Re: CHAT: English English

At 10:19 am -0500 30/11/00, John Cowan wrote:
>Lars Henrik Mathiesen wrote:
>
>> Wild tangent: And what's with the delicatessen staff at my local
>> Waitrose asking 'Can I help you at all?' when I come up to the
>> counter? To me, that 'at all' sounds almost accusatory.
>
>Are they from Ireland by any chance?  That use of "at all" is
>Hiberno-English.
It may have once been an Irishism, but it certainly would not seem so now
unless maybe the person concerned spoke with an Irish accent.

The 'at all' is basically an empty tag to make "Can I help you?' seem less
peremptory; it's certainly not meant to be accusatory.
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At 8:10 pm +0000 30/11/00, O'Connell James wrote:
>Seems perfectly common enough to me in England.
So it is.

>I
>might very well say it (if
>I was a waiter, that is).
It's so common-place among waiters, shop assistants etc one doesn't notice
until it's pointed out.
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The single 'at all' has been fairly common here for a long time - it's the
_double_ (or triple) 'at all' that is considered to be an Irishism.

There's the story of someone asking an Irish policeman what the yellow line
meant alongside the pavement (sidewalk).  'Ah, sure', he said, 'that means
no parking at all.'  'Oh, and what do the double yellow lines mean?' 'Ah,
they mean no parking at all, at all'.

Now if Lars' delicatessen staff starting asking him: 'Can I help you at
all, at all?'............    :)

Ray.




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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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