How Americans preserved British English

[user 5745]

Go proper north in Britain and you'll get burns rather than brooks, creeks or streams

I use a few old-fashioned/archaic words and phrases in everyday speech, like 'brouhaha', 'swiving', 'bally' and 'hither and yon'; also the comedy "aten't", courtesy of Terry Pratchett. Scots terms like 'stramash' (usually 'godless stramash') and 'wee chookie birdies' make regular appearances, too.
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We don't use the word dinner in my family, we use supper, someone asked me if I was coming to dinner once and I didn't know which meal they were talking about. We always use reckon too. It may be more regional. I met someone from New York and he said I sounded "country" what ever that is.

I, too, use 'reckon', but the whole meals-and-what-you-call-them issue is a social faux pas (and missed nosh-up) waiting to happen! For me, lunch is the middle meal, dinner is the main evening meal, and supper would be a lightish meal around 21:00. When friends refer to 'tea', I have to ask them when it is and how substantial, because some of them mean 'mid-afternoon tea/coffee and a sandwich/cake' while others mean 'main evening meal'. Language in its infinite, glorious and maddening variety

 

[DrHenley]

Dinner means the main meal. So you could eat lunch and dinner, or dinner and supper.

In the Deep South, the tradition is to eat dinner at noon, and leftovers from dinner at supper. Christmas Dinner and Thanksgiving Dinner are at noon (or more like 2 pm in our family because it takes that long to assemble everyone )

 

[DrHenley]

The reason we got away from eating dinner at noon is because working in an office or factory it's difficult, or downright impossible to have a big family meal at noon except on the weekend. It really is only practicable during the work week if you have farm workers, etc. that gather together for a big meal at noon, then take a midday rest afterwards.

 

[tmttactical]

This is one debate I ain't going to get into.

 

[lonewolf]

we eat LUNCH at noon, TEA -main meal- around 4pm, DINNER is something you would eat out usually anywhere from 7pm to 9pm, SUPPER is a snack you eat before you go to bed.

 

[Maverick]

Dinner and supper generally used interchangeably and generally after 4pm unless it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter and dinner around 2pm

We eat lunch between 11 and 1 but generally it’s around 12 noon

 

[brandx]

This is one debate I ain't going to get into.

Hahahaha. Good idea.

 

[DrHenley]

Guys, just look up the definition of "Dinner." You can eat it at 12, 2 or 6, that doesn't change the definition. Whenever you eat your main meal of the day is when you eat "Dinner." You can have Dinner at noon on Sunday and at 7 on Monday.

 

[Maverick]

https://www.dictionary.com/e/supper-vs-dinner/

Guess I flunked my food education...

 

[lonewolf]

nope here in England LUNCH is what we eat between 12noon -1pm, DINNER is an evening meal .people have dinner parties in the evening. don't know what you call it in America.

 

[user 5745]

nope here in England LUNCH is what we eat between 12noon -1pm, DINNER is an evening meal .people have dinner parties in the evening. don't know what you call it in America.

Well, strictly speaking, here in England, lunch is what some people eat between 12 and 1. Others eat dinner at the same time. Different parts of England, different people, different uses ☺

 

[lonewolf]

maybe its called dinner is the inner cities or the "council" estates in some places but in most places you lunch(eon) at noon or one,maybe even as late as 2pm, dinner is what you go out in the evening to eat. anyway what the hell does it matter what you call it?

 

[DrHenley]

Bigpaul, do you own a dictionary? Get it out and look it up.

 

[lonewolf]

Bigpaul, do you own a dictionary? Get it out and look it up.

Collins English Gem dictionary: Dinner-"main meal of the day", for most working people this is in the evening.
Lunch-"meal taken in the middle of the day", i.e. noon.

 

[user 5745]

Lunch and dinner or dinner and tea tends to be based more class and area of the country than on inner city/estate. The higher up the country, the greater the tendency to use dinner and tea.

The difference doesn't matter a jot except as an interesting socio-linguistic phenomenon ☺

 

[Squirtgunsquirter]

If I ate dinner at noon, it would be lunch. If the main meal of the day, it would be a big lunch, and I wouldn't be worth **** when I went back to work.

I don't hear hard southern accents much anymore. It's all turned into that half assed southern accent you hear in southern Iowa and Missouri, and on country songs.

And that's a shame. Women with Southern accents, a real accent not a wanna be country singer accent, are more sexy by like 10% just because of their voice.

Same with British women. Received pronunciation? Automatically hot, would bang.

Scottish? Same. Looks unimportant, count me in.

Welsh? No way. Not while Charles is Prince! Plus a woman with a Welsh accent just sounds like she is speaking with a mouthful of bread. Not sexy. Would not bang.

 

[lonewolf]

Lunch and dinner or dinner and tea tends to be based more class and area of the country than on inner city/estate. The higher up the country, the greater the tendency to use dinner and tea.

The difference doesn't matter a jot except as an interesting socio-linguistic phenomenon ☺

we're down south and we eat lunch and tea, dinner is something we would go out in the evening to eat as a special event- which we don't do and supper we don't eat, we stop eating at 6pm so that our digestion can settle down before we go to bed at 9pm(we get up at 6AM sometimes earlier if we are going somewhere other than local).

 

[lonewolf]

If I ate dinner at noon, it would be lunch. If the main meal of the day, it would be a big lunch, and I wouldn't be worth **** when I went back to work.

I don't hear hard southern accents much anymore. It's all turned into that half assed southern accent you hear in southern Iowa and Missouri, and on country songs.

