Comments on: Blogmanship: How Americans can annoy Britons, and vice versa

By: Andrew (United Statesman)

Andrew (United Statesman) — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 17:25:28 +0000

I believe the “home nations” refers to the European Union.

By: David

David — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 16:54:33 +0000

In many ways a capital suggestion, and yet, were I so to forget myself as to say “youse”, the natural conclusion drawn by the youts in my class would be that I was doing my Joe Pesci impersonation from My Cousin Vinnie and, as we don’t say in New England, “taking the piss.”

By: Worm

Worm — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:42:39 +0000

you could also employ the scottish ‘youse’ to great effect. This sounds even better if you are very drunk and point at them agressively

By: David Cohen

David Cohen — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:36:55 +0000

I have to admit that I’ve started to say “y’all” in real life. It fills a gap created by political correctness when I’m addressing a group of students and need the second person plural. If, for example, I want to talk about the complementarity of film and cameras, I first need to make sure that my audience (born circa 1990) knows what “film” is. “You” is too accusative; “you guys”, whch is what I was raised to say, is too gender specific; “you people” is just out. I find myself falling back on “y’all.”

Also, “y’all” allows for the wonderfully emphatic “all y’all”, which might be the most fun phrase to say in the English language.

By: Noseybonk

Noseybonk — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 13:39:32 +0000

A promising effort, George. Excellent Europeanism play and the untranslated French is an inspired touch of Literarymanship. Be wary here though – Americans in general are more exposed to Pseud’s Corner counters and Autodidact-Accusation ploys.

Downhome-ism is safer and usually more effective: David’s comment, incorporating Geographical-Ignoranceship, is textbook.

By: David Cohen

David Cohen — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 23:53:06 +0000

The home nations? What the heck are the home nations? Are those like the home counties? It wasn’t that long ago that I finally figured out that the home counties were what y’all called London’s suburbs.

By: George

George — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 15:18:46 +0000

For an American take on “historyship”, see the movie Beat the Devil. Peter Lorre’s character explains to Humphrey Bogart’s that any European is by birthright more mature than any American. That Lorre was in fact a much better actor and a more cultivated man than Bogart does not diminish the effect: Lorre looks creepy and Bogart sophisticated. Actually, the whole movie might be studied with profit by the American wishing to improve his skill in annoying Britons.

Nor, I will add, is historyship purely a game which Europeans play against Americans. In the Goncourt diaries for Nov. 9, 1871, one finds

Flaubert me parle encore de cette ambassade chinoise, tombée au milieu de
notre siège et de notre Commune, dans notre cataclysme, et à laquelle on
disait, en s’excusant:

–«Ça doit bien vous étonner ce qui se passe ici dans le moment?»

–«Mais non, mais non… vous êtes jeunes, vous les Occidentaux… vous
n’avez presque pas d’histoire… mais c’est toujours comme ça… et le
siège et la Commune: c’est l’histoire normale de l’humanité.»

Chamberlain-Churchill: The classic use is said to have occurred in the bars of Seoul during the Korean War, when Randolph Churchill, then a journalist, would wrong-name American journalists to annoy them. This ended when he addressed the New Yorker Jimmy Cannon as “Mr. Carmichael”, causing Cannon to say that “If it wasn’t for your old man and his f****** umbrella, we wouldn’t be in this mess.”

Finally, placing in the same list “y’all” and “Go figure”, seems nearly tantamount to mixing up the home nations: “y’all” is a second person plural used mostly in the south, “Go figure” is an urbanism from the northeast. Or was this intended as bait?