What is the British "what?"/"wot" closest to in modern American English?
September 28, 2016 2:39 PM   Subscribe

What is the British "what?" or "wot?" closest to in modern American English?

I've been reading a lot of 1920s and 1930s British fiction lately and I've noticed a frequency in dialogue ending in "what?" or "wot?". How would this be expressed in contemporary American English? Is it still commonly used in modern Great Britain?

Some examples from Dorothy Sayers being:

"There's a thing to give a man thirst -what?"

"Wonderful what a little nip'll do in case of need, and the less you're used to it the more good it does you. Hope your girl is a sensible young woman, what?"

" 'Bit of a dandy, your visitor, what?' he murmured."

"Uncommonly jolly little job for the barber, what?"

"I'd better pop round and express sympathy or somethin', what?"


Contextually it's clearly kind of a filler word, like "you know", or "right on". But I'd like to hear more!
posted by amicamentis to Writing & Language (44 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
Huh?
posted by sexyrobot at 2:43 PM on September 28, 2016 [4 favorites]


Eh?
posted by b33j at 2:44 PM on September 28, 2016 [16 favorites]


Eh?
posted by beerperson at 2:44 PM on September 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


It works rather like "right?" or "don't you agree?"

It's also a very stereotypically posh usage.
posted by kickingtheground at 2:45 PM on September 28, 2016 [14 favorites]


Well, in anglo Canadianese, 'wot' is eh.
'Wonderful day out, eh?'

It's basically a word that solicits agreement from the interlocutor...eh?
posted by Klaxon Aoooogah at 2:46 PM on September 28, 2016 [5 favorites]


Like kickingtheground, I've always thought of it more as something you add to the end of a sentence when you're looking for agreement. So yes, all of the above, but not really "you know" or "right on".

Sometimes people end a sentence with ", yes?" or (confusingly) ", no?" in the same way.
posted by pipeski at 2:48 PM on September 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


Can't speak to modern British usage but it seems to be a form of tag question.
posted by daniel striped tiger at 2:48 PM on September 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


It does not mean huh. It means right?
posted by DarlingBri at 2:49 PM on September 28, 2016 [16 favorites]


I use yeah like this.

"But we all knew Trump was a thin-skinned blowhard, yeah? So it's hardly surprising."
posted by phunniemee at 2:54 PM on September 28, 2016 [6 favorites]


Interestingly, the phrase "What ho", as used by Wodehouse and others, may be derived from the Old English "hwæt". Perhaps its usage as a tag question has a similar origin.
posted by pipeski at 2:54 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


I was going to suggest "you know?" before I got to the end of your question. But I would have spelled it "ya know?" to convey how it is sort of shortened into one word.

I also was going to suggest "right?" and now that I think of it, in the beatnik years you would have said "dig?" or "you dig?"
posted by ejs at 3:01 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


FWIW, I suspect the modern UK English translation (because using 'what' like this is thoroughly archaic) would be "isn't it" or the contraction thereof 'innit'.
posted by prentiz at 3:02 PM on September 28, 2016 [12 favorites]


Not in common usage in modern Britain, no. Unless someone's attempting to imitate a posh twat of the Wodehouse variety.

Modern, more egalitarian equivalent: "-, isn't it?" (Innit or int'it, too.) Usually preceded by some comment about the weather.
posted by doornoise at 3:03 PM on September 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


Is it still commonly used in modern Great Britain?

I'm English, 30s, and it's as alien to me as it is to you. The nearest equivalent (for me) is 'ey'.
posted by Emma May Smith at 3:05 PM on September 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


It does not mean huh. It means right?

…, huh? and …, right? mean basically the same thing.

