Wondrous Words Wednesday
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme where we share new (to us) words that we’ve encountered in our reading. If you want to play along, grab the button, write a post and come back and add your link to Mr. Linky!
Carl and I were recently in Ballymena, Northern Ireland – when I was speaking with people one on one I had no problem understanding them, but when they were in a group, it was a different story. And here I thought we spoke the same language! I came across a magazine published by The Ballymena and Antrim Times and it had a great article on Ballymena expressions that I thought was a lot of fun, so I thought I’d share a few here.
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“A called thon boy a bloonhead and a had to take my baters, a’m mad, amint a?”
The magazine didn’t define all the words, but here’s the meaning of some of those unfamiliar words:
A – Reference to oneself. This is pronounced with the short a sound.
Baters – The appendages at the end of your legs: feet.
Amint – A plea for reassurance often sued by children. Derived from “Am I Not?”
Bloonhead – A person with a balding pate.
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Have you discovered any new words lately?
Lol, yes I am sure not getting any of that
Haha I agree with blodeuedd. I don’t think I can remember them. I like the word, “bloonhead” though
That’s so “cool.” Did know you had gone off to Northern Ireland and come back. Did I miss the photos?? These words are like Greek to me.
The thing with Irish expressions is, I feel they lose a lot of strength on paper. Thanks for sharing!
The Irish have an extraordinary language and accent don’t they? Great expressions. I particularly like bloonhead.
I would have never guessed the meanings to any of these words! Thanks for sharing these today, they are fascinating!
I’ve known several bloonheads in my day but didn’t know what to call them. Now I do.
How fun! It’s interesting how different the various dialects and forms of English are. Thanks for sharing.
Love bloonhead! I can use it today, even! :–)
Those are wonderful! I’ve never been to Ireland, but I have a terrible time understanding all those Irish accents on PBS. Would love to visit there someday.
“Amint” – I thought that was only an Edinburgh contraction! Everywhere else in the world, “am I not” is contracted to “aren’t I” but my husband and his family from Edinburgh all say “amn’t I”. So it is interesting to hear that it is present in N Ireland too!
Difficult to understand to me !
Excellent words. Gotta love those Irish.
What fun word. Thanks for sharing. I wonder if I can get away with using bloonhead.
Great Irish words,enjoyed them.
http://tributebooksmama.blogspot.com/2011/07/wondrous-words-wednesday_13.html
Hi Kathy,
It has often been said, that Britain and America, are two nations divided by a common language.
There is a definite regional divide between dialects and colloquialisms within Britain, that make this argument just as valid within our own borders.
I love all of those words and have heard a couple of them spoken by a work colleague of mine, who originally came from the North East of England, where that same harsh, gutteral accent is prevelant.
The one I hadn’t come across before and which I must try dropping into a conversation with my colleague, just to gauge her reaction, is ‘bloonhead’, although I fear that I may end up with a kick up the backside with her ‘blaters’ for my trouble!!!
What a fun post
How strange that you could understand people one on one but not in a group. It must have been very confusing. Hope the trip was loads of fun.
Love that phrase, especially bloonhead. I think I would have a fair amount of difficulty in Ireland, too — all the more frustrating for believing that I should understand what’s being said.
The word bloonhead made me laugh out loud!
Fun post this week! Bloonhead takes the cake!
I would definitely need a translator if I visited Ireland. I didn’t know what the sentence meant.
LOL I like the last one.
I had to smile when you wrote about being in the middle a group Irish with their wonderful brough.
These are great fun! Thanks for sharing them! I’m a little late this week, but finally got mine up,.
I love this post. And to think we speak the same language.
“Bloonhead.” What a great word. The Irish (northern or republican) are so gifted with language.
I loved that!! I’m in awe of dialects and how they translate for us!!
I laughed when I saw “A”.
Sounds like what we Canadian say all the time… “A-” ” Aie” at the end of each sentence. You should look up some of the Great White North jokes to hear the gist of our famous “Aie”.