I Say, I Say, I Say!
A strange thought struck me the other day while watching the televisual feast that is UKTV History.
I like most of the stuff they show, and show and show again! Ok, joke over, back to the subject.
I’ve been watching it because they’ve been showing “The World At War” the early ‘70s saga narrated by Laurence Olivier. I always remember it from being a kid. Well, I remember the music because as soon as it came on my old man would say “Oi, bed!” So I never actually got to see it. Hence watching it now.
Anyway, the episode I was trying to watch [sitting here with my B/Fs niece, Fat Bird, yapping away on her phone] was all about London during the blitz. Most of the story was coming from a group of 50 something old dears, sitting around a table in a pub. Because she is a loud, obnoxious cow, I couldn’t help but hear what she was saying, even though I kept turning up the volume on the telly!
Now you would think that in a vox pop with a whole load of people, well, six anyway, and all of them being from the “East End” that it would be full of “viss and vat, innit?” or “finkin and fortin, nowamean?” Not a bit of it. Not it was like a speech by Penelope Keith either, but the other surprising thing was that not one said “Er” or “Um”. Not even once! It was just spoken in their own dialect.
For all the years that I’ve been away from Leeds I’ve never managed to loose my flat northern accent [think of Vera Duckworth of Coronation St. fame. Another ex-Leodian.
All this is unlike Dave and Fat Bird, who both come from Northern Ireland and when I first knew then both had a strong “Porteedown” twang.
Dave lost his on purpose and now has an indefinable, puffy sort of voice. Fat Bird although not quite having lost hers, has embellished it with a polish that only comes from mixing upwardly.
Back to having to listen to her phone call. “Well it’s, like…like so, er, unfair.” To my way of thinking if it’s only like unfair, then unfair it is not. True? Every other word was either er or like.
And the point of this is…In the 70’s people spoke properly. Then came, er, literally. Then, post-Sex and the City, it’s all been like, so QED!
I like most of the stuff they show, and show and show again! Ok, joke over, back to the subject.
I’ve been watching it because they’ve been showing “The World At War” the early ‘70s saga narrated by Laurence Olivier. I always remember it from being a kid. Well, I remember the music because as soon as it came on my old man would say “Oi, bed!” So I never actually got to see it. Hence watching it now.
Anyway, the episode I was trying to watch [sitting here with my B/Fs niece, Fat Bird, yapping away on her phone] was all about London during the blitz. Most of the story was coming from a group of 50 something old dears, sitting around a table in a pub. Because she is a loud, obnoxious cow, I couldn’t help but hear what she was saying, even though I kept turning up the volume on the telly!
Now you would think that in a vox pop with a whole load of people, well, six anyway, and all of them being from the “East End” that it would be full of “viss and vat, innit?” or “finkin and fortin, nowamean?” Not a bit of it. Not it was like a speech by Penelope Keith either, but the other surprising thing was that not one said “Er” or “Um”. Not even once! It was just spoken in their own dialect.
For all the years that I’ve been away from Leeds I’ve never managed to loose my flat northern accent [think of Vera Duckworth of Coronation St. fame. Another ex-Leodian.
All this is unlike Dave and Fat Bird, who both come from Northern Ireland and when I first knew then both had a strong “Porteedown” twang.
Dave lost his on purpose and now has an indefinable, puffy sort of voice. Fat Bird although not quite having lost hers, has embellished it with a polish that only comes from mixing upwardly.
Back to having to listen to her phone call. “Well it’s, like…like so, er, unfair.” To my way of thinking if it’s only like unfair, then unfair it is not. True? Every other word was either er or like.
And the point of this is…In the 70’s people spoke properly. Then came, er, literally. Then, post-Sex and the City, it’s all been like, so QED!
posted by liits at 9:57 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home