If you live in England . . .

by compound complex 18 Replies latest jw friends

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  compound complex

  Greetings:

  Would a Jehovah's Witness ask you, the householder, "Does Christ dwell in this home?"

  I have recently viewed The Lady in the Van, which was filmed principally in North London. I am currently reviewing a transcript of Alan Bennett's play of the same title, looking for the exact quotation (the above may not be verbatim).

  Also, in the movie's subtitles, the word "curb" is spelled "kerb" in the original transcript.

  Any comments about subtle and obvious differences between American and British speech and writing would be appreciated. Incidentally, in the film, Diehard, a German thug gave away his true identity to Bruce Willis' character by saying it was "raining dogs and cats" and by referring to the elevator as the "lift."

  THANKS!

  CC
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  St George of England

  Curb and Kerb have entirely different meanings. The KERB is the edge of the PAVEMENT (Sidewalk).

  An elevator is always referred to as a LIFT in England and when it's raining very heavily it's RAINING CATS AND DOGS. We also say the rain is coming down like STAIR RODS!

  Oh, and NO we would not ask the H/H "Does Christ live in this home?" One would get a very strange response!

  George
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  compound complex

  Thank you, George, for your response! Much appreciated.

  In USA, curb means edge of pavement, too, but is also a verb, as in to "curb" one's spending. Of course, you know that.

  We never use "kerb" here. The ref to Diehard was that the German got his word order about "cats and dogs" reversed. Never heard about "stair rods" before!

  Yes, as to what JWs would NOT say at your door!

  CC
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  Gargamel

  In general, the variations between British English and US English:

  When adding -ed or -ing to a word, we (Brits) are a lot more likely to double the final consonant. To avoid doing so would sometimes encourage a vowel sound in the stem word to go long rather than short.
  

  We use 's' a lot more than 'z' (e.g. realise).

  We have an extra 'u' a fair bit (colour).

  Switch 're' and 'er' sometimes (e.g. theatre, centre).

  Yes, the edge of the pavement (sidewalk) is a kerb. We do use curb, but not for that.

  Excellent film. Maggie Smith's portrayal was one of her usual stunning performances. It's hard to know what a JW would say. I was once working on a shop front in the town centre. A (JW) voice behind me asked if I knew who was the king of this world. I thought they at least taught them manners to pass by people who are clearly busy.
  
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  St George of England

  The letter 'L' is also a source of contention:-

  Fulfil (UK) Fulfill (US) etc

  George
• 

  Saename

  WHAT!??!?!?

  In the UK, you spell the word "fulfil" instead of "fulfill"? Oh no... NO.... THAT CANNOT BE TRUE.....

  I loved the British accent. I loved the British variations of spelling (such as "colour" and "realise"), but I cannot... I cannot... stand this. I cannot deal with "fulfil." This is just outrageous.

  This is how I feel now about trying to learn about the UK...

  
  
• 

  snugglebunny

  Any comments about subtle and obvious differences between American and British speech and writing would be appreciated. Incidentally, in the film, Diehard, a German thug gave away his true identity to Bruce Willis' character by saying it was "raining dogs and cats" and by referring to the elevator as the "lift."

  I once travelled in an elevator that I shared with A German couple. It had "Schindler" embossed on the metal floor. I pointed to this and exclaimed "Shindler's lift!"

  I thought it was funny...
  
  
• 

  freddo

  And we have jewellery not jewelry so we're not even consistent with our double "L"s!

  Great fun with auxiliary counselor and auxiliary (which we sometimes spell auxilliary!) counsellor too. We go double L on that and for a time the British Kingdom Ministry printed in London was in British English.

  All other literature from the borg was in American English so we had to suffer that. Funny really when they go to so much trouble producing stuff in Canary Island whistling pidgin or Basque separatist Spanench or whatever!
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  Phizzy

  Yup freddo, we used to moan about the Americanisms in the Literatrash, it actually caused us problems in the DtoD work, people would say "You are an American religion", meaning that the JW religion was a new invention compared with the C of E or Catholic Church, and therefore to be summarily dismissed.

  Of course, they were right, but we tried in a feeble way to defend the troof.

  If the WT leaders had not been so parochial, and totally unaware of British attitudes, and actually given us a version in English, the JW's may well have grown much quicker. Too late now of course. The U.K is a mainly secular place, and Apocalyptic cults form the 19th century are just targets for derision.

  Dear CoCo, I do not object to American spelling, except on the grounds of your losing the etymology of words by your rationalization. What I do object to is American mispronunciation, just one example from hundreds, why can your lot not pronounce " Premier" ??? it always comes out as "Premeer". Laughable.
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  konceptual99

  It was also the source of much merriment when we had the American accents in the dramas. Does anyone recall the "Hi, I'm Randy" greeting from one years ago...?