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

'Ideolect' is a term used by linguists to refer to one's personal repertoire of language. My ideolect us mainly Standard English, but with elements of Scots, Scouse, Standard American, African-American and so on. We all have our own mixes.

There are some things which are *not* in my ideolect. These aren't things I hate or am saying are wrong or bad or improper in any way. They're just things that don't come out of my mouth. Examples:

- 'Gobsmacked'. This is a recent coinage (last 10-15 years). It shot into the mainstream. I just can't bring myself to say it.

- 'Greetings'. I place this in the dialect known as 'Tushery' of 'Meinhostish'(as in 'Two flagons of your finest ale, Meinhost'.) Similarly - I can't say 'I bid thee well')

- I am not a 'Brit'. I do not live in 'Blighty'.

- I understand the reason for the euphemism 'passed away' but for e it's 'died'.

- If I were common enough to buy a lottery ticket (, I would ask for 'a lucky dip lottery ticket', not just 'a lucky dip'.

You?

(As I say - not things we think are horrible/nasty/stupid/wrong. Just things we don't say)

I bit the well - I bid thee farewell.

And see also 'I'll see you/thee anon'

You must suffer a lot on Talk Like A Pirate Day.



~jwf~

I do want to make it clear that it's not a question of suffering. Just personal peculiarity.

Suffering may have been a tad hyperbolic but
surely there are days when certain words
and phrases stick in the throat.

I find myself at a loss for words on Valentine's,
Good Friday, Easter, Birthdays, Anniversaries,
Thanksgiving and Xmas. I can usually manage a
hearty Happy New Year but the conventions of most
standard holy-days are beyond my ability to utter.

And yet I am not above doing a fair pirate or a
swell toff when the occasion arises.

~jwf~

Some things I'm not likely to say:

Yo!

Yo' mama

Pip pip cheerio

twenty-three skidoo




Some things I'm notlikely to write:

colour
valour
mould

None of these words need to have the letter "u" in them. I don't care if we're using standard English spelling here. I use Webster's Dictionary far more often than Oxford English Dictionary.

Well...fair enough. But there are various High Register varieties of British English which don't use the -or pronunciation. Some follow neither Oxford nor Websters but Chambers.

It's about dialect and ideolect, not logic.

The way I pronounce it, it would certainly make more sense if colour was spelt 'colur', and even more sense as 'culur'.

We haven't got "lucky dip lottery tickets" here. I think the nearest thing is a "quick pick lotto".

For me, a lucky dip is where you pay threepence and reach into a big bin where there are things wrapped in tissue paper (blue for the boys and pink for the girls) and each one contains some piece of cheap tat.

Yeah - that's a lucky dip. It's also a lottery ticket where the numbers are picked for you. I'm led to believe .

I forgot another - I only refer to my wife either by her name or as 'my wife'. Never as ' 'er indoors', 'the wife' etc. etc.

Oh - and I have twins but I never refer to them as twins, still less 'the twins'.

(and no an ideolect thing - I'm also prudish about jocularly running down my wife or children in public. I know it's normal and it's only letting off steam - it just doesn't work for me.)

Fair enough, but Webster promoted these as anti-British spellings, didn't he? You were once making a republican statement by using them.

But I forgive you

>>I'm also prudish about jocularly running down my wife or children in public.

I agree. I remember a guy in work said of his one-year-old daughter, "the bitch kept me awake all night". I don't think I ever voluntarily had a conversation with him again.

"Webster promoted these as anti-British spellings, didn't he? You were once making a republican statement by using them. But I forgive you" [Icy North]

I appreciate the kind words about forgiveness. However, I did not know that Webster had any anti-British agenda. I thought the object was to lose letters that didn't seem to add anything. I agree with Gnomon's idea that color should be spelled more like the way it's pronounced, i.e. culur.

Well always one to find an argument where there isn't one, gobsmacked is certainly older than 10 to 15 years old. http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gob1.htm

I wouldn't use it in speech, but I do in writing.

One of my work emails starts with 'Greetings!' but that's because it reminds me of Abi, who used to start her ACEs emails with that when people applied.

Until I went to India and mingled with an group of people from all over the world I thought of myself as British and being from the UK, but time after time I replied 'I'm English' 'Englahd' when asked where I was from.

Obviously being from Essex I say Shut Up a lot, but *never* spray tan or vajazzle.

Hi Paulh,

I think I read about Webster's anti-British tirade in a Bill Bryson book. I'll try to dig it out when I get a moment. It's a fascinating subject.

Icy

I cannot imagine ever, under any circumstance, expressing agreement or approval for something by simply saying "Word."

I'm pretty open minded when it comes to methods of expression, but that one strikes me a ridiculous no matter who says it, and no matter the context.

Like I keep saying - it's not about dislikes. Bro.

Hubby. And on the wedding sites, the women (and it always seems to be women who use them) refer to their fiances as H2B - Hubby To Be.



Also, Kids or Kiddies.

Listening to Radio 2 this morning I found the phrase "on the text" as in "send us an update on the text" to be frankly bizzare. Which then led me to txtspk. Not an ideolect so much as an ideotype, but txtspk, jst sy no.

I was taught that 'kids' was 'slang'. But it's pretty standard now. Also 'yeah'.

(don't mind 'kids' at all - but I think I tend to say 'children')

I'm by no means a railer-against, but in a semi-professional context I railed against mothers being referred to - in speech and writing - as 'Mum'. I insisted that they were afforded the respect of Ms [Whatever]

Dudes and dudettes, like chillax!



That was the first and only time I'm likely to type that sentence.


I'm likely to welcome you all to Canuckistan (you hosers) for comedic effect (but increasingly less so).

I have no problem being called a Canuck, spell it colour because I pronounce that word differently from culur, will call my grand daughter a rug rat when she's 2 (again for humour) and express my country's duality by using the odd French Canadian phrase. (Should we USicise 'country' as well?) Not to mention the odd US expression (usually a semi-technical word).

And I tailor my toasts to the expected audience.