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Diabetics R Us

Thanks again for the links, @JohnEGreen . The FT wouldn't let me in but the Independent did, and was very interesting, even to posting a final statement on the pronunciation of "scone." (And over here, rhyming that with "gone" would get some varying regional pronunciations!) ;)
 
JohnEGreen said:
The confusion sets in after elevenses
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I may have to start having elevenses now I know that is actually a word. I mean, I've been looking forward to having my eleventy-first birthday since I was old enough to read fat books in English, but having elevenses might be a more realistic life goal than celebrating your eleventy-first birthday. And I can accomplish it tomorrow instead of waiting another 69 years :)


SaskiaKC said:
Does "ontbitj" have anything to do with a "bite" of some kind? We might say "a bite to eat" meaning a snack or small meal.
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It does. Bijt means to bite, and is pronounced very similarly (ij is our extra vowel. I't's reffered to as a letter and if it's used in a word starting with a capital the whole thing turns capital. IJs means ice for instance. Old mechanical typewriters have an ij key.).
Ont is apparently an old prefix meaning something like 'before'. A before eating food food or such.
SaskiaKC said:
It interests me how sometimes the poles seem reversed between the US and England; that England's South seems to have the same sort of relationship to its North, as the US North has to its South.
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What?
 
Antje77 said:
What?
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It seems like the character of North England and the people who live there are sometimes compared to the working class, while people of South England are more "upper" class. In America, sometimes the South is equated with "lower class" or working class, while the North is considered more "upper class." That's my very simplified effort at trying to explain what I mean, because now as I'm trying to explain it I find it seems very complex.

I'm generalizing, based on impressions I've gotten over the years of reading various writings. To me it seems like "polar opposites" -- the character of northern England seems to be regarded in the same way as the southern US (particularly the Southeast), while southern or southeast England seems, by comparison, more like the American north.

@JohnEGreen if you read this, will you please chime in and tell me if I've got it completely wrong?
 
Antje77 said:
Bijt means to bite, and is pronounced very similarly (ij is our extra vowel. I't's reffered to as a letter and if it's used in a word starting with a capital the whole thing turns capital. IJs means ice for instance. Old mechanical typewriters have an ij key.).
Ont is apparently an old prefix meaning something like 'before'. A before eating food food or such.
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One of my Dutch great-grandfathers had the ij letter in his surname.
 
If you are offering a cup of tea or coffee in Lancashire you ask your guests if they would like a brew :)
Carol
 
Well I must be the lowest of the low in the class system!

I was born, brought up, and continue to live in the north of England. 71 years of northernness.
We have breakfast, elevensies, dinner, tea, supper in that order. Supper is last thing before bed, and normally is just a hot drink with biscuits or a sandwich.

To avoid confusion on the forum I refer to tea as evening meal, but would never use that phrase outside the forum.

As I understand it, the meal "tea" originated from "afternoon tea", which still exists as a meal and normally involves cream cakes, crustless sandwiches, and a pot of tea. This is still served in cafes and hotels all over the country mid afternoon.

As for vests, they are worn next to the skin for extra warmth. Waistcoats are sleeveless, short to the waist, and buttoned up the front. They are worn over the shirt and under a jacket. Do not get me started on liberty bodices. Dreadful invention for little girls. In my days all little girls wore them until they were "big enough" for a bra.
 
I used to hide my liberty bodice under my mattress and put it out for washing once a week !!
I was born in Burnley and lived in Blackburn until I married and now back in Wilpshire
I speak Lanky .mostly but can talk posh when necessary :angelic:
Carol
 
SaskiaKC said:
It seems like the character of North England and the people who live there are sometimes compared to the working class, while people of South England are more "upper" class. In America, sometimes the South is equated with "lower class" or working class, while the North is considered more "upper class."
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SaskiaKC said:
It interests me how sometimes the poles seem reversed between the US and England; that England's South seems to have the same sort of relationship to its North, as the US North has to its South.
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Ah, north and south from a social geographical point of view, makes sense now. It would have made sense with your first post too, if I had paid a bit more attention while reading. But my inner sleepy sailor got stuck at north and south in navigational terms and wandered off to thoughts like 'where exactly on the Atlantic do you turn your compass' and 'does the sun come up in the west if you reverse the poles'.
They were the perfect mind wanderings to fall asleep with, thanks for that!
Bluetit1802 said:
To avoid confusion on the forum I refer to tea as evening meal, but would never use that phrase outside the forum.
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Thank you!
 
