I get various Google Alerts for things related to my interests, and today I got one for a story in The Sun and the Daily Express about the '20 English words the public wants to revive'.
Now, if I want to read these articles, I have to pay or give them my first-born, or something like that, so I'm not rushing to read them. But I've got enough of a gist from the Google Alert (orig. AmE) blurb:
The "research", it seems, has been done in the hallowed halls of the Tesco Mobile marketing department, with the celebrity endorsement of Tom Daley and Gyles Brandreth. (There is a video on the various tabloid websites, again, if you want to allow them to put the devil's cookies in your computer.)
But it's enough to read that little blurb: flabbergasted, chuffed, and gobsmacked. The "British public" (Tesco Mobile customers?) wants to "revive" these "classic" words. You know, those moribund words that... wait a minute...
All three of these words seem to be in (BrE) rude health. Have a look at their use in British books. More and more in the 21st century:
All three of these words seem to be in (BrE) rude health. Have a look at their use in British books. More and more in the 21st century:
Calling something that didn't exist before 1980 a "classic" that needs to be "revived" when in reality, it's just reaching its prime is blatant ageism, I say. Gobsmacked, I feel your pain.
But maybe books are weird. Maybe "real" people don't use these words. Maybe not, but the tabloid newspapers have certainly been reviving them for the past 30 years. Here's what you see if you search for these words in the archives of The Sun (courtesy of Nexis):
Are we the British public really missing these "classic" Britishisms? Or are we just missing feeling good about ourselves?
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ReplyDeleteI think you're confusing The Sun and The Express and journalism. I listen to a podcast that had reporting about a supposed tiff between its presenters and its owner in one of them. Every word a lie, they released a special on a big story with only one host because the other one was on holiday in a very different time zone and couldn't get near a decent microphone at short notice. If you go on holidays that advertise themselves as "get away from the distractions of modern life" they don't like phones!
ReplyDeleteSo rolling out a story about words that might be slightly less popular now than a decade ago, claiming there's an outcry for their return, playing to their audience and it takes no effort.
I hope (with the snark and my refusal to click/link on/to them), it's clear that I'm not confusing them with anything grander than they are. But perhaps you're suggesting that I should not give them the time or the space. I think it's important to call out the (orig. AmE) BS. The problem is how to call them out without sending them more traffic!
DeleteChuffed is definitely northern BrE in origin, and, as far as I am aware, not a word that is, or has been, used much in the south, except by translocated northerners!
ReplyDeleteI hear it in the South from all sorts of people. I just had a little listen on YouGlish (https://youglish.com/pronounce/chuffed/english/uk) to about 10 examples. The first was the narrator on Dragon's Den. The second was Phoebe Waller-Bridges. Then there are various 'learn English' websites teaching it and later Deborah Meaden on Dragon's Den. Almost all of the clips I watched on YouGlish are pronouncing it with a southern vowel. So, I think it's fairly national these days...
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