It's a roughly Leicester and Derbyshire expression, Rob, though it might
extend into Snottinghamshire too (get that joke?)
It's certainly still current here, as I indicated, you get these six foot
seven tall guys with forty inch shoulders who support the Leicester Tigers
and quite happily call each other 'me duck' or 'ducks'.
I pray to Gawd, may she ever be praised, that you never work out how to put
phonetic transcriptions into plain text. Please. domine, not that!
All the Best
Dave
David Bircumshaw
Leicester, England
Home Page
A Chide's Alphabet
Painting Without Numbers
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/david.bircumshaw/index.htm
----- Original Message -----
From: "Robin Hamilton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, June 06, 2002 11:11 PM
Subject: Re: Americanization of English
dave:
> I have to correct you on this. 'Me dook' which is 'me duck' or 'ducks'
Yo. I was going for a crude phonetic transcription -- if ever I crack how
to do IPA in plain text, +everyone's+ going to suffer.
> is
> not Midlands universal. In Birmingham it is 'me bab' or ' babs'.
OK, that means it's NARROWER than Midlands. Certainly runs in Loughborough.
And Leicester.
So we have L&L but not B. Where's the line?
> The nice
> thing about 'me duck' is that it is totally non-sexist,
Concur
> blokes use the
> diminutive style expression to other blokes, as well as to women, it's
quite
> a spectacle to see huge hulking Leicester Tigers supporters addressing
each
> other in that way.
I get the sense it's passing out -- it's used to me by bus conductors and
shopkeepers. Vestigial? Local colour?
But this may represent the people I come in contact with. Academics, drug
addicts, and the editor of Chide.
> As for how it came about, Gawd knows!
Wish She'd tell me -- why does She keep these things to Herself?
Robbo
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