Literature The British English vs American English thread!

[Joe]

BTW, I've only seen one instance where American characters have said "half four" on television. And that was in a discussion by a black drug gang in the excellent TV series The Wire. Otherwise, I have not heard it used by Americans.

 

[Joe]

I have another question from Call the Midwife. There's a scene in which one of the midwives and her boyfriend, a policeman, and discussing whether they should kiss in public. Both are in uniform and there is some concern it would cause gossip. The midwife says someone at the welk station might see them. I have not been able to find any definition that would tell me what a welk station is. What it is?

The only definitions of welk I am finding is as an intransitive verb meaning to fade, wilt or wither.

 

[FortyTwo]

i speak Newspeak. Ingsoc is doubleplusgood. Big Brother is watching

 

[Alice-Bee]

I have another question from Call the Midwife. There's a scene in which one of the midwives and her boyfriend, a policeman, and discussing whether they should kiss in public. Both are in uniform and there is some concern it would cause gossip. The midwife says someone at the welk station might see them. I have not been able to find any definition that would tell me what a welk station is. What it is?

The only definitions of welk I am finding is as an intransitive verb meaning to fade, wilt or wither.

If it was set in the 50's, Which I believe the show was it could mean a seafood stand a whelk is a shellfish like a musscle and they were sold from carts in olden days, mostly around London...
Thats the only thing I can think it means.

 

[Lord Snot]

Are you sure they said whelk station and not something that sounds like whelk? I have never heard of a whelk station but like Alice, the only definition of whelk I know is the seafood. And I don't remember ever hearing of a whelk station.

 

[Alice-Bee]

Unless it was meant to be the name of a Train Station or something, like Kings Cross etc.

 

[shyvas]

I have another question from Call the Midwife. There's a scene in which one of the midwives and her boyfriend, a policeman, and discussing whether they should kiss in public. Both are in uniform and there is some concern it would cause gossip. The midwife says someone at the welk station might see them. I have not been able to find any definition that would tell me what a welk station is. What it is?

The only definitions of welk I am finding is as an intransitive verb meaning to fade, wilt or wither.

As there is a policman involved, I would have assumed that the woman was referring to the Police station. Prehaps
a slang word was used for Police. The only one that I'm aware of is the Nick.

 

[Alice-Bee]

Never heard that as a slang term but it could be the name of the Police station...good thinking!

 

[Digger]

Where I'm from people say yinz or yunz to mean 'you all' as in... "Yinz guys need to get your act together". Hell, there's even a wikipedia page devoted to it. We also tend to slur words together, for instance East Liberty Avenue is pronounced 'Sliberty. Maybe we're all just drunk here in Western Pennsylvania.

 

[ledboots]

Where I'm from people say yinz or yunz to mean 'you all' as in... "Yinz guys need to get your act together". Hell, there's even a wikipedia page devoted to it. We also tend to slur words together, for instance East Liberty Avenue is pronounced 'Sliberty. Maybe we're all just drunk here in Western Pennsylvania.

I had a friend from Pennsylvania whose nickname was Yinzer, and i never knew why till now!

 

[Alice-Bee]

In Newcastle we say 'yous'
Like " Yous better not be joking about the sale on Vegan shoes"

 

[Digger]

In Newcastle we say 'yous'

How interesting... given that there is a New Castle, Pennsylvania where that would fit in perfectly.

 

[Lord Snot]

As there is a policman involved, I would have assumed that the woman was referring to the Police station. Prehaps
a slang word was used for Police. The only one that I'm aware of is the Nick.

They wouldn't call it a nick station though, it would just be "the nick".

 

[shyvas]

They wouldn't call it a nick station though, it would just be "the nick".

Yes, I gathered that. Thanks.

 

[Joe]

If it was set in the 50's, Which I believe the show was it could mean a seafood stand a whelk is a shellfish like a musscle and they were sold from carts in olden days, mostly around London...
Thats the only thing I can think it means.

Yes! I think you've gotten it absolutely right. I had the closed captioning turned on and they misspelled it welk instead of whelk. Thank you!

 

[Joe]

Another vocabulary word I picked up from the show is costermonger (fruit seller). But that one is in the dictionary.

 

[Alice-Bee]

Cant say Ive heard of that one lol.

 

[Joe]

Yet another vocabulary word I picked up, this one from Upstairs/Downstairs, isn't really British, but French, so I suppose it is a bit off-topic for this forum. It is bavarois (Barvarian creme dessert). The maids and cooks are sitting around chatting, and one of the younger, more naive maids has one of Hallam's shirts that needs to be laundered. She notices that it has a red stain on it, and thinks it is a food stain. The cook says that it may have come from her bavarois. But one of the older, less naive maids realizes that it is more likely another woman's lipstick and offers to deal with the stain herself.

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/bavarois

 

[PTree15]

In Newcastle we say 'yous'
Like " Yous better not be joking about the sale on Vegan shoes"

I have heard something similar in South Jersey in the U.S., as in: What can I get yous? How yous doing?

 

[Alice-Bee]

With a Newcastle accent its more like 'use' or 'yz'