Saturday, April 07, 2007

It's all in the accent

Years ago, when I was in Edinburgh, I remember a potential landlord being quite taken aback when I asked whether his flat had a deck. Not until about a week later did I realise that he thought I'd said something rude.

I've been trying to encourage TLM to use cutlery to eat with (rather than to play with), and this morning I taught her to say "fork". After she'd repeated it several times, I began to worry that people hearing her would think we've been teaching her swear words.

9 comments:

Watson Woodworth said...

I've noticed heavily accented Germans with the same forking problem.
But this is the first time I realized how sensitive the Scots could be about their decks.

Violet said...

nigel, I don't know whether you're familiar with the Kiwi accent, but you'd probably be just as sensitive about your deck too :-)

Angela said...

Just think one day you could be out eating and she wants you to take her fork and she says fork you mommy. LOL Sorry hopefully it won't be taken the wrong way

Anonymous said...

Hi Violet.
WE have a similar issue with Eve. Her pronounciation is terrible and if she is trying to say "Crocodile", "Clock" or "Cake" it sounds like "Cock". If she sees anything that remotely resembles cake she shouts out "Cock, cock, cock" at the top of her voice. RAther embarrassing in the middle of the supermarket.
:-)
Beth

Violet said...

angela: all she has to do is say "a fork" and it'll sound like she's expressing annoyance rudely :-)

beth: my niece apparently used to have trouble saying "truck" (it always sounded like "fuck" and her brother and his friends used to bait her endlessly by pointing out all the different trucks on the street.

Anonymous said...

A friend of mine claims her pronunciation of "chocolate" was "cocklick" until she was about 4 years old.

Babyspeak, accent, dialect...yes it may be an urban legend but at age 12 I actually did sit down in my first maths class in the US of A and ask the guy next to me if I could borrow his rubber, AND on his blank look I did actually point and say "the pink thing on the end of your pencil"

crucify me now

Violet said...

cathie: ah...the good old "rubber" misunderstanding - with the added bonus of your explanation :-)

Daddy L said...

when I taught The Boy to say "I shit my pants", it came out as "More Juice Please."

Geeze, I didn't think the Canadian accent was that strong.

Out of the mouth of babes, eh?

Violet said...

daddy l: I have to agree that those two phrases don't sound at all similar to me. But don't give him the juice - it's probably gonna make him shit his pants...