Wotcher (was: Chapter Discussions: Chapter 3, the Advance Guard and I move it to Chatter )

[Ali]

 June said: 

>>>  Cockney type personage: Wotcher!
 
 I think that should suffice as an adequate translation.  (You may 
 note my snobbery - I am from the North of England where we look 
down on Cockneys precisely because they look down on us!  It may be 
a small island  - but the divisions go deep)>>>

I come from East London but not from within the sound of Bow Bells, 
so I'm not a Cockney. I also don't suffer from the North/South 
divide snobbery. I personally don't like it. Funnily enough when I 
lived in Manchester, I wasn't classed as a "Southern Wuz" (I'm not 
sure how to spell that, I just used to hear it a lot), because I was 
a Londoner which somehow exempted me - well at least to my friends - 
although obviously not to all Northerners!

Tonya asked:-
 
> Hey thanks, So would you call it slang or is it proper (?) to say
>wotcher??  What I am trying to say that Hey or Hi is considered 
slang and and Hello is "proper". 

Wotcher is slang. I used to use it all the time, instead of "Hi Ya" 
or "How's it going". I finally gave up using it after 3 years living 
in Manchester during which I had the mickey taken out of me too many 
times...

Tonya again:-

 <<< Oh and does Jim Dale pronounce it properly??  >>>

Sorry, I can't tell you if Jim Dale pronounces it properly, I can 
only moan about the fact that Stephen Fry's "Tonks' voice" makes me 
cringe!

<<<Oh and how do you know who is who so you know who to be snobby 
with and who not to. Sounds tough to figure out!!>>>  

I'm not sure I know what you mean here. I know that I used to have 
an awful habit of inverted snobbery whereby I would speak in my 
strongest possible London accent to people with what I thought to 
be "posh" accents. These days, my accent has all but gone and only 
resurfaces when I'm typsy or nervous!

Ali