[WWI] Accents, in general

[Mark Shannon]

Among the many tales my father tells is one about a trip he took to England in the '70s.  He and his boss ended up having a couple of days at loose ends and decided to get outside of London for a change.  Since my father is a maritime buff and his boss was a beer connoisseur, they decided to take a tour down through southern England and over to Portsmouth.

They rented a car and driver to take them, since they did not trusting themselves not to drive on the wrong side of the road while figuring out their route.  Anyway, they were out in the southeast somewhere between Dover and Folkstone, but not along the coast nor taking the highways, and had been looking at the hops farms and wanting to find a place where they could try the local ale.  Only neither they nor their driver -- a Londoner, who my father described as Cockney -- knew where they were or where would be a good place.  Fortunately, they saw a traditional PC on his bicycle and stopped and went back to him to get directions.  My father's boss did most of the talking, and asked for a recommendation of a good inn and good pub.

The PC, obviously local, told them the name of an inn and started to tell the driver how to get there.  The driver started looking perplexed and turned to his passengers to ask them if they could make heads or tails of the strange language coming from the PC.  The PC also appeared to not be able to understand the driver's questions.  My father tapped the driver on the shoulder and said, "It's OK, I've got it memorized," then thanked the PC for them.

He has always found it strange that it took two Americans to translate for two Englishman who probable lived no more that 100 miles apart.

Mark Shannon
shingend at ix.netcom.com



----- Original Message ----- 
From: Steve Cox 
To: WW1 Mail List
Sent: 12/20/2008 9:02:48 PM 
Subject: Re: [WWI] Accents, in general


"The English have no respect for their language, and will not teach their children to speak it. . . . It is impossible for an Englishman to open his mouth, without making some other Englishman despise him."
George Bernard Shaw

Steve
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    —— I'd get some models finished
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From: "Paul E. Thompson" <flutes at xs4all.nl>
Reply-To: WW1 Mail List <wwi at wwi-models.org>
Date: Sat, 20 Dec 2008 18:09:51 +0100
To: WW1 Mail List <wwi at wwi-models.org>
Subject: Re: [WWI] Accents, in general


>
America and the United Kingdom - two 
cultures separated by a common
language.
<


Oy! Yours might be common. Mine is 
proper.

Whoops, I tell a lie, mine is Brummy.

Paul. 
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