Idiosyncratic British Usage

[Bruin Fisher]

I have at least two friends whose speech is littered with Cockney Rhyming Slang. Camy's illustration covers some of the most common examples but there's a bewildering variety of terms. And cockneys abbreviate them. My friends speak of 'going for a Ruby' when they visit an Indian restaurant, 'puttin' on my best Whistle' when they dress up in their best suit, and 'having a nice cup of Rosy' when they share a pot of tea. Someone who talks a lot is described in a popular song as having 'more rabbit than Sainsbury's'.

The story goes that this Rhyming Slang began when criminals wanted to discuss their nefarious plans in public without alerting the police to their schemes. I'm not sure if that's just folklore, though.

[Rutabaga]

Meanwhile, the time has come to point out that in the U.S. we virtually never employ the word "whilst" whereas it seems fairly common in British usage.

R

[Nigel Gordon]

1 hour ago, Rutabaga said:

Meanwhile, the time has come to point out that in the U.S. we virtually never employ the word "whilst" whereas it seems fairly common in British usage.

R

It seems to me that Americans have a particular dislike of the word "whilst". My editors and proofreaders on "Being Johnny" have made a pretty good job of getting me to remove all occurrences of the word. Though I think I have managed to sneak a couple of occurrences past them.

[Camy]

If you're after truly idiosyncratic try polari!

Polari was secretive language widely used by the British gay community from the 1900s to the 1970s. It was based on slang words deriving from a variety of different sources, including rhyming slang, and backslang (spelling words backwards). https://www.keele.ac.uk/media/keeleuniversity/equaldiversity/polari.pdf

And here are Julian and Sandy (Round The Horne 1967) to tell you more...

 

[Merkin]

Aside from the use of Cockney to confuse that particular mystery, Cole, I believe Dick Francis made a real effort to give his American readers access to his work by taking time within his novels to explain British quirks and customs.  Once he became famous he resided in Florida and rarely returned to England except to deposit his cheques.

[James K]

Deleted

[Nigel Gordon]

18 minutes ago, James K said:

Does anyone under sixty use Cockney rhyming slang, and Polari, which have/had a very minority usage even in the past

Actually there are signs that Polari might be making a comeback. It seems that some of the younger members of gay society are taking an increasing interest in it and are trying to revive it. There is also a lot of academic research going on into it. Shortly before Christmas I was meeting a friend a local gay pub, there were two young men (about 20ish) in there and they were using polari. Turned out they were part of a group of polari speakers who met regularly to try to keep the language alive.