OED:

huh, int.
A natural utterance, expressing some suppressed feeling. Also as an expression of interrogation.

right
B int.
2. colloq. (orig. U.S.). Appended as an interrogative to a clause, phrase, etc., inviting agreement, approval, or confirmation.
posted by zamboni at 3:10 PM on September 28, 2016 [5 favorites]


Eh? is purely Canadian, or at least near that border.
posted by sexyrobot at 3:14 PM on September 28, 2016


....don'cha think?
posted by LobsterMitten at 3:17 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


dontcha know?
posted by sparklemotion at 3:18 PM on September 28, 2016


If it's used in modern Britain for comic effect/imitation of a posh historical twat, it tends to be used in the double "what what[?]" form, with the duplication signalling overemphasis/comic effect. Interesting that that's what stuck in the cultural lexicon (possibly a famous caricature doubled it first at some point between now and the 20s?) when it sounds like the period sources you're finding it in are strictly single-what.
posted by terretu at 3:18 PM on September 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


I have also heard, "ya know what I'm sayin'?" in this context. Often uttered as a single word: "nomesayin?"
posted by monkeymonkey at 3:22 PM on September 28, 2016 [4 favorites]


I am from California and definitely would say something like, "I'd better apologize, huh," where the "huh" turns the statement into a question.
posted by muddgirl at 3:31 PM on September 28, 2016 [2 favorites]


Hmm?
posted by notquitemaryann at 3:34 PM on September 28, 2016


Ya feel?
posted by bleep at 3:46 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


AMIRITE?
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 4:02 PM on September 28, 2016 [11 favorites]


In a theatre class I once took, we got a translation of A Doll's House which used this "what?" construction a lot for one of the characters. (I'm guessing it was as a stand in for a particular Swedish verbal tic?) Our teacher told us to mentally substitute "eh?"
posted by Sara C. at 4:11 PM on September 28, 2016


Interesting aside on the contemporary British English version, "innit?" cited above, is that it arose out of multicultural language exchange rather than descending from "what?" - it was absorbed into British Asian speech via "haina" - a Hindi tag phrase, stuck on the sentences and meaning "is no?".
posted by penguin pie at 4:15 PM on September 28, 2016 [6 favorites]


You know.
Or, in the Canadian, "Eh"
posted by Foam Pants at 4:19 PM on September 28, 2016


It does not mean huh. It means right?

I'm from the rural American south, and we use an inflected "huh?" in the same way that adialectical American English uses "right?" Sometimes the initial H isn't very prominently pronounced, so it's spoken more like "uh?" but I'd still spell it with the initial H.

"I reckon Little Bobby done forgot to close up the shed again, huh?"
posted by late afternoon dreaming hotel at 4:24 PM on September 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


Is it still commonly used in modern Great Britain?

It was never what you would call "commonly" used because it has always been a class signifier. And while I would not say it has fallen completely out of use, it is rare enough; I would guess the last hurrah of Old Etonians and Oxbridge luminaries for whom this would be everyday speech is now gasping their last.
posted by DarlingBri at 4:26 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


It is an upper class, pre-WW II idiom, like prefixing statements with "I say".

A modern working class English equivalent would be "dya get me bruv" or shorter "you get me?", and a few years ago would have been "know what I mean" or "naatimean".

American english equivalents abound (you know, right?) and have already been given above.
To some extent the growth of the rising intonation or upspeak in American english has displaced this in some US dialects, since every statement is already make to sound like a question that asks for your agreement, meaning no questioning suffix is needed.
posted by w0mbat at 4:45 PM on September 28, 2016 [3 favorites]


(Not in Britain but) in Ireland this usage is still common in working-class Dublin - specifically middle-aged and older Dublin men - pronounced "wha'?".

Most of your example sentences could be dialogue written by Roddy Doyle - think of Colm Meaney's character in "the Snapper" : There's a thing to give a man thirst -wha'? could be a sentence of dialogue from that film.
posted by coleboptera at 4:52 PM on September 28, 2016 [1 favorite]


', ya feel me?'
posted by showbiz_liz at 6:49 PM on September 28, 2016


Eh? is purely Canadian, or at least near that border.

