JunJun:
Yes, I guess it was more like Yorkshire......it's just that for 3 years I was at Leeds uni and the locals all more or less spoke in the way I tried (maybe unsuccessfully) to transcribe here. Just for starters, I had to get used to being called "luv" by practically everyone, irrespective of gender, age, colour, creed or level of sobriety.
I know you're from Merseyside, but I don't think I have a hope in hell's chance of writing Scouse effectively, let alone speaking it.
Fredrik,
"Mum, I'm home!",
FYI, Americans don't say or spell "Mum." We say and write "Mom."
Another little note is that at least here in the US, "mom" and "dad" are used in a general fashion overall to mean "mother" and "father" (not just one's own mother or father, but /anyone's/ mother or father), both of which are rather formal overall, and which don't get used a whole lot in everyday speech as a whole.
That's a trend that didn't start until I was old enough to notice it happening, and it's one that I find particularly annoying, for some reason.
Damian:
We don't think all British homosexuals speak upper RP. But we have this prejudice that many eccentric British arisotocrats are boarding school "buggers".
american nic
Yes, I know lots of Norwegians settled in the Midwest. And I just love the stereotypical images of "the American Heartland" and its accent. But although that world can be very charming, I find there is a certain lack of perspective, a kind of fundamentalist and very US-centred view of the world that we Norwegians, who like to think of ourselves as very progressive equality-loving Social Democrats (God knows if we really are that!), cannot really identify with.
It's like: Midwesterners make the greatest neighbours on earth, but they should not run the world!
<<we have this prejudice that many eccentric British arisotocrats are boarding school "buggers">>
Fredrik:
You are undoubtedly correct but I don't really want to go there. Anyway, I really can't see how it can be a solely British situation....given the same circumstances anywhere else in Europe or the rest of the world the same thing would happen I guess. Nuff said.....let's get wholesome again.
Talking of the "Mum - Mom" thing, in Wales it's always "Mam" but here in Scotland we call her either "Mam" "Mammie" or sometimes "Maw". I've heard some kids call her "Mither".
As for Dad, here he is either called "Dad" or "Dadie" or sometimes "Faither". I'm not sure about Wales in this case.
Be proud to be English, Blunkett urges
Former home secretary David Blunkett has issued a rallying cry to the English to reclaim their sense of national identity.
In his first major speech since his resignation last year over the issuing of a visa to his former lover's nanny, Mr Blunkett said that too often "Englishness" had been hijacked by the far right.
He said he would like to see the English people celebrate St George's Day in the same way that the Irish celebrate St Patrick's Day.
Mr Blunkett, in a lecture to the Institute of Public Policy Research in London, acknowledged that it was difficult for politicians to talk about issues of national identity.
They tended to face accusations from the left of chauvinism and from the right of a lack of patriotism, he said.
But he said it was particularly important that progressive, social democratic politicians addressed the issue.
He said: "There is a real danger that if we simply neglect or talk down national identity - people's sense of common belonging and shared values - we risk creating a festering, resentful national identity, an identity based not on confidence but on grievance.
"Too often in the past, we on the British left have failed to offer a civic, open view of our national identity. We have let those on the right claim the patriotic mantle all for themselves."
He stressed that celebrating the English identity must not be an excuse for racism or bigotry. He said that part of the confusion lay in the rise of an "exclusive Englishness", championed by the right, and characterised by its opposition to Europe, immigration and asylum, and a "general insularity and defensiveness".
"This has given English identity a slightly menacing face, and consequently has discouraged the celebration of Englishness," he said.
"The English feel as though they can't talk about their identity for fear of association with the far right. At times it seems as though the flag of St George and the language of identity have been hijacked by these minorities."
He insisted that this version of Englishness was based on "myth and misrepresentation" which needed to be rejected.
"We need to articulate a progressive account of Englishness, to champion Englishness, expressed through our history, culture, and civic values," he said.
"It demands that we tell a more honest account of the distinctive English tradition and English history. The challenge is to recast Englishness and English identity, exploring its place within the Union and its relationship with Europe and the wider world.
"In doing so, we will enrich our understanding and sense of identity, and will be equipped to deal with the challenges we face."
He cited the positive aspects of Englishness which he would be celebrating on St George's Day, including the English landscape, the English poetical tradition from Chaucer and Shakespeare to Keats and Larkin, English music from folk and pop to composers such as Purcell, Elgar and Vaughan Williams, the English democratic tradition and English radicalism, and the English sense of humour with personal favourites Tony Hancock, Monty Python and Alan Bennett.
How do you pronounce "faither"?
Deborah:
"Faither"...bit difficult to put it into the correct phonetic alphabet as it can be pronounced in several different ways depending on your local dialect. Round this area it's something like:
[f'eiTHe:r] not forgetting to trill the R!
Ranulph:
I'm a Scot who was still at uni in Leeds when the World Cup was on last year. Everywhere you looked there were St George flags flying.....from many buildings, shop windows, inside stores, pubs, in people's house windows, outside in their gardens, flying from bicycles and motor bikes, on cars and lorries - some with more than one. Everywhere.
It needed FOOTBALL to bring on this huge wave of English patriotism.
I thought it was nice, even though I'm Scottish. It was really funny driving home to Edinburgh.....St George flags all the way right up to the Scottish border at Coldstream. Once across the border into Scotland there was not a single St George to be seen all the way to Edinburgh.
But there were plenty of Saltires (the white Cross of St Andrew on a blue background)..the Scottish flag. They fly all the time, not just when there is international Football!
That's one of the differences between us. It takes Football to raise English patriotism..once it's over all the flags vanish. In Scotland they stay in situ because our flag has not been taken over by an odious racist right wing extremist group who want to see an all white Britain and have inadvertantly been "allowed" to usurp the Union (Jack) flag, and unfortunately the St George of England flag is deemed "guilty by association". That's such a shame.
Well, Damian, one thing is that Scottish nationalism as a whole is generally not right-wing (and rather is often rather left-wing), like things like Welsh and Catalan nationalism overall, and unlike things like English nationalism, as a whole. While I myself in principle am opposed to /any/ sort of nationalism *as such*, I'm personally far, far more likely to be sympathetic to Scottish, Welsh, or Catalan nationalism (I'm more sympathetic to efforts to preserve the Welsh, Catalan, Scottish Gaelic, and Scots languages, though, than to specifically political nationalism per se) than English nationalism. I myself really haven't known of any non-football (what we'd call soccer)-related English nationalism which has ever not been very, very right-wing as a whole. Hence, it's been less that the St. George flag has been somehow "hijacked" by rightists, and more that English nationalism has been pretty much right-wing ever since there was such of a thing (as opposed to British nationalism) in the first place.
Never mind. I read further the website and got my anser.