this post was submitted on 24 Aug 2023
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Kinda story kinda question; mostly rambling:
My Opa (dad's dad) is from Germany; Eschborn, near Frankfurt), he moved to Australia when he was 19 and worked on the Nullabor Plains railway tracks. He met Nan, got citizenship here after Nan and him tried to live in Germany. Nan said she disliked it because she had to dry the clothes inside as it was too cold in Winter to hang them out haha.
Anyway, Opa, being born and raised in Germany, would use German sayings and idioms around his kids and us grandkids, especially when we were children. If we were all over the place, running around being menaces, he'd whistle one super fkn loud whistle and we'd all stop dead. He still does it when he wants our attention to take a photo haha! He also would herd us around saying "raus raus!" and it's so ingrained in me that I say it to the cat when it gets under my feet lol. I also say "danke schΓΆn" a lot IRL instead of "thank you"; it just sounds nicer to me heh.
So, I was wondering, are there any sayings you say often that are from another language? Like curses or exclamations? I'm tipsy and curious π
There's a podcast I listen to called "Grammar Girl" and she talks about Familects, which is dialogue your family speaks to one another. That's what I thought of when I read this story.
My family is very much Anglo-Australian, but my paternal side is from country Victoria so they have a lot of sayings my friends and even my partner have no idea what I'm saying. Like I'll say "time to hit the frog and toad", I know that it's a phrase that is used wildly, but it's one of those sort of things that you probably don't hear from someone in the city.
My family uses frog & toad - also 'billy lids' or just 'lids' for the collective quantity of small children present. Cockney rhyming slang. frog & toad = road. 'Wigs on the green' is another one my family uses for an argument. Or just - wigs up! if we see a fight develop. That one's not rhyming slang.
I wonder if thatβs where βwig outβ came from?
Oooo ty for the recc!
I have not heard that expression before! What does it mean, if I may ask? :)
Family + Dialect = Familect.
Basically yeah your family dialect and words or phrases your family might use.
Road
I say merde a bit.. gotta put the French flair to it.
Oh and also Opa! but the Greek way not in the context for your grandpa. Like if someone drops a plate.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opa_(expression)
One time I was walking on a wooden slatted footbridge over Alligator filled water at a place called Gatorland in Florida, yelled Opa! and a gator directly below me jumped up in the air. It was rad.
That's sick as! Holy shit!
I say a few in arabic. M she means walk so when my kid walks slow I'll hurry her along with m she m she. The other day I made rice which is riz in arabic.
My daughter asked tonight about how to say the word pineapple and my husband laughed and said "I don't know. Pineapple?" And she said that's funny because a lot of languages say blank" and he said "that's the one. You said it perfectly". He doesn't use arabic often only when speaking to his parents.
I like that! M she! Rolls off the tongue though I'm guessing pronunciation haha
You say it exactly how I wrote it. My means water. Hummus forget it because we don't have the letter or mouth muscles for such a sound in English. The closest is when you go out in the cold and you huff to see "smoke". That's the sound it makes.
I'm 100 % english speaking unless I'm in a foreign language environment π€·ββοΈ