Unofficial Christ's Hospital Forum

I used to love the mispronunciations my children managed when they were small

A biscuit became a "Spiggit" for instance

One of the best was at a wedding and the vicar was introducing The Lord's Prayer
saying and now we will say the prayer he taught us

My little girl looked up at me and said

"Tortoise? What's a Prarie Tortoise?"

I will think of others but we dined out on that one for months

Lewis Caroll used the tortoise pun in Alice in Wonderland

"When we were little,' the Mock Turtle went on at last, more calmly,
though still sobbing a little now and then, `we went to school in the sea.

The master was an old Turtle--we used to call him Tortoise--'

`Why did you call him Tortoise, if he wasn't one?' Alice asked.

`We called him Tortoise because he taught us,"

Not the children, but me!

When I was very small, I felt that policians were so omnipotent that they knew everything about us. Therefore, I understood the most senior of all to be called The Pry Minister.

Plus! It was very wrong to owe money and not pay it back. Otherwise you would have to sit in a Debt Chair.

Worries! Worries!

huntertitus wrote:I used to love the mispronunciations my children managed when they were small

A biscuit became a "Spiggit" for instance

Coincidentally, we had almost the exact reverse - spaghetti became bisketti!

SNAP!

Mine said exactly the same!

any sort of insect, but particularly a woodlouse, was a "bi see" according to one daughter.

Insects were called Yammo-in-the-bushes

(animal in the...)

Oh yes! any fierce monstery thing was called an "Urra Urra".

As in a little wailing voice at 02.00hrs : Mamma! There's an urra urra under the bed!

Me: (staggering to bedside) No..(looking under bed v carefully) No urra urra. Really not. (Yawning)

maybe you should have said

"Three cheers for the Urra
Hip Hip....
Urra!
Hip Hip...)

Very funny, huntertitis! I love it!

However, it's never occurred to me, because one pronounces "Urra Urra" in a certain way... I'll try and convey it...

(Make snarly face) U RRA U RRA!!!!

I'm scaring myself now. I'll be off to check under the beds, then.

I understand now

It's the noise they make when imitating a lion or tiger's roar

And I'm just about to email my oldest friend - devout churchgoer - with the Prairie Tortoise story.

Hope you don't mind, but I loved it so much!

Not at all!
We thought it was brilliant!
I've often found things on this forum acutely funny
The best being a totally irrelevant series of ghastly tree-connected puns started by either Dick Ruck or J.R.
It went on for days and I was in tears as the puns got worse and worse as they started to run out

Mrs C. wrote:any sort of insect, but particularly a woodlouse, was a "bi see" according to one daughter.

Are you sure she wasn't speaking Thai? It means something like 'Get lost, now!'

Ajarn Philip wrote:

Mrs C. wrote:any sort of insect, but particularly a woodlouse, was a "bi see" according to one daughter.

Are you sure she wasn't speaking Thai? It means something like 'Get lost, now!'

perhaps she was!

Between the ages of 5 and 9 (when I went to CH) I used to wonder why Jesus' friend 'Painsey' was never mentioned anywhere except in the hymn 'There is a Green Hill Far Away....'

And it became a family joke which lasted for years when I came home from a friend's tea party (I was 5) anouncing with great excitement that I had LOVED the 'discontented milk sandwiches'

This thread could go on for years!