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Creative language explored

(33 Posts)



"Blasts and fogs upon thee!"

Joan Fri 10-Jun-11 13:05:04

Dorsetpennt said "My mother used to say 'hell's bells and buckets of blood' which we loved to hear."

That's one of my own sayings - perhaps I got it off my Mum. She was born in Liverpool, educated in Coventry in a school that had a lot of Cockney and other Southern kids, and then lived in Yorkshire the rest of her life. I know she used rhyming slang a lot: when she sent us to bed, she'd send us 'up the apples and pears'.

She spoke perfect Yorkshire dialect: when family circumstances had changed at age 16 and she left boarding school to work in a textile mill, she soon realised that posh English would keep her marginalised, so she learned the local dialect and spoke it like a native Yorkie in no time.

I used to wonder why she could put on a posh accent better than anyone I knew. Then I found out that that was her real accent.

nonnasusie Fri 10-Jun-11 14:00:21

Here in Italy they use "porca miseria" (miserable pig!)

Elegran Fri 10-Jun-11 14:24:14

"Oh fudge" is quite a useful one.

baggythecrust! Sat 11-Jun-11 06:44:16

My nineteen-month-old GS invented a good one all by himself: he often babbles things like "diggadiggadigga" (just loves the sound!) and his totally innocent word, which the rest of the family have now adopted is boggaday! Sometimes it is shortened to bogga!. And, no, his parents do not say the word that is similar. I'm willing to bet that people who are all too apt to throw fences about in fits of outrage will think that though and would 'pull him up' for it. Just shows how silly the whole swearing/outrage caboodle is!

Joan Sat 11-Jun-11 08:11:41

Just remembered - my youngest lad invented the word 'ning' to indicate displeasure. We still use it to this day. We also eat an invention of our other son's: 'circle sausage'. This refers to any kind of luncheon meat or salami sold in a long sausage shape. He was about two when he came up with that one. Funny how they stick, in a sort of family lore.

Annobel Sat 11-Jun-11 09:07:47

I had to provide little treats for my younger son while he was in hospital at the age of 2. An absolute 'must' was 'Dalek sausage' - if you hadn't guessed, that's garlic. In his teens he became a veggie.

SoNanny Tue 14-Jun-11 16:31:47

Raggynanny, I love kookaburra!

My family used to say "hells bells etc" we came from the north west but my dad's family were Yorkshire folk so maybe it's a northern thing!