Language, Timothy!1
Posted in Films, Linguistic Annoyances at 20:00 on 22 September 2013
I meant to say when I mentioned the film Austenland that the classification certificate displayed on screen before its start said “Contains one example2 of moderate language.”
I admit I perked up a bit at that as I immediately therefore expected all the rest of the language to be immoderate. That it wasn’t (the extent of the “moderate” language was one “Wankers!” in the whole film!) might help explain my odd sense of dissatisfaction with it.
1This was the catch-phrase retort of the father in the sit-com Sorry! which starred Ronnie Corbett and featured an overbearing mother.
2The noun may have been instance rather than example. Whatever, it implied only one.
Tags: Austenland, Kirkcaldy Film Festival, moderate language, Ronnie Corbett, Sorry!
Denis Cullinan
22 September 2013 at 23:32
QUOTE: “Contains one example of moderate language.”
Where I grew up (call it that) in the dread South Bronx, we didn’t know what a wanker did for a living. If we wanted to speak moderately, we would say “m**********r” or similar.
jackdeighton
23 September 2013 at 20:19
I always though that the nearest US equivalent to “wanker” was jerk – but jerk doesn’t carry enough contempt to be a true synonym; it’s more like the British term “tosser.”