Exactly. Trouble is, so can I.On 2002-10-02 08:10, The Weekenders wrote:
Wombat, pal-o-mine, are you confuzzled or what? That sounds like a very traumatic upbringing!!! Can you even speak recognizable words out loud?
I can just hear the "I'll give you something to cry about" in three languages.....
Yikes!
Recognisable words? Mostly. Slang is hardest because meaning tends to migrate both in the general community and within curious melting-pot families. I might use Scottish or Irish slang in a sense only known in Australia or a sense that has evolved only in my family. (I've probably done both in posts already, somewhat to the mystification of those in the places where the slang originated.) I found out recently that the word 'bumsteer' would mean something like a rowdy person to the Irish but to an Australian it would mean roughly 'bad advice'. Similarly 'butter up' means flatter in standard English but 'persist by trying a second time' in colloquial Australian. Now these meanings aren't even close and must be the consequence of misunderstandings (or a series of misunderstandings.) Surely this sort of 'migration of meaning' happens a lot in the States and Canada. There must be some very funny examples.
I suppose if melting-pot backgrounds have an advantage it's this: you end up thinking not only outside the square but outside the whole bleedin' page. Advantage (?) do I hear you say.
<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Wombat on 2002-10-02 10:44 ]</font>