The-ATE-er

[Anna Reid]

  I refer the group to Hilaire Belloc's immortal 'Matilda, who told lies and was burned to death', published 1907. The relevant lines are:
   
  It happened that a few weeks later
  Her Aunt was off to the Theatre
  To see that Interesting Play
  The Second Mrs Tanqueray
  She had refused to take her niece
  To see this Entertaining Piece
  A Deprivation Just and Wise 
  To punish her for Telling Lies
  That night a fire DID break out
  You should have heard Matilda shout...

  Anna Reid
  
Kim Braithwaite <kbtrans at COX.NET> wrote:
  Tiny follow-up: -- the-AY-ter was a very common pronunciation, perhaps even 
the most common, long before the mid c20. You can probably still hear it on 
the lips of country folks.

BTW, the song I referred to is "Strip Polka," by the immortal Johnny Mercer 
and recorded by the Andrews Sisters. Still popular on the radio during WW2.

Kim etc.....

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Helen Halva" 
To: 
Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 4:19 PM
Subject: Re: [SEELANGS] Translation query


>I agree with Mr. Braithwaite's suggestion of "the-AY-ter", but my 
>experience was in the mid-20th century and I can't say whether the 
>pronunciation was also pertinent to the early 20th c.
>
> Helen Halva
>
>
>
> At 12:16 PM 4/21/2007 -0700, you wrote:
>>Possibly the-AY-ter might work. In the prosto socioeconomic milieu of my 
>>boyhood that's the way we pronounced it until Miss Fidditch corrected us 
>>in the fifth grade, wielding her ruler across the knuckles. And there was 
>>a semi-popular song about a burlesque show ("Take it off!") whose meter 
>>required that pronunciation. Just a thought.
>>
>>Mr Kim Braithwaite, Translator
>>
>>"Good is better than Evil, because it's nicer" - Mammy Yokum (Al Capp)
>>
>>----- Original Message ----- From: 
>>To: 
>>Sent: Saturday, April 21, 2007 11:38 AM
>>Subject: [SEELANGS] Translation query
>>
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>>I am translating a review of an early futurist art exhibition for a 
>>>publication. One of the dismissive descriptions that the author is using 
>>>is "kiyater," which is the "prostonarodnoe" or criminal slang word for 
>>>"teatr" (theater). It is used ironically obviously, and such use of 
>>>"kiyater" can also be encountered in satirical pieces by Teffi or in the 
>>>actual or stylized speech of Gilyarovsky's criminal characters. What 
>>>would be a distorted English word that an uneducated person of that time 
>>>(late 19th-early 20th century) might have used?
>>>
>>>Thank you,
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>Julia Trubikhina
>>>
>>>Assistant Professor of Russian
>>>Russian Program Coordinator
>>>Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
>>>Montclair State University
>>>Dickson Hall, Room 138
>>>Montclair, NJ 07043
>>>
>>>________________________________________________________________________
>>>AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free 
>>>from AOL at AOL.com.
>>>
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>>> http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
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>>
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