Lynda's language

The Archers
1

Grow a pair???

Who can ever imagine her saying that?

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2

Well, she obviously chopped off the originals some time ago.

I don’t share the popular lerve for Robert Snell. He is a chuckling imbecile who tolerates, indeed enables, his ghastly wife in her megalomaniac endeavours and wouldn’t say boo to a firecrest (or indeed recognise one). One can only wonder how vile the previous incumbent was if Lynda is either an acceptable substitute or, dear gods, an improvement.
The only reason he was egging her on to get involved in Widderbeth’s attic production was to get the bloody woman out of the house - throwing Jim, as he thought, under the bus being a price worth paying. Well, that has backfired.

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3

“Spontaneous magic”?
Pass the bucket. The large one.

Now, if it had been combustion…

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4

…ah, I like your thinking! :kissing_heart: :smirk:

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5

We are not lucky enough to have Lynda spontaneously combust

Unless we can make a wicker basket for Beltane and lure her into it so it can go in the bonfire

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6

“It’s awf’ly traditional.”

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7

… as is this stirrup cup. Yeah, it does taste a bit like lighter fuel…

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8

Not this listener!

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9

Since she carefully said, “As Tracy would say”, she was clearly quoting Tracy, not speaking in her own vernacular.

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10

Yes but I still cannot imagine our snobbish Lyndie ever using such vulgarity

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11

Naylah Ahmed can, alas.

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12

In my experience, when someone says “as X would say” they are usually being snobbish by implying “well, of course I wouldn’t say something like that” (and promptly saying it anyway).

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13

Yesss but Lyndie is too nice* to repeat such

*As in too exact and fastidious

Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman must have heard Norn Iron folk using nice in that way

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14

There is no need to look for a Norn Iron connection there.

I am reasonably sure that Neil at least knew about the meaning of “nice” well before he wrote Good Omens, because I remember a discussion about the meaning of the word with Diana. It was to do with the exchanged meanings of the two words “conversation” and “intercourse” and how this had to be explained to students in the context of Jane Austen. And I doubt that Terry was unaware of it; it is more or less a trope among people who were taught English at primary school in the fifties and early sixties, that as Chambers used beautifully to put it, “nice” is “often used in vague commendation by those who are not nice”.

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15

I know that the authors would have been well aware of the proper meaning of nice

I am used to folk who use nice as a positive word of praise

For example I am referred to as “the nice kind woman who will always help out” by those who are unaware of my wicked tendencies
The use of the same language between where I now live and where I was dragged up is a fascination of mine as one is affected by Gaelic the other by the Scots Gallic from the Scots who were planted there

Same language but slightly different usages

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16

I’m sure everyone here appreciates such linguistic niceties…

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17

Well yes Joe we are vaguely literate here

I still find the idea of the Bull bringing me to my crafty group odd

I would take someone where they want to go

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18

Some of us are literally vague…

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19

We were simply not allowed to use the word, ever. It was not, however, explained why.

And yet the same people probably know exactly what is meant by ‘niceties’.

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20

Whereas the joke that ends “I say it because ‘that’s nice dear’ is more polite than ‘briefcase you’” is one I’ve mostly heard told by Irish people.

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