Bigotry in the Potterverse

[Geoff]

No: HPFGUIDX 188054

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Rick H. Kennerly" <rhkennerly at ...> wrote:

Rick H. Kennerly:
> Oh....See?  No ear for UK accents and dialects. 
> 
> ...All the clues we usually use to decipher Britain are stripped 
> from the JKR movies: clothing, riding crops, and steamy interaction 
> below stairs.  

Geoff:
Come along, Rick, you've been watching too much "Upstairs, Downstairs"
which is set in Edwardian days.

Rick:
> In the HP movies everybody wears the same thing (why do the girls
> wear neckties and who taught then to tie them?)

Geoff:
Because ties have often been part of school uniform for both sexes 
although not quite so common nowadays,

Rick:
> Tonk's "Wotcher, Harry?" threw me for the longest, which reads like a 
> warning to us (Wha'cher [self], Harry, round those dragons).  

Geoff:
It's a common Cockney greeting. It is suggested that it is a corruption
of "What cheer?".

I lived in London for 45 years and, although I am not a native Londoner 
and haven't got much of an accent, I still sometimes use the phrase 
myself in a casual meeting,

Rick:
> British English is a land mine for us, I'm afraid.

Geoff:
You want to try living this side of the pond and look your way.
:-))