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august wu
I don't understand that three words
"three cheers for the Hempress of Colney Atch"
This short sentence from <The magician's nephew>, I really confused with " Hempress" "Colney" "Atch" because I had got nothing from dictionary. Could anybody tell some about these?
Jul 16, 2014 5:05 AM
Answers · 7
2
The Empress - it gets shortened to 'Hempress'.
Colney Hatch was apparently the name of an insane asylum in London.
So this reference infers that someone is the 'empress of the mad', so no-one important at all!
July 16, 2014
2
Just to add to Rachel's explanation... there are a couple of dialect notes here. A number of British dialects and accents often drop the H. The original text should have an apostrophe in front: 'Atch (Hatch). The effect for the listener is that the person probably comes from the countryside.
On the other hand, adding H to words beginning with vowel sounds sounds comically pompous: Hempress (Empress). So, in just a few words the tone has moved from exceedingly formal (Hempress) to very colloquial ('Atch). Nice little effect, huh?
July 16, 2014
The Magician's Nephew - a great book!
July 16, 2014
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august wu
Language Skills
Chinese (Mandarin), Chinese (Shanghainese), English, French, Spanish
Learning Language
English, French, Spanish
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