A whole week into my PhD, I’d hoped I might have some astonishing sociolinguistic insights to tell you about. I haven’t. But here’s a small language thing that happened in my local chip shop this evening.
The conversation went like this:
Me: “Salad in pitta bread please.”
Man behind counter fetches salad and unscrews the lid of an enormous jar.
Me: “Hang on! I don’t want a pickled egg!”
Man behind counter hovers over the pickled eggs looking confused.
Me: “Not pickled egg, pitta bread!”
Man behind counter points at the pickled eggs with a pair of tongs and looks like he wants to cry.
Customer in queue behind me: “Pitta bread! Pitta bread!”
Second man behind counter: “Piece of bread?”
Customer in queue behind me: “Er… yeah… I’d like a buttered roll please, but serve her first.”
‘Pitta bread’ and ‘pickled egg’ are practically the same word! Who would have thought it! I was so pleased, I wanted to tell the guy behind the counter about a similar experience I had at Euston station the other week (I’d ordered a camomile tea and was given a caramel latte), but I didn’t want to make things any more confused than they already were.
Four Candles