Not at all. Australian and New Zealand people also use 'eh', but with a slightly different inflection (but meaning the same thing). Canadian has more of an upturning questioning note to it, Oz and NZ tend to have a more downturning sound, kind of half question half statement.
posted by Brockles at 7:48 PM on September 28, 2016


"Huh" is very specifically a good suggestion because it substitutes in multiple uses for "what".
posted by atoxyl at 12:51 AM on September 29, 2016


"I tell you what"
posted by chrisulonic at 2:10 AM on September 29, 2016


There's a comment on that BBC article about 'haina' from Dave Gibbs, Weston super Mare: I would query the origin of "innit" as from "haina". My father told me off for saying innit in the sixties, it is from "isn't it", especially around Bristol. Check Dirk Robson's books, Krek waiters peak brissle, and Eurekal.
Dave Gibbs, Weston super Mare, England
. I agree but I think it's also inflected by West Indian English, post Windrush there was lots of immigration into Bristol and Dave Gibbs' memories being from the 60's coincides with that timing.

'Eh'. 'Eh' is the same sort of speech tag, however it's not followed by a question mark when used this way. It's like 'Let's all agree on this slightly contested thing, eh.'

on preview: in Bristolian anyway. It's a nice flexible word.
posted by glasseyes at 3:04 AM on September 29, 2016


"Know what I'm saying?"
posted by SansPoint at 7:37 AM on September 29, 2016


Well a thing to consider about "innit," and I might be wrong about this as a Californian living in England, is that if is influenced by Hindi it also fits very naturally with the bigger picture of how people here like to ask mid-sentence for you to join in an observation about life, the way we would uptalk (as pointed out above) or say "you know?"

But it goes way beyond "isn't it" into other conjugations. A London person might say in a single sentence, "Well, it's swings and roundabouts, isn't it, because if you cross Tottenham Court Road looking for a sandwich at Sainsburys Local you've taken your life in your own hands, haven't you, but then again there's never anything but egg and cress in the Reduced section, is there, and the weather has become so miserable, hasn't it..."
posted by johngoren at 7:40 AM on September 29, 2016 [2 favorites]


I am from California and definitely would say something like, "I'd better apologize, huh," where the "huh" turns the statement into a question.
posted by muddgirl at 11:31 PM on September 28 [+] [!]


I was trying to remember a video I watched where the speaker ended every third sentence with "huh?" like this, and it turned out to be a talk by Californian Ray Bradbury. (A random example is at 13.45, but the whole video is peppered with it).
posted by rollick at 10:33 AM on September 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


The Scottish equivalent is "ken" - "Gonnae go out tonight, ken?" Used with varying frequency, but parts of Tayside it ends virtually every sentence.

I would add that 'innit' is much more southern England than other places. But I agree that 'what?' as an additional sentence ender is extinct.
posted by Vortisaur at 12:16 PM on September 29, 2016


(Not in Britain but) in Ireland this usage is still common in working-class Dublin - specifically middle-aged and older Dublin men - pronounced "wha'?".

I have been thinking about this ever since you posted it. I'm familiar with this dialect interrogative, but I don't think it is related to the OP's what what? It is easy to imagine how, with the tremendous UK emigration and repatriation in that generation, this would have made the geographic leap from England to Ireland, but I cannot work out how it would have made the class leap. I tend to think this just has a different etymology.

I am going to have to email someone and find out because this is gonna bother me now.
posted by DarlingBri at 3:19 PM on September 29, 2016 [1 favorite]


In Indian country, you could say "Innit?"
posted by gteffertz at 6:58 PM on September 29, 2016


I am going to have to email someone and find out because this is gonna bother me now.

Please do report back if you find an answer, I'd love to know myself.
posted by coleboptera at 9:02 PM on September 29, 2016


King George III in "The Madness of King George" film often doubles the 'whatage' with his verbal tic - George III: "Married yet, Mr. Pitt, what what?".

I think in some more 'jokey' contexts an acceptable modern translation would be "amirite?"
posted by guy72277 at 12:58 AM on September 30, 2016


« Older How could we make fossil fuels?   |   Mouthwash on denim - blot or wash? Newer »
This thread is closed to new comments.