tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post5177144763469186102..comments2024-03-16T00:21:43.240+00:00Comments on Separated by a Common Language: All right?lynneguisthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10171345732985610861noreply@blogger.comBlogger68125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-14139922415969296742017-07-18T22:07:54.078+01:002017-07-18T22:07:54.078+01:00Just talking with my daughter about this today. It...Just talking with my daughter about this today. It's an opener which allows a variety of responses depending on relationship and what you sense to be correct way in... Just a simply 'you ok?' or 'yeah great', through to that polite small social interaction (your description is spot on) through to entry into a full conversation... It's a way to gauge how the conversation will turn, and we realised how flexible and yet sophisticated a phrase it is. (and variations of) Mrs Allenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08447932037831516640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-62198263535044706522016-01-11T00:36:07.614+00:002016-01-11T00:36:07.614+00:00This reminds me of the time I went on a German Exc...This reminds me of the time I went on a German Exchange programme, it was probably around 1995. When I went over to stay with my exchange partner and her family it all seemed to go ok, when she came to stay with us I think she must have been really homesick as she was very hard work.<br /><br />One day, in what I thought was a totally unprovoked attack, she went absolutely mental at me. She was furious and declared that she was fine and to stop asking her how she was every time I saw her. I had absolutely no idea what she was talking about, because to me “alright” was just a greeting.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00540383191304037266noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-13743273634002466982016-01-01T16:17:50.286+00:002016-01-01T16:17:50.286+00:00I once was talking to a fellow gay friend who live...I once was talking to a fellow gay friend who lives in NYC as I do and came from Brazil but frequents gay and latino circles, so I'm not sure where it cmae from but he suddenly said "Look at you!" <br /><br />I bring this up because I felt the same say Americans feel when asked "You alright?"<br /><br />I stopped and look at myself, but the speaker was saying 'you're doing something uncharacteristic in my judgement and experience with you and you should feel encouraged to do more', judging from the contexts in which I've heard it since.dean10003https://www.blogger.com/profile/05371248661469311300noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-81173609562131740012015-12-17T06:59:59.012+00:002015-12-17T06:59:59.012+00:00Just found your blog, and it's fascinating!
&...Just found your blog, and it's fascinating!<br /><br />"All right" sounds similar to the Hawaiian pidgin (yes, it's a creole, but it's called pidgin) greeting, "Howzit," which is similar to "All right, mate" in that it has its analogous "Howzit, brah?" The phrase comes from "How's it going?" but it certainly doesn't actually ask the question. You'll say "Eh, howzit, brah?" with the question inflection, and the person will answer back, "Howzit!" No reply about how it actually is going is needed.<br /><br />Carolenoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-75950269422082890782015-11-17T02:14:43.521+00:002015-11-17T02:14:43.521+00:00As a young Aussie, 'all right' would make ...As a young Aussie, 'all right' would make me think I'm being asked about my health/wellbeing. <br /><br />My peers usually use 'chupta' to greet each other (HEAVILY contacted 'wotcha up ta'/'what are you up to') which is usually answered with a non-commital noise.<br /><br />Personally, my group of friends and I use a home sign greeting of two fingers together moved in a gesture like you're slowly pushing something away, starting with a closed fist and ending up with the two fingers upright. It's a crude sign meaning (to us) 'you up to'.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12905608251881049530noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-6186039375663486592015-11-10T17:21:46.800+00:002015-11-10T17:21:46.800+00:0050s, female, living in S Scotland but travelling a...50s, female, living in S Scotland but travelling around the UK for work - I hear "all right?" all the time from a variety of ages/ places/ classes. It seems to me to be a useful casual/all-purpose greeting for someone you have met before but don't have a strong relationship with. I like the young urban version ("aw-i?") but can't pull it off myself without sounding like Ali G. My response tends to be "Fine. You?" but I've never really thought about it until now so there may be some variation.<br /><br />I've just remembered - the comedian Michael Barrymore used "all right?" as a catchphrase greeting (mid-1980s till his fall from grace in the ?late 1990s?) which may have helped it spread. It was clearly presented by him as a recognised London/ Essex greeting at that time. <br /><br />Personally my husband and I favour "La" to each other, which is a contraction of "Hola!". We have no Spanish connection and started using it as a joke when Clive James used to talk about the trash magazine of the same name some time in the 1980s, before the appearance of its sister publication HELLO! in the UK. The response to this is also "La". ayalanoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-87404612603034629802015-11-08T09:18:33.999+00:002015-11-08T09:18:33.999+00:00This puzzled me too. I spoke to a Scottish friend ...This puzzled me too. I spoke to a Scottish friend about it, and he agrees that it's weird.