And that's a shame. Women with Southern accents, a real accent not a wanna be country singer accent, are more sexy by like 10% just because of their voice.

Same with British women. Received pronunciation? Automatically hot, would bang.

Scottish? Same. Looks unimportant, count me in.

Welsh? No way. Not while Charles is Prince! Plus a woman with a Welsh accent just sounds like she is speaking with a mouthful of bread. Not sexy. Would not bang.

Scottish and Welsh? cant understand a word they say, ever tried to hear what a "Geordie"(from Newcastle) is saying? one is bad enough get two together and its gibberish!!

 

[DrHenley]

If I ate dinner at noon, it would be lunch. If the main meal of the day, it would be a big lunch, and I wouldn't be worth **** when I went back to work.

I don't hear hard southern accents much anymore. It's all turned into that half assed southern accent you hear in southern Iowa and Missouri, and on country songs.

Which is why most people think Dinner means the evening meal. In an urban office or factory worker situation, you really can't have a big dinner at noon.

What you are calling a half assed southern accent is just a country accent. It is not specific to the South, but is found primarily in the South. That's why they call it "Country Music" not "Southern Music."

If you want to hear a real Southern Accent, go to Montgomery, AL (in the "Black Belt"), or Clarksdale, MS (in the Mississippi Delta). My mother grew up in the Delta and my father grew up in the red hills of East Central Mississippi. My mother had a full on Southern accent that stayed with her all her life, my father had a country accent which he shed when he moved to the city.

 

[user 5745]

If I ate dinner at noon, it would be lunch. If the main meal of the day, it would be a big lunch, and I wouldn't be worth **** when I went back to work.

I don't hear hard southern accents much anymore. It's all turned into that half assed southern accent you hear in southern Iowa and Missouri, and on country songs.

And that's a shame. Women with Southern accents, a real accent not a wanna be country singer accent, are more sexy by like 10% just because of their voice.

Same with British women. Received pronunciation? Automatically hot, would bang.

Scottish? Same. Looks unimportant, count me in.

Welsh? No way. Not while Charles is Prince! Plus a woman with a Welsh accent just sounds like she is speaking with a mouthful of bread. Not sexy. Would not bang.

How devastating for the women of Wales.

I quite like Welsh accents, while RP isn't my cup of tea. My accent is 'educated Scots' and a friend of mine keeps getting me to say things like 'eating pudding under a full moon while wearing a hoodie' because she loves my 'oo's

 

[lonewolf]

oh well, nearly time for my lunch(at 12noon) ham sandwich.

 

[Squirtgunsquirter]

How devastating for the women of Wales.

I quite like Welsh accents, while RP isn't my cup of tea. My accent is 'educated Scots' and a friend of mine keeps getting me to say things like 'eating pudding under a full moon while wearing a hoodie' because she loves my 'oo's

Isn't it just?

Well, the women of Wales (just saying that sounds nice, soothing) will just have to be devastated. They won't be, of course, because they don't know me. And they never will, I'm too far away, like the first star at sunset. Surprisingly beautiful, but untouchable.

I could probably listen to you talk forever, Bluejoy. Seriously, any accents from the Isles are just the best. Hungarian accents too, but Isle accents, at least northern, are all so musical. I wish we had that diversity of accent here in the states.

It's all thug speak now, that Hip Hop culture slang.

It's a shame, but that's just my opinion. Times change, and I'm just getting to the age where I'm disconnected from the latest generation.

 

[DrHenley]

Oh, and there is a such thing as Southern music. Several of them in fact. They are called Blues, Jazz, R&B, Gospel, and Rock and Roll.

 

[Maverick]

nope here in England LUNCH is what we eat between 12noon -1pm, DINNER is an evening meal .people have dinner parties in the evening. don't know what you call it in America.

I always call it lunch around noon, dinner is our last meal of the day between 5 and 6 except for Holliday’s

 

[lonewolf]

Which is why most people think Dinner means the evening meal. In an urban office or factory worker situation, you really can't have a big dinner at noon.

What you are calling a half assed southern accent is just a country accent. It is not specific to the South, but is found primarily in the South. That's why they call it "Country Music" not "Southern Music."

If you want to hear a real Southern Accent, go to Montgomery, AL (in the "Black Belt"), or Clarksdale, MS (in the Mississippi Delta). My mother grew up in the Delta and my father grew up in the red hills of East Central Mississippi. My mother had a full on Southern accent that stayed with her all her life, my father had a country accent which he shed when he moved to the city.

if you want to hear a country accent you need to come to Devon UK, you haven't heard an accent until you hear a rear broad north devon accent, its dying out now because of all the incomers from the cities but there are still a couple of the real devon accents left around here.

 

[Maverick]

Alabama has or had the purest representation of the southern accent, very distinct from the rest of the South in my opinion.

 

[lonewolf]

what like that guy on NCIS new orleans? have trouble understanding what he says/mumbles.

 

[Maverick]

Some parts of Louisiana would have that coonass dialect

 

[lonewolf]

I think he's supposed to come from Alabama, the girl with the pout is just as bad, what is it with American actors why do they all mumble?? don't open their mouths.

 

[Maverick]

I think he's supposed to come from Alabama, the girl with the pout is just as bad, what is it with American actors why do they all mumble?? don't open their mouths.

Because most actors are trying to mimic southern folks, most are bad at it, you get some southern that talk in low tone and then have a few that do mumble out words, I guess Hollywood wants them to sound more hillbillish I don’t know which is an insult to the deep country folks