professordingo

As we have this wonderful forum, I couldn't resist saying goodbye on it! We finally managed to pack up and leave and here we are, enjoying lots of wonderful sunshine. And yes, to my delight, I can access EDF from Jordan...so I have a nice little bit of London here in the Middle East whenever I want. Cheers all, and I'm trying to send you some sunshine! :)-D

AcedOut, please let us know how Tiscali actually responded to your bill - did they cough up or ignore it? Good on you, I say! :)-D

Woh woh, I didn't comment on whether it was right to slash your tyres or not, personally I think it's a very underhand way to deal with things. If someone has a problem, for whatever reason, I think they should address it directly, without recourse to vandalism. And I didn't comment on whether I have any personal views on estate agents, either, and slightly rankle at the implication. I was simply asking whether you are an estate agent, because it struck me that that might be the reason behind it, especially since some of the cars are very 'visible'. What I meant was, if you are estate agents and in agency cars, then it may well not be simply random or accidental. I wasn't in any way defending tyre-slashing, or denigrating anyone.

Perhaps it's your cars. Are you and your colleagues estate agents perchance?

James Wrote:

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> I have never understood the term "Sarf" London

> (looks like it should rhyme with "laugh")!? Ditto

> "Saaf" London.

>

> Shouldn't it be something like "Souf"?

To my way of thinking, 'sarf' would be like the 'posh' 'aa' vowel you get in 'laugh' (cardinal vowel 5), whereas 'saaf' I think probably just represents better the way 'south' is said in south London, which is more like the vowel you get in 'man' (the 'ash' vowel). 'souf' would be normal in various other southern British English accents, but south London is well known as 'saaf London', especially by north Londoners - am I right in thinking that south Londoners used to say they could spot a north Londoner because the latter would say 'souf' rather than 'saaf'? (i.e. 'it's saaf London, innit!').

(BTW, I'm a fan of 'innit' - so much more logical than 'isn't it', 'aren't you', etc etc.)

Ah, "lido" is an interesting one. Many pronunciation dictionaries give LEE-doh first, with LY-doh (-y as in cry) as a variant. It's from Latin, but I don't have Latin dict to hand, presumably a 'long i'? Most Brightonians call Saltdean Lido LY-doh, but LEE-doh is quite common. So I think the answer is that both pronunciations are attested and acceptable.

"Margit" and "Ramsgit" made me chuckle. Anyone been to Mousehole in Cornwall? Apparently it's MOW-zuhl (-ow as in now).

I take it that's oh-VAIR-ill road... or is it OV-err-ill ? :-S

(sorry Asset, we crossed in cyberspace!)

macroban Wrote:

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> Bass-ah-no

>

> The "Bass" is not as in bass guitar nor as in bass

> (fish). Sorry, not very helpful. Sort of not hard

> and not soft.

So I guess you mean the vowel in 'bass' is like the vowel in 'the' (as in 'the table' not 'the apple') - so something like buh-SAA-noh? (-uh as in 'the', -aa as in 'father', -oh as in 'no'). Have I got that right?

Also, Macroban, I'm intrigued by your comments about 'ch': MUZZ-camp and BAL-sher. This is such an informative thread!

I vote that the next Forum drinks gang should grab some oldies in the pub for their opinion on some of these.

BAL-cheer is how i've heard it, although I'm not originally a local, so don't know whether that's the usual pron. What about Bassano St? buh-SANN-oh (-uh as in 'the', -oh as in 'no')?

[edited because the original sounded rather brusque and wasn't intended to!!]

Nero Wrote:

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> I've always said Dull-itch and not Dull-idge. Is

> that terribly milk in first of me?

Are you a Londoner? I'm intrigued to know whether this is a more 'local' pronunciation (like GRIN-itch for Greenwich, which R4's Charlotte Green says, incidentally, and she's very RP). I always say DULL-idj (and GREN-idj), but then I'm from Brighton (local pron BROY-?uhn)!!

...and the 'ch' is voiced ('dj' not 'tch'). Or does anybody pronounce it DULL-itch (rather than DULL-idj)? I rather like DULL-witch, though (I see a fellow forumite already uses this name). I'm intrigued by Whately Rd being called the Tea Gardens. I wonder what its 21st-century equivalent should be (Teabag Gardens? Fag-end Gardens? At the LL end, anyway.)

