When I was in college one of my roommates (born and raised in NYC) decided he was going to embrace his British heritage and started talking with a fake accent. Minus all the fun colloquialisms being discussed here. We gave him so much shit until he eventually stopped but he stuck with it for quite awhile. What a c**t.
London calling… “Wotcha” is definitely archaic. Hardly used after the 1980s I’d say. Cockney rhyming slang also archaic. London is far too cosmopolitan. Rhyming slang is history except for a handful of words that are still used. There are also several rhymes that are more modern (eg invented after the 1950s) that are more often used in the provinces than London.
(See Shakespeare, "What cheer?") But may "Last night I got Brahms, now I got me trouble on the dog" never die. [Native speakers may want to hold back awhile and let others figure it out.]
You are going to have to come up with some actual examples of expressions we provincials have copied from you southern pooftas...
When I lived in the States I used to enjoy innocently coming out with normal British sayings. Such as "I'll knock you up in the morning". "Don't get your knickers in a twist." And of course the word "pants", both connected with lower torso and legs, but rather different in usage.
One I hear not infrequently on British television is, “Hey, take a butcher’s at that.” I was told: Butcher’s hook, rhymes with “look.”
A former colleague who spent some time in England said a couple in meetings that turned heads. He said, “Bob’s your uncle” and nobody knew what he meant. Then one time he said his team was “heads down, tails up” and I think we all got the wrong image in our minds.
I would say that it's fairly mainstream. But I get my modern usage of english from listening to the schoolkids on the bus. (Eyesight no longer good enough to drive ) You might be amazed at what they talk about, or perhaps what are they hoping will shock the old guy with white hair listening to them? Hey, who invented sex, drugs and rock-n-roll? My Great-^^297 grandparents. Perhaps not rock-n-roll, and definitely not Disco!
"Bob's" yes, Heads down -- well I would interpret that as "you're gonna get shafted, get used to it boys". But that's possibly American usage, I have not heard it in Britain.
I have been re-reading Oliver Twist. Dickens wrote a lot of these 'common' rhyming expressions down with explanations. Most of these have entered into to general language g'vner. Twist was written some 190 years ago and is based on Dickens's experiences 200 years ago as a child who's family was thrown into prison because they could not pay the bills. A lot of the slang also relates to pre decmilzed currency. Probably a way of remembering what was what when you did not have any. Dickens mostly wrote nostalgia set in that happier time of ones youth. So a lot of the expressions were dated by the time they appeared in print. I grew up with British export telly as that is what was on PBS (public broadcasting.) To this day I can not pronounce things properly. It did not help that I became involved in the Ren and Dickens fairs, where we have discussions like this thread every year during rehearsal. The local PBS station what brought Dr Who(*) to the states also brought a number of other exported shows during the 1980s. I knew the program director and asked if we could get French and Saunders. We had Saffire and Steel, along with Blakes-7. Even some Benny Hill. I was told that F&S and 'Let them eat cake.' was "Unsuitable for American audiences." We did get BlackAdder but family and relatives who liked 'Are you being served.' did not like the latter. Especially when they got to the piss drinking stage. Poldark remains an acquired tastes (Alistair Cooke hated it, was a family favorite) My parents however did get addicted to East Enders, but could never get into Corry. They like Doc Marten, and are addicted to Inspector Morse as well, so we got both Britbox and Acorn now. Then there are those who think England is still all like Jane Austen and such. Tea and crumpets, anyone? * (It was actually on Ch 3 and 4 here in the states which was the NBC affiliates before PBS made it popular. I thought Pertwee was the English doctor and Baker recast as the American doctor for export to PBS.)
In my experience working with Brits for 30+ years the salutation is Y’allright? At least that’s what my yankee ears were hearing.
Depends whereabouts they come from. Up north it would more often be "y'alright". Down south it's more likely to be just "alright".
