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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?
16 jul. 2014 05:05
Antwoorden · 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!
16 juli 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?
16 juli 2014
The Magician's Nephew - a great book!
16 juli 2014
Heb je je antwoorden nog steeds niet gevonden?
Schrijf je vragen op en laat de moedertaalsprekers je helpen!
august wu
Taalvaardigheden
Chinees (Mandarijn), Chinees (Shanghainees), Engels, Frans, Spaans
Taal die wordt geleerd
Engels, Frans, Spaans
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