Language level: Advanced
[Post: English 95% - Portuguese 5%]
(As palavras mais difíceis foram grifadas em negrito no texto. Sua lição de casa: procurá-las na internet e entender pelo contexto!)
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If you have been to the north of England, or if you live there, you have probably noticed that it is a different world entirely.
We always picture England as being just London, but when we go to Liverpool, Manchester, Leeds, York, etc. ALAS, it is a WHOOOOOOOOOOOOLE other kettle of fish!
Some people are drunk at 10 am, the weather is even shittier than the South, and to make things even more complicated for us, non-native speakers, there is a change of accent every 30 miles!!!
To make things a bit easier for my fellow Brazilians, I decided to create this post to ease things off a bit for you, despite not being an expert in the field (I work for the University of Leeds and whenever I go there, I hear a new word or expression. It makes me think how uninformed we become when studying the Southern British Accent).
SHALL WE START, then?
TEACAKE & the BREAD OF A THOUSAND NAMES!
If you don't look it up and a northerner offers you a TEA CAKE, what is the FIRST THING you will imagine? I bet you will say: ''Well, a CAKE to have with tea''. BÉ! Wrong answer!
A teacake, according to our friends from Yorkshire, the largest county in England, is um pãozinho com manteiga..... have a look:
AND BEWARE (tome cuidado!):
In some parts of Yorkshire, you will also hear a different name for the same thing:
BREADCAKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When in doubt, check this guide available online:
ANGIN' or THAT'S RATS!
ANGIN' is used by people from Manchester when saying something is DISGUSTING or UNPLEASANT! You can also use it to say you feel sick!
For example: "I ate too much. I can't have a milkshake now... I feel angin'" or "Oh my god, that bloke is throwing up on the street. Angin'"
People in Leeds usually say: "That's rats" (I don't think this one needs translating)....
KEN is not only the husband of Barbie. It also means "to know" and "house for thieves"
Yes, this comes from Old English. Old English is a real salada mista e tem de tudo. One of the languages that was part of the jumble was GERMAN and "to know" in German is "Kennen"... With time, Kennen became KEN, and it is still used to this very day in some dialects of the North.
Example: "Ken Tom?" (Do you know Tom?)
KEN also means house used as a meeting place by thieves or other disreputable characters. You will see this a lot in the TV show THE RESPONDER on BBC i player.
The protagonist is a COPPER (how British people say POLICE OFFICER) and he is always running after druggies and thieves. When the thieves and the copper talk, they say "So-and-so (fulano) is in my ken", meaning: o point dos bandido.
ps: GAFF can also mean HOUSE (don't kill me!)
BUZZIN'
Buzzin' is a slang to say someone is happy (or maybe a little tipsy - "meio bebinho")
YONKS
Yonks means A LONG TIME.
Example: "I was waiting for my chips for yonks" (cidadão tá falando que ficou esperando horas para as batatas fritas dele ficarem prontas)
GIVE YOUR HEAD A WOBBLE!
Esse é fácil.... seria o que em São Paulo nós dizemos: TÁ ME TIRANO??????????????????
Example:
Person A: We need more money... how about we start working on Sundays?
Person B: HAHAH, GIVE YOUR HEAD A WOBBLE! I will never work on a Sunday.
DOIN' MY HEAD IN!
I particularly LOVE THIS ONE! It is so useful!
When something is annoying you, you can say:
THIS IS DOING MY HEAD IN!!!!!!!!!!! (ISSO TÁ ME IRRITANDO, tirando do sério!)
MINTED!
Someone extremely rich!
I wish I were minted...
RAH or YAH
Rah or yah is a pejorative term referring to a stereotypical affluent young upper class or upper-middle class person in the United Kingdom.
Meaning: OS MAURICINHO E PATRICINHA TUDO! LOL!
Some youngsters from the North refer to people from the South as RAH! (And I kinda agree with them to be honest).
They say people in South are more SNOTTY (NARIZ EM PÉ!).
This one I learnt in my latest visit to Leeds! (Thank you, Alex <3)
E para finalizar... "ME TROUSERS, ME GLASSES, ME EYES...."
Some people in the north tend to say "ME" instead of "MY".
For example:
a) Instead of "my house", some would say "me house"
b) Instead of "my glasses", some would say "me glasses".
This is colloquial English and should not be used by us. This is a language variation that is frowned upon by many standard English users (essa é uma variação linguística que é "olhada feio" por muitos usuários do inglês padrão). Regardless of that, we need to know it exists to better communicate with our friendly Northerners.
PHEW, I know it's a lot to take in! But if you liked it, share it with your friends, and perhaps, buy me a coffee :)
About me: Translator who thinks is a wordsmith apprentice. MA Sociolinguistics student. Teacher at heart, although entitlement to say so has failed to kick in. Loves England, but make no mistake, it's a Latina to the bone.
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