There is no Planet B
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- This trope is inverted in the Geography Now episode concerning Bosnia and Herzegovina. The national languages are Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian, which are mutually intelligible but they are treated as entirely different languages.
Is this example really invesion of Separated by a Common Language? From the description: 'This trope applies when the differences in dialects of a common language are used for humor or characterization.
The context of the example doesn't mention any characterization, and if it's used for humour in the work, it needs context and explanation. From the write-up, I'd say it might be something like trying to pass the situation as Language Barrier, when it really isn't.
My question for the community — is this a valid example? And is the Playing With a trope identified correctly? I feel inversion is a bit different.
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I don't think that's an example of this trope. Sounds more like the late, lamented Did Not Do The Research.
I am the one who wrote it. On second tought, should this be an Inversion of Language barrier, or something else? Thanks in advance.
I don't think it's inversion. Invoked Trope seems close, but it's not quite the same — because it has to be invoked by characters. You might want to check this page: Language Barrier. (I'll try to watch the episode of the series to check the trope myself.)
I once had problems on a web message board, because I used the term "yobbo" which in British English means a teenage thug. It would seem that in American or Canadian English (I'm not certain which is applicable here) it means something altogether different.
Could someone elaborate? This might make a good example...
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Urban Dictionary isn't helping much; its most popular definitions refer to the Australian term for "white trash," or maybe a non-Australian term for "Australian white trash." Maybe it's started being an all-purpose slur against Australians?
In British English it doesn't refer specifically to any nationality (or race). It's been hypothesised to be from "boy" backwards, but this is not certain.
Is there a point in replying to a five-year-old question? No? I will anyway. I am American and I've never heard the word "Yobbo" in my life.
Per Trope Repair Shop discussion thread currently linked from the main page, I am going through this article and deleting natter, with the goal of eventually turning this into a Useful Notes page. My intention is to preserve as much of the substance of the article—"X means Y in England, but in the United States it means Z"—while eliminating the extraneous commentary and natter.
There is no Planet B
Moving an example from In My Language, That Sounds Like.... It's written in first person. If others feel this is adequate, re-write it and please edit to the main page.
- In New Zealand, the word 'solder' is pronounced with a long O sound. Americans pronounce it with a short O sound and elide the L sound, and it always sounds to me like they're saying a slang word for a specific sexual orientation (from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.)
You have the page quote wrong, 'holiday' and 'vacation' are the wrong way around. ('Vacation' on the English side and 'holiday' on the American). I shall change it. Yankees call a holiday a vacation, not the other way around. Also, Christmas and Easter are not 'holidays' in England but 'Celebrations', even though 'holiday' comes from 'holy day' - it's had the time in Britain to change definition to just time away. We don't say 'spring break', we say 'Easter holiday' (even non-Christians). Our 'Christmas Holiday' is the Yank 'winter break'. I don't know what they call our 'Summer holiday', but over here it's all of five and a half weeks long.
OH MY GOD; MY PARENTS ARE GARDENIIIIINNNNGGGGG!!!!! Hide / Show Replies
Please don't change it; it's a song quote, so we should keep it as it was made. You can if you like mention on the line that it should be the other way around, though (use the [[note]]text here[[/note]] markup).
That was the amazing part. Things just keep going.
'I went to the circus, but it was pants' is no more or less confusing than any other slang. Seriously, think about this: 'I went to the circus, but it was trousers' — You can guess the meaning from context, and it makes as much sense as any other slang terms that people have used over the years.
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In Britain, though, we say something was 'pants', too. I think it comes from Britain as here, pants means underpants - something perhaps more vulgar than trousers, hence the obscenity.
OH MY GOD; MY PARENTS ARE GARDENIIIIINNNNGGGGG!!!!!
What Americans call a "Season," Brits call a "Series." So what do Brits call the entire run of a show/programme?
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The programme or show, simply. Doctor Who is a programme, we are on Series 8 of it (or Season 34 if you go from the beginning of time. Yeah, there have been 34 series of Doctor Who). The 'new series' began in 2005 at 1 again, so the previous (C20) ones were distinguished by being referred to as seasons.
OH MY GOD; MY PARENTS ARE GARDENIIIIINNNNGGGGG!!!!!
It was claimed that in Am Eng, "the outermost layer of formal wear" is a waistcoat. No, says I, that's a topcoat! Or more likely a suitcoat. Anyway, nowhere online can I find anything to confirm the original claim . So I've replaced it to say what an Am Eng waistcoat is (i.e., essentially the same as a Brit Eng one).
If anybody has contrary evidence, please put something in, preferably w/ a link.
Previous Trope Repair Shop thread: Needs Help
, started by XFllo on Mar 30th 2013 at 9:52:00 PM
"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman