Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/11/15
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]How interesting that pukka should have two opposite meanings depending on where you are, expecially since the people who I have heard use pukka prejoratively have been from Malayisia and India, ex-British colonies. Reminds me of a story related to me by a Canadian colleague who was doing a sabbatical in the UK. He stepped out of the lab for a minute saying he was "Going to get a pop". This met with howls of laughter since he should have said "I'm going to get a fizzy drink." Of course if you said you were going to get a fizzy drink in Canada, they would also laugh. Everytime I ask for the washroom in the US, I also get these funny looks. I keep on forgetting that Americans call it a restroom. Jonathan Lee - -----Original Message----- From: dmorton@journalist.co.uk [mailto:dmorton@journalist.co.uk] Sent: Monday, November 15, 1999 2:18 PM To: leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us Cc: dmorton@journalist.co.uk Subject: RE: [Leica] pukka (was NY Photo Expo: A talk with Leica Jonathan.Lee writes: > Pukka is used in English (at least post-colonial Canadian English) to > denote > something as authentic is a degrogatory fashion. Calling something a > pukka > Leica is not a complement. Interesting, because in British English "Pukka" is positive and is *never* used pejoratively. David Morton dmorton@journalist.co.uk