Bluetit1802 said:
Well I must be the lowest of the low in the class system!

I was born, brought up, and continue to live in the north of England. 71 years of northernness.
We have breakfast, elevensies, dinner, tea, supper in that order. Supper is last thing before bed, and normally is just a hot drink with biscuits or a sandwich.

To avoid confusion on the forum I refer to tea as evening meal, but would never use that phrase outside the forum.

As I understand it, the meal "tea" originated from "afternoon tea", which still exists as a meal and normally involves cream cakes, crustless sandwiches, and a pot of tea. This is still served in cafes and hotels all over the country mid afternoon.

As for vests, they are worn next to the skin for extra warmth. Waistcoats are sleeveless, short to the waist, and buttoned up the front. They are worn over the shirt and under a jacket. Do not get me started on liberty bodices. Dreadful invention for little girls. In my days all little girls wore them until they were "big enough" for a bra.
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I think I am classed right with you as I was born, brought up, and still live in the Southeastern US. 67 years a Southerner, and counting! :)

(I wish I could get you started on liberty bodices as I have read that term in Miss Read's novels and never had any idea what they were.) ;) ETA: one of Miss Read's schoolteachers wore "spencer" for an extra layer of warmth. Whatever that is ...
 
SaskiaKC said:
... and just to complicate it further ...

"Do you take sugar in your tea?" =

"Do you put sugar in your tea?" =

"Do you like sugar in your tea?"

I read somewhere once that the English language has a huge vocabulary because it has so many different ways of saying the same thing.
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How many ways to describe a bread roll
Teacake
Barmcake
Bap
Oven bottom cake
Probably many others these are Northern ones
Carol
 
As far as I remember liberty bodices were a fleecy type of vest worn next to the skin with rubber buttons down the front Must have been invented by a man with a warped sense of humour
Carol
 
JohnEGreen said:
yes but which is considered upper class and which lower west or east.
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I think some people consider the two coasts "better" than the Midwest (basically the 3,000 or so miles between the Atlantic Seaboard and the Pacific). And then they break down the two "Coasts" into New York City and Los Angeles. As if everything in between were a desert or just empty Great Plains, and forgetting that Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Charleston, Savannah, and Miami are also on the East Coast, and that Seattle, San Francisco, and San Diego are all on the West.

ETA: So I guess those people would consider both coasts "upper class" compared to the rest of the country. Why, I have no idea. :)
 
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I had a cousin who though born in Staffordshire in England ended up living in Denver he was the Episcopalian Bishop of Colorado tho am not sure what status that would give him.

I recon he would have said tea time not dinner time.

BTW I was born in Liverpool brought up in the southwest Devon and had no end of trouble when first on the forum working out just what people meant by dinner or lunch or teatime.
 
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You live and learn this may sound daft but I have only just cottoned on to what those little patches of material that sometimes come with new clothes , are actually for.
 
carty said:
How many ways to describe a bread roll
Teacake
Barmcake
Bap
Oven bottom cake
Probably many others these are Northern ones
Carol
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I am always confused by this. To me they are barmcakes or tea cakes, but I find so many people these days don't know what barmcake means. I never call them baps, and wasn't sure what that meant when I fist heard the word. Bread rolls, to me, are long, like baguettes but smaller, and should be crusty. Barmcakes are round and soft, like the bread that comes with burgers.
 
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