tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post115707152478146007..comments2024-03-28T16:11:36.465+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: mallslynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger16125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-60399457099484731602012-11-21T12:04:30.749+00:002012-11-21T12:04:30.749+00:00Anonymous
and a Princes Mall in Edinburgh too
I ...Anonymous<br /><br /><i>and a Princes Mall in Edinburgh too</i><br /><br />I live in Edinburgh, but it took me a minute or so to recognise what you were talking about. I think of is as <i>the Waverly Station shopping centre</i>. That's how American its official name is, for me.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-30668808807667009912012-11-20T23:12:25.440+00:002012-11-20T23:12:25.440+00:00Wow, talk about late to the party.. There's a ...Wow, talk about late to the party.. There's a King's Mall in Hammersmith, West London that's been there at least 30 years, and a Princes Mall in Edinburgh too. Both, to my BrE ear, pronounced to rhyme with pal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-82954911928190955122008-11-04T11:02:00.000+00:002008-11-04T11:02:00.000+00:00Speaking of U and non-U, I remember being told tha...Speaking of U and non-U, I remember being told that Pall Mall can only be pronounced "pawl mawl" if you're U enough to live there. For anyone lower on the scale, both words rhyme with "pal".<BR/><BR/>PS - The long S doesn't look "exactly" like an f; it has no crossbar. You're just not reading enough old books.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-32758758564853972252008-03-07T00:43:00.000+00:002008-03-07T00:43:00.000+00:00Johnson's Dictionary, Tenth Edition, M,DCC,XCII, l...Johnson's Dictionary, Tenth Edition, M,DCC,XCII, lists:<BR/><BR/>"PALL MA'LL. [pila, and malleus, Latin; pail maile, French.] A play in which the ball is ftruck with a mallet through an iron ring."<BR/><BR/>I have left out the symbol like an elongated S which indicates a noun, (immediately after "PALL MALL." as I am unable to type it. The leading lowercase "s" on "ftruck" looks exactly like a modern "f", so that is what I have typed. The rest is exactly as in the original.<BR/><BR/>Apparently the 18th century pronunciation stressed the second syllable. Also, it seem that it isn't truly an English phrase, but a borrowing from the French.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-69166849397192156372007-11-30T21:06:00.000+00:002007-11-30T21:06:00.000+00:00The word "mall" used to cause me a lot of bother w...The word "mall" used to cause me a lot of bother when I first moved to NY. It just didn't sound right to me and I felt so self-conscious saying it that I tried to avoid it like the plague. That and "boulevard"...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-17850127608370631372007-06-23T12:30:00.000+01:002007-06-23T12:30:00.000+01:00I think your teachers may not have been that far b...I think your teachers may not have been that far behind the times in pronouncing Pall Mall /pɔlmɔl/. It's not so much an anomalous pronunciation but an instance of received pronunciation tending to pronounce short 'a' almost, but not quite, as /ɔ/. RP was still mainstream for broadcasters and the upper class until the fifties or thenabouts, but today even native BrE speakers are only likely to ever hear it used by the Queen.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-40372168725580450802007-01-10T17:45:00.000+00:002007-01-10T17:45:00.000+00:00I grew up in North Carolina calling it cough medic...I grew up in North Carolina calling it cough medicine, not cough syrup. My partner Walt grew up in Albany NY and he says his family called it cough medicine too.Ken Broadhursthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04430899802705818716noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1157619184503119272006-09-07T09:53:00.000+01:002006-09-07T09:53:00.000+01:00Thanks, strawman! Very interesting!Thanks, strawman! Very interesting!lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1157593808621352312006-09-07T02:50:00.000+01:002006-09-07T02:50:00.000+01:00Those who are familiar with the poems of John Coop...Those who are familiar with the poems of John Cooper Clarke will know his most famous work <B>Beasley Street</B>. An updated version of this poem, <B>Beasley Boulevard</B> was broadcast on BBC radio tonight, containing the lines<BR/><BR/><I>The mall(1), the mall(2),<BR/>Whatever you want to call it,<BR/>Serves that glittering horde</I><BR/><BR/>(1)rhyming with <I>pal</I><BR/>(2)rhyming with <I>tall</I><BR/><BR/>Makes you wonder if Johnny Clarke is a reader of this blog!