h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

The use of 'us' to mean 'me and possibly some other people', similar to the way 'you' is used, is not uncommon, at least where I grew up, up North. It's not normally used to the exclusion of 'me', in fact, it's often used quite interchangeably, and as far as I can tell from thinking about what sounds right, it seems that maybe the most common usage is in sentences such as "Pass us the ball", or "Give us the hammer".
Possibly to a smaller extent, 'our/ours' is sometimes used instead of "my/mine"

Could this be a relic of actual 'correct' usage in an older source language?
It doesn't seem to be any more efficient to say 'us' instead of 'me', except possibly in the contraction 'giz' compared to 'gimme'.

Only 100 posts to go to 4000...

Anglo-Saxon, the mother tongue of Modern English, had two different words for we/us. One meant I/me and you. The other meant I/me and some other person or persons, but not you. This would get over the momentary confusion in the following:

We're getting married!

We are?

So there wasn't a word that meant me and possibly some other people.

What about Norse languages?

<>

Congratulations!

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

Owners of the 'Forgoten English' desktop calendar (possibly only available in the UK?) may have been as delighted as I was to see that last Friday's word of the day was 'rigmutton':

<> - Frederick Elworthy's 'Devonshire Glossary', 1879.

Isn't English wonderful?

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

From my intensive studies of beer, I learnt that the norse 'rygg' means something like 'shoulder/back', and sheep stuck on their backs and unable to get up by themselves are known as 'rigged' or 'riggwelted' in parts of Yorkshire.

Rig means hump or mound in old Scots as in the Run Rig system of farming, where all the soil was piled up into to long thin Rigs and the crops grown on them, the empty gaps being the Runs (sort of like an allotment system). So it all sort of fits.
Must make mental note never to use rigmutton in polite company.

Present company excepted, I hardly think 'rigmutton' would ever spring to mind in truly polite company.

*tries to imagine a sheep flat on its back*

Nope, the old wellies method seems more efficient.

~j~

at the edge of a cliff so they push back harder?



p.s. what's this forgotton english calendar thingy then? Where does one obtain said item?

I got my Forgotten English calendar from 'Past Times' (year before last) and from a good bookshop (most recent). It's one of those with tear-off leaves (about 4" x 3"), on a little plastic stand. There are many other examples (Dilbert, Far Side...) available in the same format. HTH.

Pattern-chaser

"Who cares, wins"

*nervous*

Are there any English words that have the same soft sound as the French 'j'?

Ouija board? Not quite....

To jwf, It's easier to get the stockings and suspender belt on them when they're on their back.
And wellingtons don't relly suit them.
To everybody
The areas of Danish immigration in East/ North and possibly West Yorkshire have lots of Viking words in their dialects.

The French soft j sound does appear in English, but not associated with the letter j. You get it in "vision". It appears in various French phrases which are used in English, such as joi de vivre, but these remain French and would normally be written in italics.

I was looking up the French for 'doghouse' today and found nothing. Dozens of online French/English dictionaries ..and no doghouses. Perhaps the French have no doghouses. I know they have poodles.

And I came across this site which reminded me of some earlier inquiry or discussion of 'animal sounds' in 'forrin languages'. It's pretty comprehensive, all the sounds of all the animals in most languages.
I hope it helps the earlier inquiry. I believe this link is set to 'd*g' but you can navigate from there.

http://www.georgetown.edu/cball/animals/dog.html

peace
jwf

Love the fact that they have esperanto on the list!

k

Do Quebecois d*gs go 'ouaf ouaf' as well?

Quebecois is based on 16th and 17th century French before all that 'sophistication' and 'foppish effite' fluffiness made modern day French the language of love and dimplomacy (unless you're a houseless d*g).
Quebecois is basic, rude and elemental.
"Le bark, le bark" is probably still correct.
Sadly, even in Quebec, they've been watching too much American TV too, so who knows these days, eh!
Le disco, le Rap, le Mario, le Sony Playtation, le rock and roll, le drug, le hot dog, le fries.

~j~

jwf,

dictionary.com has thrown up something. It translates English d**house into French d**house. I suspect that it's the response to an unlocated word but despite the Académie francaise it may be franglais for "a man's rightful place". It translates kennel (customary Eng word for domestic garden hideaway for a d**) as chenil; but I fancy this would equate to Eng "kennels", establishment for owners to leave their d**s when they take holidays.
It might be appropriate to point out that there is a subtle cultural difference. It used to be common knowledge that in Paris (ignoring the lower orders) the d** would live in the house/flat on the best bed and be generally pampered. Elsewhere, the d** would settle wherever it could be reasonably confident that it would not provide a good target for shoes, occupied or empty.
I tried German and got D**house and, for kennel - Hundehütte
which looks promising (what say you TC?) but translating into French that became "usine sidérurgique de chien". How a ferrous metal foundry comes to be connected with d**s beats me, unless it's a species jumping pig iron.
"I know they have poodles" yeah? but they are not
so highly prized as "truffle hou*ds" or "truffle pigs"; perhaps that is the missing link.
Dictionary dot com has now seized solid.