This is from a re-review of Backbeat, the Beatles biopic (sorry, “biographical moving picture”) told through the eyes of the sixth Beatle, Stu Sutcliffe.
Here’s the paragraph:
At moments like this, Iain Softley’s film is slyly subversive of its genre. For one thing, for a picture about ‘the greatest rock’n’roll band in the world’, it’s amazingly offhand about the music. The Beatles chunter along through manky cover versions of Chuck Berry, early Motown, Johnny Mercer and “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean” - and it all sounds sort of about how you’d expect a band in a third-rate club on the Reeperbahn to sound.
I get the sense, sort of, and offhand I can’t think of non-slang words to match them:
“Chunter”: 1) dutifully re-create without interest? 2) muddle through with technical difficulty?
“Manky”: 1) Old and recognizable? 2) Shopworn? 3) Predictable?
The author of the review is Canadian-American (I think). Or, perhaps he was using Liverpudlian slang for a touch of droll reference. (Actually, for that Hamburg slang would be cute too, I think.)
As a Canadian, to me ‘manky’ would be more associated with something that is spoiled or rank. Not very common, but a term I would use occasionally. Never heard of ‘chunter’.
Manky was not-uncommon slang in 80s and 90s California. Along with “janky.” The other one is unfamiliar to me except that it sounds uniquely British.
Compared to the US, 2.7x more Candians claim English ancestry and almost 9x more claim Scottish ancestry, as a proportion of the population within the countries (although that’s not including Scots-Irish, I think?).
“The Beatles chunter along through manky cover versions . . .”
This American is reminded of that other parallel classic Britishism: “. . . the Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, came whiffling through the tulgey wood . . .”
Manky is a fairly common UK word, in fact I would say it is on the borderline between being slang and being part of the standard lexicon. For example “a manky banana” would be a fairly standard way to describe an overripe banana.
Chunter, at least where I’m from, is less common, however if someone said “I’ll chunter my way through this [piece of work]” I would understand it as “I’ll plod my way through this”.
As a non-Liverpudlian who’s lived and worked in the city for a couple of years in my time, the statement strikes me as neither particularly local nor out of the ordinary.
Neither “chunter” nor “manky” are Liverpudlian or even Canadian. They’re pretty standard British slang.
I had always thought that “chuntering” was invented by V.S. Naipaul, since the only place I’d ever seen it was here:
Pat replied, but her weeping made it difficult for her to speak, and while she faltered, saying how unfair he was, Naipaul became calm, rational, colder, and did not give an inch.
**“Stop chuntering, Patsy. You’re just chuntering, and you have no idea of what you’re talking about.”**
*The tears kept rolling down Pat’s cheeks, and though she dabbed at her face she could not stanch the flow. *
