Why has the -er ending to words become -ah?

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Globalti

Legendary Member
It irritates the hell out of me.... kids don't say mother any longer, they say mothah. Father = fathah. Weather = weathah. Even whatever has become whatevah. It sounds yobbish and slovenly, where did it come from?
 

Andy in Sig

Vice President in Exile
Probably from estuary English, an accent which seems to grate horribly on the ears of anyone who doesn't speak it.
 

Cubist

Still wavin'
Location
Ovver 'thill
Yep, "whatevah", when spoken out loud will take you straight to the set of Albert Square.....

This erosion of standards started many years ago when the BBC made the mistake of allowing regional and provincial accents to be heard on the air. Immitation by the children exposed to this lack of standards in annunciation and grammar has meant that we have turned into a country of slovenly speakers. I despair, as I was telling my daughter Chelsea-Siobhan only yesterday during the Jeremy Kyle show....
 

snapper_37

Barbara Woodhouse's Love Child
Location
Wolves
That's normal accent in some areas of the country. Ahem. I won't botha ya with the details though. :tongue:
 
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OP
Globalti

Globalti

Legendary Member
I will nevvah, evvah, speak like vat. Evvah.

It's not estuary English - Michael Caine doesn't speak like that, does he? I think it's hip hop culture, same as wearing your pants halfway down your arse.
 
Globalti said:
I will nevvah, evvah, speak like vat. Evvah.

It's not estuary English - Michael Caine doesn't speak like that, does he? I think it's hip hop culture, same as wearing your pants halfway down your arse.

A riotous day beckons, exploring the strangeness of influence! Penitentiary dress, with no belt, as a symbol of 'liberty' and 'individuality' :tongue: which strikes me as similar to the plethora of camouflage trousers striding along Camden High Street. I suppose the Kings Road, and the Beatles with their 'soldier' outfits were the precursors of non-army armies?

"Get fell in, you lot" gives way to "get felon-u look" - ah, love the language! :blush:
 

Haitch

Flim Flormally
Location
Netherlands
Globalti said:
wearing your pants halfway down your arse.


My son, aged 14, does this. On his way to school in the winter, he slipped on the ice, fell off his bike and ripped his jeans. When I asked him why he had come home to change trousers he said, "People can see my underpants through the rip". :tongue:
 

Wigsie

Nincompoop
Location
Kent
Its the OMGI (O My God Innit) Generation!

Have recently been doing some mentoring to a group of marketing students at a sixth form college and the spoken word is like a different language sometimes!

And I am 32! not been long since I was 'down wiv da kidz' myself, I was not expecting to be disgusted by the youf of today untill I was at least 60!
 

Mark_Robson

Senior Member
Wigsie said:
Its the OMGI (O My God Innit) Generation!
I have two kids, a boy twelve and a daughter ten. My son is not bothered by peer pressure at all and still writes and speaks good english, my daughter on the other hands lives on Facebook and MSN and writes and speaks text speak and it irritates the life out of me. When she sends me a text I have to read it at least twice before I manage to translate it.
I sound like my dad here, but I blame TV.
 

rusky

CC Addict
Location
Hove
Catherine Tate didn't help things!

Do people on here have the urge to run up behind a yoof with their trousers (not pants, that would be an americanism!) half way down their arse & yank them down :girl:
 

wafflycat

New Member
User1314 said:
I like accents, variations on accents, youth slang variations and international cross-pollination of the afore-mentioned.

I understand the need to comunicate clearly, correctly and comprehensively in English, in a business or similar environment. After all, I spent four years studying for a MA in English.

But this does not meant that I speak with a Germanic pronunciation of the English Language as favoured by the House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha.

I'm proud of my cockney accent with a South Essex edge and nurture it. After all, it represents a more accurate reflection of London pronunciation of English through the centuries than the johnny-come-lately RP.

The influences underpinning the principles behind my thoughts about written and spoken languages, the cultural values attached to them and the underlying political implications, are from my undergraduate days. I was deeply influenced, and still am, by the works of Grassic Gibbon, Alasdair Gray and James Kelman. Latterly, Ackroyd's work has been formative. And, of course, that of the greatest lyricist of his generation, Shane Macgowan.

Nothing wrong with having an accent. There is, however, a problem when the accent is either so strong that it renders communication impossible in any practical way or when the accent isn't a genuine accent but is more of an affectation, spoken because it's the latest thing...
 
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