So I'm back from my holiday in Turkey.One of my favourite moments took place in the bazaar in Manavgat. My girlfriend and I stopped at a cafe for something to eat; when we finished, the waiter asked us (in English): "Kebab good?"
"Çok güzel," I replied - Turkish for 'very nice' (at least according to my 'Teach Yourself Beginner's Turkish' book).
"Lovely jubbly!" the waiter then said, to my great amusement.
A few days earlier, a different waiter in a different town had asked us to "take a shufty" at his menu. Is it possible that Turkish waiters all learn their English from the BBC sitcom Only Fools and Horses?
Wikipedia has this to say on Only Fools and one of its main characters, Del Boy (the chap pictured at the top of this post, in case you were wondering):
Only Fools and Horses – and consequently [its creator and writer] John Sullivan – is credited with the popularisation in Britain of several words and phrases used by Del Boy regularly, particularly "Plonker",[58] meaning a fool or an idiot, and two expressions of delight or approval: "Cushty"[58] and "Lovely jubbly". The latter was borrowed from an advertising slogan for an obscure 1960s orange juice drink, called Jubbly, which was packaged in a pyramid shaped, waxed paper carton. Sullivan remembered it and thought it was an expression Del Boy would use; in 2003, the phrase was incorporated into the new Oxford English Dictionary.[59] Other British slang words commonly used and popularised in the series include "dipstick", "wally" and "twonk", all mild ways of calling someone an idiot.
And if you search Wikipedia for 'loverly jubbly' (note spelling!), you are redirected to the page on Del Boy.
1 comment:
Goodness knows what would have happened if you'd ordered apples and pears or a porky pie. Things could have got complicated.
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