<br /><br />I just say "I'm fine. How are you?" I hope that's acceptable.emilyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12945793193044137020noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-14770453554213290192015-11-01T20:03:11.596+00:002015-11-01T20:03:11.596+00:00To someone of my background and generation (north-...To someone of my background and generation (north-west London, 60s), "all right?" is pronounced "aw-reye'?". Just sayin', aw-reye'?Terry Collmannnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-65417017180738764272015-10-30T01:52:42.831+00:002015-10-30T01:52:42.831+00:00Possible responses to "What's up?":
...Possible responses to "What's up?":<br /><br />If said in passing, you can just answer with, "Hey," "How ya doin'," or "Sup," (voiced as a statement not as a question) with a nod added if so desired.<br /><br />If any type of conversation may ensue, "Not much, how 'bout you?" and then let the other person take it from there.<br /><br />Mid-Atlantic USAGina the Greathttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17909631113371692759noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-20863582214366733262015-10-30T00:52:39.293+00:002015-10-30T00:52:39.293+00:00My most frequent response to "What's up?&...My most frequent response to "What's up?" is "Nothing much. What's up with you?"<br /><br />That's just a more informal version of "How do you do?" "Fine, and you?"<br /><br />"S'up?" seems fairly common as an opening line on gay hookup apps like Grinder, although it's usually just "sup?"Davidhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00118485670772781389noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-27762902107459150892015-10-28T17:57:25.400+00:002015-10-28T17:57:25.400+00:00Oh! I meant to add to the post above that "Wh...Oh! I meant to add to the post above that "What's up?" and "'S'up*'" are used very much in the way "All right" and "Alright" are described in Lynne's post. "How's it going?", "How goes?" and "Qué pasa?" are other equivalent phrases I frequently hear where I live. <br /><br />– AiNJ<br /><br />*I'd leave off the question mark if I were writing "'s'up" as dialogue.Anonymous in New Jerseynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-36290410336384478312015-10-28T17:38:49.366+00:002015-10-28T17:38:49.366+00:00@Dick Hartzell,
I think you need to spend more ti...@Dick Hartzell,<br /><br />I think you need to spend more time around young Black* people. Your references are somewhat dated. "Ahh-<i>ite</i>" is neither recent nor usually used when one is actually inquiring about another's well-being. It's also used by "young people" a lot less than it was five to ten years ago. A <i>lot</i> less. (I often hear it as a marker of an older person trying to sound cool, and I've seen more than one young relative perform impressive eye-rolls upon hearing it.)<br /><br />"'S'up" is also an older usage**, although it can still be readily heard. (And I see fewer and less dramatic eyerolls from the kiddos when our older relatives use "it.) But "[our] version of 'How's it going?' these days" is still "How's it going?". Please don't mistake one of many greetings ('s'up) for being the norm or even near-universal. Among Black folks in the U.S., as with any other group, age, geographic region, and a slew of other factors are going to have an influence on individual preferences.<br /><br />– AiNJ<br /><br />*"Black" is my personal preference for identification. My preference has no bearing on the preference of others.<br /><br />**"What's up" has been in use for decades, and the shortened pronunciation has long been in use by loads of people whose accents and dialects make dropping letters the norm – not just among Black people. I think it only really gained prominence as marker of Black speech when non-Black people in the U.S. took note and used it as marked speech in TV ads, sitcoms and movies.Anonymous in New Jerseynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-2955962488050516892015-10-28T13:34:16.945+00:002015-10-28T13:34:16.945+00:00Hadn't really thought about it until this morn...Hadn't really thought about it until this morning, but "Howdy" (which I really do use, pronounced something like "Haa-dy" 8-) ) is just a shortening of "How do you do?" to the point that it no longer even feels slightly like a question.<br /><br />To some extent, I find it useful precisely because it lacks that questioning quality, which I find very difficult to bypass, but still seems more friendly than a bare "Hello" or "Good Morning".<br /><br />A few weeks ago I was descending one of the high trails at Rocky Mountain National Park after a dawn photo shoot and met many people with more normal schedules going up the same trail. I started greeting them with a really cheerful "Howdy!" or "Good Morning!". (It was a beautiful day, after all.) Since many of the people were from places with much less demonstrative public manners, I'm afraid I spread a bid of discomfort along with the joy. After a time, this became a feature rather than a bug, allowing me a perverse pleasure in spreading shock and happiness at the same time.