Articles and Stories

September 10, 2013

All of us have experienced hearing what the other had to say, but not truly understanding what they meant. The reason can vary from words in English being pronounced differently from a ‘neutral English’ in some regions, to totally different meanings of the same word or expression.

For example, here in the South we have:

Different Southern pronunciation:
“You don’t have to be Eyetalyun to like spaghetti”
“Never underestimate the pare of a woman”

Different Southern meaning:
“Come here and give your momma some sugar (= as kiss)”
“That boy sure does favor (resembles) his daddy, don’t he?”

The context usually gives a clue about the meaning of the word, though there could be some confusion depending on the additional information available. And who wants to ask “sorry, what did you say?” more than twice?

Now it becomes more tricky when entire expressions mean something different to people, as is the case with a certain British register that is meant to keep everybody happy and avoid confrontation.
What British people say and mean, and what other cultures understand, can be almost at opposite ends.
“I hear what you say and it is very interesting” would be a very encouraging feedback to a Northern European (though most would probably wonder why ‘I hear what you say’ has to be specified, as you usually assume that your conversation partner hears you). To a Briton on the other hand, it indicates disagreement and nonsense. You might recognise the table below as it has traveled the internet extensively; it’s exact source is unknown.

British politeness, as Hugh Grant said in Four Weddings and Funeral, can be misleading to some of us.

So imagine how hard it can be to translate an English content into a whole new language, not only does the meaning of the text have to be clear (clarity which is usually provided by context), but the communicator in the original language has to have the same understanding for a given phrase as the translator.

One last southern phrase that takes most internationals years to figure out:
“Bless his heart” = 1. the person is just stupid; 2. The person looks hideous; 3. The person is clueless.
Bless our non-southern hearts!