Can You Spot All the Homographs in These Sentences?

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In summary: I am a summarizer, not a conversationalist. In summary, the conversation touches on the challenges of learning English as a second language, the difficulties with English pronunciation, and the use of slang and dialects in different regions of England. The topic of scones and their pronunciation also arises, as well as humorous jokes and puns related to the English language.
  • #36
brewnog said:
There's one thing I love about Hull. I'll give you a clue:

The tops are 36mm further apart from each other than the bottoms, to allow for the curvature of the earth.

I know that one - its a 'bloody gret bridge' that goes over the Humber!
 
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  • #37
Adrian Baker said:
I know that one - its a 'bloody gret bridge' that goes over the Humber!

Aye, that is is lad! As tha walked o'er it? Tha ken see t'reet big iron plates on t'pavement slidin' to an fro when t'wind gets up, tha ken!
 
  • #38
Adrian Baker said:
I know that one - its a 'bloody gret bridge' that goes over the Humber!
Nuts! I was thinking Siamese twins.
 
  • #39
brewnog said:
The tops are 36mm further apart from each other than the bottoms, to allow for the curvature of the earth.


http://www.musictech.co.za/Graphics/Humber%20Bridge%20%20Above%20the%20clouds.jpg
Beautiful, isn't it? :D
 
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  • #40
zoobyshoe said:
Regardless, I think he missed the whole art gallery pun.
I got what I thought the joke was, and was amused. If there's another one, please explain. :confused:
 
  • #41
And yes, I've walked over it. Cycling with a strong tail wind is more fun, until you start to loose control and think you're about to die.
I love standing with one foot on one side of the metal plates, and one on the other as the bridge sways in the wind.
 
  • #42
I love that bridge more than life itself. My dad went on a tour of it while it was still being built. First they took him into one of the abutments, apparently they're completely hollow and catherdral-like inside, with all the cable mounting points all over the place. Then they took him up a temporary lift on one of the towers, and they walked down one of the suspension cables. How good would that be?!


Danger, I missed the joke, not you...
 
  • #43
Danger said:
I got what I thought the joke was, and was amused. If there's another one, please explain. :confused:

Normally, when "The" is abbreviated to t', it isn't pronounced as a full word, but merged into the next one. This makes "The art gallery" T'art gallery/tart gallery.
That was what I'd intended anyway. Don't know how anyone else interpreted it.
 
  • #44
Ahh, it really wasn't as clever as I thought it was going to be! :-p
 
  • #45
brewnog said:
I love that bridge more than life itself. My dad went on a tour of it while it was still being built. First they took him into one of the abutments, apparently they're completely hollow and catherdral-like inside, with all the cable mounting points all over the place. Then they took him up a temporary lift on one of the towers, and they walked down one of the suspension cables. How good would that be?!
I would have loved to see the thing being constructed, but unfortunately I wasn't alive at the time. I've seen hundreds of photos though, and they are quite spectacular.
 
  • #46
matthyaouw said:
I would have loved to see the thing being constructed, but unfortunately I wasn't alive at the time. I've seen hundreds of photos though, and they are quite spectacular.


I was only a baby at the time, otherwise I'd have been there pestering him to take me! Come to think of it, the reason my dad got to see it being built is because he was a photographer... I'll see if he's still got the pictures, but he probably had to sign them over to whoever he was photographing for.
 
  • #47
matthyaouw said:
That was what I'd intended anyway. Don't know how anyone else interpreted it.
It suggested a speaker who was male confessing he didn't go to art galleries to look at the art.
 
  • #48
Who did he work for? In my job i have access to a lot of picture archives. I might have seen some of them.
 
  • #49
matthyaouw said:
Normally, when "The" is abbreviated to t', it isn't pronounced as a full word, but merged into the next one. This makes "The art gallery" T'art gallery/tart gallery.
That was what I'd intended anyway. Don't know how anyone else interpreted it.
I did miss that, because I didn't know about the 't' pronunciation. I thought that it was a fart joke. :redface: (More exposure to Cockney over here than Yorkshire.) In retrospect, though, it was very clever.

