Whoa-oh black Betty
I'm definitely giggling
Submitted 2 days ago by ickplant@lemmy.world to [deleted]
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/3f819e63-517d-4565-92f7-b2c8fc523228.jpeg
Comments
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip 2 days ago
This probably came from a country with transliterations that don’t line up very well in English. Like Japanese doesn’t have an English r, so one of the ways they do it is to elongate a vowel and alarm would become alaamu. But sometimes they have a long vowel with no r, like smoke is sumo-oku.
When they go to write in English it’s not clear whether that long vowel represents an r or not, and they chose to add it in smoke and drop it in alarm. I still run across a smorking room from time to time.
captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
Okay but why is it inherently funny though?
seraphine@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
smorks your alarm
Tar_alcaran@sh.itjust.works 2 days ago
You know what? Screw you!
Unsmorks your alam
M137@lemmy.world 1 day ago
How did you fail at that? You had to get two words correct but managed to not do it, shame on you.
Kolanaki@pawb.social 2 days ago
Whoa Black Betty, Smork Alam
bottleofchips@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 days ago
This makes perfect sense in Leeds
bandwidthcrisis@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Someone in Hull told me that they had a door-to-door salesman selling “smirk alarms”.
elephantium@lemmy.world 1 day ago
Ehrmagerd!
fakeman_pretendname@feddit.uk 2 days ago
Some years back, there was a “toad trail” in Hull - one of those things where there’s 100 sculptures installed around the city, each painted by a different artist, school or group.
Anyway, the vowel shift in Hull that turns “smoke” into “smirk” have us the joyous sentence:
“I’m off into town to go and see all the brightly coloured turds”
sundray@lemmus.org 1 day ago
Rai@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 days ago
I saw a “NO SMORKING” sign on Engrish dot com circa 2001 or so
NotASharkInAManSuit@lemmy.world 1 day ago
ordnance_qf_17_pounder@reddthat.com 2 days ago
That isn’t smork it’s stream, stream from the streamed clams we’re having
Klear@quokk.au 2 days ago
Alam go face
HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 1 day ago
i just wanna put a useless switch in there
altphoto@lemmy.today 2 days ago
Where there’s smork there’s fier.
danc4498@lemmy.world 2 days ago
Foir
EpeeGnome@feddit.online 2 days ago
How alaming!