Lost in translation

Well, I can truly say that there are times when I have no idea what people are saying around these parts. This blog was born out of a phrase at the dinner table on Saturday evening. One of the cousins announced that he had a pain in his puddix (sp). I cried with laughter, never heard of the phrase or the word before. It basically means that you have eaten so much that you are in pain. I was feeling a bit sick on Sunday, and my mother-in-law asked me is I was feeling better or if I was still bokey, hich means nauseous. Their standard greeting to any and everyone is: Hows you? They also seem to change the grammar of sentences when they say something like: ‘go you to the car or go you on.’ If you ask to use something to  borrow something, the standard response is: ‘tear away.’ Another endearing quality is that they tend to answer their own question in the same question: ‘here, mate, ya wounldn’t have change of a fiver would ye, no?’ Here are a few extra words and phrases that I had to learn:

ascared: combination of the words afraid and scared. “I'm ascared of heights.”
craic: fun, to have a good time. “The craic is mighty lads, get the beers in”
dander: walk. (eg. lets go for a dander)
eejit : an idiot. “you are an eejit”
grand: good. “that's grand, I'll see you at half-eleven” (they literally use this word after every sentences!)
oul: old. “That man is really oul”
ragein': angry, fuming.
smidgen: a very small piece (eg. A smidgen of cake)
wee: small. (eg. would you like a wee bun?)

weean: child

And how can I forget, shite, which is not a swear word, but means rubbish (eg. Don’t talk shite).