That is a very beautiful picture. I hate bridges in one regard (severe acrophobia), but love them from an artistic and engineering perspective. If more pictures are available, I'd sure like to see them.
 
  • #50
Danger said:
That is a very beautiful picture. I hate bridges in one regard (severe acrophobia), but love them from an artistic and engineering perspective. If more pictures are available, I'd sure like to see them.

A google images search on Humber Bridge will probably give you enough pictures to swoon your boots for weeks on end! I've got a really nice B&W photo of the full span of the bridge, but Evo hasn't approved my FEA picture in the lumberjack thread yet, so I can't be bothered.

matthyaouw said:
Who did he work for? In my job i have access to a lot of picture archives. I might have seen some of them.

He was a freelance industrial photographer. He worked for the MOD for quite a while doing high-speed footage of missile impacts, but this was a while after that. I'll ask him about it next time I'm home.
 
  • #51
A little hull slang for you.
Yer doing me 'ed in- You are annoying me
Ellur, arm from 'ull - Good morning, I am from Hull
Summatup? - Is there something troubling you?
Parnta marld - A glass of dark beer
Arfa Larga - A smaller glass of beer of continental origin
Sner Berl - An egg-based liquer from Holland
Canaborryit? - May I borrow it?
It's marnanall - I am claiming joing-ownership
Shurrup orral bray yer - I recommend that you stop talking immediately
Yer for-ever mernin' - You do complain a lot
Ayer gorra bruvva? - Have you got a male sibling?
Watsyer bruvva carled? What is his name?
Ner smurkin' - You are not allowed to smoke
Snur on Frurm rurd - Winter in Longhill Estate
There's nur snur on the rurd - The road is clear of snow
I'm mafted - I'm rather hot
It's mafting - It's rather hot
It's siling down - It's raining
Arm off erm now, tarrar - An indication of imminent departure

Taken from: http://www.greengates.karoo.net/hull/speak.html
 
  • #52
Google image is deffinately the best place for pics that I'm aware of. I'm hoping there should be some new ones up soon, as they are going to begin fully illuminating it at night at some point in the near future. If I find any pics, I'll post them.
 
  • #53
brewnog said:
A google images search on Humber Bridge will probably give you enough pictures to swoon your boots for weeks on end! I've got a really nice B&W photo of the full span of the bridge, but Evo hasn't approved my FEA picture in the lumberjack thread yet, so I can't be bothered.
Have you tried the Imageshack approach? That's the only way that I can post pictures, and they don't require approval.

Now... Vickie! Get back here! If I have to be surrounded by insane Brits, I'd prefer that at least one of them be pretty.
 
  • #54
I can look rather fetching when I try :wink:
 
  • #55
Hahaha those made me laugh, especially "Arfa Larga".

I almost feel like a rendition of "On Ilkley Moor".

Oh sod it...

Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee, ah saw thee
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?
Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee?
Wheear 'as ta bin sin ah saw thee?
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at?
On Ilkla Moor baht 'at!

Full lyrics http://www.ilkley.org/iguide/baht.htm
 
  • #56
Danger said:
Now... Vickie! Get back here! If I have to be surrounded by insane Brits, I'd prefer that at least one of them be pretty.


Eeeeeee, tha'rra cheeky ol' bugger, tha nus. Tha'd better wetch what tha sez orrals ah'll belt thee one! Ah will, ah tell thee! Gee'or wiya messin lad, orrals yer in for a claatin.
 
  • #57
And I understood every word of that song :D

Is Yorkshire really that bad an accent? I was watching an American TV program the other day, and there was a man with a very mild Yorkshire accent. They saw fit to give him subtitles...
 
  • #58
matthyaouw said:
And I understood every word of that song :D

Is Yorkshire really that bad an accent? I was watching an American TV program the other day, and there was a man with a very mild Yorkshire accent. They saw fit to give him subtitles...