Thanks for that spot of abuse VBC - I find that offensive. Some of us find discussions like this interesting and informative.

VeryBerryCherry Wrote:

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> This thread is turned into "opinions & @rseholes"

>

On the point of 'scone' (among many others), see:

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/guardian.htm

John Wells (emeritus professor of phonetics at UCL) edits the Longman Pronunciation Dictionary and writes an interesting blog, see the link on his page:

http://www.phon.ucl.ac.uk/home/wells/

If you're interested in such things, his blog is well worth perusing.

Silly me - popped in for a pint of milk, walked past the broccoli, thought 'ooh just the thing'... steamed it just perfectly, arranged on the plate with the rest of a lovely meal... put my fork through not just the broccoli but the family of maggots living inside. (Well, no longer living - they were at least dead, and perfectly preserved by the steaming process.) Is that their latest twist on BOGOF?

MORAL: Don't be in such haste that you're tempted to buy veg in places you know you shouldn't!

(and yes, I have boycotted it in the past and only go in when I really don't have time to traipse elsewhere, so it really is only my own daft fault for giving in to lazy temptation)

I'd love to sneak round in the night and replace the 'rke' with 'ggo'.

Used to cycle to Russell Sq every day - great route, easy stress-free ride, much quicker than public transport (30 mins door-to-door). Wonderful in summer, also fine in winter.

Then spent some time in White City; cycling OK in summer but had 2 near-misses-with-speeding-white-vans on dark winter evenings which put me off. Couldn't find a route I was happy with (unlike Russell Square, which has a good route from here).

However, I'm posting to say... please please consider wearing a helmet if you don't. My brother, a very experienced cyclist, was knocked off this morning by a careless motorist and is rather bashed up, but thank god alive - his helmet was completely smashed, though, and that could have been his head. The car driver pulled out of a side road without looking carefully enough, hit him sideways on and he somersaulted over the handlebars and landed on his head/neck/back. His bike's a complete write-off, we're just so grateful that he isn't.

What lovely houses! V impressed - well done. Great use of such a compact space. PAss this on to the big developers - we all want properly built houses, not matchboxes. Does someone have a good recommendation for a local witch? I'm going to turn into a mouse so that I can come and live under Talisman's stairs (or should i say "sex on a stick").

P.S. I suspect that they say 'sth london' rather than giving away the location for 2 reasons: 1) to minimise 'property tourists' which may inconvenience neighbours, 2) to avoid complaints about pushing up prices as happens with e.g. Location Location when they feature a certain area.

only just realised this doesn't read 'intermittent outrage'!

Or perhaps... were you once Michael Portillo? Oh, I get it... Michaelangelo!

Ah, so Sean's a Scot!!

We walk to school every day, and I think most of the Heber parents who are quite local do so too. But why are parents (i.e. mothers) always slated for increasing the traffic, when it's (car)commuters who are worst? Blame the mothers, that's what I say!!!

everything one does is like that these days (goodness it makes me feel like an old fogey) - it DEFINITELY did not used to be like this! every single day this week i've had unreasonable if not outrageous demands for money that i shouldn't owe popping through my letterbox (whoops bad syntactic construction but it's friday). you so much as breathe in the wrong place and you're fined for it. thank god for my bike - this commute is one thing i manage to avoid.

the only possible conclusion is that it's all part of the great conspiracy to keep us minions a) busy, and b) broke... Discuss. (at the risk of being lounged :) )

There was a lonely limerick line

Which desperately needed a rhyme

It asked on EDF

But was sent away with a clip round the ear

Cos they were all too limericked out to be able to think up a decent rhyming ending

"There was a strange fella called *Bob*"... no there's just such an abvious rhyme to this, that i now can't think of another, and would *hate* ::o to insult anyone (at least not if we have't met face to face)

There was a young man called Mark...

who was addicted to quark

Jimbo Wrote:

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> Keep twitching those curtains!!!!

We don't have *curtains* (tone of disgust) round here! Bawdale Road has up and come you know!

Nero Wrote:

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> A lady called Dulwich Mum

had a classic 'east dulwich bum'

another one?...

There once was a fair at Goose Green

(sorry, beaten to it! i'm an edf novice - just past the virgin stage >:D< )