<BR/><BR/>The original poem can be found at http://tinyurl.com/nf7yd . I can't find the new one online, but for the next week, tonight's broadcast of JCC reading it can be heard via the BBC's "Listen Again" facility at http://tinyurl.com/oybup (fast-forward about 1 hour 15 minutes into the show).Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1157501101520302672006-09-06T01:05:00.000+01:002006-09-06T01:05:00.000+01:00Years ago I heard of a good graffito: PALL MALL CA...Years ago I heard of a good graffito: <BR/><BR/>PALL MALL CAN'T SPALLAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1157309598002611142006-09-03T19:53:00.000+01:002006-09-03T19:53:00.000+01:00Wow. As a Canadian, I have never heard or used the...Wow. As a Canadian, I have never heard or used the word mall to refer to anything but a shopping centre (and Pall-Mall cigarettes). Mall is used in both full names (Stone Road Mall) and generic references (going to the mall). Not that I go to either very often.<BR/><BR/>I'd be interested in what you have to say about purses vs. handbags. I talked a bit about it on <A HREF="http://writeabouthere.blogspot.com/2006/09/purses-and-handbags.html" REL="nofollow"> my blog </A> but I'm no lynneguist. ;)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1157124310377363122006-09-01T16:25:00.000+01:002006-09-01T16:25:00.000+01:00I (southern BrE) would also use 'shopping precinct...I (southern BrE) would also use 'shopping precinct'. <BR/>I'm trying to work out what, if any, my distinction is between 'arcade (of shops)' - (not usually 'shopping arcade'), '(shopping) precinct', and 'shopping centre'. I think they ascend in size in that order, probably. But like you say, if referring to one in particular I'd generally use its given name, which may not follow my size-dependent rule of thumb. <BR/>I would tend to think of an arcade generically as a single, linear, covered 'corridor' of shops. Queens Arcade in Cardiff, for instance, I would call Queens Arcade, but generically I would call it a shopping centre or possibly a precinct; Chelmsford, where I grew up, has the High Chelmer shopping centre, which in my family (and I think informally elsewhere in town) is 'the precinct', and the much newer Meadows Centre, which is just that, or simply 'The Meadows'. Huge free-standing out-of-town type places like Lakeside or Bluewater on the edge of London are always shopping centres.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1157111555986127232006-09-01T12:52:00.000+01:002006-09-01T12:52:00.000+01:00Interesting article in World Wide Words on "Pall M...Interesting article in World Wide Words on "Pall Mall" <BR/>( http://www.worldwidewords.org/weirdwords/ww-pal2.htm ). <BR/><BR/>The Online Etymology Dictionary (I don't necessarily trust its authority, but it is the only etymological dictionary I have to hand at the moment) dates the use of the word in connection with shopping to 1963. Covered markets and shopping arcades go back much further than that, obviously, e.g. the famous Burlington Arcade, built in Regency times. I have often heard the word 'arcade' used as a synonym for 'mall'.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1157106820350537202006-09-01T11:33:00.000+01:002006-09-01T11:33:00.000+01:00I think I would pronounce the second syllable with...I think I would pronounce the second syllable with more stress - PalMAL and PellMELL.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1157106090139747462006-09-01T11:21:00.000+01:002006-09-01T11:21:00.000+01:00Thanks Murray!Thanks Murray!lynneguisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-1157094843292175672006-09-01T08:14:00.000+01:002006-09-01T08:14:00.000+01:00The shopping centre in Crawley, West Sussex, is ca...The shopping centre in Crawley, West Sussex, is called The County Mall. Its radio adverts pronounce "Mall" to rhyme with "pal".Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com