9 hours ago, ailchim said:

toilet or a lavatory

Interesting (and sometimes humorous) discussion. In Canada, "toilet" sounds so direct. In my experience, "toilet" is not used throughout English-speaking Canada. "Lavatory" sounds so British ... not that there's anything wrong with that. 🙂 I can't remember the last time I heard "lavatory" being used for "bathroom."

Toilet or lavatory?

Years ago we were having dinner at a restaurant in Amish country near Gettysburg Pennsylvania in a town named, of all things, Intercourse.

On the wall was a sign with an arrow.  It said 'Necessary Room."

Noel

On 8/7/2020 at 12:04 PM, Paladin said:

I am fluent in gibberish 

Ah, so there you are! I knew there just had to be a fellow Gibberian here at AVSIM. I was born in Gibberia (small island near to somewhere close by), but raised mostly everywhere else. 

Unfortunately, Gibberia never bothered to invent  a written alphabet, so we can't dazzle folks here with our fluency in Gibberish. Darn! 👽

Remember Pig Latin? How about Carney? D'izou speizeak keisarney? Orday ouday eakspay ipay atinlay?

 LOL

 Sue

Don't forget about ib talk.....IbI thibink thibis fiboribum ibis iba fibum plibacibe tibo vibisibit.

Είναι όλα ελληνικά για μένα.

11 hours ago, LHookins said:

Question asked of a Brit:  "Do you speak English?"

Answer:  "Yes, and I understand American."

Hook

There are only two places in the world where I had difficulties understanding the directions I was asking and given in English : one downtown London from a postman, one in Edinburgh. Both gentlemen were nice and willing to help, I could barely understand a word. There are many YouTube demonstrating Britain  regional accents. Very exotic for me.

European kids were soaked in American culture in the 60s and 70s, we understand better a black American, Texan rancher or Appalachian hillbilly than a cockney postman 😄. 

And  if you have any doubt how to use the right word for the toilets, just look a little stressed, raise your eyebrow and say « where are theee... ? ». People will understand all right.
 

 

2 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

There are only two places in the world where I had difficulties understanding the directions I was asking and given in English : one downtown London from a postman, one in Edinburgh. Both gentlemen were nice and willing to help, I could barely understand a word. There are many YouTube demonstrating Britain  regional accents. Very exotic for me.

European kids were soaked in American culture in the 60s and 70s, we understand better a black American, Texan rancher or Appalachian hillbilly than a cockney postman 😄. 

And  if you have any doubt how to use the right word for the toilets, just look a little stressed, raise your eyebrow and say « where are theee... ? ». People will understand all right.
 

 

Although ironically, actors such as Jason Statham, who appear in many US movies, are inclined to ham up a cockney-esque accent specifically for US audiences. Statham's from Derbyshire and later lived in Norfolk (neither of these accents is even remotely like a Cockney accent), which is quite a considerable distance from the sound of the bells of St Mary-le-Bow in London, which is the traditional criteria for being a Cockney.

However, to many Americans, fake cockney is one of two acceptable accents for Brits. You can either be a salt of the Earth working class type of the kind Dick Van Dyke is (badly) trying to emulate in Mary Poppins, i.e. 'Cor bleedin' bloymey Guv'nor, I ain't not never dun nuffin, so I haint!'

Or, you can go for the other Hollywood trope of equating a villain with the notion of the Redcoat British Officer, and therefore a posh British Accent, unless they hap[pen to be piloting a Spitfire in WW2, in which case they're a good guy i.e. 'How the devil are you, old boy?'

 

 

On 8/8/2020 at 6:25 AM, Bert Pieke said:

Politely referred to as a "Cloak Room"

And correctly too. On etymology...

I'm always a little uncomfortable at the idea of having a bath in a lavatory. It last happened when I was the smallest boy in the class at school...

On the other hand, there are no cloaks in the room either. Cloakroom is actually -- as Alan surely knows -- from the Latin cloaca, meaning sewer.

I'm told that several Victorian urinals still exist with a glazed image of a bee in the back of the bowl, because the Latin for bee is... apis.

Water closet is still extant in the UK but invariably abbreviated as WC.

 

(Ac ydw. Dwi'n tair-ieithog.)

(On peut parler Anglais, Gallois et aussi un peu de Français)

Edited August 9, 20205 yr by Dave Morgan
structure

The bee image in the urinal was to, um, improve aim. 😄 

Hook

4 hours ago, Dominique_K said:

There are only two places in the world where I had difficulties understanding the directions I was asking and given in English : one downtown London from a postman, one in Edinburgh. Both gentlemen were nice and willing to help, I could barely understand a word. There are many YouTube demonstrating Britain  regional accents. Very exotic for me.

European kids were soaked in American culture in the 60s and 70s, we understand better a black American, Texan rancher or Appalachian hillbilly than a cockney postman 😄. 

And  if you have any doubt how to use the right word for the toilets, just look a little stressed, raise your eyebrow and say « where are theee... ? ». People will understand all right.
 

 

Don't worry about it Dominique.  Most of the English can't understand the Scots either.

 

 

1 hour ago, Dave Morgan said:

-- as Alan surely knows --

Alan, I hope you forgive me for this: I'd just read John B's post from Friday and as yours was the only reference I immediately found to Latin, it was too good an opprotunity to miss...

 

 

What he said: "as you surely know"

What the non-English speaker thought he meant: "He thinks I'm an expert"

What he actually meant: "I think you're talking bol***ks and am calling your bluff"

19 hours ago, JRMurray said:

Interesting (and sometimes humorous) discussion. In Canada, "toilet" sounds so direct. In my experience, "toilet" is not used throughout English-speaking Canada. "Lavatory" sounds so British ... not that there's anything wrong with that. 🙂 I can't remember the last time I heard "lavatory" being used for "bathroom."

On aircraft, the toilet is often referred to as “the biffy”.

3 hours ago, LHookins said:

The bee image in the urinal was to, um, improve aim. 😄

I stood in for my commander at a commander's meeting once and the wing commander said he was getting complaints from the janitors that there were a lot of stains on the floor under the urinals in the officer's latrine. The wing commander admonished the squadron commanders to tell their fighter pilots to stand a little closer, that they weren't as well endowed as they thought they were.

Noel 

15 hours ago, Penzoil3 said:

Remember Pig Latin? How about Carney? D'izou speizeak keisarney? Orday ouday eakspay ipay atinlay?

 LOL

 Sue

Igpay Atinlay! Ia eakspay entyplay! 🤪