Sayings

[cosmolinguist]

The first thing I heard anyone say when I got to Exeter -- anyone who wasn't a staff member of either the train station I wad coming from or the hotel I was going to -- was "all right my lover!" In exactly the accent that I've always heard in parodies of that.

It could not have been more stereotypical. I love it when these things happen. It's like that one time when I actually heard someone from Yorkshire say "there's nowt as queer as folk."

Comments

[otter]

How fun :)

[sfred]

<3

[cmcmck]

The local phrase or saying that amuses me is the greeting between male friends: 'Ay oop Jockey' while those of us of the female persuasion are 'dook' or 'lovely' (the last one's a Welsh border thing).

[cosmolinguist]

I used to have a manager who called women "duck," I liked being duck. :)

[annofowlshire]

I remember I was calling a taxi from a train station in Devon and the driver saying that to me and I just chuckled. "Ow bist?" (How are you?) is a common saying here from the generational Foresters. They don't usually speak Forest at us blow-ins but it's always fun when they do.

[cosmolinguist]

Oh wow I am fascinated by "ow bist" and I look forward to the rabbithole that Forest will be for me as soon as i have time for it. :) Thank you!

[annofowlshire]

There's a little article about it here that helped me figure out what they were saying (particularly the man who repairs our stone walls who doesn't codeswitch when talking to us outsiders), although I'm sure there are more academic ones around somewhere XD