Bristolian people: Cary Grant

Classic Hollywood star Cary Grant was born and raised in Bristol. For some of you, this is old news. For me, though, the "Bristolianess" of Cary Grant came to my knowledge some weeks ago when I first read about the Cary Grant Festival. I was not in town that weekend so I didn't have the chance to attend to any event going on. However, I dug into Cary Grant's live which is in fact worth a Hollywood movie.

Archibald Alexander Leach (what a peculiar name!), better known as Cary Grant, was born in Horfield in January 1904. He was the only surviving child of his parents and his mother, since the death of previous children, suffered from clinical depression and was placed in a mental institution when Archibald was only 9 years old without telling him where she was going. He was told that his mother went on a "long holiday" and she had died afterwards. It wasn't until he was 31 when his own father, on the verge of death, confessed the "lie" to his son and told him he could find her in a care centre.

Archibald performed as a stilt walker and when he was 16, he joined the "Bob Pender Stage Troupe" and traveled to the USA with them for a two-year tour around the country. When the group came back to Britain, he decided to stay in the US experiencing on stage as a stilt walker as well as acrobat, juggler and mime. When he because American citizen in 1942, he changed his name to "Cary Grant".

The attractive actor is known for comedy and dramatic roles in films such as "Bringing up, baby", "The Philadelphia Story", "Arsenic and Old Lace" and "North by Northwest" among many others.

You can see Cary Grant's statue in Millenium Square in Bristol, walking with one hand in his pocket and the other one holding a suitcase.

Wikipedia - Cary Grant: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cary_Grant

Gert Lush!

Someone once told me Bristolians are the only people living in a city that talk like countryside farmers. I don't personally know many Bristolians, maybe two or three at work, but I have to admit their English is  peculiar. So, I did some online research on the Bristolian accent.

There are so many dialects in the English language, and Bristolian is part of the West Country dialects. Academically, the region encompasses the city of Bristol and the counties of Cornwall, Devon, Dorset and Somerset are a dialect, with slight variations one to another. There is some influence of the Welsh and Cornish languages on the dialect, depending on the location.

As any dialect in any other language, Bristolian has its own words, phrases and pronunciation. Even the name Bristol itself (originally Bridgestowe or Bristow) is believed to have originated from the Bristolian pronunciation. 

If a Bristolian asks you "Where do you work to?", there will be a big confusion if you give details of your route to work. Or even when they ask "Where's it to?", they don't mean anything else than "Where is it?". REMEMBER: you are living in "Brizzle", not in Bristol. And your friends place is in "Bemmie", not in Bedminster.

We are more used to other Bristolian sentences such as "Cheers drive!" (what a Bristolian says when leaving a bus), "Awlriiieee!" (meaning "Alright!), or "Laters!" ("See you later!"). Phrases like "gert lush" (meaning 'very nice') or "hark at ee!" ("look at you!") are more often used as a joke nowadays, but there is a huge amount of merchandise to promote Bristol with those two phrases. 

There are several webpages, but if you are really interested, I suggest you visit Mintinit and watch Terry's Bristolian language lesson for beginners.

...because us, outsiders, we have to make an effort for Bristolians to understand us! :)