of our language comes from abroad. I love it

I reckon fully 75% of our language is based on various world languages. We're language thieves.

And damn proud of it sir!

Sign of a healthy language.

 

[trampledamage]

I reckon fully 75% of our language is based on various world languages. We're language thieves.

And damn proud of it sir!

Sign of a healthy language.

I agree! I love all the weird words we have. Although I do feel sorry for anyone trying to learn it as a foreign language!