Although I don't really speak with that much of an accent, I've always found Yorkshire a pretty easy accent to understand. Just try and sound like a bit of a cretin, and you're half way there. Most other accents don't bother me too much either. But if you ever need to converse with a plasterer from Derbyshire, well tha ant gorra carrin ell's chance!
 
  • #59
  • #60
matthyaouw said:
A little hull slang for you...
Those were great.

I liked "Rurd".
 
  • #61
Brilliant!

Type in "it isn't in the tin"!

Hours of fun! We could make this into a quiz...
 
  • #62
brewnog said:
Eeeeeee, tha'rra cheeky ol' bugger, tha nus. Tha'd better wetch what tha sez orrals ah'll belt thee one! Ah will, ah tell thee! Gee'or wiya messin lad, orrals yer in for a claatin.
I grieves me to admit that I had no trouble understanding that (unlike your 'song').
 
  • #63
matthyaouw said:
They saw fit to give him subtitles...
I've seen that done here with people from rural Ireland, English speaking people from Africa and the Indian subcontinent, and with Carribean people.
 
  • #64
Danger said:
I grieves me to admit that I had no trouble understanding that (unlike your 'song').

Well.
It roughly translates to:

Where have you been, since I last saw you?
On Ilkley Moor? WITHOUT A HAT?!

And so on.

Following verses ("tha's bin a-courten Mary Jane", "tha's bahn to cetch tha de'th o' cowd", "then we'shll av to bury thee", "then t'weerms'll cum'n eaat thee up" etc) tell the story of a man who goes out with his missus on a cold, windy moor. His friends tell him he's likely to die of cold, then need to be buried, then be eaten by worms, then have those worms eaten by ducks, then have those ducks eaten by his friends, all because he didn't wear a hat on Ilkley Moor.
 
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  • #65
matthyaouw said:
I can look rather fetching when I try :wink:
Have you been introduced to Smurf?

matthyaouw said:
And I understood every word of that song :D
Not something to be bragging about...:-p

matthyaouw said:
Is Yorkshire really that bad an accent? I was watching an American TV program the other day, and there was a man with a very mild Yorkshire accent. They saw fit to give him subtitles...
Are you kidding? They can't even understand us. Now if only more of them could read, subtitles might be effective.
 
  • #66
brewnog said:
Well.
It roughly translates to:

Where have you been, since I last saw you?
On Ilkley Moor? WITHOUT A HAT?!

And so on.

Following verses ("tha's bin a-courten Mary Jane", "tha's bahn to cetch tha de'th o' cowd", "then we'shll av to bury thee", "then t'weerms'll cum'n eaat thee up" etc) tell the story of a man who goes out with his missus on a cold, windy moor. His friends tell him he's likely to die of cold, then need to be buried, then be eaten by worms, then have those worms eaten by ducks, then have those ducks eaten by his friends, all because he didn't wear a hat on Ilkley Moor.
I'm SOOOOOO pleased that you posted this, I was never sure whether I'd made up the lyrics or not, I'm so glad they're real. 'Then worm's'll come and eat oop thee... On Illllkelllly Mooooor Bah T'aaaat...' Yay!
 
  • #67
Danger said:
Are you kidding? They can't even understand us. Now if only more of them could read, subtitles might be effective.
We can understand you perfectly well. The trouble is, we can't hold back from laughing long enough to catch a whole sentence.
 
  • #68
A friend of mine picked up a temp job at an office once where everyone was from Canada. They would go up to her and ask her to say things like 'house' 'about' and 'spaghetti' then laugh at the way she said them.
 
  • #69
Oi'll ave yew know me gramp was a Yorkshireman. Got the Dalesman 'til the day he died.
But, believe it or not, such accents are remnants of the older usages and can be considered a purer form of English. If you want to hear something that is even closer to the original Anglo-Saxon, go to Frisia.
 
  • #70
kleinjahr said:
If you want to hear something that is even closer to the original Anglo-Saxon, go to Frisia.
Where is Frisia?
 

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