<br /><br />I didn't really think much about it at the time, but this was probably exactly the sort of nuanced Midwestern passive-aggressiveness that the article Lynn linked in her Twitter feed today referred to.Doug Sundsethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12416285410276713188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-17469506020609303972015-10-28T13:26:39.125+00:002015-10-28T13:26:39.125+00:00Of course, the truly British response to "Alr...Of course, the truly British response to "Alright?" is "Not bad".Ginger Yellowhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06103410278129312943noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-83942144249118940762015-10-28T07:07:54.392+00:002015-10-28T07:07:54.392+00:00You lived in south Africa for a while, right? What...You lived in south Africa for a while, right? What about the south African "Howzit?", to which the reply is "Howzit!" (like ça va ? Ça va. But with less grammatical sense. I never got used to it- my impulse was always to reply "how's what?" ramblingbloggerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00247498329029373735noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-29308277557658233122015-10-27T19:10:33.240+00:002015-10-27T19:10:33.240+00:00As long as we're talking about dropping stuff,...As long as we're talking about dropping stuff, I thought I might as well mention <i>dropping a dime</i>, which has nothing to do with waiting <i>or</i> comprehension -- though it does trace its origins to the pay phone.<br /><br />Back when US pay phones were everywhere they had slots for 3 different coin denominations: quarter (25 cents), dime (10 cents) and nickel (5 cents).<br /><br />While the cost of making a local call began (well before my day) at a nickel, by the time <i>dropping a dime</i> was ready to enter crime slang it had reached a dime. So <i>dropping a dime</i> on someone meant phoning the police to inform on him. Eventually this expression became so commonplace in crime fiction, TV and movies that the importance of the phone became immaterial and <i>dropping a dime</i> came simply to mean informing on someone regardless of means.Dick Hartzellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07065924271517452841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-38998528246464502282015-10-27T18:19:04.808+00:002015-10-27T18:19:04.808+00:00Online sources state that waiting for the other sh...Online sources state that <i>waiting for the other shoe to drop</i> meant exactly what Doug describes. So metaphorically it's waiting for the delayed but inevitable next thing to happen.<br /><br />When the penny drops, the next thing to happen is <b>comprehension</b> and, although delayed, it's not necessarily inevitable. If you <i>wait for the penny to drop</i> you could be waiting for ever.<br /><br />By the way, <i>the penny dropped</i> is distinct from a <i>lightbulb moment</i>. Although both describe an instant comprehension, a <i>lightbulb moment</i> need not be <b>delayed</b>, or even expected.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-40153121133225259812015-10-27T18:05:13.954+00:002015-10-27T18:05:13.954+00:00My experience of shoes dropping was from living in...My experience of shoes dropping was from living in an apartment. When the upstairs neighbor went to bed, he removed one shoe and dropped it with an audible thunk on his floor. If he then didn't immediately drop the other shoe, the anticipation was disconcerting.<br /><br />Worse for me was an upstairs neighbor child who occasionally dropped a marble, which resulted in a "tik-tik-tik-tk-tk-kkkk-roll" sound ... unless he caught the marble on a bounce. Again, the unfulfilled expectation was a problem.Doug Sundsethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12416285410276713188noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-63948718127337908092015-10-27T16:34:23.782+00:002015-10-27T16:34:23.782+00:00I'm from New Jersey and "How're you d...I'm from New Jersey and "How're you doing (or how is it going), all right?" sounds unremarkable to me as a greeting. I'm sure I've heard it before. It's just a more wordy version of "How're you doing?". Wouldn't know what to do with a bare "all right" though. <br /><br />Then again, I've long perceived answering "you bet" to "thank you" as rude, but I hear it from Minnesota all the time.<br /><br />Re: penny dropping, I'm familiar with the term, not sure from where, but I've always thought it had some sort of parallel to the other shoe dropping (as in "waiting for the other shoe to drop"), though don't really know the origin of either expression.Boris Zakharinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16560756640621720539noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-44038347265936690842015-10-27T14:58:33.810+00:002015-10-27T14:58:33.810+00:00I agree "alright" is a greeting, "y...<i>I agree "alright" is a greeting, "you all right" is a question (the gap is spoken) but it is also a class marker. It is not all right for a middle class adult to say "alright".</i><br /><br />Interestingly, in the US young African Americans have adopted a peculiar pronunciation of the words "all right", essentially eliminating the <i>l</i> and <i>r</i> sounds entirely so the result is something like "ahh-<i>ite</i>". In movies it typically appears in the expression "You ahh-<i>ite</i>" as a gag line when one character addresses another who's just taken a terrible pratfall (and is clearly <i>not</i> all right).Dick Hartzellhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07065924271517452841noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-20651933872583918482015-10-27T13:58:41.491+00:002015-10-27T13:58:41.491+00:00PS.
