Where has the word "sitting" gone

"Nice" - damned with faint praise?

Isn't it the kiss of death when someone says to you "How interesting"

'Cost kick a bow agen a wo and bost eet wid yer ed' = Can you kick a ball against a wall and burst it with your head. Simples! Well done deserving you are spot on with that.

My current niggle, exacerbated by the Olympics, is the use of superlatives. Everything is either amazing, incredible or unbelievable. And why do they have to say 'really' twice? Things are always 'really really great' thats if they're not 'amazing, incredible or unbelievable'. TV presenters prefer to be a little up-market so they use the word 'extraordinary' - this was Parkie's favourite superlative in the 70s. (Yawn) When required to use a superlative, I prefer to use 'quite remarkable' - it's a phrase open to infinite interpretation.

granjura, Must have heard, cost kick a bow agen a woe, an yed it 'till it bosses?
Not quite sure how spell it, or if these are the correct phonetics.
The Stoke dialect is very phonetic, they always pronounce the words BOOK,and similar words with oo in them with the emphasis on the double o's (not hose), and not buck, luk, tuk.They say Tooth,and everyone else seems to fall into line with that. Unless someone else knows better?

Granjura if you lived in Stoke you will perhaps have heard the following: "cost kick a bo agen a wo and bost it with yer ed?"

I too loathe the use of 'sat' for 'sitting' or 'stood' for 'standing' etc etc but I agree, it goes back a long way and is just slovenly grammar used by people who know no better. Unfortunately, it is becoming common parlance. My DIL once said to me, "were sat here listening to Robbie " I didn't know whether to be more offended by the 'sat' or the fact that they were listening to Robbie.

Please insert 'heard' in there somewhere!

Or should that have been I've not anyone use the verb 'to medal' yet?

Not heard of anyone being 'medalled' yet. I hope I never do - how ridiculous!

With the Olympics looming. No doubt we shall be hearing on the BBC athletes who may "medal" instead of athletes who have a good chance of winning a medal. This along with any other noun that somehow has turned into a verb. (such as "duetted" instead of playing in a duet)

Oh and any things that smacks of management speak really gets up my nose!

Rant over

Why would it be text speak?

I agree. I find it very grating when people say 'There I was sat at the station...'. and all those other examples. I don't care if it is 'text' speak.

Then comes the falling out.

Falling pregnant usually comes after falling in love doesn't it? - or am I being a bit old fashioned?

Googling came up with an article by Simon Heffer in 2006. If you can read his stuff it's here:

www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/3626615/How-words-fall-pregnant-with-the-possibility-of-being-twisted.html

In short, 'fall pregnant' has been around since at least 1722 and later, in Victorian times, was used to describe the position of housemaids who found themselves pregnant, possibly after a liaison with the young man of the house.

I agree about he wa.., but the children in school used to write "he were". My favourite was, "I went into town and when I got back I were naked". I asked him to read it to me. "And when I got back I were knackered". Ah...
We also used to struggle with u for umbrella, because when I said it, they used to write the letter a.
Of course there is the famous traffic problem caused by "wait here while lights are red". While meaning until in parts of Yorkshire.

There are so many Yorkshire/Lancashire accent variations, I don't think you can say one way of pronouncing a word belongs to either county!

Mamie, I know 'falling pregnant' is not new - we were just commenting on how odd it seemed to us!

Not that w is a vowel but it's treated like one sometimes.

mamie, I'm not sure that Yorkshire usage is in fact "were". I think it's He wa' (short for he was and pronounced as if the vowel sound is a mute e (Schwa)) and an r stuck in to separate the two vowels.

as in LaurarAshley and drawring

'falling pregnant' suggests an unplanned pregnancy which most were until the era of the pill.

Nothing new about the phrase "falling pregnant", it has been around as long as I can remember, also "she fell for a baby". Not something I would say, but I think it is a shame if you lose old-fashioned and regional usage in the name of linguistic purity. I like the use of "sat" for comedic emphasis as well. I love hearing thou and the use of were (as in "he were a right pillock") in Yorkshire.When I taught in there the children said I "talked like the queen".

I'm forever tripping and taking a tumble - should I be more careful or even (!) take precautions?

Nor me! I've never understood that one - and I certainly wouldn't use it. It sounds very careless...

Let's start another ................
How do you "fall" pregnant! Is it like "falling ill" or are there connotations of being a "fallen woman". It seems a perfectly acceptable usage today -
but not to me!!