The GPO was the General Post Office, which wa...PS. <br />The GPO was the General Post Office, which was originally responsible for British telephones (except in the city of Hull).David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-50168774464303404802015-10-27T12:12:33.251+00:002015-10-27T12:12:33.251+00:00When the pennies dropped in a telephone box, you l...When the pennies dropped in a telephone box, you lost your money. Hence the dilemma in the wonderful song of the time.<br /><br />(British dials allowed you enter letters — whence <i>Dial M for Murder</i>. Usually this was for the first three letters of a mechanised local exchange such as PRImrose. A <i>pro</i> was stand g=for a prostitute.)<br /><br />THE TELEPHONE SONG by Sydney Carter<br /><br />Standing alone in the damp and the dark<br />Of a filthy old phone box in Finsbury Park<br />I dialed Fremantle they give me a FRO,<br />I asked for a Primrose, they give me a PRO.<br /><br />CHORUS<br />So, Say who you are, love, and not 'Hello'<br />Give me your name and give me your number.<br />Say who you are, love, and not 'Hello'<br />If I press button 'A' all my pennies will go.<br /><br />My mother is waiting at Lancaster Gate,<br />I promised to phone at a quarter to eight.<br />I've done all the things that they tell me to do<br />But instead of my mother I keep getting you.<br /><br />There's many the girl that I've got to know<br />Through a fault on the line of the GPO,<br />I'd do it again but it wouldn't be right.<br />I promised to telephone mother tonight.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-35444381549723774542015-10-27T12:06:32.179+00:002015-10-27T12:06:32.179+00:00I associate the delayed dropping of a penny more w...I associate the delayed dropping of a penny more with telephone boxes.<br /><br />According to a mechanism that few on this blog will have experienced, you<br /><br />• walked into the box<br />• lifted the receiver and listened for a <i>dialling tone</i> to show that a connection was possible<br />• placed some pennies (four in my day) into the slot<br />• dialled the number and listened<br /><br />If and and when the other party answered, you pressed button B. This cause the pennies to drop, thus creating a connection. If nobody answered, or if it was clearly a <i>wrong number</i>, you pressed button A and got your money back.<br /><br />This procedure was for local calls. For <i>trunk</i> (AmE <i>long distance</i>) calls, you dialled the operator and told her the number you wanted to call. She told you to put a certain sum in the slot and stared <i>'trying to connect you caller'</i>. If and when the connection was established she would say <i>Go ahead caller</i> and the coins were dropped. I think you pressed button B for the first drop, but as I remember it you could put extra coins in which would drop when your initial time ran out.<br /><br />I believe there were earlier <i>penny in the slot</i> machines with this delaying mechanism for the next penny.<br /><br />The metaphor of <i>the penny dropped</i> was that something was activated <b>after a delay</b>.David Crosbiehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01858358459416955921noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-77991866182628128372015-10-27T08:46:14.683+00:002015-10-27T08:46:14.683+00:00And the lightbulb moment is a visual gag that must...And the lightbulb moment is a visual gag that must have arrived with strip cartoons ... and definitely after lightbulbs were invented!biochemistnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28787909.post-4374555403592259022015-10-27T08:43:24.153+00:002015-10-27T08:43:24.153+00:00'A number of pennies dropping' - clearly f...'A number of pennies dropping' - clearly for each person in the seminar group, enlightenment dawned, as if a 'penny had dropped' for each person. This is a general metaphor in BrE, and for women of a certain age it brings back memories of the device on the door of each cubicle in a public lavatory - the door could not open until a penny had been inserted - hence the phrase 'to spend a penny', when one wishes to use the loo. Of course, it was almost de rigeur to hold the door open for the next person, and thus subvert the system.biochemistnoreply@blogger.com